LINCOLN, Neb. - A ritual designed to show unity has placed University of Nebraska's Sigma Chi fraternity house at the center of controversy after Lancaster County Sheriff's deputies found fraternity members about to burn a cross.
Lancaster County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Norman Monroe said Sunday that deputies were dispatched Thursday night to investigate a suspicious party half a mile south of Hwy 33 and SW 58th Street.
When the deputies arrived, they found 30 male members of the Sigma Chi Fraternity holding a private ritual. Officers saw several Civil War-era items, including Confederate flags, uniforms, sabers and rifles.
Officers also saw a 6-foot tall wooden cross that was to be burned later in the ceremony.
One member was ticketed for drinking alcohol in a wildlife area. Since no other laws were being broken, the officers left the scene.
Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said the ceremony seemed to have racial undertones.
"The explanation I've gotten from members of the fraternity is that this is a historical ceremony that has been going on for years," Wagner said. "But the connotation this brings up is one of racial bigotry."
Curt Denker, the Sigma Chi house corporation president who talked to media Friday, refused comment to the Daily Nebraskan on Sunday.
There was no answer at Sigma Chi house President Craig Vasek's room. Calls attempting to reach Chapter Adviser Rich Rice were unsuccessful.
Denker told reporters Friday that the ritual was a skit that symbolized the unity of the fraternity since the Civil War. He said that after crosses were carved into soap bars, they were put in a large metal cross and the cross was heated to melt the soap into one.
Denker said he knew nothing about a wooden cross being burned.
The burning of a wooden cross is most commonly known as a Ku Klux Klan ritual, symbolizing purification.
Phyllis Larsen, a spokesperson for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said Sunday that administrators had looked into Friday's incident and found there were no violations of the university's student code of conduct.
Larsen said, however, that greek affairs administrators were still looking into the matter.
- Distributed by the University Wire.