Fraternal Values

IOWA CITY, Iowa - University of Iowa senior “Rachel” could not believe the horror in her sister, “Claire’s,” voice when she received a heartbreaking phone call this past October.

“Rachel” could barely understand Claire through the tears on the other line. She could pick out “fraternity boys” and “party” and “didn’t drink that much.”

Claire, a freshman at a large southern university, called to say, “Three guys took advantage of me when I was drunk and I don’t remember a thing.”

Claire, whose name along with her sister’s has been changed, thought everything seemed normal after waking up fully clothed after a night of light drinking with a boy she had recently met and a few of his friends. It was only a week later that she saw the picture of her unconscious body being assaulted by two men.

The three members of the same “top tier” fraternity are currently under investigation for the repeated offense of drugging girls, taking turns raping them, and posting photos of the lewd acts on their fraternity’s social media.

“There were students at the university who knew the guys would do this on a weekly basis,” Rachel explained. “The guys that do this are proud of it.”

Unfortunately, Rachel was not the only one receiving a disturbing call of this kind from a member of sorority life.

Recent headlines warn of the dangers lurking in the Greek communities on college campuses across America. Among them: Allegations of a gang rape of a freshman girl at the University of Virginia. Members of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale University were recorded chanting, “No means yes; yes means anal!” through the women’s dormitories on campus. In addition, the Phi Kappa Tau chapter at Georgia Institute of Technology has been suspended after a member sent a chapter-wide email entitled, “Luring your Rapebait.”

With these incidents occurring more and more frequently, combined with decades of research on fraternity culture, it is no wonder that many universities are beginning to consider putting a halt to fraternity life on campuses all over the country. Schools including Johns Hopkins University and Emory University have already banned all social activities for Greek organizations.

Educational psychologist, John Foubert has spent years researching sexual assaults on college campuses. His findings have shown that fraternity men are three times as likely to commit sexual assault compared to non-members. Foubert defined sexual assault as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.”

Foubert based his research on earlier findings published by Scot Boeringer in 1998 which stated that fraternity men “are more likely to believe that women enjoy being physically roughed up... pretend not to want sex but want to be forced into sex, that men should be controllers of relationships... and that women secretly desire to be raped.”

In addition, a 2005 study entitled “Fraternity Membership, the Display of Degrading Sexual Images of Women, and Rape Myth Acceptance” found that “fraternity membership is positively associated with sexual aggression and hyper-masculinity.” The author continues to explain that both traits are considered precursors for sexual assault against women.

Sociologist Chadwick Menning’s study comparing fraternity parties versus non-fraternity parties showed that a heightened risk for sexual assaults is present at Greek parties. The study concluded the risk is due to the fact that, “...excessive alcohol consumption and misogyny are deeply ingrained in the cultures of many fraternities.”

The issue for the Greek community is that these characteristics are present at most fraternity parties at college campuses.

Meagan Schorr, a women’s activist and the Violence Prevention Programs Coordinator with the Women’s Resource Center, places blame on our society’s perspective of sexual assault. “When we’re coupling fraternity members’ hyper-masculinity with parties, rape culture, and all these other factors, I think this has a huge impact on the occurrence of sexual assaults,” she said.

“We see parties that are sexually explicit and violent towards women,” Schorr continued to explain. “Specific to UI, I haven’t seen as many of the things you see in national headlines, but I’m not under the impression that that doesn’t occur here.”

The Vice President for Student Life at the University of Iowa Tom Rocklin agreed that fraternity culture most likely has an effect on sexual assaults on campus. “When you have a bunch of men together, they don’t have the best decision making,” he stated.

While the research findings appear to place a very large red flag on members of fraternities and the culture of their environments, there are many individuals that are eager to defend the 189-year-old institution against such defacing allegations.

Leslie Schacht, Coordinator for Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Iowa, stated, “I’m a strong believer that when the fraternity experience is done right, it can be the most incredible student leadership experience that a young man can have while at college.”

She continued to list a variety of positive outcomes of fraternity membership including conflict resolution, etiquette, professional preparation, confidence, and really being able to get to know yourself as a man.

In strict contrast to Schacht’s beliefs, Time Magazine recently published an article, “The Problem with Frats.” The article reads, “Rules of frat life: Never let your drink out of your sight. Don’t go upstairs – where the bedrooms were housed – without a girlfriend who could check on you later.”

Hope Walgamuth, chapter president of Delta Gamma and a senior at Iowa, found these “rules” to be a joke. “I actually feel safer attending fraternity parties,” she stated. “I know that those men are held to a higher standard than the rest of the men on campus.” Walgamuth feels that her opinion is in the majority with sorority members at Iowa as a result of their positive experiences at fraternity parties.

The standard holds that fraternity men receive better grades, put in more volunteer hours each year, and have more leadership experience than non-members. It is unexpected that sexual assaults occur at all in a community that lives by such elevated values. However, studies have shown that victims of campus sexual assaults know the perpetrator 80% of the time,

There is likely no better advocate for fraternity life than fraternity members themselves. “Richard,” whose name has been changed, is a University of Iowa senior and a three-year member of a fraternity on campus who has been disgusted by the recent news stories about his fellow fraternity men.

“You can’t base the actions of a few on many,” he said. “It’s really the environment, not the people.”

Richard explained that as a fraternity member there are more opportunities to talk to girls, alcohol is consistently available, and your confidence is at an all time high. While these factors might create an environment that is conducive to the occurrence of sexual assault, he stated, “Normal people don’t do that.”

“Edward,” a fraternity member from a different chapter on campus, whose name has also been changed, explained that his and Richard’s view on the subject reflects the voice of all fraternity men that he knows.

“If I saw something inappropriate happening at a party, I would get my brothers together to stop it and be the first person to call the police,” Edward stated. “I would expect any other fraternity member to do the same.”

Although many experts like to place the blame for sexual assaults on the Greek community, members of fraternities and sororities at Iowa receive the most training to prevent these occurrences. Mandatory bystander intervention training was implemented in spring of 2014 for all chapters on campus.

Meagan Schorr explained that Iowa’s Greek community plays a remarkable role in prevention. “I’ve worked with organizations that have been very active in taking a stand against sexual assault,” she said. Schorr reported that she has received a lot of support from fraternity members on different aspects of prevention including Take Back the Night, an annual campus event aimed at ending sexual violence.

Fraternity chapters are not only assisting in prevention on a campus level, but nationally. Eight national fraternities, seven of which will have a chapter at Iowa by 2016, have joined forces with the Fraternity Health and Safety Initiative, which began in 2013.

The program focuses on fighting social issues on college campuses including “sexual misconduct, assault, and relationship violence prevention from a values based perspective.” The FHSI members hope to impact the culture of fraternities quickly by reaching 75,000 collegiate members on 550 college campuses.

However, Schacht stated that even with outstanding prevention programs in place, sexual assault is still an ongoing issue that the community is struggling to overcome. “What’s so troubling is that we do these types of programs and sexual assaults continue to occur within the community,” Schacht said.

According to Iowa City’s crime records, three sexual assaults were reported to occur in fraternity structures in the last academic year. This semester alone, there were two reports of sexual assaults and two reports of “suspicious activity” that had taken place in a fraternity house.

University of Iowa’s Annual Security Report attested that the majority of sexual assaults on campus do not occur in off campus fraternity houses, but on campus, mostly in residence halls. Ten sexual assaults were reported to occur on campus in 2013, while 15 occurred on campus in 2012.

Along with Iowa’s reports, Schorr supported that the occurrence of sexual assaults cannot be pinned directly on the Greek Community. “We know from statistics that we have perpetrators in fraternity and sorority life, just like we have perpetrators in athletics, in band and choir, and in the residence halls,” she said. “This is an issue with any organization on campus.”

Similarly, Monique DiCarlo who worked as the director of the Women’s Center on campus before becoming Iowa’s Sexual Misconduct Response Coordinator explained that the issue is not a direct result of fraternity membership.

“When you have a closed organization, regardless of what the group is – athletic teams or a faith-based group – what puts you at a higher risk for perpetrating misconduct is what the values and norms are of that group of peers,” she stated. DiCarlo continued to describe how peers’ values, beliefs, and behaviors can influence actions of an individual.

Fraternities hold their values closer than most student organizations, which typically include honor, rectitude, friendship, justice, brotherhood, and integrity. Schacht believes that there is still potential in these young men on campus stating, “You would hope that when fraternities are doing the right thing, which is living by their values and principles, fraternity houses would be the safest place for anyone to be on campus.”

When asked if her perception of fraternity life has been altered after her sister’s assault, Rachel replied, “Every chapter at every school is different. What happened to my sister made me realize that this isn’t an issue of fraternities, but an issue with our culture.”

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