– Reported by Lindsay Tuman
It started off as a dare posed by a fraternity brother in the Pi Kappa Alpha to crash a women’s studies class, but no one is laughing. It all happened when a male student attended a women’s studies class he wasn’t enrolled in, as a joke. Well professor isn’t just upset, she sees it as disrespectful and a sign of the culture we live in today.
A book about the treatment of women, a class about privilege, and a joke that mocked it all.
Daleah Goodwin has taught women’s studies for almost six years, but she has never experienced anything like this before. She was teaching her women’s studies class, when afterward an unfamiliar face approached her. It was a male student who was not enrolled in her class, asking her to sign a form saying he attended her class. When she asked him why he needed a note and why he was in her class, he lied saying it was for an English class. Upon further questioning, the student admitted that he was sent to a women’s studies class as a reoccurring joke by his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha.
Complaints have already been filed about the incident, and the fraternity member in question did write an apology , only after Goodwin requested it. But the pain is still real for her. She says, “It does hurt. It does hurt, this is my lives work.”
After a series of other incidents involving fraternities across the nation, a problem like this can’t be ignored. Goodwin says that it’s all about a masculine culture that allows problems like this to continue. And it’s really changed Goodwin’s outlook on teaching — and on life. She said, “It’s really made me realize why my research, why my work, why my teaching, why the institute of women’s studies, is so important and necessary.”
We reached out to the fraternity and the Greek Life Office, but neither one of them wanted to talk. Goodwin does want people to know that she realizes this student and the fraternity made a mistake, but she hopes it will be a learning opportunity and a step in the right direction
