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‘It feels almost like a monarchy’ Sigma Phi Lambda officers express frustration, feel like OU student who attended Capitol riot faces no consequences
ARI FIFE @arriifife
Editor’s note: Several sources in this story have been granted anonymity and are referred to by pseudonyms, indicated by asterisks. Their identities are known to The Daily. Two former OU Sigma Phi Lambda officers and one member say they’ve left the organization following footage of another member on a U.S. Capitol balcony during the riots Jan. 6, citing national leaders’ attempts to conceal the incident instead of addressing it. Miranda Myers, an OU communication alumna who graduated in May 2020 and was an active member of Christian sorority Phi Lamb for two years, said she saw screen recordings of freshman Mya Cobb’s Snapchat story showing her at the Capitol on social media. Frustrated by national sorority leaders’ response as the news spread across campus, she sent the screen recordings in several student GroupMes, writing that as an alum, she’s “pissed off.” The Snapchat stor y, which The Daily has obtained, contains footage of first responders driving past the Washington Monument, with a Washington, D.C., location filter. The next video shows a group of people walking, with the caption “there are fights.” Cobb also posted a video of a crowd of people with the caption “they are trying to break in,” and a later clip from her private story shows a crowd outside the Capitol chanting “U-S-A,” with many holding flags in support of former President Donald Trump. One clip shows a group of people climbing over a short stone wall near the Capitol, and another shows Cobb running toward the Capitol with the stone wall behind her, and the caption “might get arrested.” Cobb also posted a video in the middle of a crowd of people with Trump flags captioned “I can’t get out now.” Another video shows Cobb in a crowd of people with Trump paraphernalia, when an explosion is heard. Another video shows Cobb on a balcony next to a person holding an American flag. By comparing footage of the riot published by ProPublica to Cobb’s Snapchat story, The Daily has identified the balcony as one on the Capitol building facing the Washington Memorial. The Daily messaged Cobb with a request for comment on officers and members leaving the organization due to her at 1:58 p.m. Feb. 7, but as of 7:30 p.m., she hadn’t responded. In a Jan. 7 message to The Daily, though, she said she was in Washington to accompany her mother to see Trump, but she didn’t enter the Capitol or break any barriers. “I also left before it got aggressive or bad because I wasn’t about to support people breaking into buildings and rioting,” Cobb wrote. “It was very peaceful when I was there.”
ILLUSTRATION BY RACHEL LOBAUGH/THE DAILY
Cobb also wrote she left at around 1:30 p.m. EST, as her mother is “elderly,” though her Snapchat posts indicate she was near the Capitol until 2:45 p.m. In the Snapchat screen recording provided to The Daily, the viewer’s time zone was CST, with the current time of the recording 2:44 p.m. In the recording, the story displayed as posted roughly an hour before, what would have been around 2:44 EST. She also wrote she heard the situation became “extremely bad” after she left, and she only saw running in a protest on the grass and people waving flags. According to The New York Times, the first barriers at the Capitol were breached at around 1 p.m., with rioters breaking into the Capitol building at around 2:10 p.m. The ProPublica footage shows protesters walking around the front of the Capitol, climbing the steps and entering a Capitol balcony at 2:43 p.m. “I am very grateful (that we left early) because the breaking (in) and aggression I saw on videos and news wasn’t what the majority of the people came to do,” Cobb said. “99 percent of the people there were extremely peaceful when I was there, besides screaming names.” Myers said two of the officers — Jennifer Smith* and Rachel Moore,* whose identities are both known to The Daily — strongly advocated for nationals to address Cobb’s presence at the Capitol, as they felt her behavior conflicted with Phi Lamb values. She said that national leaders “called both of (the officers’) faith into question,” encouraging them to forgive Cobb, but ignoring the negative image she said Cobb’s actions gave the group. Smith said the regional director said she would meet with one of the top Phi Lamb national directors and also mentioned she had a meeting with Sara Haugland, the OU Phi Lamb president soon. Smith said the regional director assured her and Moore she’d start the removal process for Cobb. When Smith followed up
with Haugland a few days later, though, Haugland said the regional director told her they weren’t planning on removing Cobb. The Daily reached out to Haugland for comment at 2:05 p.m. Feb. 7 but didn’t receive a response by 7:30 p.m. Myers’ own attempts at drawing attention to Cobb’s actions were punished, she said, as she received an email on Feb. 3 from executive director of expansion Cara Morris, barring her from leading a bible study she’d moderated for three weeks and was supposed to lead for the rest of the semester. The email read that Morris has been working with the OU Phi Lamb officers and university “on an issue” for the past month, and within that time, it’s come to national leaders’ attention that she’s “posted negative remarks about a member and the organization as a whole,” Morris wrote that while national leaders are still working to address this issue, they “do not feel it appropriate at this time for (Myers) to lead a Bible Study through Phi Lamb.” Myers said this wasn’t the first time sorority leaders had brought an issue related to Cobb to the sorority’s regional or national leaders, as execs reported Cobb’s alleged bullying of another member to their regional director. Smith said all five executives were in complete a g re e m e nt t hat C o b b should be removed at that time, but the regional director encouraged them to just have a conversation with her because she was “obviously hurting.” “All five of us were fighting for this member for some sort of justice,” Smith said. “And … we’re like ‘OK, I guess nationals knows best, because we were pretty naive about the situation (involving the bullying).’” Cobb’s behavior doesn’t reflect the beliefs of most Phi Lamb members, Myers said, and she’s been disappointed to see national leaders’ lack of action, as she has many good memories in the organization. She also said nationals are
usually fairly hands-off when it comes to chapter regulation, and she doesn’t think the incident involving Cobb has been handled correctly. “We all have freedom of speech, we can do whatever we want,” Myers said. “But there’s a point where it’s just kind of like, ‘Are you just doing whatever you want, and not thinking about the consequences behind your actions’?” Smith said at an officer meeting following the Capitol siege, she and Moore both said they wanted to quit. Smith also said the other three officers agreed they were at their wit’s end. “It’s because dealing with nationals is so difficult — it feels almost like a monarchy sometimes,” Smith said. “(In) England, the king and queen are just kind of symbolic, but Parliament makes the rules, and you can’t really say anything. That’s kind of like what we are, we’re just here as a symbolic thing. We can’t actually make the change that we thought we could.” Moore, who was elected as an executive member in April 2020, agreed she felt powerless to handle the situation as she saw fit. “I tried to initiate conversations on multiple occasions, and (nationals) would participate in the conversation, but they didn’t always listen,” Moore said. “They very much wanted me to stay quiet about things, which was frustrating (because) it felt like my voice was being stolen, and my unique perspective was being stolen because they wanted me to represent Phi Lamb. And to do that, I had to be quiet.” In a screenshot sent to The Daily, regional director Allyson Jones encouraged officers in a group chat not to respond to the email with the screen recordings of Cobb’s story. Jones wrote sorority leaders would “help (the officers) formulate a response later,” but they wanted to discuss the situation first. Though Moore sent her letter of resignation Jan. 28, she said her decision to do so was based on the neglectful way nationals
addressed issues with Cobb, not because of the organization as a whole. “I think the majority of the girls in our chapter are good and thoughtful people,” Moore said. “And I know a lot of other people left the chapter for similar reasons. But lots of people stayed because of the stuff they found there that was really good, like the sisterhood and the friendships, and I can’t deny them that because it’s hard to leave something that you love.” Marissa Allen*, a Phi Lamb member whose identity is known to The Daily, said she was in the organization for about a year, and that seeing the videos of Cobb was “disconcerting,” even though she wasn’t familiar with Cobb previously. “I didn’t want people to look at the letters on my shirt or on the back of my car, and associate me with her, and me with those ideals because I don’t uphold those ideals whatsoever,” Allen said. Allen said she expected Cobb’s presence at the Capitol to be addressed at the first chapter meeting after the Jan. 6 riots, but when she realized the issue was being “covered up” instead, she decided she didn’t want to be associated with Phi Lamb anymore. Moore said nationals wanted to send the message that they were addressing the issue internally, but from her perspective, it wasn’t being handled at all. “I always try to look critically at the environment I place myself in and if their actions spoke for me as an individual, would I still feel like I was doing good and advocating for good,” Moore said. “And ultimately, the answer was no. And so, I decided that it was important for me to leave, not just for the purpose of showing them that their actions mattered and that they had consequences, but also for the purpose of making sure that, when I chose my stance, I was doing it because of what I believed in. And I wasn’t letting myself be represented by an organization that didn’t really stand for anything.” S m i t h s a i d C o b b ’s
behavior has also affected Phi Lamb’s member base — the group was projected to have 70 active members this semester, but less than 40 attended the first chapter meeting, and — including potential new members — less than 30 attended the second. Smith said she knows several dropped from the organization for reasons related to Cobb. A couple said meetings weren’t fun anymore because Cobb made the environment toxic, a few others said they didn’t feel safe attending meetings because Cobb had gone to parties during the pandemic, and a few others said they didn’t want to be associated with an organization that allowed behavior like Cobb’s, she said. “I know deep down that it isn’t my fault because I genuinely couldn’t do anything, even though I tried,” Smith said. “However it’s hard not to feel that way because the members that drop, they don’t know that you’re fighting for them because you don’t really talk about it. And it just hurts because they think the officers are the ones that aren’t protecting them. And you know, we really, really tried, but nationals makes it very difficult.” Smith said though she signed up for the responsibilities of an officer, she felt she was expected to go beyond reasonable expectations at times, and she often felt like she had to drop everything to fix a problem. “Yes, Phi Lamb was a priority for me, but I’m also a student,” Smith said. “I’m not a clergy member (or) anything like that. I don’t necessarily have the power, nor do I feel the need to put that type of responsibility on myself to fix somebody who’s shown time and time again that they’re going to do whatever they want despite anybody else’s feelings.” According to the OU chapter’s constitution, an active member must “be under the covering or seeking a church home,” “actively involved” in a Bible study, paying semester dues, have signed a liability waiver at the beginning of each school year they’re active, and attending 75 percent of all mandatory events. Though there aren’t specific terms for member removal, the constitution also reads that the Board of Directors — which is separate from the officers — “reserves the right to revoke the membership of any member who is disruptive to the organization.” Myers said allowing Cobb to remain a Phi Lamb member shows acceptance of her blatant disregard for Biblical teaching. “There’s no consequences for this girl,” Myers said. “God calls us to obey our government … and what she did wasn’t doing that — she wasn’t following those laws. … She also wasn’t loving thy neighbor as you love yourself.” Ari Fife
ariani.s.fife-1@ou.edu