A small crowd gathered Saturday night in front of Syracuse University’s chapter of Phi Kappa Psi alleging sexual assault and protesting rape culture within Greek life. Stand With Survivors SU (SWSSU), a student organization that works to provide a voice for sexual assault survivors and advocate for change in the university’s culture, organized the protest. The crowd demanded the expulsion of a member of the fraternity who allegedly committed sexual assault. 

It is time the university starts listening to these protests and holds these fraternities accountable. There should be no room for this type of behavior coming from SU students without any severe implications. Sexual assault should not happen and should not be tolerated at our university. 

The university talks about sexual assault like it is a relevant issue that it is actively trying to prevent, but as soon as it becomes a reality, there is only inaction and broken promises leaving survivors alone and silenced. At a recent University Senate meeting, Chancellor Kent Syverud addressed the issue of sexual assault on campus by stating that the university cannot take action unless incidents are reported and that only 5% of people who are sexual assaulted at SU actively report their experiences to the university. This is an excuse used for the administration’s lack of action to battle sexual misconduct and it communicates messages of victim blaming. The truth is that one of the worst things a survivor of sexual assault can face is invalidation. Through the lack of action from the administration, survivors are undermined and denied the justice they deserve.  

It is frustrating because ideally our community would evolve and sexual assault would cease to exist. Unfortunately, without the proper punishments, aggressors will continue to commit atrocious acts. SU can’t change the mentality of these aggressors, but it can change how it responds to these occurrences and how it punishes perpetrators. A few actions the university can take are to temporarily remove students who have ongoing charges of sexual misconduct from campus, as SWSSU wrote in its demands, and to immediately and publicly expel those who are found to be guilty. By following these strict punishments, the university would communicate the severity of how it deals with sexual assault, intimidating any future perpetrators. 

There is a common and often accepted conception that Greek life, especially fraternities, is deeply associated with occurrences of sexual assault. It is disgusting that organizations meant to encourage social interaction and philanthropy are actually the main contributors to the hateful rape culture on college campuses.  

The protest on Saturday night also went to the Theta Chi chapter house. The SU chapters of Theta Chi and Alpha Chi Omega were holding a philanthropic event supporting Vera House, an organization that aims to end domestic abuse and sexual assault. When met with the protesters, the event’s attendees failed to respond or support the same cause they were so keen to support through their event. 

Theta Chi’s and Alpha Chi Omega’s lack of interest in the protest demonstrates the performative nature of philanthropy in Greek life. While they can organize events like “Fries with the Chi’s” in support of activist organizations, the truth is many fraternity members don’t care about the cause they are supporting, and it is only a “burden” they have to deal with. Greek life like this is toxic.

It is time to realize that these organizations are promoters of the negativity on campus. I am not advocating for the total removal of fraternities. As a young woman attending SU, I am simply pleading to see that the university cares about issues of sexual assault and that it is working on disciplining the fraternities at fault. The administration should do this through significant punishments, not just punishments that sound good on paper. I am also calling on the education and improvement of Greek life to get rid of the rape culture that surrounds it. In its manifesto to the university, SWSSU demanded a mandatory seminar on anti-rape culture training for potential new Greek life members. This would just be the start — more actions can be taken to better these organizations, but it all has to be incited by the university’s ability to demonstrate that it takes sexual assault seriously.   

This protest should be another wake-up call for SU to take real action. We cannot keep letting aggressors get away with sexual assault without any consequences, and until we see significant change, we will keep protesting about it. 

Karla Perez is a freshman magazine, news and digital journalism major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at ksperezd@syr.edu.

DISCLAIMER: Editorial editor Nathan Fenningdorf and asst. editorial editor Grace Myron are associated with Greek life on campus. They both recused themselves from editing this column in all means, and therefore have no influence over the content of this column.

Published on November 8, 2021 at 12:29 am