EX-STUDENTS: SEMO UNFAIRLY DOLES HAZING PENALTIES

Southeast Missouri State University isn't color blind when it comes to hazing, two former students said Saturday.

Shermone Kirkwood of St. Louis and Windy Branch of Minneapolis charged that the school takes a tougher stand against hazing by black fraternities and sororities than it does for similar violations by the traditionally white Greek organizations.

University President Dr. Dale Nitzschke disagreed. He said the university doesn't discriminate in dealing with hazing.

The university determines punishment on a case by case basis, he said.

Kirkwood is the former president and Branch is the former vice president of the Southeast Missouri State chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

The university suspended the black sorority for five years in May 1996 because of a hazing incident.

Branch said the school also suspended two members of the sorority.

Kirkwood and Branch were preparing to graduate in May 1996. But the university, as part of the punishment, refused to give them their degrees for more than a year after they left school.

They received their degrees in August of this year.

Kirkwood works for an investment brokerage firm and Branch works for an insurance company.

The hazing incident was reported by a 17-year-old student who had pledged the sorority while still a high school senior.

The victim said she was slapped, deprived of sleep, ordered to eat sandwiches that had been stepped on, and forced to bounce on her knees while saying she was stupid.

Misdemeanor charges were filed against six of the sorority members, including Kirkwood and Branch.

Both women pleaded guilty and were placed on two years probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.

Kirkwood and Branch said Saturday that they were guilty of hazing.

But they said the university imposed harsher penalties on the sorority than it did on Sigma Tau Gamma, a traditionally white fraternity.

The university suspended the fraternity for three years for verbally hazing a student last year. The suspension was issued in August of this year.

The university ordered the fraternity members to move out of the school-owned fraternity house in September after the fraternity chapter lost its administrative appeal.

Citing federal privacy laws, school officials didn't disclose whether any disciplinary actions were taken against individual students.

Kirkwood voiced her complaint in a letter Friday to the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Kirkwood faxed a copy of the letter to the Southeast Missourian.

Reached at her home Saturday, she said she hadn't mailed the letter yet, but intended to do so.

Branch didn't write a letter like Kirkwood. But when reached at her home, Branch said she shared Kirkwood's opinion.

John Mehner, chamber president, said Friday that he would forward the letter to the university once he receives it.

Kirkwood wrote that the university "has never been fair" in its treatment of black fraternities and sororities in comparison with the traditionally white Greek organizations.

"I have no problem with suffering the consequences for something I've done wrong, but this white fraternity was found guilty of the same act and all they received was a `slap on the hand,'" she wrote.

Kirkwood said she addressed the letter to the chamber because she wanted the entire Cape Girardeau community to know of her concerns.

Kirkwood said she wouldn't recommend other black students attend Southeast. "I would not encourage anybody to go there."

Branch said the university acted quickly in their case, but waited months before suspending the fraternity.

Even then, the university gave fraternity members three weeks to move out of the fraternity house, she said.

"They slapped the white fraternity on the back of the hands and told them to be good boys from now on," said Branch.

"Everything was hush, hush, compared to how the incident with our sorority was publicized," she said.

An all-white judicial board handed down the five-year suspension within a few weeks after the hazing allegations surfaced, Branch said.

The black sorority didn't have a campus house. The local chapter was founded in 1981. It was reported last year that the sorority had about a dozen members.

Branch said Saturday that the organization had about seven active members at the time of the hazing.

After the suspension, she said, the university removed from the campus bookstore all of the merchandise that carried the sorority's name.

"Everybody just shunned us," she said.