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U-Va. president suspends fraternities until Jan. 9 in wake of rape allegations U-Va. president suspends fraternities until Jan. 9 in wake of rape allegations
(about 2 hours later)
University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan said Saturday that she is suspending all campus fraternities through early January, acting days after a magazine published an account from the victim of an alleged 2012 gang rape inside a U-Va. fraternity house.University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan said Saturday that she is suspending all campus fraternities through early January, acting days after a magazine published an account from the victim of an alleged 2012 gang rape inside a U-Va. fraternity house.
The suspension, Sullivan said in a statement posted to the university Web site, will continue until Jan. 9, when the spring semester is set to begin.The suspension, Sullivan said in a statement posted to the university Web site, will continue until Jan. 9, when the spring semester is set to begin.
“In the intervening period we will assemble groups of students, faculty, alumni, and other concerned parties to discuss our next steps in preventing sexual assault and sexual violence on Grounds,” she said, using university parlance for its Charlottesville campus.“In the intervening period we will assemble groups of students, faculty, alumni, and other concerned parties to discuss our next steps in preventing sexual assault and sexual violence on Grounds,” she said, using university parlance for its Charlottesville campus.
The university’s Board of Visitors will meet Tuesday to discuss the allegations, aired in a Rolling Stone magazine article, as well as policies and procedures on sexual assault, Sullivan said.The university’s Board of Visitors will meet Tuesday to discuss the allegations, aired in a Rolling Stone magazine article, as well as policies and procedures on sexual assault, Sullivan said.
The article, which was posted online this week, describes a brutal sex assault that allegedly occurred in the Phi Kappa Psi house. The victim, who was given an alias by the magazine, said a fraternity member led her upstairs during a party and into a dark room, where several men raped her.The article, which was posted online this week, describes a brutal sex assault that allegedly occurred in the Phi Kappa Psi house. The victim, who was given an alias by the magazine, said a fraternity member led her upstairs during a party and into a dark room, where several men raped her.
Her story roiled the campus Friday, raising doubts among students, faculty and parents about the way the case was handled by university administrators. Sullivan’s statement came after more than 1,000 students and faculty members signed a letter sent Friday night calling on the president to freeze activities for groups under investigation for sexual assault and for a suspension of Greek-letter organizations throughout the weekend.
Elected officials, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and Sen. Mark Warner (D), expressed deep concern in recent days about the allegations. The Charlottesville police are investigating the account. “People were unsatisfied with her initial response,” said Retsy Holliday, a senior foreign affairs majors who was one of the drafters of the letter. “This was our cry for more action. And she responded.”
The fraternity implicated in the story, Phi Kappa Psi, suspended activities at its U-Va. chapter Thursday, a day after the article appeared. Sullivan’s action comes on the same day that the university’s Inter-Fraternity Council said its members would voluntarily suspend social activities through the weekend. The president of the university’s Inter-Fraternity Council, which consists of 31 chapters with about 1,500 student members among them, said Saturday the suspension would “ultimately benefit our university and the Greek community in the long term.”
“This is an important first step,” Sullivan wrote, “but our challenges will extend beyond this weekend.” President Tommy Reid, a fourth-year student, said he and fellow fraternity leaders learned about the suspension Saturday morning in conversations with the university’s dean of students.
The council had already announced early Saturday it was voluntarily suspending social activities through the weekend, Reid said, “in recognition of the fragility of the U-Va. community right now, out of respect for the survivors of sexual violence at U-Va.”
“We were in very serious conversations with fraternity presidents about taking similar actions for the rest of the semester,” he said.
Sullivan’s announcement came at a particular active time on the university’s social calendar, with a home basketball game Friday and a home football game Saturday — the last home game of the Cavaliers’ season.
While the Greek suspension lasts seven weeks, the practical effect is more modest. Students are set to leave campus Wednesday for Thanksgiving break, returning for one week of class the following Monday. Final exams are scheduled thereafter through Dec. 16, with classes then recessed till Jan. 12.
Reid said many U-Va. fraternities would typically host holiday dances, parties or fundraisers over the coming weeks that will now be cancelled.
The Rolling Stone story has roiled the campus, raising doubts among students, faculty and parents about the way the case was handled by university administrators. Elected officials, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and Sen. Mark Warner (D), expressed deep concern about the allegations. The Charlottesville police are investigating the account.
Sullivan called the account “appalling” and said it “caused all of us to reexamine our responsibility to this community.” Besides rape allegations, the Rolling Stone article described a seemingly unconcerned response from the U-Va. administrators contacted by the victim of the alleged Phi Kappa Psi assault.
“We know, and have felt very powerfully this week, that we are better than we have been described, and that we have a responsibility to live our tradition of honor every day, and as importantly every night,” Sullivan wrote.
She also made her most forceful call to students and alumni to be cooperative in the police investigation: “There are individuals in our community who know what happened that night, and I am calling on them to come forward to the police to report the facts. Only you can shed light on the truth, and it is your responsibility to do so.”
Holliday said that Sullivan’s suspension of all Greek activities until after the New Year is a positive step forward toward addressing sexual assault prevention on campus. Holliday said that fraternity and sorority parties are often alcohol-fueled affairs where cases of sexual assault are more likely to occur.
“Rape and sexual harassment are more susceptible to happen at parties,” said Holliday, 22. “You can’t tell students on campus to shut down parties. So we target the hot spots like Greek organizations.”
Reid said the suspension “gives our community time to breathe and provides us with the space and the time to address the complicated problem of sexual violence” with an eye toward “effective, pragmatic and long-term solutions.”
Alex Pinkleton, a junior who said she is a close friend of the victim from the Rolling Stone article, said that students on campus have experienced a range of emotions in the aftermath of the story’s publication.
“There’s been disappointment to intense anger,” said Pinkleton. “Now its about how best to take that energy, take that anger towards fraternities and Phi Psi and taking all of those emotions and turning into a constructive conversation about sexual assault.”
Pinkleton said she survived a rape and an attempted rape during her first two years on campus. She said that for many victims, the attacks begin at parties. “The party culture on college campuses lends itself to sexual assaults,” Pinkleton said.
In her statement, Sullivan encouraged the university community to participate in a review of the university’s sexual misconduct policy for students.In her statement, Sullivan encouraged the university community to participate in a review of the university’s sexual misconduct policy for students.
“In the words of one student who wrote to me this week, ‘Policy is needed, but people make change,’” she wrote. “We need the collective strength of the members of our community to ensure that we have the best policies. . . . Providing candid feedback to this policy is a practical step that you can take to help and I hope that you will.” “We need the collective strength of the members of our community to ensure that we have the best policies,” she wrote. “Providing candid feedback to this policy is a practical step that you can take to help and I hope that you will.”
She also sent a particular message to senior undergraduates on the day of the last home football game: “I hope that you will embrace your role as leaders and demonstrate a renewed sense of responsibility to our community, and a renewed commitment to make that community better. It starts today.” She also sent a particular message to senior undergraduates on the day of the last home football game — a traditional occasion for the “fourth-year-fifth,” in which some seniors drink to excess before kickoff.
Sullivan’s letter in full: “I hope that you will embrace your role as leaders and demonstrate a renewed sense of responsibility to our community, and a renewed commitment to make that community better. It starts today.”
Dear members of the University Community, Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity implicated in the Rolling Stone story, suspended activities at its U-Va. chapter Thursday, a day after the article appeared. The fraternity’s national leadership said it would cooperate in the police investigation and said it had launched its own internal investigation into the allegations.
Over the past week many of you have reached out to me directly to offer your opinions, reactions, and suggestions related to combatting sexual violence on Grounds. I want you to know that I have heard you, and that your words have enkindled this message. Mrinalini Chakravorty, an English professor, said that the Greek system at U-Va. has run amok for years without addressing the challenge of sexual assaults on campus.
At UVa we speak in idealistic terms: honor and tradition inform our thinking, and balance our daily actions. And it is easy here, where success is demanded as much as it is sought, to let our idealism outweigh our reality. “The Greek life here is entrenched, it’s been tradition,” Chakravorty said. “The question of how to reform it is a big one.”
Jefferson, as he always does, provides a compelling backdrop: One mother of a recent U-Va. graduate from Northern Virginia said that the article left her daughter in tears. The mother said that she could not even finish reading the article because “it was too painful.”
It is more honorable to repair a wrong than to persist in it. She believes that not much has changed since she was a student there three decades ago. As a freshman in the fall of 1978, the woman said she was date-raped after a party.
The wrongs described in Rolling Stone are appalling and have caused all of us to reexamine our responsibility to this community. Rape is an abhorrent crime that has no place in the world, let alone on the campuses and grounds of our nation’s colleges and universities. We know, and have felt very powerfully this week, that we are better than we have been described, and that we have a responsibility to live our tradition of honor every day, and as importantly every night. “What is seared into my memory is that he was on top of me and I was saying, ‘No! No! No!’” she said. “I never told anybody. I felt shame and embarrassment. I thought it was my fault because I had gotten myself into that situation.”
As you are aware, I have asked the Charlottesville Police Department to investigate the 2012 assault that is described in Rolling Stone. There are individuals in our community who know what happened that night, and I am calling on them to come forward to the police to report the facts. Only you can shed light on the truth, and it is your responsibility to do so. Alongside this investigation, we as a community must also do a systematic evaluation of our culture to ensure that one of our founding principles– the pursuit of truth – remains a pillar on which we can stand. There is no greater threat to honor than secrecy and indifference. The woman said that she never reported the rape because she felt vulnerable and alone. The Post generally does not name victims of sexual assault.
I write you today in solidarity. I write you in great sorrow, great rage, but most importantly, with great determination. Meaningful change is necessary, and we can lead that change for all universities. We can demand that incidents like those described in Rolling Stone never happen and that if they do, the responsible are held accountable to the law. This will require institutional change, cultural change, and legislative change, and it will not be easy. We are making those changes. The woman said that the university should take responsibility for crimes that occur on campus. “I want to ask them, ‘What if this were your daughter? Or your sister?’” she said. “I don’t call myself a victim. I call myself a survivor.”
This morning the Inter-Fraternity Council announced that all University fraternities have voluntarily suspended social activities this weekend. This is an important first step, but our challenges will extend beyond this weekend. Beginning immediately, I am suspending all fraternal organizations and associated social activities until January 9th, ahead of the beginning of our spring semester. In the intervening period we will assemble groups of students, faculty, alumni, and other concerned parties to discuss our next steps in preventing sexual assault and sexual violence on Grounds. On Tuesday, the Board of Visitors will meet to discuss the University’s policies and procedures regarding sexual assault as well as the specific, recent allegations.
In the words of one student who wrote to me this week, “Policy is needed, but people make change.” We need the collective strength of the members of our community to ensure that we have the best policies. So as you prepare for what I hope is a restful Thanksgiving holiday, I hope that you will take time to review and respond to the recently posted Student Sexual Misconduct Policy, which is currently open for public comment. You may find that policy at this link. Providing candid feedback to this policy is a practical step that you can take to help and I hope that you will.
To our fourth-year students: as you prepare to celebrate your last home football game today, I hope that you will embrace your role as leaders and demonstrate a renewed sense of responsibility to our community, and a renewed commitment to make that community better. It starts today.
Finally, I want to express my grief at hearing the news of the death of second-year student Peter D’Agostino, whose passing adds overwhelming emotion to what has been a difficult semester for all of us.
We are united in our compassion, resolve, and determination: Compassion for survivors of assault; resolve to make our community better; determination to begin to solve this problem here and now.
I hope that you will join me.
Teresa A. Sullivan
President