There are no more frat parties (for now) at Johns Hopkins, as the school grapples with the aftermath of two sexual assault allegations related to Hopkins fraternities.
Earlier this month, a sixteen-year-old Baltimore County resident was allegedly assaulted by two men during a Halloween party at the Sigma Alpha Episilon house. A different frat was suspended previously due to an alleged gang rape at a 2013 party; the school is under investigation by the Department of Education for its response (or, initially, lack thereof) to the event.
The Inter-Fraternity Council voted to ban open parties on November 3, but the Hopkins administration decided to take things a step further by putting a moratorium on all frat events until further notice. The administration has said that they want to hear back from the school’s Alcohol Strategy Group and develop a consistent implementation plan before moving forward with future frat events.
This isn’t just a Hopkins thing; fraternities nationwide have found themselves at the center of the debate about campus sexual assault, the New York Times reports. Amherst College now forbids students from belonging to a fraternity or sorority, after running into problems with off-campus frats. “It’s a gray area that’s untenable,” Biddy Martin, Amherst’s president, told the Times. “We’ve had incidents where we literally couldn’t find out who was involved because we have no authority.”
They need to ban frats, period.
Hooray