"LDR: An administrator encouraged Sigma Chi to take down the American flag flown in front of its house in order to improve its image on campus.
...Pablo Lozano ’18 is the primary source for the following account. Other individuals, who asked not to be named, have corroborated it.
Lozano told that while on probation, Sigma Chi sought to make itself “an ally of the university.”
An administrator assigned to serve as a liaison between Residential Education and Sigma Chi – let’s call him Mr. Z – was, in Lozano’s words, “supportive” in trying to help Sigma Chi outlast probation and “transparent” in explaining often obscure bureaucratic processes.
...While discussing improving the fraternity’s image with the university, Mr. Z offhandedly suggested that Sigma Chi remove the potentially discomforting symbol outside: the American flag flown in front of the house. Mr. Z urged Sigma Chi to consider the image being presented to the rest of campus by flying the flag out front.He furthered that if Sigma Chi wished to break away from stereotypes that plagued the house and to change its perception on campus, its members should contemplate un-hoisting the American flag.
...Lozano recounted that the more the house talked about Mr. Z’s suggestion, the more it bothered them.
...Furthermore, they wondered, since when is an American flag flown at an institution in the United States offensive?
In protest of Mr. Z’s suggestion, the house declined to remove the flag, instead choosing to replace it with an even bigger one.
...But enough with the ominous platitudes.
Next time you hear someone degrade a symbol of the United States – whether in the form of a flag, the Constitution, or the national anthem – you can defend the principles of this nation through oration or just go out and, like Sigma Chi, buy a bigger one."
Read on!
