The harrowing account of a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house described in a new Rolling Stone article roiled the campus Friday, with students, faculty members and parents questioning the administration’s response to the allegations.
The article, in the pop culture magazine’s December issue and posted online this week, describes a brutal sex assault that allegedly occurred in the Phi Kappa Psi house in 2012. The victim, who is given an alias in the article, said a member of the fraternity led her upstairs during a party and took her to a dark room, where numerous men pinned her to the floor and attacked her.
The victim later describes a underwhelming response from university officials, whom she contacted about the attack, according to Rolling Stone. She did not file a police report.
After the story appeared online, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) called for the university to begin a thorough investigation into the matter, and Charlottesville police said they are investigating the allegations at the request of the university’s president, Teresa Sullivan.
U-Va. Vice President Patricia Lampkin said the article has “deeply affected” the university community.
“I know that many of you are feeling shocked, dismayed, saddened and, perhaps, betrayed. Our community is hurting,” Lampkin said in a statement. “Many of us are confused by the contradictions between the U-Va. portrayed in the article and the U-Va. that we know. Many of you are questioning your trust in our University. President Sullivan and I want to be absolutely clear: we do not tolerate sexual violence in any form.”
UVA should be running scared. Very scared. If you want to become sick, read the exposé from Rolling Stone magazine regarding anonymous victim “Jackie”, entitled A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA. The article is guaranteed to make you want to home school your daughter through college.
To be fair, UVA isn’t the only school with an abysmal track record on assault, both sexual and just plain old battery. However, it’s a place to start. Governor Terry McAuliffe has called for a full investigation of this national disgrace. Good for him.
What is wrong with young men? I simply don’t accept the alcohol answer that is always given. I question why rape isn’t simply an embarrassment to these little sexual predators. Most people, I would think, would be mortified to have to force themselves on a woman. Is that the only way they can score? It isn’t just a Phi Psi problem either. That kind of behavior with several different fraternities goes back at least as far as when I was a young townie, living in Charlottesville, moving on through my days at Mary Washington.
I also know I wasn’t allowed to go to fraternity parties until I was a senior in high school. My parents were both UVA grads and I guess they knew that pigs attended the school. (I confess, I did sneak and go before then.) There were just houses you didn’t go to because of the nastiness that went on. Again, Phi Psi wasn’t one of the worst of the worst. Perhaps it is trying to make up for lost time.
Perhaps one of the pukiest (is there such a word?) revelations in the article was the all-too-quick responses by students and officials at UVA to evoke the name of Mr. Jefferson. Oh please! Come to think of it, perhaps his own track record wasn’t all that good. There were plenty of contenders for the “pukiest title”.
Keep it classy UVA. UVA was once described to me, by a student, nearly a half century ago, as a “small academic village founded on arrogance, self-importance and hypocrisy.” Ya think? It’s time for UVA to clean its self up. Start by prosecuting the little stud muffins running around who can’t score unless they rape women. (or perhaps men, who knows.) Jail time and real expulsion are the only answers for sexual predators like described in the Rolling Stone article.
All colleges and universities are going to have to start assuming some moral responsibility about sexual violence. It simply cannot be tolerated. Those students who are sexually aggressive not only need to be removed from school, but also prosecuted and jailed. If this response were standard behavior, perhaps Hannah Graham would be alive today. All people need to be encouraged to report sexual violence to authorities. Those who don’t report are really just part of the problem.
Further Reading:
.
I think that the response to women and abuse has evolved but the underlying, “just sit down and shut up, be a good girl and don’t rock the boat” is still all too pervasive. Which, I find shocking in the 21st century.
There is this convoluted logic that goes something like this. We have a bi-racial president so therefore racism no longer exists. We have women in positions of power, so therefore rape is less prevalent, especially those upper crust campus’s.
I feel the most for this poor young woman. What a survivor she is. I hope she can find healing.
Let me add, although not NEARLY on the same level, the environment in planning, from all the recounts I have heard, was hostile and impossible to work in for women productively. Our own county has a lot of explaining to do also.
If these allegations against are proven true, was he emboldened to escalate his behavior towards women. There were no consequences when women complained, in fact, not only were there no consequences, he was promoted. Exposing oneself to women in public while driving isn’t about getting a date, it’s about demeaning women while getting your thrill on.
I think they should ban Greek life, or at least the university ought not to formally recognize them. WVU recently susoended all Greek activities after a student died of alcohol at one of their houses. Greeks teach boys to behave like animals. Get rid of them all.
@Elena
There are many similarities. These young sexual predators might not be rapists if they were solo. However, it appears they are emboldened by their frat brothers and their foolish concepts of greek life. Young men, many far away from home exhibiting behaviors their mama and grandma wouldn’t condone……
Sound familiar?
On the other hand, it could be a whole bumper crop of Ray Utzes in training.
Godless contemporary America. Why is this surprising? A reflection of the anything-goes culture, I’d say. The inherited whirlwind.
Wolve, when I was in college at Mary Washington, a girl who lived on my hall was gang raped at a fraternity party at Randolph Macon. She had passed out. Not sure if a roofie was involved or not. Regardless. This is not a new phenomena. However, I believe that people have more rights now than they used to have. It used to be that if you violated someone’s daughter, (sister, etc) there were places where law enforcement would turn the other way while someone beat the living, breathing you -know-what out of the offender. You can’t do that nowadays. Schools now have to worry about someone suing because they were denied an education. It’s a complicated situation and I don’t think that UVA is unique in it’s alleged indifference to sexual assault.
Date rape or attempted rape is nothing new. Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this entire story is “Jackie’s” friends reaction. They were afraid they couldn’t pledge a fraternity? They are afraid of being outcasts?
I am not sure that bringing God into any of this would help. Didn’t Jesse Matthew get expelled from Liberty University without charges being brought? It doesn’t get too much more involved with God than Liberty.
Got rejected at rush, eh?
I think that Starry has a point. It’s not a popular point but a point that cannot be ignored. I deliberately went to a college that didn’t have sororities. There is just something about sanctioned clique-ness that I find offensive. So no reject here. (I know, you weren’t talking to me.)
The hazing and drinking that goes on at fraternities is not only sanctioned, it is encouraged. The various activities become part of the culture of that chapter and “House.” Yea, I pretty much know a little of what I am talking about. I grew up in a college town and am more than a little familiar with how it all works. It has only gotten worse.
It makes you wonder why people need to support of others or what possesses them to take such unnecessary risks with other people’s health and lives.
The southern military institution I attended did not have Greeks, sir. The institution I attended built men and women of character, sir.. The Godless institution you attended no doubt produced, well. You.@Wolve
No matter. I hear the university has suspended fraternities. Good move.
What do you expect? All the quoting of “Mr. Jefferson”? That beacon of liberty was fornicating with female slaves who were forced into much the same circumstance as “Jackie”–silent compliance. Just some boys acting in that fine old UVA tradition…..
Ha. A troll got trolled.
OK, gang, truce.
@Moon-howler
Sorry, madam, but, whenever I open a media outlet on the internet these days I seem to get an eyeful of Kardashian boobs and butt cheeks or something similar either on the margin or down underneath. Or maybe 10 ways to give your woman an orgasm or how to show your man what you really want tonight. We seem to be training the boys rather well to go for it all because it feels good, I would say. The girls also, I think. As Ms. Wolverine, the now retired teacher, has told me many times, the young girls these days are way too forward both verbally and with their physical assets. Now, we all know that modern youth lives and breathes the tech gadgets; and the tech gadgets have become their teachers. No God. Just Apple and Facebook and hard porn all over the freaking place. Why be surprised by the end result?
I believe our parents said the same thing about us. Now, having said that, I also believe that there are so many young people who are just vapid.
Girls and boys certainly don’t hold back in language or items of discussion. I would tend to agree with Mrs. Wolverine but I also admit some of how I feel is generational and that’s just how it works.
I don’t have a problem with Apple and tech being teachers. They just shouldn’t be the only teachers.
I think that we lived in different times but I am not sure they were better. Some of the same behaviors were prevalent but perhaps not as wide spread. There was more of a reluctance to discuss sexual impropriety in my youth than there is now. For example, I had several dates from dear old UVA get very aggressive with me. No, it wasn’t date rape but I had to deal with some very aggressive behavior. I can remember having to bite one of them. Then there was the marine attempted date rapist. I can’t blame that one on UVA. My parents never found out that I had had these problems. I knew they would have blamed me. That’s just how it rolled in my family.
Let’s take it a step further. My best friend of close to a half century had an uncle who did the bad touching thing on her starting at age 11. She spent many years trying not to be in his reach. She never complained to her aunt. She knew she would get the blame also. It stopped when he died. I can still see us up at his casket and she leaned over to me and said “Don’t get too close.” I sung back, barely audibly, “Reach out and touch someone.” You just dealt.
Or as I call it: “The Contemporary American Swamp of Decadence.” Google the name Terrence Patrick Bean and see one of its more well known inhabitants.
Starry has no valid point. Calling for the suspension of all Greeks because one house goes bad is sort of like calling for the jailing of an ethnic group because some of them may be prone to criminal activity.
UVa suspends fraternities until Jan. 9 in wake of rape allegations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-president-suspends-fraternities-until-jan-9-in-wake-of-rape-allegations/2014/11/22/023d3688-7272-11e4-8808-afaa1e3a33ef_story.html?hpid=z2
He he! Now who’s been trolled?
nbcwashington.com:
It looks like Starry was on the right track.
Good for President Sullivan for having the courage to confront this issue head on.
This hasn’t been a very good 5 years for dear old UVA.
An interesting question might be how many males are sexually assaulted. I expect more than we will ever know about. I know some hazing from back in my day that took place during pledge week would be considered sexual assault by today’s standards.
@Wolve
It isn’t just one house. It is a systemic problem that involves too much drinking , drugging, and very few boundaries.
Of course it isn’t all houses and it wasn’t all Phi Psi’s. There is a problem at UVA. Period. There are problems at campuses all over the United States.
Activities are closed down while the investigations are going on.
The suspension at UVa was not exactly unexpected. It is not the first time in this country. I see it as the usual helter-skelter response of flustered university admin types these days when they are embarrasssed by a demonstration of their poor oversight of their own backyards. But, really, all the frat houses? Are all those fellows guilty of rape? Are only frat members the "naughty" students on that campus? Is the American way now to punish everybody for the alleged sins of one? Sounds like putting all Japanese-Americans in detention during World War II because some of them might have divided loyalties. Are we back to that again?
Well, maybe I might agree about problems at UVa. I had a daughter who got early acceptance to the honors program there. She spent a weekend on campus to get a good look at the place. She came back and said she would never go there. The school was full of obnoxious drunks. So, she went to the honors program in another Virginia school. Now she says she wouldn't even send her kids to that school because it has the same juvenile misbehavior problems she saw at UVa back when. I tell ya — the contemporary culture stinks to heck all over the place.
I think the announcement got everyone’s attention. No, this decision won’t be popular. Maybe that’s what it takes–someone with the guts to enforce a decision that isn’t popular to get everyone’s attention while things are sorted out. Perhaps we shouldn’t be looking at it as punishment. Maybe its simply a time out so everyone can get their ducks in a row and see the seriousness of these allegations.
Meanwhile, why didn’t “Jackie” go to the police? How can a school or any institution act just on anecdotal evidence? Sure that should be part of it but in today’s times, it can’t just be Jackie’s word against everyone else’s. I am not blaming the victim for the rape at all. I am blaming her for not fully participating in finding resolution to the problem. Her failure to use the legal system basically leaves rapists out there in the campus community to continue to prey upon others.
What weekend did your daughter go to Charlottesville? I mean…what event was going on? I don’t really think UVA is probably that much worse than any other campus, but that shouldn’t be the standard. Unless you go to church related colleges like BYU, Liberty, etc, you are going to have all sorts of drunken behavior. That’s just how things roll. They did when I was young also so it isn’t just a sign of the times. Seriously, she needs to look at BYU or Liberty for her kids if she wants to keep them away from booze and drunkenness. There are others also but I just can’t call them off the top of my head.
@Wolve Are you seriously comparing the detention of Japanese Americans in WW2 to the university’s decision to prevent fraternities from, um, having parties? Seriously?
Besides, for someone whining about contemporary culture, whyyou’re whining when an institution is attempting to address said culture?
@Starry
I agree that there seems to be a contradiction in sentiment. I am not quarreling with Wolve on this, I just see his response as inconsistent.
UVA got smeared all over the nation in Rolling Stone. The article is worse than a black eye. Its a serious indictment of not only the campus life there but also of the responsibility of the administration. This situation appears on the heels of the disappearance and murder of one of its students. Before that, it’s very popular president, President Sullivan was in essence fired by the provost. All of these events drew national attention.
Sullivan is popular and smart. She is closing the ranks. She is taking names and kicking ass at this point and it starts with the out of control fraternities. Those with nothing to hide will be reinstated. Those with serious conduct infractions will be dealt with.
I expect to fight with my brothers over this issue. Both were Greek, one at UVA, the other at Tech.
THIS was my first thought.
Suspending ALL of Greek “culture” is wrong.
THEY did nothing wrong. Especially, in this case, the sororities.
Suspend the fraternity that allegedly broke the law.
1000 “students filed a petiitonand hundreds protested the greeks. How may greeks on on the UVA campus and about how many students are there?
That is staff, students and faculty. Probably more than that signed by now.
Same basic idea, pal. One may be guilty so lock them all up just to be sure.
Precisely, Cargo. There is an alleged rape case in one frat house. So shut down Delta Gamma and Kappa Kappa Gamma. Brilliant.
The university isn’t locking up anybody, moron. You’re too much of a simpleton to understand.
Tut, tut. Such language.
Actually this comment went into moderation, automatically. I had nothing to do with it. However, maybe WordPress has better manners than all of is.
How about all of you all not calling names? Just a simple request from a simple blog-mistress.
I just read that this poor girl was let into a dark room, punched, knocked to the ground through a glass table. She was then pinned and raped for three hours, rolling around, laying in broken table glass. As were her attackers, apparently.
This was the first time I’ve read those details.
And yet…. she wasn’t sliced to ribbons? No one commented on horrible wounds? Her friends refused to take her to the hospital? She didn’t call even a taxi, much less the cops or an ambulance? Her assailants weren’t cut?
When these details came out….and there was no police contact…… something is not right.
I never read anything about the glass table. Rolling Stone makes no mention of a glass table being shattered and Rolling Stone is only authorized account of the story that I am aware of.
@Moon-howler
Then I stand corrected.
“Shut up,” she heard a man’s voice say as a body barreled into her, tripping her backward and sending them both crashing through a low glass table. There was a heavy person on top of her, spreading open her thighs, and another person kneeling on her hair, hands pinning down her arms, sharp shards digging into her back, and excited male voices rising all around her. When yet another hand clamped over her mouth, Jackie bit it, and the hand became a fist that punched her in the face. The men surrounding her began to laugh. For a hopeful moment Jackie wondered if this wasn’t some collegiate prank. Perhaps at any second someone would flick on the lights and they’d return to the party.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/a-rape-on-campus-20141119#ixzz3KktUlVoy
Just found the part about the table.
And UVA can certainly ID the perps:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-01/uva-should-help-police-catch-alleged-rapists-now
Furthermore, why can’t the school identify these rapists? Drew was a lifeguard. How many were
I didn’t even catch the glass part. Maybe it was safety glass.
6 others. Of course the other 6 can be identified. However, Jackie chose not to go through the legal system. I have no use for that. If you can go to Rolling Stone you can go to the cops. Keep it from happening to someone else at least. To my way of thinking, Jackie is leaving 7 rapists on the loose.