Even though Rolling Stone’s sensational story about a brutal gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity has fallen apart, the Inter-Fraternity Council has accepted new terms in order to resume social activities on campus.
Members of Phi Kappa Psi were accused of gang raping a freshman girl named Jackie, whose story fell apart when her friends told the Washington Post and CNN that she told them a different story and made up a story about having a date the night of the alleged incident.
Despite that, U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan banned social activities for fraternities until Jan. 9 (fraternities had previously agreed to suspend activities for the weekend after the Rolling Stone story was published). Sullivan kept that ban in place even after the story fell apart.
And now, in order to resume social activities, fraternities (and sororities, although their new rules are far less strict) will have to sign agreements pledging to change their partying ways.
Fraternities, of course, take the brunt of the punishment. U.Va. fraternities will now have to designate a minimum of three brothers to remain “sober and lucid at each fraternity function,” meaning they cannot be under the influence of “any substance.”
One of these brothers will have to block the stairs to residential rooms who must also have a key to all the bedrooms, and at least one will have to be present “at each point of alcohol distribution.” Additionally, fraternities will be required to “provide an additional sober brother monitor for every 30 members of the chapter.” At least three of these monitors must be non-first year brothers.
Oh, and the monitors will have to wear some kind of identifier.
Further, fraternities now have strange new rules regarding alcohol. They can serve beer, but it has to be in its original can and wine can be served by a sober brother. Pre-mixed drinks, such as punches, are now prohibited and bottled water must be “readily available at every beverage distribution location and food at a minimum of one distribution location.”
Also, certain types of fraternity parties will now also need a bouncer.
Sororities, which weren’t at all included in the Rolling Stone accusation, will also have to change their ways. The Inter-Sorority Council, along with the Multicultural Greek Council and National Pan-Hellenic Council, will have to review their safety recommendations “at least once a year, at the beginning of [each] leadership term.”
They will also have to include “bystander intervention training, alcohol education and safe party practices” into their new member education services.
Not so bad, comparatively.
Robby Soave over at Reason wrote that the alcohol restrictions placed on fraternities will do little if anything to solve the problem, since students already “flout” the law prohibiting underage drinking.
“Breaking the law carries more serious risk than breaking some university dictate, but that hardly seems to deter teenagers,” Soave wrote.
He also pointed out that U.Va. might not have the legal or ethical right to “punish all Greek organizations for the sins of some.” Those “sins” being a discredited accusation and anti-Greek bias similar to the anti-athlete bias seen at Duke in 2006.
I see another problem with these new requirements. If fraternities were the go-to source for alcohol-fueled ragers, and they now have limits placed on them, won’t the parties just shift to the sorority houses since they don’t face these prohibitions?
