This post was updated Sept. 11 at 5:31 p.m.
Student government officials released a statement Friday condemning sexual violence at UCLA fraternities and encouraging Greek life to address issues of sexually predatory behavior.
The statement from the Undergraduate Students Association Council comes less than a month after reports that former Zeta Beta Tau fraternity member Blake Lobato is facing charges of negligence, assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A current female UCLA student filed the charges against Lobato at the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The council recommended Title IX training for fraternity leadership and peer-led consent and upstanding intervention training for all fraternity members.
The council also recommended the Interfraternity Council hold a public town hall to discuss concerns about its new risk management policies and sexual violence prevention methods with UCLA community members.
USAC president Claire Fieldman said she hopes the council’s statement will demonstrate its commitment to combating sexual violence.
“I hope that USAC’s statement will demonstrate our solidarity with the survivor of this particular incident and with all survivors of sexual violence in our Bruin community. Though this phenomenon is by no means exclusive to fraternities, I do believe that constructive steps can and should be taken by fraternity leadership to hold offenders accountable, as well as adequately train their leaders and educate their members,” Fieldman said.
USAC is totally toothless. This statement will be hold fraternities accountable for sexual predation like its BDS resolution from a few years ago finally made Israel and Palestine best buds.
I’m the first to criticize USAC for its ridiculous resolution-making and overall mere symbolic existence. But ideally it would rise to the challenge of actually governing if given sufficient authority. For example, if Greek life were brought under USAC supervision, then I think we would see fraternities cleaning up their act real quick once exposed by the council.
Enough with the “solidarity.” It’s time to strip Greek life of whatever autonomy it enjoys and institutionalize its supervision by university administration and/or student government.