USU fraternities join national #MyFraternity sexual assault awareness campaign

Fraternities across the U.S. are campaigning to show support for sexual assault survivors and Utah State University fraternities are beginning to join the movement.

At the beginning of October, Delta Sigma Phi and Pi Kappa Alpha hung banners outside its chapter houses as part of a larger campaign to promote consent. Delta Sigma Phi’s banner states “Their dress does not equal yes,” while Pi Kappa Alpha’s banner reads, “’No’ does not mean ‘convince me.’ #standwithsurvivors.”

Josh Johnson, the diversity vice president in USU’s Student Association, states that these banners are only the beginning of a campus-wide campaign he hopes all the fraternities at USU will contribute to.

“It all started out when I saw a tweet from Ohio University, where their fraternities had started to hang banners on their houses saying stuff like ‘consent is bae’ or ‘we stand with survivors,’ just these really empowering messages,” Johnson said. “I posted about it and tagged a bunch of Greek organizations saying if this is something we’re interested in doing, please like this and we can get the ball rolling and prove to the administration that there’s interest and then start this.”

Only three of the fraternities currently have chapter houses, but Johnson wants to find ways other chapters can participate and contribute. He suggested putting up yard signs and banners with messages supporting sexual assault survivors.

“We want to try and fight the stigma that surrounds FSL while telling everyone on campus that we’re here for you,” Johnson said. “We also want to create a sort of upstander training that we’re hoping can go live on the MyUSU page, where people can go to get information on SAAVI and being an upstander.”

This organized effort is still in the planning stages and coordinating between the eight fraternities proves to be a challenge. Currently, Sigma Chi is the only house without a banner on their house.

Josh Witzel, the vice president of Sigma Chi’s USU chapter, said that this is due to the members’ busy schedules, not necessarily indifference.

“We’ve talked about getting it done but we’ve just been busy the last couple weeks,” Witzel said. “We have our initiation week coming up next week. I think we are going to join in on it, I just can’t really give a timeline of when it’s going to happen.”

Sigma Chi’s chapter was recently tied to a sexual assault case in which one of its former members, Jason Relopez, was sentenced to a year in prison for attempted rape and forcible sexual abuse. Utah State University and the chapter denied allegations that they failed to act on previous sexual assaults but this summer the university settled a $250,000 lawsuit paid to Relopez’s victim.

Witzel declined to comment on the case.

“Every fraternity should take a stand against sexual assault,” Witzel said. “I feel like Greek life gets kind of a bad rep and I can see some of the reasons why but we do a lot of great stuff as well. We donate more money to philanthropy than any other chapter at USU, and we are very concerned about the issue of sexual assault because we want anybody that comes to our house to feel comfortable. Believing survivors is something that’s really important to me.”

Pi Kappa Alpha was involved in a fairly similar situation a few years ago when former president Ryan Wray assaulted multiple women at the chapter house when he was assigned to monitor the party and keep intoxicated people safe.

Hayden Vossler, the external vice president of Pi Kappa Alpha, believes the fraternity is taking steps to rebuild its chapter with men that will uphold its values, which are “to set the standard of integrity, intellect, and achievement for our members, host institutions, and the communities in which we live.”

“It’s unfortunate that there’s still a negative reputation surrounding our chapter, but that is something that’s kind of stuck,” Vossler said. “After that happened, the national organization came and took out half our chapter. Anyone who didn’t represent us in the slightest bit was taken out of the chapter and so we’ve rebuilt and I feel that we are changing our reputation on campus.”

For the campaign, Pi Kappa Alpha also coordinated with Alpha Chi Omega to help with its philanthropy week, which is focused on raising money and awareness for domestic violence prevention. Vossler said the chapter also coordinates with SAAVI to hold training in chapter on healthy masculinity, consent and being an “upstander.”

“This isn’t just about our image,” Vossler said. “We want to help support people that have been through violence. We want people to know that we’re here for them.”

Paige Eidenschink, the Fraternity and Sorority Life Coordinator, started in the new position six weeks ago. The position was created this year partly in response to sexual assault issues and the desire to restructure FSL.

“With my new position, I really hope to bring in outside speakers and develop different leadership opportunities,” Eidenschink said. “I think there’s a lot of really great things to come.”

Johnson said he hopes the #MyFraternity campaign at USU will be in full swing in the next couple of weeks.

naomiyokoward@aggiemail.usu.edu

@naomiyokoward