The University of Virginia has suspended all of its fraternities for the remainder of the semester in the wake of a series of horrific revelations about rape and sexual assault on campus.
The first bombshell dropped on Wednesday in the form of an article in Rolling Stone. In it, “Jackie”–then a freshman, now a junior–told of being gang-raped by seven men while at a party sponsored by Phi Kappa Psi in 2012. She was initially pressured into keeping quiet. When she finally came forward a few months later, administrators did very little about it, even when she told of two other girls who had been raped at Phi Kappa Psi parties. While UVa conducted an informal investigation in September, it didn’t launch a full-blown probe into the matter until it learned Rolling Stone was asking questions. On Friday, Rolling Stone published another article in which several other students told of being raped at fraternity parties.
Early Saturday morning, all UVa fraternities voluntarily suspended social activities for the weekend, even though it was the last home football game of the season. But that didn’t go far enough for UVa president Teresa Sullivan. In a letter to students, she announced that she had ordered all fraternities to suspend operations until January 9. Phi Kappa Psi had already voluntarily surrendered its fraternal agreement for the duration of the investigation.
Anyone who thinks this was too harsh will have second thoughts upon reading the two Rolling Stone articles. They reveal a culture in which rape and sexual assault are considered occupational hazards at a school famous for working hard and playing hard. The few who are willing to speak out often end up nuking their reputations on a campus where social status is everything. Jackie, for instance, had several friends tell her that if she went public, she could be held responsible for ruining UVa’s reputation. This mentality reportedly extends to administrators, some of whom have faced criticism for being more concerned about protecting the school’s image than protecting students’ safety. As late as 2004, a victim was told that if she spoke publicly about her concerns that her alleged perpetrator wasn’t being held accountable, she could be thrown out of school for an honor code violation. A former dean, John Foubert, recounted a story from the late 1990s in which a male student was suspended for stalking, but was allowed to return when the dean of students raised concerns that the school could face a lawsuit for “denying him access to an education.” Small wonder that in her letter, Sullivan said that “institutional change, cultural change, and legislative change” are needed to change the image of a school that some women have begun calling “UVrApe.” Part of that change is a massive overhaul to the school’s Sexual Misconduct Policy; the proposed changes are open for public comment until December 12.
To her credit, Sullivan made some effort to change the culture before this story broke. Most administrators have been designated as mandated reporters, and school officials have helped students coordinate a bystander-intervention campaign. Those changes have not come without a hefty amount of prodding from Washington, however. UVa is facing two separate federal investigations for inadequately responding to rape and sexual assault on campus. It is one of 86 schools facing Title IX investigations for mishandling complaints. More seriously, it is one of 12 schools that apparently have problems so serious that the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights took it upon itself to launch a compliance review into deeper issues. It looks like UVa has come a long way from deans who blew off requests for better lighting at night out of concern that it would ruin Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the school. But from the looks of it, it has a long way to go. And it says a lot about how far it has to go that it took Rolling Stone coming to town for something substantial to be done.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
