The punishment given to ULM’s Kappa Sigma Fraternity was way too harsh.

By now, we’ve all heard about what happened.

A few of their pledges decided that it was OK to use racial slurs and racially demeaning statements about the black community.

This was in response to one of their fellow pledge’s request of “argumentative essay topics” for a course that he is currently enrolled in.

There’s no need repeating what was said, because I am sure that it’s burned into the minds of those who have seen the screenshots.

Not long after the screenshots were shared on social media, they were in the inboxes of campus administrators and, to the credit of the administration, swift action was taken.

Kappa Sigma was suspended by the university and, soon after, they were suspended by their national organization.

The actions of those pledges resulted in the affiliation of every member of that chapter being taken away, and that’s just not fair.

I’ve asked many of my friends and associates what their opinion on the situation is, and unsurprisingly, they felt that the punishment wasn’t enough.

Many of them felt that the students responsible should be suspended from the university as well—a notion that I am completely against because I think that it’s wrong to take away someone’s education.

As for the fraternity as a whole, I’ve worked with many of them academically and professionally.

I don’t think that the things typed in that group chat by a few of the pledges represent the view of the entire organization as a whole.

There are many guys there that have spent the last two to four years of their time at ULM working hard to make sure that Kappa Sigma is looked at as an organization of hardworking, godly men.

While this statement doesn’t go for every member, and I’m sure that some of my fellow students will adamantly disagree, it’s my opinion.

The suspension of the chapter is likened to a professor giving an entire class an F because one group of students was caught cheating on a test.

Yes, that group of guys are considered part of the fraternity by those on the outside looking in, but they hadn’t even earned the full right to wear the organization’s letters yet.

They aren’t the leaders of that group, nor have they put any real time and effort into the organization.

There are many times that something of this nature happens and many people are blamed for the actions of the few.

When incidents like this happen, it’s also said that this type of behavior is being protected by these groups, but a majority of the time, those within the organization are actually doing their best to insure that incidents like this do not happen.

They try to prevent younger members from making dumb decisions that will reflect poorly on the fraternity.

It’s completely unfair that so many guys are being punished for the actions of the pledges in that GroupMe.

I do not know how much influence our university administration has over the decision of Kappa Sigma’s headquarters organization, but they should still encourage the decision to be changed.

Don’t punish the students who had nothing to do with this incident.