A Thursday town hall meeting hosted by Boston University Greek Life’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee will seek to open a dialogue with sorority and fraternity members about how to make Greek Life more inclusive, the committee’s chair said.
The town hall is one of many events planned by two committees founded this semester to address long-standing issues in Greek Life. The Sexual Assault Prevention Committee has a Q&A event in collaboration with BU’s Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center planned for Saturday.
The SAP Committee is considering a proposal to make their assault prevention events mandatory for all sorority and fraternity chapters, said College of Arts and Sciences junior Bella Pompa, co-chair of the committee.
“We always find that people who are most affected by the problem, including survivors or those who know survivors, are the people who are the most active,” Pompa said. “But we need other people to come, people who might not be as interested but who would benefit the most from it.”
The committees were created by the governing bodies for BU’s sororities and fraternities — the Panhellenic Council and InterFraternity Council — with the mission of unifying all chapters of Greek Life toward one common goal, said former IFC president and current Student Body President Oliver Pour.
“There’s never a time where we can just be satisfied with what we have,” he said. “More room for improvement can always lead to more positive change.”
The SAP Committee is focusing on fundraising and offering opportunities for education, such as Q&A’s on what qualifies as a healthy relationship and conversations on consent and assault prevention, Pompa said.
The Instagram account @campus.survivors has published several anonymous stories from survivors who have been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped by members of Greek Life or at a BU chapter’s party.
Though she hasn’t personally experienced or witnessed it herself, Madeline Matonti, a freshman in CAS and member of Kappa Alpha Theta, said sexual assault continues to be a “pandemic” in Greek Life, and she is glad these new committees are confronting the issue.
“Another thing they should be addressing is not only preventing sexual [assault],” Matonti said, “but holding people accountable who have either committed [assault] in the past or currently and making sure that they are no longer allowed within Greek Life.”
The DE&I committee, though still in its infancy, is working to improve Greek Life’s evidence-based reputation as overwhelmingly white, cis-gendered and heterosexual, said Committee Chair and CAS junior Penelope Fiaschetti.
“Greek Life might not be as friendly to those who are not one of those things,” she said.
Currently, the committee is focusing on increasing dialogue with members, Fiaschetti said. Thursday’s town hall will discuss ways to make Greek Life more accessible.
“[Greek Life provides] camaraderie, opportunities to network within and outside of the BU community, a chance to get exposed to different experiences and different people that you might not have encountered,” Fiaschetti said.
College of General Studies freshman Saahithi Achanta, a member of Alpha Delta Pi, said she hopes the committee addresses the issue of elitism in Greek Life, as financial commitments and chapter dues can exclude some, while giving others a “superiority complex.”
“I think that a lot of people forget that classism and elitism can still be a huge issue within Greek Life,” Achanta said.
She added she believes the problem within fraternities and sororities isn’t with diversity and inclusion at BU, but rather, it’s a “natural byproduct of Greek Life.”
“Within Greek Life here at BU, I’ve never felt tokenized or felt pushed aside,” Achanta said. “I’ve always felt very included as a person of color within Greek Life, but I do understand how Greek Life is a pillar for those ideals of racism, sexism and classism.”
Nick Kolev, campus section editor for The Daily Free Press, is in the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He was not involved in the editing of this article.
Victoria Bond, the vice chair of Back Bay Publishing Co., is the president of the Panhellenic Council. They were not involved in the editing of this article.
Let’s just get rid of them lol. Not worth the hassle