Two Fraternities Refuse to Comply With UVA’s New Anti-Sexual Assault Regulations

[niyad]

Two Fraternities Refuse to Comply With UVA’s New Anti-Sexual Assault Regulations

(I guess the proposed regulations interfere with their "fun". goddess forfend that they should act with some regard for the safety and well-being of others.)


Two fraternities at the University of Virginia have declined to sign on to new fraternity regulations put in place after a sexual assault scandal shook the campus.




The University of Virginia last week announced new regulations governing Fraternal Organizations to enhance safety on campus, and required all organizations to sign onto new regulations by Jan 16. Alpha Tau Omega and Kappa Alpha Order announced they would not sign the new FOA. Both fraternities claim the university violated the original fraternity operating agreement and worry that the new rules pose a liability for their members. They state the new regulations “set a dangerous precedent of an erosion of student and organizational rights.”

Women’s rights advocates have criticized the FOA for being too lenient and lack enforcement. “A UVA Dean has said students who have admitted guilt to committing sexual assaults have been allowed to remain on campus without suspension,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), “which also allows them to potentially continue attacks against more victims.”

The new regulations, called Fraternity Operating Agreement (FOA), were introduced by the Inter-Fraternity Council, Inter-Sorority Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council at UVA, and the Multicultural Greek council. The proposed regulations include requirements to serve beer in unopened cans, only serve wine upon request and visibly at the bar by a sober brother, pre-mixed drinks are prohibited, register fraternity functions with the Inter Fraternity Council by 11:59 p.m. on the Tuesday before an event and have a minimum of three “sober and lucid” brothers on hand wearing a designated identifier at each point of alcohol distribution and another at the stairs leading to residential rooms for all official chapter gatherings.

UVA changed their policies following a November Rolling Stone article on campus sexual assault.

http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/01/16/two-fraternities-refuse-to-comply-with-uvas-new-anti-sexual-assault-regulations/

[shenmue]

1. The rules seem pretty reasonable

So they won't have an opportunity to put a roofie in a woman's drink.

Why would they object to that?

[niyad]

2. pretty much tells you everything you need to know about them, doesn't it?

[Exultant Democracy]

3. The two frats already had strickter codes in place. They were protesting the witch hunt

since this was all in response to some seriously fucked up false accusation of a gang rape that never happened.

More rules and safety around youth drinking is a good thing. However symbolically standing up to a witch hunt when you already have more comprehensive rules in place is also a good thing to do.

[niyad]

4. would be happy to see their "stricter" rules, etc. please note that their grievance seems to

be that the university is interfering with their governance. nothing in the article indicates that they have stricter guidelines in place (and how that would interfere with their self-governance is not clear). "witch hunt"?? really?? nice dismissal of the problem of sexual assault and the refusal of college administrations to deal with it.

[Exultant Democracy]

5. "the statement added. Kappa Alpha Order's own risk management policies are as strict or more strict"

http://abcnews.go.com/US/uva-fraternities-refuse-sign-rules-governing-greek-system/story?id=28222443

Also important to note that they were all suspended as part of the witch hunt due to the false accusations. Do you think they should have all been suspended because of one clearly emotionally disturbed liar?

More from their statement
"The University violated the previous FOA as well as student individual and organizational rights. The system-wide suspension, which was initiated for reasons that were found to be untrue, unfairly punished all members of fraternities and sororities," the two fraternities said Tuesday in identical statements, referring to the suspension implemented after a now-discredited Rolling Stone article reported a horrific gang rape at a fraternity house.

"It was maintained and used as leverage to require the changes to the FOA. Because we do not accept the validity of a suspension imposed in contravention of the existing FOA, university policy, Virginia law and the constitutional rights of our members, we are not compelled to sign a revised FOA to continue operations on campus," the statement added.

Kappa Alpha Order's own risk management policies "are as strict or more strict that this new FOA," the fraternity said, also raising concerns that the new policy "may create new liability for individual members of our organizations that is more properly a duty to be borne by the university itself." ---

You need to stop blaming the victims of the rolling stone scandal for not wanting to bend over and take it.

[niyad]

6. if their policies are stricter, they should have no problem with the less-strict guidelines. and do

please, spare me the agonies of the greeks and others at the colleges and universities. their hands are not clean, period. or have you paid no attention to the endless, ongoing problem of sexual assaults on college campuses, with the administrations doing virtually nothing? so, no, I have ZERO sympathy for the greeks, the footballers, and all the others who have been getting away with rape and assault forever, it seems.

[Exultant Democracy]

7. You have no problem with them being punished for the rolling stone article?

You think witch hunts are the right way to make policy?

There are go ways to make changes and terrible ways to make changes and this is terrible. They should have found a way not to include this rule change in the punishment they started with the false story

[niyad]

8. personally, I have been in favour of abolishing the greeks since I was in college, in part

for the reasons mentioned here. their hands are not, and have not, been clean.

[Exultant Democracy]

9. Ah the broad brush, very insightful rhetorical tool.

So basically since these are people you have already decided shouldn't have a place, even the flimsy excuse of a false accusation is justification for collective punishment in you opinion.

This says a lot more about you then it does anything about the Greek systems.

[niyad]

10. amazingly, it doesn't bother me in the least. let me know when any of these organizations actually

steps up and disciplines its members, or actually defends women who have been their victims.

[Exultant Democracy]

11. Discipline their members for false accusations of gang rape? They shoudn't that's the point.

The police and the justice system should handle all crimes. In this case it is the woman who made the false accusation that should be disciplined for her actions not the victims who were persecuted and suspended.

[niyad]

12. the police and the justice system do such a wonderful job of dealing with rape, don't they?

[Exultant Democracy]

13. The number of rapes and sexually assults has been plumiting for 25 years even as reporting goes up

so someone must be doing something right.

[LisaL]

14. And the solution should be punishing falsely accused for something they did not do?