The Medium, a satirical student newspaper at Rutgers University, apologized last week for printing a controversial article that made derogatory remarks about the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and compared its members to livestock.
The Rutgers chapter of Alpha Chi Omega is closing due to a small pledge class and financial troubles, according to the Daily Targum. The Medium decided to cover the sorority's end with a satirical story under the headline and deck: "Alpha Chi Omega to Shut Down; ‘We don’t want to be like you ugly bitches‘ Potential Pledges say."
The article, bylined "Satanic Yoda," said AXO's pledge class "consisted of a measly three wildebeests and an elephant." It included a photo of a barn painted with AXO's Greek letters in a cornfield with a cow in front. Most of the article was filled with fat jokes.
The Medium has since removed the article from its website, but copies are still being shared on various blogs. In a Feb. 27 statement posted on its Facebook page and website, The Medium said it was "rare" that editors apologize for the paper's content:
It was written in a cruel, debasing manner that does not reflect the values or goals of our organization. Our aim is to create humorous content which will entertain the University community; the article that ran this week was cruel and relied on cheap jokes in lieu of humor. By publishing the article, we made a poor judgment to experiment with a style of humor that had entertained our audience years ago.
Around 200 students, mostly from Greek houses at Rutgers, attended a rally in response to The Medium's article on Thursday, the Daily Targum reports.
"It's kind of a shock to see that at such a diverse university, stuff like this is still happening," Cassandra Kotsolakis, president of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, told the Targum, "and honestly, it shouldn’t be tolerated because at this day and age, women are just as equal as everyone else, and playing on body image is just not the right way to go about things."
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