Greeks combat sexual assault

The Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Association are teaming up to combat sexual assault in the greek community.

“There have been 50 sexual assault cases at IU this year,” IFC president Michael Pagrabs said. “It has been determined a crisis by University standards and we want to rally to make a direct impact on campus.”

PHA president Anjulia Urasky said sexual assault is a huge concern of the administration and they want to be both proactive and reactive.

“We have been more reactive in the future, we want to be more proactive now so we can avoid the problem in the future,” Urasky said.
Although the administration had a major concern about sexual assault at IU, Urasky said it was a dual effort.

“We knew this was something we wanted to face,” Urasky said. “We want to do as much as we can in the greek community.”

The PHA chapters have a program called Safe Sisters, in which several girls in each chapter are trained in sexual assault support. Urasky said they are a strong asset to the community, and PHA is making sure that the sisters are attending training and are available to chapter members.

IFC vice president of membership development Grant Ryan said they are creating a group called Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault that will be comparable to PHA’s Safe Sisters. Ryan said they are meeting with Sexual Assault Crisis Services at the IU Health Center on Friday to discuss details on the program.

“The programs have a lot of validity,” Ryan said. “The women have Safe Sisters and we want the same opportunity for men.”

IFC vice president of communication Sean Jordan said they are reaching out to all members, but are especially trying to get the attention of younger members.

“We want them to realize the issue before they get too many ideas on what college life should be like,” Jordan said. “We want to help them moving forward. We want to make the effort sustainable and lasting. We want to ingrain the values into their lifestyle now.”

So far, IFC and PHA have only approved the mandate of bringing in educational speakers to every chapter to talk about sexual assault.
Pagrabs said they are working on changing recruitment in the fall to be more value integrated and are basing their actions on the three pillars of awareness, education and support.

“We want to attack the problem from all angles,” Pagrabs said. “We want to set an action plan moving forward.”

Jordan said using the three pillars as their guide will help them make sure their efforts are successful. He said sometimes messages get lost in translation between chapter leaders and chapter members, but creating new programs and partnering with other safety organizations on campus would help.

“We like to think of ourselves as leaders not just in the (greek) community, but in the entire IU community,” Jordan said. “We hope as we implement this new change, IU will change accordingly.”