this article mentions your chapter of sigma chi.

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	kevin.a.boone@accenture.com@ENRON  
Sent:	Friday, November 09, 2001 8:40 AM
To:	Lenhart, Matthew; MMMarcantel@equiva.com; Hull, Bryan
Subject:	FW: Auburn



Regards,

Kevin A. Boone
Accenture -- Houston
Consultant -- Energy
(Octel) 713.837.1638
(Client) 281.848.1619
(C) 713.306.7940
(H) 713.864.4149
Kevin.A.Boone@accenture.com

Our web address is http://www.accenture.com


----- Forwarded by Kevin A. Boone/Internal/Accenture on 11/09/2001 08:39 AM
-----

            Allison Kelly
            <Allison.Kelly@tlcvision.co        To:     ash <ashley_arrington@bbs.bellsouth.com>, Kevin A.
            m>                                 Boone/Internal/Accenture@Accenture, tony
                                               <anthony.w.carter@us.pwcglobal.com>, Westy <wballard@reisscompanies.com>
            11/08/2001 09:47 AM                cc:
                                               Subject:     FW: Auburn





Those crazy kids...

-----Original Message-----
From:     Hansen, Ned [SMTP:NHansen@LucasCareers.com]
<mailto:[SMTP:NHansen@LucasCareers.com]>
Sent:     Thursday, November 08, 2001 8:56 AM
To:  Stratton, Will; Barnhill, Jim
Cc:  allison.kelly@tlcvision.com <mailto:allison.kelly@tlcvision.com>
Subject:

Racist photos of fraternity members
rocks Auburn, brings condemnation
<<...>>
By DREW JUBERA < mailto:djubera@ajc.com <mailto:djubera@ajc.com> >
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
<<...>>
Auburn, Ala. -- When the Southern Poverty Law Center received a call this
week about Internet photos of an Auburn University fraternity member
dressed
as a rifle-toting Klansman pretending to lynch a white student in
blackface,
the staff checked out the photo's date.

"We wanted to verify that it was taken in 2001, not 1951," said Kelvin
Datcher of the center in Montgomery that tracks incidents of bigotry. "The
kids who called us were frantic."

The photo, and others of students in blackface wearing Afros, jewelry and
jerseys with the lettering of a black fraternity, were taken this year at
Halloween parties at two fraternity houses and posted on the Internet by a
party-photo service.

The incident has rocked the campus of more than 22,000 students, which
bills
itself as "the loveliest village on the plain" and says it is intent on
recruiting minorities. As the photos illustrate, a racist, segregated past
is hard to escape.

Students at Auburn and other colleges have no personal memory of Jim Crow
segregation. But when it comes to socializing, many students gravitate
toward those of their own race. And social fraternities and sororities --
many of which used to enforce racial exclusionary clauses -- remain some of
the last bastions of segregationist attitudes.

Last year, when a black freshman applied to the University of Georgia's
all-white Alpha Gamma Delta, most of the members were adamant that she be
rejected. "If we had a black girl in our sorority, none of the fraternities
would want to do anything with us," one was quoted as saying.

That incident came to light because one sorority member, Ali Davis, filed a
racial discrimination complaint. UGA temporarily suspended Alpha Gamma
Delta
during an investigation. Davis, saying she felt ostracized, later left the
school.

Around the country, the Kappa Alpha Order, which is fond of displaying the
Confederate battle flag, has been implicated in various racial incidents in
recent years, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported.

The Louisiana Tech University chapter was placed on probation after a
confrontation with black football players in which frat members made racist
remarks, the center said. At Millsaps College in Mississippi, Kappa Alphas
dressed in Afro wigs and blackface to protest pro-minority initiatives. In
February, the KA chapter at the University of North Texas received a
five-year suspension for disorderly conduct and verbal intimidation after
some members were accused of racist remarks.

Such antics aren't limited to Kappa Alpha or the South, the Southern
Poverty
Law Center said. Several fraternities and sororities at New Hampshire's
Dartmouth College threw a "ghetto party" in which students dressed up as
urban African-Americans -- a theme that has surfaced at other campuses --
while a sorority there promoted a "slave auction" fund-raiser. The Sigma
Chi
fraternity at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln burned a cross at one of
its ceremonies.

Such incidents leave college administrators, especially those assigned to
foster diversity, wringing their hands.
"We've been working so hard to do the right thing, and then something like
this happens," Doyle Bickers, Auburn's director of admissions, said
Wednesday of the warped Halloween humor. "It breaks your heart."

"You can't escape your history," added Jim Hardin, an adviser in the
student
life center. "When something like this comes up, the question is, 'Have you
really changed, or are you just putting on a good front?' "

What has changed at Auburn, according to many black students, who make up
7.2 percent of the student body, is the administration's swift and open
reaction.

Interim President William F. Walker immediately condemned the costumes as
"shocking and outrageous" and suspended the fraternities, Beta Theta Pi and
Delta Sigma Phi. He attended a meeting of the Black Student Union and
promised a thorough but swift investigation, which is expected to be
completed within 10 days. Stories on the incident were displayed on the
university's Web site.

Delta Sigma Phi has expelled the two members who dressed as a Klansman and
his lynching victim, and suspended four others.

"Similar things have happened before," said Roland Harris, a junior
management information systems major and member of Phi Beta Sigma, one of
four historically black fraternities on campus. "But this time a lot of
people saw it, and they have to do something."

Auburn admitted its first black student, surrounded by 100 Alabama state
troopers, in 1961. The first black man pledged a traditionally white
fraternity in 1984, and there currently is one black pledge among those 24
fraternities.

Auburn's overall black population is still less than at most Southeastern
Conference universities, but stepped-up recruiting efforts led to a 24
percent increase of African-Americans admitted to this year's freshman
class. One sign of changing times: The university's Student Government
Association president is an African-American.

"We were finally beginning to say, 'Thank God, we're making some headway,'
and here comes this sad, unfortunate, damaging incident," said John
Bello-Ogunu, head of the university's office of multicultural affairs. "It
will no doubt be detrimental to our efforts to attract not only minority
students, but faculty and other staff as well."

Bello-Ogunu said the administration's reaction has been "on the mark." He
added that more action is needed, including diversity training for
fraternities. At the invitation of university officials and students, the
Southern Poverty Law Center will conduct a "mass workshop" on tolerance on
Wednesday.

Prentice Gilbert, an Auburn senior who oversees the campus' historically
black fraternities and who has helped recruit black students, said it will
take time to remedy the Halloween incident's impact.

"I have to keep reminding myself these were the actions of a few
individuals
who do not represent Auburn as a whole," Gilbert said. "This is the most
devastating blow we could take."

"The bottom line is, do we really want to be the 'Auburn family'?" he
added.
"If so, we really could become the loveliest village on the plain, as our
motto says."


Ned Hansen
Senior Recruiter - Medical Marketing
LucasGroup
Recruiting Excellence Since 1970

3384 Peachtree Rd, Ste 700
Atlanta, GA 30326
404-239-5630 Ext. 160
Fax: 404-239-5694
800-466-4489
nhansen@LucasCareers.com <mailto:nhansen@LucasCareers.com>
www.LucasCareers.com <http://www.LucasCareers.com>





This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain
privileged, proprietary, or otherwise private information.  If you have
received it in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the
original.  Any other use of the email by you is prohibited.