Cal Greek groups: Assaults mean end of parties
For the first time, UC Berkeley student leaders — not administrators — have suspended parties at fraternities and sororities after two women said they were sexually assaulted at off-campus Greek events last weekend.
Daniel Saedi, president of UC Berkeley’s Interfraternity Council — the governing body for dozens of fraternities officially recognized by the campus — announced the students’ decision in a Facebook post on the council’s page, where he called the reported sexual assaults “vile and unjust.”
The decision covers all social events with alcohol or outside members. Each violator will receive a fine and could be referred to a committee for additional punishment, although details have yet to finalized. Saedi said the duration of the ban depends on when students approve a new safety plan that could limit alcohol distribution at parties and lead to designated safety monitors.
The ban doesn’t cover 11 unaffiliated fraternities, many of which host raucous parties almost every weekend.
Campus police confirmed this week that two female students reported separate sexual assaults near campus last Saturday and Sunday at frat parties, but they would not identify the fraternities.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said he has “great respect for this bold and important step undertaken by our fraternities and sororities.”
The fraternity group announced its decision to halt parties ahead of Friday night’s conference matchup between the California Golden Bears football team and the visiting University of Oregon Ducks.
An email from Saedi and sorority Panhellenic Council President Divya Thomas to leaders in Berkeley’s Greek
community acknowledged the suspension could disappoint students who have traditionally held drinking parties at fraternity and sorority functions before and after football games.
“While we realize that there is a Gameday on Friday... the safety of our members and our community is now at risk more than ever,” the message said. “For the first time under our terms, we both do not feel comfortable allowing any of our members to attend or host events given the current circumstances.”
Saedi, a senior, told The Chronicle that sexual assault “is an issue that is — terribly — pretty prevalent at college campuses across the country.”
At UC Berkeley alone, students, staff and faculty have reported 80 incidents of sexual violence just since August, according to records. That’s up from 70 reports during 2015, and 56 the year before.
Although there is no national database of sexual assaults at fraternities or campuses, the U.S. Department of Education has investigated 336 cases of potential mishandling of sexual assaults on college campuses since 2011 and resolved just 55 of them, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The department has two open investigations at UC Berkeley and four at Stanford University.
“I’d like to see some kind of official acknowledgment (by campus administrators) that this kind of problem is occurring right now, and you’re not really seeing that,” Saedi said. “I really saw this as a necessary step to pump the brakes and ... assess the situation.”
UC Berkeley has taken steps recently to address campus sexual assault, including creating a Survivor Support website and requiring new students to receive in-person training and an online education program, campus officials said. Those who fail to complete the program may not register for classes, said Ellen Topp, a campus spokeswoman.
The party suspension applies only to those hosted at fraternities and sororities, although most sororities already ban alcohol. Saedi said students need to figure out how to eliminate sexual violence at parties where alcohol flows freely late into the night.
A Stanford case made national headlines in June when former student and varsity swimmer Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious and intoxicated woman in 2015. Both had attended a party at the Kappa Alpha fraternity.
Days before Turner was released from jail in September, Stanford took the unusual step of limiting hard liquor on campus to no more than 40 proof and in sizes no greater than 750 milliliters.
Last year, the Psi Upsilon fraternity at Wesleyan University in Connecticut was banned from hosting parties for six months after two of its members were expelled from school in the wake of sexual assaults. Other schools have also cracked down in recent years, though for a range of unsafe behavior.
Meghan Warner, who was co-chair of a student group called Greeks Against Sexual Assault before she graduated from UC Berkeley in May, said she is pleased that the campus groups had unilaterally clamped down on parties. But she is skeptical there will be any improvement as a result.
“I could not have imagined this happening four years ago when I started at Cal,” said Warner, who is now working on a campaign to recall the judge who handed Turner the light sentence. “I definitely think it’s an important change.
“But my fear is that it’s just going to be for this weekend, and they’ll just resume everything,” Warner said, noting that most fraternities already fail to follow policies designed to restrict alcohol abuse.
On campus, many students were equally skeptical.
Anna Flurry, a sophomore, said the move to halt parties was “too little, too late.”
She doesn’t frequent what’s known as Frat Row, the line of lavish fraternity houses, some decades old, that populate long stretches of Piedmont, Prospect and Durant avenues, among other places, near campus.
“Honestly, the frats perpetuate this bro-culture,” Flurry said. “I don’t think it really favors progress, especially in terms of sexual assault.”
Another student, freshman Kaylee Holland, said Berkeley feels less safe than it did when the school year started in August.
Walking back to her dorm, about a mile from Berkeley’s main campus, Holland said she was harassed by a group of men who followed her after a concert.
“You don’t really feel like it’s going to happen to you, but then it happens a block away,” Holland said of a recent string of armed robberies and sexual assaults.
“It’s incredible the aura of fear that’s surrounding the campus right now,” Saedi said. “You can feel it. People are no longer walking home on weeknights as early as 10 p.m. Kids are scared. A lot of these kids have never been in unsafe situations before. They don’t know what to expect.”
In a recent email sent to students and employees, campus Police Chief Margo Bennett acknowledged campus concerns over recent crime but said violent crime has been down this year.
Bennett said her department has increased patrols and hired three additional officers.