In the past few weeks, the University of Chicago has faced two reports of sexual assault at fraternity houses. The first came from Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), where a 21-year-old woman reported being sexually assaulted during a party on October 11. Days later, a 19-year-old woman filed a lawsuit alleging she was sexually assaulted at the Alpha Delta Phi (Alpha Delt) house in February. The lawsuit also detailed many other sexual assault allegations that the chapter has faced since 2009.
Universities across the country have fallen under intense public scrutiny since the Jane Doe case at Cornell University gathered the attention of lawmakers, prosecutors, and university officials. The case involves a woman, identifying as Jane Doe, who alleges that seven Chi Phi fraternity members, who have been dubbed the “Cornell seven,” drugged and gang raped her on October 19, 2024.
Shortly after the incident at AEPi, former Undergraduate Student Government President Elijah Jenkins (A.B. ’26, A.M. ’26), posted a TikTok blaming the University’s leadership for the situation. His criticism focused on the fact that fraternities at UChicago operate “autonomously,” free from institutional supervision. I completely agree that the University is at fault for failing to provide oversight. Many of my peers also seemed to agree at the “We are Jane Doe” rally on the main quad on Wednesday, October 28, where students and faculty demanded a response from the University by Friday, November 20.
The history of fraternities on campus begins with the newly refounded University in 1892, when the University’s first President William Rainey Harper expressed opposition to the idea of fraternities because of a conflict between their exclusive, secretive nature and the “democratic spirit of scholarship.” Ultimately, the University administration allowed fraternities to organize under the housing office’s oversight.
Since then, University administrators have maintained that fraternities “have no formal affiliation with the University,” per an October 11 community alert addressing the AEPi assault. Nonetheless, more than 30 Greek-letter organizations thrive on the Hyde Park campus, but due to initial housing arrangements, fraternities exist entirely on private property.
UChicago has an incentive to advertise association with Greek life when it is convenient or advantageous to the University and deny it when it is damaging to the institutional brand. There is a drastic difference between what prospective students are told by tour guides and what the University officially says.
In 2020, student tour guides were reportedly instructed to emphasize a thriving Greek community and inform families that 15–20 percent of students participate. This may not be the case now, but the College Admissions page about RSOs refers to fraternities in a way that could suggest recognition and affiliation by the University. The statement that “[s]tudents organize and run fourteen fraternities and seven sororities” appears in the same paragraph that opens by describing the University’s more than 450 RSOs.
According to a tour guide who spoke to the Maroon on condition of anonymity, the Admissions Office has recently faced many questions and concerns from parents and prospective students about the reported sexual assaults on campus. In a message sent by the Admissions Office on October 16, tour guides were “encouraged” to refer families to the office directly. Likewise, tour guides were not given a comprehensive outline of responses or reassurances to share. To me, this reads as a defensive approach, suggesting that Admissions distrusts its student employees to represent the University. It also raises questions about whether the office has meaningful reassurances to offer.
The University states that the “primary purpose” of its student handbook is “to protect the well-being of the community,” but it does not act accordingly. The handbook adds that “[a]ny student conduct, on or off campus, of individuals or groups” violating such commitment “may become a matter for action within the University’s system of student discipline.” This wording implies that “groups” can be held accountable, but fraternities fall outside that reach as wholly unrecognized organizations.
The University’s willful blindness is especially egregious given that four popular fraternities occupy University Avenue. Lovingly referred to by students as “frat row,” these frats are right on campus with access to the main quadrangle, a dining hall, and other University edifices. Alpha Delt, the fraternity currently facing a lawsuit, shares a wall with Saieh Hall. Why, then, do news outlets describing sexual assault cases involving UChicago fraternities refer to the houses as “off-campus”?
A campus-wide email was sent out on October 21 mentioning the “deeply concerning” sexual assaults on campus. The deans of students in the College and the University stated that UChicago leaders were proactively working on “steps regarding issues raised,” but at the Public Safety Advisory Council (PSAC) meeting later that day, PSAC Chair Sharon Fairley could not describe any of these supposed steps when questioned about measures being taken to prevent sexual assault. The “concern” expressed in the email does nothing to assure our student body and makes students even more apprehensive about the administration’s willingness—or lack thereof—to make meaningful changes.
We have seen this same wording before. In 2019, UChicago participated in a sexual misconduct campus climate survey conducted by the Association of American Universities. The survey found that students were better educated about sexual misconduct in 2019 compared to 2015, but that reported incidences of sexual assault had increased and confidence in administrators had declined among undergraduate women. Then-Provost Daniel Diermeier called the findings “deeply troubling” in an email to campus at the time. Sound familiar? It’s the same concern, without concrete solutions.
We are experiencing history repeat itself with no reforms to prevent further inhumane acts toward members of our student body. The burden of demonstrating that existing prevention systems actually work falls on University leadership, and they have yet to do so. This data is from some time ago, but our students continue to experience sexual misconduct and find University resources ineffective.
In stark contrast, the overwhelming majority of colleges and universities in the United States practice active, formal administrative oversight of Greek life. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, has active recognition guidelines that allow the university to expel any chapters that violate university policy in “an egregious manner.” When expelled, the chapter must then “cease operations.”
Similarly, Stanford University’s Fraternity and Sorority Life policy became effective on February 21, 2022, and has been reviewed annually. The policy lays out Stanford’s procedure “for the conferral, removal, or reinstatement of recognition” of their social Greek life. Under this policy, only recognized chapters are eligible for the benefits and privileges Stanford extends to RSOs, and Stanford determines which chapters qualify. The Maroon Editorial Board found in 2020 that these universities have comparable student participation levels in Greek life to UChicago, but the University’s hardcore “non-recognition” position is a notable outlier from the rest.
It would be wrong to conclude that recognition is the cure-all. Cornell recognizes their frats. However, Cornell suspended fraternity parties for the 2026–27 school year and instated a “zero-tolerance” policy with immediate chapter freezes. Additionally, the University of Arizona suspended fraternity activities this month after multiple reports of assault and other misconduct. The ability to take direct disciplinary action is exactly what university recognition enables.
This brings us to how the University of Chicago’s relationship with fraternities is currently structured, and how oversight could actually help.
First, under the status quo, the University can only punish individuals who participate in Greek life rather than hold the chapters accountable as collective organizations. The University says it can discipline enrolled students who are fraternity members, but it has no formal relationship with the organizations themselves. Second, the University does not know what occurs in Greek life. It does not keep track of membership or events. Third, UChicago’s relationship with fraternities creates weaker informal control than other schools. Most fraternities at UChicago are in private houses, and the sororities have no houses at all, so they rely on University spaces. That means that the University has leverage over sororities but almost none over fraternities, which misses the target on where the risk lies.
This is not to suggest that the University should own or manage the frat houses, but rather that there should be some mechanism through which fraternities maintain institutional dependency, much like sororities do. Recognition could require a roster, a designated officer, party registration, and even incident reporting. It could also involve accountability tools: conditions for maintaining recognition, probation, suspension, or loss of access to benefits, much like other universities currently have.
To be clear, this op-ed is by no means intended to advocate for the abolition of Greek life. Fraternities and sororities connect our students to a network that can be beneficial in their future career paths, create a sense of community and belonging, and (some would argue) help develop leadership skills. However, along with the social benefits that “brotherhood” comes with, it also insulates misconduct. These solutions are possible only if UChicago ends its non-recognition of fraternities. The administration’s avoidance of responsibility demonstrates an unwillingness to confront the consequences of repeated sexual misconduct. It is time that our university took responsibility for the misconduct occurring under its leadership.
Alex Muñoz Villar is a third-year in the College.
