The Panhellenic Council and Inter-Fraternity Council agreed to work collaboratively to establish policies addressing assault in Greek organizations at a joint meeting Thursday evening, Panhell president Ellie Sandmeyer '12 said in an interview with The Dartmouth. The organizations also agreed to review and possibly revise bylaws of each individual Greek organization to ensure that internal adjudication procedures are in place to address incidents of assault, Sandmeyer said.
Thursday's meeting came in response to a unanimous vote by the presidents of the College's eight sororities to suspend events with a fraternity where a member publicly assaulted a sorority member in the fraternity's physical plant on Saturday. The boycott will continue until the fraternity initiates and conducts internal adjudication against that member, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Panhell asked fraternities to establish clearly-written bylaws concerning assault in a Wednesday meeting with the IFC and College President Jim Yong Kim, but their request was allegedly met with a lack of enthusiasm, The Dartmouth previously reported.
In Thursday's meeting, the IFC agreed that each fraternity would examine its bylaws to ensure that they address assault, IFC president Kevin Niparko '12 said.
"All fraternities will include an explicit clause stating exactly what behaviors are allowed and appropriate in their organizations concerning assault," he said.
Niparko is a member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff.
Most fraternities already have these bylaws in place, according to IFC vice president Michael Schwartz '12.
A new procedure will be developed to address assault cases within the Greek system involving a "chain of contact" that ensures open lines of communication between Greek leaders, Niparko said. If a member of a Greek organization is assaulted in another Greek organization's physical plant, the assault victim will be able to contact his or her organization's president, who would then contact the president of the perpetrator's house to resolve the issue, according to Niparko.
Panhell has begun to develop a concrete policy to include in the organization's bylaws regarding assault of any female student on campus, according to Sigma Delta sorority president Danielle Levin '12. This policy will include specific procedures to follow in the case of an assault at a Greek organization, which would eventually culminate in a suspension of events with the organization in question if the fraternity does not respond immediately or appropriately, she said.
Panhell does not intend to dictate exactly what the fraternities' bylaws include, but rather ensure that they are "proportional to the crime," Levin said.
Panhell will solicit input from College administrators and fraternity representatives on campus as it formulates the new policy, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority president Neera Chatterjee '12 said. Fraternities and sororities need to hold each other accountable when instances of violence occur on campus, she said.
The atmosphere at the Thursday meeting between Greek organization was more congenial than the previous meeting, Sandmeyer said.
"Meeting today, we received a really positive reaction from IFC," she said, citing a "communication disconnect" in past interactions, which the two organizations were able to resolve at Thursday's meeting.
Although Sandmeyer acknowledged that the suspension of events may be construed as antagonistic, she said the goal of the policy is to make it clear that Panhell is "taking a stance" against assault.
The meeting allowed Panhell to clarify its non-antagonistic intentions to the IFC, Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority president Rachel Eggleston '12 said.
"We'd like to emphasize that the policy never meant to punish a particular house," Eggleston said.
Levin labeled the IFC's willingness to collaborate with Panhell as a "180-degree turn."
Levin speculated that the IFC's change of heart was due to either the publicity generated by the suspension of events or a desire to maintain positive social relations with sororities on campus. Since addressing assault has always been a priority of fraternities on campus, Wednesday's suspension of events likely drew the IFC's attention back to the issue of female safety in social spaces, she said.
The fraternities are "very enthusiastic about being a voice at the table," Chatterjee said.
Niparko emphasized the importance of including men in conversations between the sororities regarding assault.
"Any dialogue needs to include the men on this campus," he said.
All Greek presidents and representatives from IFC and Panhell interviewed by The Dartmouth praised the collaboration fostered at Thursday's meeting.
"We need to be as collaborative as possible to avoid getting caught up in he-said, she-said,'" Schwartz said.
Panhell previously did not have proper channels through which to raise concerns regarding assault with other Greek organizations, Sandmeyer said.
"We didn't really have a framework or precedent for talking about these kinds of issues," she said.
Wednesday's decision to suspend events with a fraternity in which a member has been accused of assaulting a sorority member will remain in place until Panhell is confident that the procedures enacted by an individual organization will be enforced in a timely matter, Levin said.
