Phi Kappa Psi at U of Virginia Voluntarily Suspends Activities

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by 1964Alum

While the FIPG certainly asserts constructive policies to address alcohol abuse within fraternity chapters, I think those very critical of the entire Greek system have personally seen that the fraternities are not walking the walk. CYA activities are not going to fool anyone.

Expecting college kids not to drink, period, is an unreasonable expectation. NPC groups have avoided a lot of liability by allowing fraternities to assume a lot of it. Things like dry housing also come with a lot of unintended consequences. Alcohol.edu is actually a pretty good program and ensures that members at least have access to information before making poor life choices. Are 18/19 year olds going to still make poor life choices? Of course.

HOW, specifically, are individual chapters going to enforce these policies? HOW are the fraternities going to proactively protect these young women? HOW are fraternity brothers going to demonstrate that they take these policies seriously backed up with action, not words? HOW are they demonstrating that they value women?

In 99% of our chapters, there is absolutely nothing wrong. We are talking about a small minority of problem chapters.. and as we saw with schools like UVA, both Pike and Sigma Nu were proactive. Before anything serious happened, those chapters (Pike's Alpha chapter and Sigma Nu's Beta chapter) were shut down. Some national groups probably do a better job of taking the initiative and some groups are a little hamstrung by their own legislative processes seeing as this was an issue which was suddenly huge on the radar, many of us can't react in a huge way until our major legislative assemblies take place.

Until the behavior of fraternity brothers consistently changes, there will be no change in the public perception.

That's a little offensive. This issue, kind of like school shootings, kind of like terrorist attacks, etc., while real and while needing to be addressed is not nearly so pervasive as your above sentence would suggest. Fraternity chapters are not consistently places where women can expect to be raped. The problem is real, but let's not blow it out of proportion.

[honorgal]

Originally Posted by Kevin

The problem is real, but let's not blow it out of proportion.

Way too late, that train has already left the station and is barreling down the tracks.

Some reporters have finally started using their critical thinking skills and are raising some questions about the Rolling Stone allegations. It won't matter. The author has even responded by stated that we shouldn't concern ourselves with the facts, it's the overarching theme that's important.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by honorgal

Way too late, that train has already left the station and is barreling down the tracks.

It's up to each of on our own campuses to get in front of the issue then, even if leadership from our HQs or the FIPG isn't really there.

I'm personally going to make a point of reaching out to my officers and to our Greek Life office to see what kind of sexual abuse/domestic violence prevention programs we are utilizing on campus and I'd like to make sure that we have programs in place to educate students and to encourage victims to come forward and deal with the issues which will happen.

A lot of campuses have "that" house and it's high time we start identifying those chapters and dealing with them more proactively and aggressively when their HQs refuse to in order that we don't all suffer for something their members do.

[honorgal]

Originally Posted by Kevin

It's up to each of on our own campuses to get in front of the issue then, even if leadership from our HQs or the FIPG isn't really there.

I'm personally going to make a point of reaching out to my officers and to our Greek Life office to see what kind of sexual abuse/domestic violence prevention programs we are utilizing on campus and I'd like to make sure that we have programs in place to educate students and to encourage victims to come forward and deal with the issues which will happen.

A lot of campuses have "that" house and it's high time we start identifying those chapters and dealing with them more proactively and aggressively when their HQs refuse to in order that we don't all suffer for something their members do.

I have no quarrel with this, it's a very common sense approach to a specific problem. The issue I have is the ever expanding definition of the problem (which is a direct result of blowing the problem out of proportion). I've read some of the cases that have gotten some high profile media attention....not just the media version, but the actual case records where available. In so many of them, the facts are the same. Two very drunk (but not incapacitated) students having sex that they probably wouldn't have if they were stone cold sober. I'm not sure how education is going to change that. And it's a very different problem than the much more rare problem of the predator who uses alcohol in a deliberate way to facilitate sexual assaults. But the fear mongers are treating them exactly the same.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by honorgal

Two very drunk (but not incapacitated) students having sex that they probably wouldn't have if they were stone cold sober.

That's not the same as a rape and definitely not the sort of thing which allegedly happened at UVA. And these situations where sex is consensual and the female decides she wants takesie backsies and asks for charges to be filed are true horror stories which many schools' implementations of Title IX have led me to believe the male student could be victimized by a process rigged in the favor of the alleged victim.

And it's a very different problem than the much more rare problem of the predator who uses alcohol in a deliberate way to facilitate sexual assaults. But the fear mongers are treating them exactly the same.

And again, we are -->here<-- on that issue. The best we can hope for is to have open dialog with the schools, take appropriate steps for prevention and when it does happen, we want to avoid an us vs. them approach with our host schools. Our national organizations need to take good looks at shutting down some of the problem chapters regardless of how much $$ those chapters generate. Schools need to do a better job communicating with national groups as to which of their organizations merit inquiry and schools need to look at policies of exclusion for national organizations who do not play ball with universities which are trying to protect their students.

[honorgal]

Originally Posted by Kevin

That's not the same as a rape and definitely not the sort of thing which allegedly happened at UVA. And these situations where sex is consensual and the female decides she wants takesie backsies and asks for charges to be filed are true horror stories which many schools' implementations of Title IX have led me to believe the male student could be victimized by a process rigged in the favor of the alleged victim.

I agree, it's not the same thing as the alleged crime at UVA, but the media, as well as the OCR and many campus admins are treating it as all the same problem. That's my point. That's where all these scary statistics come from. I believe the Rolling Stone article made the claim that one in three females at UVA is assaulted at some point. Sorry, but that just defies common sense logic. What parent in their right mind would continue to send their daughters to such a dangerous place? And with the article's emphasis on the horrific gang-rape, it is definitely written to conflate some very disparate problems all into one ugly "rapists are everywhere at UVA" reaction.

[exlurker]

Originally Posted by honorgal

Way too late, that train has already left the station and is barreling down the tracks.

Some reporters have finally started using their critical thinking skills and are raising some questions about the Rolling Stone allegations. It won't matter. The author has even responded by stated that we shouldn't concern ourselves with the facts, it's the overarching theme that's important.

An example of "raising some questions about the Rolling Stone allegations":

http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion...084c116e2.html

[exlurker]

The Seven Society at UVA is offering money ($57,777.77) for bystander training and other training-- the gift is offered to honor several students, including "Jackie" (of the Rolling Stone story):

http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/20...ates-57777-77/

[1964Alum]

Originally Posted by exlurker

The Seven Society at UVA is offering money ($57,777.77) for bystander training and other training-- the gift is offered to honor several students, including "Jackie" (of the Rolling Stone story):

http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/20...ates-57777-77/

This is a great start! Now I HOPE that fraternity men rise to the occasion and get bystander training for themselves. Would be a great pledge activity!

[33girl]

Originally Posted by exlurker

The Seven Society at UVA is offering money ($57,777.77) for bystander training and other training-- the gift is offered to honor several students, including "Jackie" (of the Rolling Stone story):

http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/20...ates-57777-77/

Why are they not giving $77, 777.77???????? This bothers me.

As for that T-D article, I really really really hope that RS isn't pulling a Janet Cooke, although with the levels they've sunk to in their journalism overall, I wouldn't put it past them. They're desperate to remain relevant. And yes, it DOES matter if the story is real, regardless of what the school's culture is.

[aephi alum]

... And here is an advantage of joining a sorority: A sister has your back.

I once had to withdraw cash from an ATM in a somewhat sketchy part of town. My sorority sister "D", who grew up in a sketchy town, walked with me to the ATM. I'd have been ok on my own, but I was more than glad for her company.