Free Republic

More than two months after George Floyd's death sparked nationwide protests, unexpected consequences have arisen at some leading universities: Students are leaving their fraternities and sororities over what they perceive as a lack of sensitivity on issues of race, sexism, classism, homophobia and other issues of discrimination or inequality.

The parents of a Cornell freshman who was found dead at the bottom of a gorge after a hazing prank are suing the college and the fraternity he was joining the night he died. Antonio Tsialas died in October last year after a night of brutal drinking and hazing with Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in Ithaca, New York, at a 'Christmas in October' party. His body was found in a gorge and he had high levels of alcohol in his system but his family's attorney says his cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma to the body. They...

Five months after the death of a student in an alleged hazing incident led to the expulsion of one of its fraternities, Ohio University has suspended all 15 of its Interfraternity Council (IFC) fraternity chapters amid new reports of hazing. Ohio University Senior Associate Vice President and Dean of Students Jenny Halls-Jones made the announcement in a two-page letter sent to all IFC presidents Thursday. "Last Spring, Sigma Pi was expelled from our community as a result of hazing. Earlier this week, we received allegations that two IFC chapters were hazing new members and those chapters were placed on a...

Fraternities and sororities will no longer be allowed at Swarthmore College following outrage over years-old documents allegedly written by one fraternity there that contains derogatory comments about women and the LGBTQ community and jokes about sexual assault. School President Valerie Smith made the announcement Friday in a letter posted on the college's website. Smith says the school's lone sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, can continue with its current members through the spring 2022 semester but can't recruit or initiate new members. Swarthmore's decision comes about a week after the only two fraternities at the private liberal arts college in suburban Philadelphia...

Wars are rarely kind to the wide-ranging pursuit of the truth. The same goes for culture wars, including the war over fraternities. Harvard University’s recent decision to penalize students who join “final clubs” and other single-sex social organizations is one front in that war. In sober moments, opponents of all-male social organizations concede that they have “positive qualities.” But they demonize them anyway: “the influence of these organizations on campus life and in shaping mindsets,” says one Harvard committee, “is impossible to escape.” No time for nuance when one seeks to break and control the violence of frat boys. Similarly,...

A professor at Occidental College who is well-known for calling for the “abolition” of college fraternities recently noted that “black fraternities” should be an exception. Lisa Wade, a sociology professor at Occidental College, argued in May that fraternities should be abolished because they “hoard power” for “wealthy white men,” and because of the dangerous party culture they promote.

Florida State University has indefinitely suspended all Greek activities on campus following the death of a fraternity pledge. FSU President John Thrasher announced the suspension on Monday, according to the university’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. “For this suspension to end, there will need to be a new normal for Greek Life at the university,” he said. “There must be a new culture, and our students must be full participants in creating it.”

<p>At about 3 p.m. on Friday, February 3, Tim Piazza, a sophomore at Penn State University, arrived at Hershey Medical Center by helicopter. Eighteen hours earlier, he had been in the kind of raging good health that only teenagers enjoy. He was a handsome, redheaded kid with a shy smile, a hometown girlfriend, and a family who loved him very much. Now he had a lacerated spleen, an abdomen full of blood, and multiple traumatic brain injuries. He had fallen down a flight of stairs during a hazing event at his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, but the members had waited nearly 12 hours before calling 911, relenting only when their pledge “looked fucking dead.” Tim underwent surgery shortly after arriving at Hershey, but it was too late. He died early the next morning.</p>

The faculty committee’s recommendation is right on final clubs, but reservations about the process and implementation need to be kept in mindThis past July, a faculty committee released a preliminary report recommending that the College ban students from joining all fraternities, sororities, and similar exclusionary social organizations. The policy would extend to co-ed organizations, and it would replace the existing penalties on members of unrecognized single-gender social organizations. We support this recommendation, and we urge University President Drew G. Faust to do so as well. It importantly expands the discourse beyond issues of gender inequality and sexual assault to the...

A Yale student group has waged a war on the university fraternities and will use Title IX to force them into admitting women—while letting female-only sororities off the hook. Engender, a group led by students of Yale, claims it will lobby the university—citing Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on gender, and internal Yale policies against discrimination—to issue sanctions against male-only fraternities. Will McGrew, a co-director of the organization, told Yale News that it’s a “logical next step” to approach the Yale administration “because all of these organizations fall under the purview of Yale legally, either because they are registered...

Photo and video evidence allegedly depicting rituals of the Fall 2014 and Fall 2015 pledge processes for the Sigma Pi fraternity at Hofstra University show pledging members were made to chug milk and vomit on one another, stay locked in a small cage and kneel blindfolded while their bodies were covered in hot sauce, among other hazing rituals performed at an off-campus residence.

A fraternity at the University of Indiana has been suspended after video surfaced of what is purported to be a member being forced to perform oral sex on a woman as fellow members goad him on. The apparent 'sexual hazing' was of an Alpha Tau Omega pledge. Graphic video of the incident was posted to Reddit on Wednesday. Administrators at the school reacted swiftly, tweeting Wednesday:

Dartmouth College has rejected an appeal by a fraternity accused of branding new members, ending efforts by the Greek organization that partly inspired the 1976 movie 'Animal House' to remain recognized on campus. Alpha Delta appealed last month after a campus judiciary committee at the Ivy League school withdrew the fraternity's recognition as a student organization. That appeal has been denied and the decision to withdraw recognition stands, according to a statement the college provided to The Associated Press on Friday.

The University of Oklahoma is immediately severing "all ties and affiliations" between the school and its local Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, the university president said today ...

A sorority at the beleaguered University of Oklahoma has come under fire over its involvement in the racist chant by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity over the weekend. The Delta Delta Deltas have been identified as the sorority members on a chartered bus when frat brothers started singing 'there will never be a n**** in SAE.' At least one female student can be seen in the video. She appears to raise her cell phone to record the incident. Her date, however, can be seen clapping to the song. It is also believed that female voices can be heard cheering on...

Campus housing specifically for 15 alternative sexualities, including sadomasochists, is acceptable, but fraternities that just allow men are not, at Wesleyan University. Wesleyan University housing has an option for students who want to live with others identifying with one of 15 categories — LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM. The university's inclusiveness excludes, however, male-only fraternities. Delta Kappa Epsilon sued Wesleyan University after the liberal arts college ordered all of its fraternities to admit women, charging sexual discrimination and false and deceptive practices. Wesleyan, a Connecticut college, was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named after 18th century evangelical theologian John Wesley, but is...

Sorority sisters at the University of Virginia were ordered by their national chapters to avoid fraternity events this weekend — a mandate that many of the women said was irrational, sexist and contrary to the school’s culture. It’s not about one night of parties, several students said, but about their ability to make their own choices. And they’re not taking that lightly. The rule came after a traumatic fall semester in Charlottesville, including the violent death of a student and now-discredited allegations of a gang rape at a U-Va. fraternity. Both forced a thorough examination of campus safety, drinking culture...

Think about it. The left is constantly trying to portray college fraternities as being chock full of white guys who use their "privilege" to demean women to the extent of mass raping them. So how many such cases of college frat gang rape have been found? Try ZERO. The left had high hopes with the Rolling Stoned UVA frat alleged rape case but that fairy tale has fallen apart. If there were instances of rapes at college frat parties wouldn't they have already been discovered and PROVEN? Therefore I have to conclude that the safest place for women on campuses...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The University of Virginia refused to reinstate Greek activities that were suspended after a Rolling Stone article alleged a woman was gang raped at a fraternity house, despite the magazine acknowledging mistakes in its reporting, but officials said Monday that the story and debate has led it to create a group to explore its policies and campus culture. Last month's article and revelations late last week about Rolling Stone missteps that casted doubt on the story prompted an "intense, ongoing period of introspection," the university said in a news release. It led to the creation of...

...The article alleges a truly horrifying gang rape at a UVA fraternity, and it has understandably shocked the campus and everyone who’s read it. The consequences have been pretty much instantaneous: The fraternity involved has voluntarily suspended its operations (without admitting that the incident happened); UVA’s president is promising an investigation and has since suspended all fraternity charters on campus; the alumni are in an uproar; the governor of Virginia has spoken out; students, particularly female students, are furious, and the concept of “rape culture” is further established. Federal intervention is sure to follow. The only thing is…I’m not sure...