“The audacity to openly mock and boo MGC [Multicultural Greek Council] and NPHC [National Pan-Hellenic Council] at this year’s Vespers is ridiculous and not surprising. For a culture and ‘community’ of people that constantly boasts inclusivity and the best character on ISU’s campus, why y’all constantly doing otherwise by perpetuating immature, disrespectful, and racist actions?”

So reads one writer’s review posted on the Iowa State University Greek Community Facebook page. It was an example of one of many responses to an incident at this year’s Vespers Greek award ceremony, in which there were “instances of disrespect and mockery toward chapters within the Multicultural Greek Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council,” Derek Doeing of Chi Phi Fraternity said.

That an event intended to honor leadership within Iowa State’s greek community could devolve into such ignominy — in which members of the audience at Vespers “booed, mocked and made racial slurs toward individuals representing organizations within MGC and the National Pan-Hellenic Council” — is a shamefully revealing fact.

This Editorial Board, in addition to the statements issued by former president of the Iowa State student body Cole Staudt and current president Cody West, as well as the presidents of MGC and NPHC, would like to express our own disapprobation of this regrettable behavior.  

Our Iowa State community is home to individuals hailing from hundreds of different cultures, creeds, ethnicities and all sorts of backgrounds. Our diversity is what makes us strong. To openly insult that diversity is to openly insult Iowa State University and all it stands for. These perpetrators should be embarrassed by their words and actions, and their leaders should be embarrassed by their providing for an environment in which this type of behavior is seemingly in some way tolerated.

Denigrating another person’s — or organization’s — achievements for a cheap laugh is downright despicable. Even more so, by members of a community that supposedly “allows you to be a part of something greater than yourself,” according to Iowa State’s Office of Greek Affairs.

Is this what being part of something greater than yourself means? The opportunity to mock others?

Our greek community ought to represent the best of Iowa State’s best. It ought to be a community committed to inclusivity. The absolutely last community this incident ought to have occurred in was our greek community, and yet this is our reality. If this is not evidence that severe consequences and changes are merited, then what would be?