STORY BY SARAH FULTON
Two Greek fraternity houses, Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon, were vandalized this past weekend.
Drake Public Safety has since turned over all collected evidence to the Des Moines Police Department.
“End rape kill rapists” was spray painted on the side of the Pi Kappa Phi (PiKapp) house and an obscenity directed towards Greek life was spray painted on the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE)house.
“I woke up this morning and my roommate was really mad and yelling,” Pi Kappa Phi President Chance Hoener said. “I went outside and went around the side of the house. They spray painted in really big black letters on the side of the house. It said ‘end rape kill rapists.’ That is all we really know.”
Two similar phrases also appeared in other places on campus earlier in the year.
“Stop rape end rapist” was spray painted on the sidewalk in front of Hubbell dining hall in late October. “End Greek life” was spray painted on the agora earlier in the spring semester. In at least three of the instance the spray paint was black.
Hoener estimates that the Pi Kappa Phi house was hit between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Saturday.
While Sigma Alpha Epsilon President Kendrick Dewdney said that the vandalism on their house was completed between 11:30 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. Friday night.
“One of our members drove his car somewhere,” Dewdney said. “It was not there when he left but when he got back it was there.”
Both houses filed reports with the Des Moines Police.
Video surveillance is being analyzed by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon housing director. Dewdney also requested video surveillance from the
neighboring Sigma Phi Epsilon house (SigEp). No video footage was available from the Pi Kappa Phi house.
Both Presidents were complementary of Drake Public Safety but neither was completely confident that the perpetrator would be caught.
“It seems like they knew where the cameras were,” Dewdney said. “I am a little doubtful but hopefully we can get something between us and SigEp’s cameras.”
“There is not a lot they can do with no kind of video evidence,” Hoener said. “No one caught the person in the action. We do not really have any means.”
While members of Pi Kappa Phi find the threats concerning, Hoener said no one feels unsafe.
“The sentiment is that they are implying that we or members of Greek life in general are rapists,” Hoener said. “The fact that it says ‘kill rapists’ is kind of concerning but I do not think that anyone feels unsafe. I think that it is a pretty hollow threat. But still, the fact that someone would use that kind of language makes it a little nervous.”
Only speculation exists on why the Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon houses were targeted.
“We really have no idea why those two were picked,” Pi Kappa Phi member Jon Rudnick said. “We have no specific relations. There is nothing in common. It was pretty out of the blue.”
Dewdney said a possible motivation for the vandalism on the Sigma Alpha Epsilon House could be a video in which an Oklahoma chapter of the fraternity chanted a racist remark.
“I would only assume because it is related to the OU incident that occurred a few weeks ago,” Dewdney said.
Whatever the reasons, Pi Kappa Phi member David Nordeen does not believe vandalism is an effective means to an end.”
“I think that is the wrong way to go about it,” Nordeen said. “I do not think they have anything to be mad at PiKapp for anyway.” “Still I think that is definitely not the right form to take in trying to prevent sexual assault. I really hope that it is not a continued pattern.”
