Faculty at UVA Wants to Abolish the Greek System
Someday in the not too distant future, we’re going to run out of things to ban on college campuses.
Sonny Bunch of the Washington Free Beacon reported.
UVA Faculty Want Abolition of Greek System, Emails Reveal
University of Virginia faculty members are floating the abolition of Greek life on campus after an explosive Rolling Stone article on sexual assault, emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon reveal.
The emails, culled from the History Department’s listserv, show the pressure faculty members are putting on the administration, which has come under fire for failing to remove sexual predators from school grounds.
Full disclosure: I’m a UVA graduate and part of the third of the student body involved in Greek life. (My house was not mentioned in Rolling Stone.) Disgust and disbelief prevailed during a discussion I had over the weekend about the story with fellow alums.
Rolling Stone’s exposé centered on the story of “Jackie,” a pseudonymous freshman who claims to have suffered a brutal sexual assault. The details of the attack are horrifying. Jackie said a junior in Phi Kappa Psi, a prestigious fraternity, groomed her for weeks prior to the assault, lured her into a dark room during a party, and watched as seven other men raped her for three hours as part of what readers are led to believe was a fraternity initiation ceremony.
Immediately following the alleged attack, Jackie said her friends—whom she had called after leaving the fraternity and who saw her face bloodied and clothes torn—discouraged her from contacting the police out of fear that they would not be allowed into fraternity parties going forward.
Facing nationwide outrage and a faculty in revolt, last weekend UVA president Teresa Sullivan announced that all fraternity activities were to be suspended for the rest of the year.
The gesture is largely empty. Given holiday and exam schedules, there are relatively few Greek activities during the last few weeks of the semester.
UVA Faculty Want Abolition of Greek System, Emails Reveal (The Washington Free Beacon)
Comments
Freedom of association? Where did that go?