Thetagate

Thetagate

Thetagate was a spring 2014 scandal.

Since many of the girls in Kappa Alpha Theta are, stereotypically speaking, attractive white girls and therefore fun to Facebook stalk by those less content with their lives and physical appearances, Columbia Spectator and Bwog were very excited in 2014 when their Facebook stalking resulted in finding pictures of Theta girls dressed up as Mexicans (i.e. wearing sombrero hats and fake mustaches. See photo at right). The girls' costumes were similar to what Chicano Caucas, A.K.A. the group claiming to be offended by the photographs, wears and promotes at their events.

Thetagate was an incredible opportunity for both Columbia Spectator and Bwog since people less content with their physical appearances and life situations are highly attracted to stories like these. The story attracted a tremendous amount of media attention towards the publications and individual journalists involved.

Since the event Columbia's Theta chapter has worked to increase cultural awareness and education among both their chapter and community as a whole. Just one week after the Facebook stalking (and resulting articles) occurred, an event was co-hosted between Lambda Phi Epsilon and Onyx Dance Troupe entitled "No Harm Intended: A Discussion on Microaggressions and Their Unintended Consequences". The event included award-winning speaker and microaggressions expert Prof. Kevin Nadal, who spoke about forms of discrimination that are difficult to address because they are: subtle, which makes them hard to recognize and easy to trivialize; unintentional, which leads offenders to believe they have done nothing wrong; and so ingrained in our media and culture so as to have become unnoticeable.

Campus news sources did not publicize this event.

Play-by-play of the Event

Theta sisters dressed up as Mexicans (see photo at right) for an Olympics-themed party with Sig Ep (which avoided the scandal because the brothers requested that they represent only their own nation.)

Campus press got its teeth into it, and there was a minor scandal. Spec wrote about it, including almost no context—only the Mexican-costume photos found while Facebook stalking—before adding more information.

Statements were released by the IGC and Dean Martinez and the Chicano Caucus. A "bias-related response team" consisting of Student Affairs, Multicultural Affairs, and fraternity and sorority life worked to address the incident.

Bwog then posted photos of Chicano Caucus members as Mexican stereotypes and set it against their own statement about Thetagate. Chicano Caucus subsequently released another statement.

Katie Baker, CC '15 and Theta president, resigned over the photos.

Biased News Coverage

Despite the fact that Columbia's Kappa Alpha Theta chapter is, tangibly speaking, one of the highest performing campus organizations in terms of the amount of money it raises for philanthropy, hours it dedicates to community service, employment help it offers members, and support it provides to fellow campus organizations, no campus news source has ever published an article detailing the positive ways in which Theta contributes to society.

Campus news sources have never released a story about the fact that Theta contributes more in terms of collective philanthropy donations and community service hours than any other Greek organization and nearly every other campus organization. (Ex: The chapter raised $15,218 for Relay for Life in 2013.)