![]() Students say the unraveling of Rolling Stone’s story has helped redeem the fraternity’s reputation on campus. “If Rolling Stone wants to play a real role in addressing this problem, it’s time to get serious.” Four days of protests eventually prompted Swarthmore College President Valerie Smith to suspend fraternity activities pending the outcome of an external investigation.įollowing the fraternities' announcements on Tuesday, Smith issued a statement saying, "We respect these students' decision to take this action, and we appreciate their strong condemnation of behavior described in the 2013-16 materials that have recently come to light.“Clearly our fraternity and its members have been defamed, but more importantly we fear this entire episode may prompt some victims to remain in the shadows, fearful to confront their attackers,” Scipione said. We weren't given any real details as what occurred after he found her."Īfter reading through the documents, Haddad, who lives in the same hall as many fraternity members, said, "It's clear they haven't changed."įrustration with the school's perceived inaction grew at the small liberal arts college after the documents were posted, and demonstrators began gathering in and around Phi Psi's building on Saturday. "On Saturday he decided to take one of these strolls and came across a chick passed out faced first in front of trotter. The writer then urged the group to create a sex trafficking ring, adding, "God that would be hot."Īnother entry relays an anecdote about a Phi Psi member who took a walk around campus one night. We just took a nice sloppy poop on that referendum and we control the social scene." In one entry from 2013, written shortly after a referendum to close the fraternities failed, said: "Like is there a hotter organization on campus right now than the Phi brotherhood?. Demonstrators had been protesting after the publication of fraternity documents containing sexist, racist and homophobic comments. Swarthmore College students hung banners near the Phi Psi fraternity house during a sit-in on Monday. Haddad is one of several student activists who organized the sit-in on the lawn and inside the stone house in the middle of campus that serves as Phi Psi's headquarters and is where dozens of students have said they experienced some type of unwanted touching, groping or sexual assault. People were screaming and singing and laughing," Amal Haddad, a freshman and a member of a group called Organizing for Survivors, told NPR. The reaction on campus was one of jubilation. The Tumblr page contained anonymous accounts of sexual assault, including some that allegedly occurred in what some students refer to as the "rape attic," a second-story bedroom in one of the fraternity houses.ĭemonstrators called on the universities to rescind the fraternities' leases and turn the buildings over to groups that were disparaged by the fraternities. "We hope that our former house will provide a space that is inclusive, safe, and promotes healing," the statement said.Īs WHYY reporter Laura Benshoff wrote, pressure on university officials to terminate the two fraternity house leases began as early as April 3, when students created a social media page called " Why Swarthmore's Fraternities Must Go." (In most instances, the papers report, the women have their backs to the camera.) One entry refers to an alleged "rape tunnel" and a "rape attic" in one of the fraternity headquarters.Ĭurrent members of both fraternities have noted that the actions described in the stories predate their association with the groups. The trove of files included minutes, detailing graphic sexual encounters with female students, lists of fraternity hazing challenges, and intimate videos and photographs of women that appear to have been taken without their consent. The controversy began last month, after campus publications Voices and The Phoenix released anonymously leaked internal documents from Phi Psi, dating from 2010 to 2016. The decisions to dissolve Phi Psi and Delta Upsilon were announced on Facebook on Tuesday night, after what both said were weeks of deliberation. The only two fraternities at Swarthmore College have unanimously agreed to disband and give up their houses, ending a four-day sit-in and weeks of protest by outraged students after the publication of documents chronicling years of misogynist, racist and homophobic remarks, as well as jokes alluding to sexual assault by members. Delta Upsilon, the only other fraternity on campus, made a similar decision about an hour later. Swarthmore College students held a four-day sit-in at the Phi Psi fraternity house that ended Tuesday night after the organization said it had voted to disband. ![]()
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