Although I am a proud Texan and a current junior in college, the 2016-2017 academic year was actually my first at Texas Tech University. The past two years, I heralded from Tufts University, a small, liberal arts college just six miles north of Boston, Massachusetts. At Tufts, I was a member of the Zeta Theta chapter of Alpha Phi, one of 26 sororities represented by the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) and one of four national sororities on Tufts’ campus (in addition to eight nationally recognized fraternities, including three which have disaffiliated from their national organizations).

Despite my subpar experience as a Jumbo, I continue to hold both the university and local community very near and dear to my heart. When the Tufts Observer published “Abolish Fraternities,” an opinion piece written by Ben Kesslen, a fellow member of Tufts’ Class of 2014, my heart broke for the school’s remarkably progressive Greek community.

Kesslen’s article offered an account of his regrettable experience pledging a fraternity at Tufts, which occurred in the spring of 2015 when he was a freshman. He pledged what he had gathered was a “good” fraternity, “one with nice guys and low-key parties.” [Note: the chapter’s parties were low-key because it had been suspended up until the semester in which he rushed]. Kesslen’s first night of pledging, he was blindfolded, ushered into the basement of an off-campus house, given a shot of Fireball, and welcoming into the fraternity. He writes, “That night was supposed to be a ‘fun night’; it wasn’t when the ‘real pledging’ began.” Kesslen was expected to serve brothers, or active members, beer and get to know their names. He was then forced to watch as two women – neither of whom, he emphasizes, were Tufts students – entered the basement, undressed, and proceeded to engage in sexual activity. Personally, I think it is important to note that this sex act was consensual and previously planned; this does not excuse the coercion Kesslen alleges facing from actives and fraternity alumni, but dismisses any possible claims of sexual assault. [He also writes that the actives and alumni had gathered to watch this “tradition,” but this also took place before the fraternity disaffiliated from its national organization in pursuit of a more inclusive environment]. Kesslen then had to watch as the fraternity’s young biddies performed oral sex on the women, who were challenged to see who could bring one of the women to orgasm first. When the events concluded, Kesslen and his fellow pledges were escorted into an upstairs room, in which the actives seated their inferiors in a circle and directed them to memorize everyone’s names and allergies. They were not allowed to leave the room until the task had been completed. The actives brought a garbage can into the room and told the pledges that, if any of them needed to pee or puke, he was to do so in the garbage can, which the actives instructed the pledges to name. The biddies named it “Mia Khalifa,” a porn star; “…these boys named a bucket of urine and puke after a woman.” Kesslen promptly dropped the fraternity the following morning and was warned not to tell anyone of what he had witnessed the previous night. He writes, “I didn’t tell anyone, because within just 12 hours of being inside, I had already internalized the mentality they were trying to create… Within 12 hours, I was already silenced – my values and morals and beliefs already placed behind the fear I held for these boys.”

Following his account, Kesslen proceeded to give an extensive rationale for why Greek life should be dissolved on collegiate campuses. He writes:

"It took me a while to realize that, even though I thought normal meant good and right, it actually means violent, and oppressive, and queer-phobic, and there shouldn’t be anything normal about being fed shots or forced to do homoerotic and homophobic tasks or made to eat other pledges’ vomit. There should be nothing normal about sexual assault.

…Thus, I have come to the conclusion that fraternities must be abolished. That I will not and cannot stand to have this culture pervade my campus, a culture that propagates violence, that enforces rape culture, that administers binaried ideas of gender, that tokenizes and fetishizes queerness, simultaneously using it as a way to seem progressive and as a tool of hazing.

…Tufts should abolish fraternities and invest in true community building, communities not founded in violence, but rather in love and shared values."

He offers a handful of accounts of people oppressed by sexually provoked situations amongst fraternities at Tufts campuses (and refuses to leave the houses anonymous, which I choose to do): a woman sexually assaulted at one formal, a trans- person called a faggot by another house, people who weren’t blonde turned away from one fraternity’s party, and “someone whose rapist was protected by [redacted] for over a year, until it was discovered that he had over five pending assault cases against him.” For the record, the perpetrator in the latter case was actually turned into authorities by his fraternity.

I feel that, having attended both an exceptionally liberal private university and a larger state school out in west Texas, I can claim to have seen both sides of the spectrum of Greek life. Despite having never had a negative experience with any member of or at an event hosted by a fraternity at Texas Tech, I can still substantiate the widely-held belief that Greek life at Tufts is arguably one of the most progressive, atypical Greek communities in the United States. I have seen, firsthand, a multitude of actions – both proactively and retrospectively – taken by Tufts fraternities to preserve environments that are neither disenfranchising nor unsafe. So, to read Kesslen’s scathing editorial was almost a slap in the face.

It is impossible to mount an argument that Greek life should be preserved on college campuses without first accounting the actions taken by fraternities (and, even a sorority) at Tufts to establish more inclusive precedents.

In 1974, Tufts’ chapter of Alpha Tau Omega (ATO), an American social fraternity first founded in 1865, effectively disaffiliated from its national organization in an attempt to become coed. The fraternity (“forority”) is now known as ATO of Massachusetts.

In January, 2015, Tufts’ chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), an international Jewish fraternity since 1913, announced its disaffiliation. Nina Goldman, a writer for the Tufts Daily, wrote in “Alpha Epsilon Pi Disaffiliates From National Organization,” quoted a statement sent to the publication by then-AEPi’s brothers claiming the severing of ties was due to a “difference of opinion.” Members of the fraternity, who first charted in Medford in 1940, voted unanimously to disaffiliate. In “Former AEPi Brothers Adjust to New Status As Local Fraternity Pi Delta,” Marianna Athanassiou recognized the letter’s statement of a commitment to diversity. The letter read, “We strongly believe in diversity of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, background, and beliefs.” Athanassiou quoted Pi Delta (which AEPi renamed itself upon its disaffiliation) member and then-sophomore, Noah Schifrin, “By disaffiliating, the fraternity has been able to create a more inclusive and diverse environment.” Then-President Adam Kochman said that, without a set quota for each pledge class offered bids by the fraternity during formal recruitment, Pi Delta could focus on bidding as many or as few people as deemed necessary in order to demonstrate its inclusivity. Furthermore, the new fraternity sought to embody this value by providing more financial aid for membership fees.

In November, 2015, Tufts’ chapter of Sigma Phi Epilson, a fraternity dating back to 1901, was supported by a 95% vote in disaffiliating from nations. Reena Karasin explains in “Tufts’ Sigma Phi Epsilon Chapter Disaffiliates From National Organization,” writing, “[Then-brother Ben] Kaplan explained that the decision to disaffiliate grew out of divergent values acknowledged by both the chapter and the organization.” Shawn Patterson, then-President, explained in an email, “Tufts is a unique, progressive community and needs a unique, progressive approach to Greek life, which is perhaps why we have seen two disaffiliations in one year [AEPi and SigEp].” The fraternity’s transition into Pi Rho Omega following controversial demonstrations of racism by SigEp chapters from across the country the previous year, including the UCLA chapter’s “Kanye Western”-themed party (which hosted costumes embodying racial stereotypes, including an attendee in blackface) and the Ole Miss chapter suspended in 2014 for hanging both a noose and Georgia flag on a statue portraying the institution’s first African-American student.

Most recently, the Delta chapter of NPC sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi, considered disaffiliation from nationals. Julia Doyle, another writer for the Tufts Observer, reported on the situation in “Defining Sisterhood.” Harper Hopkins, a transgender woman, was extended a bid to the sorority during fall open bidding (a more casual process than the highly contentious formal recruitment in the spring semester). Long story short, nationals encouraged the chapter to deny Hopkins’ a did so as not to risk the organization losing its Title IX status as a single-sex organization. Doyle writes, “AOII headquarters’ failure to support Delta’s decision and affirm a transgender woman’s right to rush a sorority exacerbated dormant tensions between the local chapter and the international organization.” Despite the fact that nationals ultimately relented and allowed the chapter to extend Hopkins a bid, 40 women (of the chapter’s 80 women roster) opted to self-suspend following a meeting in which nationals declared an ultimatum, which headquarters denies. It is worth noting that although NPC governs 26 nationally recognized sororities, only three (Delta Gamma, Sigma Sigma Sigma, and Kappa Kappa Gamma) publically welcome transgender members.

A number of Tufts students, both members of the Greek community on campus and GDIs (non-Greeks, for lack of better words), have reacted publically to Kesslen’s write up. Carly Olson, the editor-in-chief of the Tufts Observer and a senior sister in Alpha, wrote on Facebook, “I’m trying to see how, even though I can benefit from a community of which I enjoy being a part, the root of the institution itself were not designed to benefit me…” Olson continues, “To me, this isn’t about individual Greek organizations [which members of the named houses and the fraternity which Kesslen dropped have understood to be the intention]. This is about the system in which they inherently exist…” She specifies, “It’s a system built on secrecy, tradition, and exclusivity – things not necessarily damaging in isolation, but can become toxic together.”

Despite the painful accuracy of the prevalence of exclusivity and sexual misdemeanors amongst fraternities nationwide, I applaud Olson for substantiating the point that the entirety of Greek life should not be punished for the wrongdoings of specific individuals acting upon norms ingrained in our society by generations long past. In an interview I conducted with a brother of a Tufts fraternity not indicted by Kesslen, the member (who has requested to maintain his anonymity), complains, “I’m… furious that [Kesslen] paints with so broad a brush, in the process damning so many people, whom I know and love, who are actively and proactively combatting everything against which he rails from WITHIN the Greek system.”

Such is my frustration with his editorial. While I commend Kesslen for exemplifying the bravery speaking out about such a traumatizing experience necessitates, especially when the Greek community can threaten retaliation (not necessarily on Tufts’ campus, but on campuses where Greek life dominates), I do not agree with his solution to abolish fraternities altogether. Societal perceptions of manhood which fraternities reinforce are not fraternal creations, but social constructs perpetuated by generations of Americans before us. Likewise, the hurtful attitudes and instances of which fraternities are frequently accused are not specific to Greek life.

Rape culture is rampant amongst Greek life, sports teams, and so many other extracurricular organizations and social groups. I shall by listing popular instances nationwide that have been manipulated to criminalize Greek life in its entirety (I am not excusing any of these behaviors), listed by Jessica Valenti in “Frat Brothers Rape 300% More. One in 5 Women Is Sexually Assaulted On Campus. Should We Ban Frats?”

2010: fraternity brothers at Yale University marched through campus chanting, “No means yes, yes means anal.” This mantra effectively disregarded the importance of consent and respect. In 2014, Phi Delta Theta at Texas Tech University was removed from campus for displaying a banner with this chant.

2013: an email distributed to Pi Kappa Tau’s chapter at Georgia Tech University by a fraternity brother in leadership was labeled “Luring Your Rapebait.” Stacey Dougan elaborated upon the event in “College and Rape Culture: The ‘Unbelievable’ and the ‘Commonplace.’” In the email, pledges were pressured to have sex with women and detailed directions on targeting, exhausted, and disposing of women were provided.

2014: police at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee investigated a fraternity after several women, whose hands were labeled with black and red X’s, had to be hospitalized with memory lapses from intoxication at the fraternity party.

2014: a fraternity at Wesleyan University was nicknamed the “Rape Factory.” Following this, school administrators mandated that all fraternities become co-ed within the next three years.

Again, fraternities are not the only gender-exclusive organizations in which systematic violence has been perpetuated. Kesslen writes: “Fraternities have, and will continue to be, hotbeds for campus violence: racialized violence, sexual violence, gendered violence, and physical violence.” However, sports teams are just as guilty of this, an issue with which I wrestled in my most recent article, “Harvard University’s Administration Takes an Active Role in Penalizing Student-Athletes Perpetuating Sexual Violence.”

2011: Jerry Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator for the Nittany Lions football program at Pennsylvania State University, was indicted on 52 charges of sexual abuse of children. The NCAA issued the most severe sanctions just short of the death penalty, but later rescinded all punishments.

2016: A highly controversial investigation into Baylor University’s treatment of sexual assault allegations came to reveal the negligence of its administration and lack of discipline action taken to punish rapists on the football team’s roster. Denying its role as collegiate policeman and moral compass, the NCAA has yet to take action.

2016: Harvard University suspended the remainder of its men’s soccer team’s season and forfeited all postseason opportunities. Following the realization of a 2012 “scouting report” distributed amongst players that ranked female soccer recruits, sexually objectified the women, and demeaned them in vulgar terminology, an investigation revealed that such was an annual tradition.

It is important to acknowledge, though, that not all cases criminalizing fraternities and college athletics that have drawn national attention are truthful. In 2007, the initial prosecutor in the Duke University lacrosse scandal was disbarred for “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation,” and the athletes whom he prosecuted were proved innocent. In 2014, Rolling Stone redacted an article unfairly charging the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the University of Virginia for a freshman woman’s alleged gang rape.

There exist both tangible and psychological factors which may contribute to the increasingly sexualized atmosphere that Greek communities and other single-sex institutions boast. I will first address the former, which include heightened alcohol consumption and the command of on-campus social scenes.

In “Sorority Secrets: The Dark Side of Sisterhood That No One’s Willing to Talk About,” Alexandra Robbins offers an expose on alcohol use amongst Greek communities. “Long-standing research, including a 2009 University of Iowa Center for Research on Undergraduate Education, shows that Greeks drink more heavily than non-Greeks, and the National Institute of Justice reports that alcohol use is most commonly associated with sexual assault on campus.” Alcohol is more than a substance than impairs judgment; it can be a tool for sexual assault. Women on college campuses are trained to never accept a drink that they did not see poured or to return to a drink upon which they turned their backs for fear of being drugged (rohypnol, or “roofies,” are the most pertinent). Unfortunately, a strong majority of Greek events involve – if not, necessitate – alcohol. A Tennessee sorority member Robbins interviewed testified that at least three-fourths of sorority events involve drinking with fraternities. Perhaps this is why, Robbins continues, that sorority members are sexually assaulted at a higher rate than nonmembers. A 2009 report by Violence Against Women determined that sorority women at one university were five times more likely to be assaulted than non-Greeks; a 2014 study from the University of Oregon found that nearly one in two sorority members on its campus were victims of non-consensual sexual assault. For this reason, institutions like fraternities and teams often breed high-risk environments.

Second, Greek and athletic institutions on college campuses often govern social life. At schools where Greek life dominates, fraternities generally host the most highly-attended events, luring students to their parties. In “The Problem With Frats Isn’t Just Rape. It’s Power,” Jessica Bennett writes, “…they exert huge social control: providing the alcohol, hosting the parties, policing who may enter – based on whatever criteria they choose.” One such consequence of this is the disadvantage at which it puts sorority women: “Because sororities are prohibited from serving alcohol, they can’t host their own parties; they must also abide by strict decorum rules.” Robbins elaborates, “Many students told me that after joining their sorority to make friends, they were surprised that they instead were pressured to interact constantly with fraternities.” At some of these mixers (Robbins traced a series of themed parties at a North Carolina institution), “new sorority members were expected to help fraternities recruit brothers by dressing provocatively and getting the boys drunk.” “Rush boobs,” in which women write Greek letters or fraternity names across their cleavage, have become a popular way of promoting fraternities online. Another woman with whom Robbins spoke said, “We were told to dress as some sort of prize or enticement to these men… They [sorority women] had this mentality of, we have to impress these guys to increase the reputation of our chapter.” Furthermore, at some campuses, sororities must persuade fraternities of their choice to pair with them for Greek Week or homecoming festivities. At one Missouri school, fraternities request that sororities make videos (advertising suggestive behavior or members’ willingness to do more than mix and mingle) convincing them to pair. In order to generate more buzz and popularity, women were expected to subject themselves to an objectifying cycle in which their sexuality correlates directly with their reputation. This overwrites any extensive encouragement that advises young women from championing their ambitions, brains, and wit, instead determining their worth strictly by their physical and sexual appeal.

Accordingly, Tufts’ Panhellenic Council recently issued a statement regarding Kesslen’s article in which it suspended all organized events with fraternities and sports teams until further notice. The organization went as far as to assume responsibility for its own misdemeanors.

Even as a multitude of university administrations, legislative groups, and women’s rights activists combat this, rape culture in Greek life still exists. Hence, the psychological factors that contributed to this hazardous environment.

I return to “The Problem With Frats Isn’t Just Rape. It’s Power,” in which Jessica Bennett offers a number of explanations for the unchanging atmosphere by which Kesslen was disenchanted. First, fraternity culture “reinforces within-group attitudes” that perpetuate sexual violence. Not every fraternity member is a rapist, but members of male-only Greek life are three times more likely to rape. In conjunction, “frats and other traditionally male-dominated social clubs crystalize the elements of our culture that reinforce inequality, both gender and otherwise” (I will come back to this).

Second, “[fraternities] are insulated from outside perspective.” In fact, only forty years ago did Greek organizations eradicate whites-only membership clauses, although a recent controversy at the University of Alabama revealed that only one black student had been given a bid since 1964. John Chandler, former president of Middlebury College, which has banned Greek life, told Newsweek, “Throughout the country, the fraternities grew into ‘a caste system based on socioeconomic status as perceived by students.’” Such is the reason why Greek chapters are so commonly typecast with a roster that is strictly white, cisgender, and middle-class – if not higher. Because fraternities (and sororities) are so often protected from outside perspectives that would challenge their outdated norms or the system in which they were founded, they are often inherently disenfranchising.

I repeat, “frats and other traditionally male-dominated social clubs crystalizing the elements of our culture that reinforce inequality, both gender and otherwise.” Since these institutions are exclusive to men, they perpetuate outdated conceptions of manhood and masculinity that have been passed down through the generations. Using the GA Tech email, “Luring your rapebait,” as a case study, Dougan identifies the specific norms at play. She writes, “The message is clear, achieve sexual conquest with women, as many as possible, or else ‘You are outta here!’ He makes women, and the possibility that they may be degraded or injured by such tactics, invisible.” Indeed, this mission both commodifies sexuality and reduces women to mere statistics stripped of their individuality. The problem with this? “When men treat women as objects of sexual conquest, and see that conquest as essential to proving manhood, rape culture gets worse.” To deny others of their personhood is to promote an oppressive, hegemonic system that thrives on rape culture.

Dougan continues to draw another popular anti-woman conception of manhood. “These instructions on sexual assault illuminate another belief about manhood: that men have a right to access women’s bodies on demand.” Such further dehumanizes women, trespassing upon their rights to their own bodies. However, Dougan says, “This is not a problem of monsters; it is a problem of masculinity.” This is why sexual violence transcends state lines, education levels, and personal demographics. Greek life and college athletics may perpetuate these norms, but they did not create them.

This is why rape culture will not be resolved by abolishing Greek life, or even by suspending all NCAA involvement. Rigid conceptions of manhood extend far beyond these institutions. They will not go away by simply disbanding the environments in which they are the most publicly recognized. Dougan writes, “Concluding this story by punishing and isolating [the Rapebait author] and this fraternity will not solve the problem. That approach leaves rape culture, and how we participate in it, unexamined and unchallenged.” There are a number of solutions upon which we can maximize, and even more ways to combat these issues.

One way in which rape culture in sex-exclusive organizations may be alleviated is to become co-ed. Valenti reported that this was the step mandated by Wesleyan’s administration in the wake of the “Rape Factory” fraternity’s coining. Bennett adds, “If we lived in a gender-equal world, fraternities might work. But… doesn’t the continued existence of fraternities normalize a kind of white, male-dominated culture that already pervades our society?” The benefit to this approach would be the stripping of the insulation fraternities have from disenfranchised arguments with their groups; men in membership would have to challenge the deleterious status quos ingrained in their legacies head-on. This may also deepen respect between men and women on college campuses and beyond. To quote Bennett, “What do you expect to happen at a club where women are viewed as outsiders, or commodities, or worse, as prey, and where men make the rules?” Perhaps, if men and women were forced to create a productive dialogue or mutual respect by effectively working together in a co-ed organization, sexual assault may decrease in frequency.

Perhaps efforts should be redirected at the organizations that perpetuate rape culture, rather than bystander intervention. Granted, the latter is crucial: it is important to both recognize the signs of potential assault and be prepared to protect someone from possible victimization. Valenti quotes sociology professor Elizabeth Armstrong, who says, “But what [bystander intervention programs] leave off the table are the organizations that put people at risk on campus.” Rather than attempting to proactively target the witnesses of violent instances or retrospectively console victims, education programs should be oriented towards the institutions where sexual assault occurs more frequently: single-sex, hyper-masculine, institutions. One action which the Theta Delta Chi chapter at Tufts always took was by inviting a woman (this past year, it was Alpha Phi’s president) to speak to the fraternity’s pledges about the importance of procuring a safe space at their fraternity house or parties, which I immensely respected.

More specifically, these programs should take place early on in the academic year. In “Campus Sexual Violence: Statistics,” a brief publication from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, it is revealed that sexual violence may occur at a higher rate at certain times of the year. Case in point, upwards of half of college sexual assaults occur in either August, September, October, or November. Furthermore, students are at an increased risk during the first few months of their first and second semesters in college. In conjunction, these two statistics suggest that college freshmen, especially those in their first semester, are at the highest risk for sexual assault. Personally, I could not tell you whether it is because they lack the most accountability, they have never been thoroughly educated about extracurricular involvement or sexual assault, or because they have the lowest alcohol tolerance. Regardless, this information suggests that the most productive or proactive educational programs may be offered at the being of the academic calendar.

Abolishing fraternities, or Greek life as a whole, will not solve sexual violence. Fundamental marginalizing norms that facilitate rape culture are issues with our society, not with our chapters. If fraternities were to be universally disbanded, we would all be victims of sexual violence with no means of challenging such. For this reason, we need fraternities, and we need fraternity men to hold one other accountable as we work to eradicate these injustices.