When faced with this week’s editorial, The Pacer staff had no idea where to begin. Do we write the editorial about the sexual assault allegations? The Zeta party that turned violent? Or the upcoming elections?

UTM’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity will come under scrutiny by the time this week’s The Pacer hits the stands, as if it hasn’t already considering WCMT, The Jackson Sun, The Weakley County Press and other media outlets have already covered the story. We don’t have all the details on the story because of backlogged crime labs, sources that are unable to talk and the like, but we feel that if these allegations turn out to be true, severe actions should be taken.

We feel that sexual assault is definitely not a matter that should be taken lightly, and we hope that no one tries to sweep this under the rug, because of its potentially damning light it could bring UTM.

We also wonder why TBI is three months behind in their crime lab. Is there a way that lab work could be sent to other TBI affiliates or even a FBI division? We know that sometimes you can’t help but being back logged, but what happens to the victims whose case and closure waits on their lab work being done?

We also feel that organizations on campus that host parties should establish certain rules and precautions to ensure that heinous crimes, like sexual assault or rape, do not happen. If an organization feels like there is no way to guarantee that anything bad will happen, then maybe alcohol shouldn’t be served or it should be a closed party.

There’s many ways to prevent these crimes from happening, but we are saddened to think that indecent things like that allegations that have been brought forth last week happen at UTM. However, we’re not naïve, and we know that no one is 100% safe when a huge crowd and alcohol is involved.

There’s many questions surrounding this case but we hope that whatever is found after the investigation closes will be dealt with in a mature, professional manner.