The eight presidents of Dartmouth's Panhellenic sororities formalized the details and clarified the procedural response to their recently-announced policy regarding violence against women clauses in fraternities' bylaws, Sigma Delta sorority president Danielle Levin '12 said in an interview with The Dartmouth. Panhell's revised policy followed a meeting with the Greek Leadership Council on May 17 at which Panhell received feedback on initial drafts of the policy, Levin said. The policy states that all social events held in conjunction with a fraternity in which a member has assaulted a female student will be cancelled unless internal adjudication processes are invoked in a timely manner.
"The role that we are certainly not taking on is one of detective," she said. "If something occurs we are only going to be able to respond if it is brought to us we are not going out and searching for things."
Under the new policy, when a sorority president becomes aware of an alleged case of assault against a member of her sorority, she will notify the other Panhell presidents. The president of the alleged perpetrator's organization will then be notified, according to the written Panhell policy released to The Dartmouth.
If the alleged victim is unaffiliated, the Panhellenic Council as a whole will contact the president of the organization to which the alleged perpetrator belongs, according to the policy.
The organization in question will have up to 24 hours to demonstrate that it has initiated "its investigation process or adjudicative process if applicable" in regard to the member in question, and that it has taken appropriate steps to address any "upstanding threats," Levin said.
If the fraternity fails to respond to and communicate with Panhell, all Panhell sororities will suspend formal programming with the organization in question until the internal adjudication process has been finalized, according to the report. The Inter-Fraternity Council unanimously agreed to review and update each fraternity's chapter bylaws in regard to assault and internal adjudication at a meeting on May 12, Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity president Sean Schultz '12 said in an email to The Dartmouth.
Several fraternities have shared their current internal policies with each other in pursuit of the "best practices," Schultz said.
All investigations and adjudications of assault cases brought to the College administration pass through the Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Office, acting Director of Greek Letter Organizations and Societies Kristi Clemens said. While GLOS does not play a role in the judicial process, Clemens said she has been approached by several fraternity presidents for assistance in investigating their chapters' current bylaws on assault.
"Many of our national fraternities already have internal adjudication processes from their national organization," Clemens said. "But some of the locals are trying to figure out what's the best way to take some bylaws from other organizations and maybe amend them."
Panhell's new policy is a "good addendum" to the processes already in place because students may be afraid to officially report an incident of assault, Clemens said.
"We will always encourage folks to go through the official judicial process, but I think that this is a point for students to have some peer-to-peer accountability and begin to reinforce the notion that assault of any kind is not welcome in the Greek community," Clemens said. "I hear some students who have experienced sexual or physical assault say that, This would be social suicide for me to put my name on something and to actually be out there and say this happened to me.'"
The policy which has a specific clause to protect the privacy of the individuals involved will focus on the organization rather than individual students, Clemens said.
The policy was not intended to be antagonistic toward fraternities, according to Panhell president Ellie Sandmeyer '12. Panhell presidents simply wanted to raise awareness and ensure that female students are protected from any environment that Panhell deems unsafe, Sandmeyer said.
The policy's announcement followed an incident of verbal and physical abuse between a male and female student at Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity on the evening of May 7. Since Sig Ep has taken the appropriate internal adjudication measures, the College's eight Panhellenic sorority presidents agreed to lift the boycott on social events, Sig Ep president Phillip Burgin-Young said in an email to The Dartmouth.
Women and gender studies department chair Annabel Martin drafted a letter of support for the sororities' boycott after meeting with the sorority presidents on May 16 to discuss their concerns, Martin said. The letter of support currently includes 88 signatures from Dartmouth professors, according to Martin.
An informal survey by The Dartmouth of 35 students showed that 29 students favored the Panhell boycott, while 6 students opposed the policy. Of those surveyed, 17 were male and 18 were female, while 22 identified themselves as affiliated with a organization and three participants were unaffiliated. Eight survey participants were members of the Class of 2014 and are therefore unable to be affiliated.
