Through numerous college parties, I’ve come to realize that in a college culture that often views drunken hookups as normal, the fun of a good party can bring with it the risk of confused sexual consent and a whole host of other issues that stem from intoxicated decision-making.
Fraternities sometimes have a bad reputation when it comes to sexual assault, and people are quick to point out the risks involved in going to a fraternity event.
As the president of an Interfraternity Council fraternity, my instinct is to dismiss a lot of these critiques as overstated. But Consent Week, which took place last week and was sponsored by the 7,000 in Solidarity campaign of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, inspired me to rethink how the Greek community can be a bigger part of movements like this one.
Consent Week is an incredibly valuable event for the UCLA community. But a stronger effort by Greek leaders and sexual assault advocates to engage in open dialogue about the dangers associated with Greek events would help make sexual assault prevention more effective.
Savannah Badalich, a leader of 7,000 in Solidarity and the USAC Student Wellness Commissioner, said the campaign is scheduled to hold a presentation for members of the Greek community toward the end of the quarter with this message in mind.
The problem though, Badalich said, is that because she is an outsider to the Greek community, she is viewed as attacking the Greek system, rather than trying to help.
Her concern points to a need for both an effort by non-Greek activists to communicate in a language the community will respond to, and also for us, the Greek community, to be more receptive to such an important conversation.
But it’s also reasonable for members of Greek life to feel as if they are being targeted by sexual assault campaigns because they experience so much stereotyping to begin with. This feeling can lead to a disconnect between the efforts of sexual assault advocates outside the community and the conversations going on internally.
Every Tuesday, I go to a president’s meeting with the IFC and we talk a lot about how we can change the fraternity experience to be more positive for everyone involved, including the university. Although the issue of sexual assault has been discussed, it’s important for leaders of the Greek community to use forums such as these to hold discussions with advocates outside the world of fraternities and sororities.
7,000 in Solidarity could come to one of these meetings and not just give a presentation, but allow the leaders of these fraternities to honestly reflect on and discuss the sexualized culture at some Greek events.
Individual fraternities and sororities have hosted presentations for their chapters and the Greek community has made strides to work on sexual assault internally, but working with organizations like 7,000 in Solidarity would offer an external perspective we don’t get very often. In turn, sexual assault advocates could learn from the experiences of Greek students.
For instance, California law and UCLA sexual assault policy state that a person who is incapacitated through intoxication is incapable of giving consent. But this definition is complicated when a lot of people who attend college parties have the intention of being intoxicated and potentially hooking up with someone else, because it’s impossible to know how impaired another person is.
The inherent conflict between college hookup culture and sexual assault policy demonstrates a need to talk about consent more openly so that it can be understood completely by more people on campus.
It’s too easy to paint fraternity brothers as insensitive or apathetic to questions like this, but when engaged in these discussions, I’ve seen moments of honest reflection on the issue of sexual assault. Although some negative stereotypes surround Greek life, I’ve also experienced a community of people dedicated to changing those perceptions.