Three women sue Yale, saying off-campus fraternities discriminate, enable abuse

February 12, 2019  23H:04  GMT/ZULU

by Kathy DiNuzzo and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, New Haven

Three women sued Yale University and nine fraternities on Tuesday, saying the off-campus clubs harbored a culture of sexual discrimination and assault, and asking the court to order the all-male social organizations to admit women.

All three undergraduate students of the Ivy League college said were groped at parties held at fraternity houses off campus during their first semesters at the school, according to the complaint filed in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut.

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Ry Walker, a 20-year-old college junior from New York, said that someone had pulled up her skirt and grabbed her crotch at a dark and crowded party in 2016, but that she did not report the incident as she had not seen who had groped her. She said she later realized many Yale women had had similar experiences.

The women said the fraternities discriminated against them by rejecting them on the basis of gender, a decision that they said potentially denied them access to networking opportunities that could help their later careers.

Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy declined to comment on the lawsuit.

He forwarded a January message sent to students by the school’s dean about a university investigation that found evidence of sexual misconduct at one of the nine fraternities targeted in the women’s lawsuit.

“I condemn the culture described in these accounts; it runs counter to our community’s values of making everyone feel welcome, respected, and safe,” Dean Marvin Chun said in the message. “I also offer some plain advice about events like these: don’t go to them.”

Rolling Stone rape story not backed by evidence, police say

by Alyssa Mann and Biodun Iginla, BBC News Online

8 minutes ago

Charlottesville, Virginia police have said an investigation has produced no evidence a gang rape portrayed in a Rolling Stone article occurred.

But Chief Timothy Longo said it did not mean "something terrible didn't happen" to the student known as Jackie.
The November 2014 article described a horrifying gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house in 2012.
But after discrepancies were found in the story, the magazine apologised for the article.
"We should have not made this agreement with Jackie and we should have worked harder to convince her that the truth would have been better served by getting the other side of the story," Rolling Stone said in a statement. "These mistakes are on Rolling Stone."
A report by the Washington Post found writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely had not contacted those accused of the rape.
Jackie told the newspaper she had asked Ms Erdely to remove her from the article but that the writer had refused.
According to the Post, Jackie said she stands by her account, but she now says some of the details in the magazine may not be accurate.

Jackie did not co-operate with the Charlottesville police investigation, which was begun at the request of University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan after the article was published.
Mr Longo said a police investigation did not find any evidence at the Phi Kappa Psi house, where Jackie said the rape took place.
But the investigation was only suspended, not closed, the police chief said, as his detectives did not have the power to compel anyone to co-operate, and there might be additional leads in the future to determine what happened to Jackie.
"All I can tell you is that there is no substantive basis to conclude that what was reported in that article happened," he said.
He said Jackie had been in contact with police months before the article was published and did not want them to investigate the alleged assault.
Rolling Stone has asked the dean of the Columbia University graduate school of journalism to conduct a review of its reporting.
The magazine is expected to publish those findings in a few weeks.
Phi Kappa Psi was reinstated by the University of Virginia as an official fraternity at the school in January.