Fraternities Split From USC Following Strict Party Rules
Six USC fraternities have cut ties with the school following the college's implementation of strict rules on parties.
The University of Southern California is no stranger to scandals. From the 2019 Admissions Scandal to allowing WOKE students to bully Isabel Washington (a black healthcare student) into stepping down from her student government position for supporting the Jewish community, the college has been inundated with scrutiny. Now six USC fraternities are cutting ties with the school clearly displaying the obvious differences between campus initiatives and student support.
The six USC fraternities that have decided to end their affiliation with the school are: Kappa Alpha Order, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Alpha Mu, Sigma Chi, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and Zeta Beta Tau. The Kappa Alpha Order has spearheaded workshops on sexual assault prevention and other related topics, as well as worked to provide further training materials to ensure that members are smart about their choices. Sigma Alpha Mu promotes “True Manhood. Democracy. Humanity.” and has worked to bring the feminine approach to such issues by hiring a female assistant executive director and membership experience specialist.
The college recently placed stricter rules on USC fraternity parties. The school claims that this is a direct response to increased sexual assault allegations, and serious investigations have been carried out. Despite this, the organizations severing their ties to the school were not at the heart of the sexual assaults, one has been working to increase sexual assault prevention for years, while others have installed female representatives to executive positions in order to incorporate women into their decision making processes.
The university decided to ban recruiting college freshmen and require USC fraternity members to complete at least 12 hours of coursework and maintain a 2.5 GPA. Then in 2020, they required fraternities to hire armed guards to attend parties. In 2021 further restrictions were imposed. These were said to prevent sexual assault, and were linked to Sigma Nu date rape and sexual assault allegations. That fraternity was suspended and an investigation was fully executed. Yet despite this, the school itself was implicated in a much larger, more harmful sexual assault scandal.
In 2019 USC was ordered to pay over $1 billion for mishandling rape and sexual assault claims against their own in-house gynecologist, George Tyndall. For years hundreds of women were raped and sexually abused by the school’s Student Health Center doctor. Not only did Tyndall force his patients to have sex with him, but he also took pictures of them under the guise that it was a routine medical practice. Because this case was so mishandled the school has become actively obsessed with combating sexual assault and may be punishing innocent USC fraternity members in order to make up for past errors.
Once again, UCS is currently embroiled in another scandal in which a Jewish student was forced to resign from her campus government position due to anti-semitic harassment. The school supposedly ignored the behavior and the education department is now investigating the rise of antisemitism on campus. So whether the college is cracking down on USC fraternity behavior, or working to keep current allegations out of the news and make up for previous scandals is uncertain.
For now, USC has not only warned the frats that they will no longer be allowed campus perks, but they have also vowed to actively dissuade students from joining newly non-affiliated USC fraternities. Sexual assault is a serious issue on college campuses and especially at frat parties, yet the frats who have walked away from this situation have not been connected to the large-scale scandals found within the college’s own walls, and many of them have done more to promote healthy community & relationship interactions than the school itself. As students stand at the brink of a new school year many are asking,: Are these frat members just acting out against new rules, or are they working toward better sexual assault prevention without college bureaucrat interference?
