Op-Ed: A response to the Observer article 'Abolish Fraternities'

My name is Shawn Patterson, president emeritus of Pi Rho Omega, and I am writing in response to the recent Observer article’s vicious accusations against my fraternity. I agree with the sentiment that much about Greek life at Tufts needs to be improved, but the published statement about my organization is a false account derived from second-hand rumors. As the incumbent president of Pi Rho Omega during the incident referred to in the article, I feel that the accusation levied against Pi Rho Omega is a libelous attack on my leadership and the organization that I sought to improve. I am writing on behalf of my organization to set the record straight.

In January 2015, several members of my executive board learned that an individual had been sexually assaulted by a member of our organization.Horrified by the information, we reached out to the staff at the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) and the Office of Judicial Affairs. We filed official reports with as much information as we knew, and a friend of the survivor encouraged the survivor to report their story as well. The administration ordered us not to take any action against the assaulter as a fraternity. It was a waiting game.

Over the following months, we cooperated fully with the administration to provide information about the case as soon as we heard anything relevant. On several occasions, we asked why it was taking so long to remove the individual from campus and if we could do something to help. Again, the administration ordered us not to act and to keep all information about the assault confidential to the small group of reporters within our organization. Despite the consistent message from the administration, we did everything possible to keep the assaulter away from our social events and away from our organization.

Furthermore, those of us aware of the situation reached out to people who had mentioned any rumors or stories about the individual’s actions from even before he was a member of our organization. From the information we gathered, we reached out to both witnesses and alleged survivors and encouraged them to file official reports with the OEO. The “pending assault cases” mentioned in the Observer article were filed directly as a result of the work of myself and other members who were trying to get swift and concrete action against the assaulter from the information we could find.

It was not until November 2015 that the administration’s investigation reached a point where the assaulter could be removed from campus. At this point, we were able to formally remove him from our fraternity in conjunction with the administration. By that time, he had been effectively marginalized from the organization in every respect, so his removal represented a formal recognition on the part of the administration of his wrongdoing. The administration finalized its investigation by interviewing members of our fraternity as well as other witnesses. The assaulter was expelled from Tufts.

This difficult and draining process led our chapter to have many conversations about Greek life and rape culture on campus and to independently educate our members about sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention. In the future, we hope that the administrative process can change to better support survivors and witnesses throughout the reporting process.

Regardless of the false accusations made against our chapter, I sympathize with the sentiments of the Observer article. As I was quoted in an Oct. 12, 2015 Observer article entitled “Contested Spaces and the Rise of Greek life,” members of the Greek system need to be made aware of the problematic nature of Greek life and the systems of discrimination present in Greek traditions. As I told the Daily in a Nov. 18, 2015 article when our fraternity disaffiliated from our national chapter, we did so to diverge from these traditions and find a more productive meaning to “brotherhood.” We are still working to change the culture of our chapter.

If you were a first-year student asking me if you should join Greek life, my honest answer would be, “I don’t know.” Fraternity means different things to different people. For some, it means subscribing to the privileged debauchery and exclusivity to which the Observer article writer Ben Kesslen rightfully calls attention. As a first-generation first-year coming from rural poverty, finding a fraternity ironically meant finding a shelter from the immediate class alienation that I felt on campus (and still feel today). Students join Greek life for the same reasons that they join any other community at Tufts: some reasons good, some reasons bad.

There is no doubt that Greek life has gone uncriticized and unobserved for too long. I understand that. But this is a dialogue that needs to acknowledge the facts rather than drive a wedge between our community with unsourced, rumor-driven attacks.

 

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