Last year, no black women were successful in rushing a sorority at University of Alabama. This year, the university decided to cut all contact between the media and all sororities on campus. Though they gave no substantial reasons why, many believe it is an attempt to ease racial tensions in light of the recent events in Ferguson.

Greg Piper at the College Fix reports:

Sororities Blocked From Talking To Media At University Of Alabama

The University of Alabama is apparently so afraid that sorority recruits and leaders will start a Ferguson-style race war that it has “restricted media access to those directly involved in rush,” as The Crimson White delicately puts it.

The 12o-year-old student paper reported a year ago that “black women participating in formal recruitment faced discrimination and were all eventually dropped from the process,” so the school this year is inventing uncreative excuses for why recruits can’t talk to the paper:

“Recruitment week is extremely busy for everyone in Greek affairs, for all the girls in Panhellenic,” said Cathy Andreen, director of media relations for the University. “We will certainly have some information available after it’s over, but there’s really not anyone available for interviews right now.”

When are college students not “extremely busy”? The paper says this is the first year that

no representatives from the University of Alabama office of Greek Affairs, the Panhellenic Executive Council or any sorority will be available for interviews during recruitment week, according to a list of guidelines sent to The Crimson White and other media outlets. Instead, all questions were to be directed to the University’s office of media relations.

The guide said the same will be true for bid day itself, when thousands of hopeful girls will crowd into Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday, August 16, to find out which Panhellenic sororities have offered them membership. Media outlets will be provided with a list of girls receiving a bid that day, but all questions are to be directed to the University’s office of media relations.

The media are also not allowed on “the lawns of any sorority houses,” they can’t “knock on any doors, enter Bryant-Denny Stadium on bid day” or – get this – “disrupt students as they move along the sidewalk.”

“Disrupt”? As in, ask recruits for interviews? This is almost certainly an unenforceable policy on any level, certainly for a public university.