“While Phi Psi is currently the one being blamed, every single fraternity here is guilty,” Abigayle Redeker, a junior at the university told the school’s student newspaper, The University Daily Kansan. Leaders from the university’s Panhellenic Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.īut Brantley’s sentiments were echoed by some current students who said sexual violence has been a pervasive issue on campus. But the fraternities were frequently a locus for sexual assault. (A spokesperson for the school did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.)īrantley said that the school’s Panhellenic Association would provide sorority women a list of “safe” parties to attend while she was a student. “This is a culture within that is regularly ignored and dismissed because it benefits the university and benefits those organizations,” she said. Reading, who left Kappa Delta sorority during her senior year, said that Strip Your Letters has “crowdsourced” for information on social media about sexual violence and found that no fraternity on campus has been spared from sexual assault allegations. University of Iowa Suspends Frat Over Totally Bonkers Hazing “Rape culture is a huge part of Greek culture, it’s not something that has ever gone away.” “Fraternity men are much more likely than non-fraternal men to engage in sexual assault, and that puts sorority women at the highest rate of any university group or demographic to be sexually assaulted,” she said. Reading told The Daily Beast they’re aiming to mobilize the governing body of sororities on campus-the university’s Panhellenic Association-to “disaffiliate” from the Interfraternity Council, which provides leadership and support to campus frats and “enables” sexual violence that disproportionately affects sorority women. Leaders from Strip Your Letters, a self-described “campus-adjacent” group, include recent graduates and founders Grace Reading, 23, and Anissa Brantley, 22. The rally was promoted in part by current and former sorority members at the university who, in July of last year, launched an Instagram account called “Strip Your Letters,” and demanded that the body governing the university’s sororities address concerns about “making Greek Life a safer, more equitable place for ALL women and Sisterhoods on our campus.” Their demands included the creation of a system to anonymously report instances of sexual abuse and racism. Someone attending the protest replaced the flag in front of Phi Kappa Psi with a sign that reads “No Means No” /HEqcIQq3gP The crowd spilled off the sidewalk and onto the street, and shouted chants like, “We believe her,” “Justice now,” and “Lock him up,” in a demonstration that lasted more than two hours, according to WDAF-TV. In Kansas, protesters gathered on Monday night outside the frat house, which had been roped off with police tape. The Journal Star reported that men were filmed inside the house laughing as women outside chanted “Kick him out!”

It was the second such protest in recent weeks: About 1,000 protesters surrounded the troubled Fiji frat house at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln last month after an alleged sexual assault.

Adam Heffley, interim chief of police for the City of Lawrence, said in a statement to The Daily Beast that they were “aware of an incident involving a possible sexual assault near campus over the weekend” but would not provide further details “in order to protect the privacy of victims.” The “No Means No Peaceful Protest” outside of the Phi Kappa Psi Greek house was fueled by allegations that a woman was drugged and raped at the frat house on Saturday night by a new undergraduate member.

More than a thousand protesters demonstrated outside of a University of Kansas fraternity house on Monday night in an outcry against sexual assault that former students say has been “regularly ignored and dismissed.”

Phi psi ku protest