New fraternity sexual assault prevention policy has room for improvement

Sexual assault is an issue that has dominated conversations regarding social justice policy at UNC for some time now.

Faculty, staff and the student body have wrestled with this issue, particularly as it concerns a critically at risk demographic of UNC’s student body: fraternities and sororities.

In a recent attempt to implement sexual assault risk-reducing policies, UNC’s Interfraternity Council amended its constitution to require all associated fraternities to attend risk-reduction workshops.

Though this is a good start, fraternities still have ample wiggle room under the policy.

To make real progress on sexual assault prevention education, the IFC needs to implement a more rigid policy mandating workshop attendance.

Otherwise, fraternities will need to show exemplary leadership in going above and beyond the current IFC requirements.

To be exact, the new amendment to the IFC constitution states each fraternity must participate in an Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life approved sexual assault and violence prevention program a minimum of once every two years. Participation is to include, at a minimum, the entire executive board and entire new member class of the chapter.

Essentially, the policy only requires fraternities send one of a possible four pledge classes every two years, accompanied by the fraternity’s executive council.

So, even with every fraternity’s compliance, it’s likely that less than half of UNC’s male fraternity members will have received training. Such a policy is clearly not adequate if the IFC expects to see tangible results among its member fraternities.

Furthermore, perhaps the most visible of all sexual assault related workshops at UNC, One Act, is providing a shortened three-hour program named One Act for Greeks. Thus fraternities not only have to attend a workshop just once every two years, but the most visible program available, One Act for Greeks, is itself a kind of cop-out to appease Greeks presupposed lack of attention span.

However, the language of the amendment is structured so as to offer the chapters options other than One Act. Several sexual assault-related workshops and speakers visit campus every semester. With minimal initiative, leaders within individual fraternities could easily locate or arrange for workshops, in addition to One Act, for their respective chapters. Thus the wiggle room within the IFC policy will give fraternities the chance to distinguish themselves.

The IFC is the largest men’s organization on campus and the most visible; as such, it has decided to take the lead and pioneer a program that will hopefully lead to the whole campus participating in sexual assault training.

However, if the IFC seriously expects to set a trend, it will need to create more compelling policies regarding attendance of sexual assault prevention workshops among its members. Until that happens, however, fraternities have a remarkable opportunity to prove their commitment to sexual assault reduction at UNC.