Across Knox College’s campus on Mar. 6, students protested the actions of the Delta chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) at their registered party held on Friday Mar. 3, 2023. 

The party, entitled ‘Delusions’, featured a wall of printed screenshots of posts from the anonymous social media platform YikYak. The majority of these posts referenced recent and past sexual assault and hazing allegations against members of TKE. Surrounding these prints were promotional flyers for the party, which displayed ‘Delusions’ across the page. 

Students, after seeing this wall at the Friday party, took to YikYak to protest. Many took this “Yak Wall” to mean that the members of TKE were calling the sexual assault accusations delusional.

“Regarding the YikYak wall, we are deeply apologetic for the harm that it caused to anyone who viewed it. We wished to post an apology to our official Instagram page, but we no longer have access to it at this time,” TKE president Justin Garcia said. “We take sexual assault very seriously and by no means were we trying to ridicule or make fun of anyone who has experienced sexual assault. Our intention was to let the Knox campus know that we hear and see the comments and accusations against us and are actively working on improving with those comments in mind. This obviously was not the message that was received by the general body.”

There were allegedly high school-aged attendees at this party as well.

“There were maybe 30-40 people there who no one knew. I asked people at the party as well as my friends and we all agreed we had never seen them before,” sophomore Izzy Oliver said. “It was one of these kids who picked a fight with a Knox student.”

One rule Campus Life sets for registered parties is that students must sign in with their names and Knox IDs, to ensure all attendees are students at Knox. This practice was in place at the TKE party; however, some attendees at this party were letting people in through another side door, according to Oliver.

“We entered through the back door on the porch. One of the members was checking people in, basically this meant writing your name and ID number on a piece of paper. While posters say that IDs are required for registered parties, every registered party I’ve been to at TKE or at other fraternities/organizations has used this method,” Oliver said. “The sign in [at TKE] has switched locations from the front, to the basement, to the back door, but [the process] was the same each time.”

In protest of the events on Mar. 3, as well as past issues with TKE, students banded together on Monday Mar. 6, to protest. More coverage on these events to come. 

“We are glad that people are voicing themselves and are wanting change, we want to change as well. Here is an anonymous report form where anyone can give concerns, critiques, and complaints that can be directly shown to the members of TKE for further discussion on the path to improving ourselves and our organization,” Garcia said.