Sorority apologizes for CdA urination episode

The president of a Washington State University sorority has apologized for the behavior of students who urinated in the open in a Coeur d’Alene park during a sorority-sponsored outing May 3. Megan Taylor, president of Kappa Kappa Gamma, also said sorority members would spend a day next fall doing community service for the city. “We just feel awful and really want to give back to the community to express how much we regret our actions,” Taylor said in a statement released by the city today. Mayor Steve Widmyer said he accepted the apology and will help find a full day’s worth of community service for the sorority to complete. “We all make mistakes,” he said in a statement. “Megan and her sorority have owned up to this mistake and want to atone for their actions. That says a lot.” Witnesses said students who appeared to have been drinking alcohol got off several charter buses and immediately vomited in City Park that Saturday afternoon, before the group of about 300 got on a Coeur d’Alene Lake Resort cruise boat. Several also urinated against the back wall of the Museum of North Idaho, and one witness snapped a photo of young women squatting to relieve themselves in view of families with children. The sorority, which organized the trip, appeared today before a student conduct board on charges filed by WSU. The hearing was closed to the public. The board has 10 days to issue findings and any decision on sanctions, then the sorority would have 21 days to appeal. WSU also continues to investigate the identities of individual students who may have been involved in the May 3 incident. Widmyer wrote a letter to WSU President Elson Floyd expressing his concern over the students’ behavior. In a letter dated May 7, Floyd told Widmyer an investigation was launched immediately after the university learned of the events. “I sincerely regret the WSU students may have been involved in behavior which harmed the local community; I assure you that we take such actions very seriously and will hold any responsible parties accountable to the full extent possible,” Floyd wrote.