In the past few days, Bwog has received many tips and comments about the hazing scandal within Columbia’s Greek community. We reached out to IGC, Student Affairs, students, etc. for more detailed information, especially after news broke on Wednesday night. Spec got confirmation that some fraternity was losing their charter from the Inter-Greek Council Judicial Board, but had to go outside of Columbia, contacting a national ZBT official, to confirm that it was ZBT.

Our attempts to learn more about the situation have led to a series of roadblocks and “no comments.” A forwarded email sent to Bwog last night gave us a collective “ohhhhhh.”  The email, sent Thursday, shows that the IGC has been warning leaders of the Greek community to avoid members of ZBT and the media. The full email:

Hello fellow Greek Community Leaders:

As I’m sure many of you are aware, yesterday the Columbia Daily Spectator made the news public that one of our chapters was involved in a hazing incident that may lead to its removal from campus. The release of this information has caused and will continue to cause heavy scrutiny to fall upon the individual chapter and our entire Greek Community here at Columbia. In an effort to minimize the damage that is arising/will arise, the IGC is asking that no members of your organizations SPEAK OR GIVE COMMENT TO ANY MEDIA/NEWS OUTLET. All comments regarding this event will come from IGC through me. Please inform your members that if they receive any inquiries at all regarding this situation, to forward them to you and your respective council presidents. I want to remind you all that it is extremely important to live up to the community standards we have set for ourselves and continue to remind the Columbia community of the great qualities of our organizations by putting ourselves in the best light possible.

Additionally, if ANY member of ZBT approaches you in any sort of intimidating/threatening fashion, or attempts to forcefully extract information about this episode from you, please contact your council presidents IMMEDIATELY.

Finally, it is important that we stick together through this difficult time. Your council presidents are always available for you should you need them—please do not hesitate to reach out to them if necessary.

[All formatting emphasis from original email]

As a post on IvyGate earlier today also indicates, the mentality seems to be that if nobody talks about it, the scandal will blow over and everybody will forget about it…

This explains why nobody has been answering our e-mails.