In 2022, Fraternity and Sorority Life at Northwestern quietly eliminated its mandatory requirement for consent and sexual assault prevention trainings for NU fraternities.

This decision, which was only communicated to us a month ago, was shocking, for it is regressive and antithetical to NU’s core values. Prior to the mandate’s lifting, NU fraternities were required to schedule annual consent workshops with Masculinity, Allyship, Reflection, Solidarity for their incoming class.

Every Interfraternity Council organization complied, and even some non-IFC fraternities reached out for programming. However, since the mandate was lifted, only one IFC fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, has scheduled such a workshop with MARS.

In the past few years, there have been multiple series of op-eds and protests surrounding sexual assault and Greek life. According to the Campus Climate Survey, one in three women and one in nine men report an experience with sexual assault.

FSL’s eradication of its requirement for consent and sexual assault prevention negatively impacts the NU student body, specifically members of Greek life.

MARS is an all-masculine-identifying peer education group affiliated with the Center for Awareness, Response & Education that provides education around healthy masculinity, power dynamics and bystander intervention in predominantly “masculine” spaces at NU.

CARE promotes activism in and around NU through consulting work, student panels, mentorship for middle and high school students and workshops. These workshops cover not only consent but also privilege, gender, accountability and intersectionality.

They start discussions, encouraging participants to open up about their experiences with relationships and masculinity. These training sessions aim to destigmatize holding oneself and others accountable and aim to inform each member of the organization on how to challenge restrictive notions of masculinity that could make others uncomfortable or unwelcome.

The removal of IFC’s obligation to have these trainings directly harms the larger NU student body. Fraternities organize a large portion of the social events attended by NU underclassmen. As the hosts of these events, fraternities have a social responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of all of their attendees, regardless of membership.

Chapter members who have attended a MARS training on sexual violence prevention and supporting survivors can better ensure their events are fun and safe places for all.

Moreover, survivors of sexual assault tend to be women and disproportionately women of color. Since most members of IFC chapters do not share those identities, training is especially helpful in fostering healthy spaces for identities other than theirs.

The removal of these mandated trainings also harms members of the fraternities. In masculine-dominant spaces, certain norms and cultures emphasizing the most restrictive and harmful notions of masculinity can develop. These norms and cultures are not only harmful to those outside of the group but those within it as well.

However, a restrictive culture is not inevitable in masculine spaces. With proper training, dialoguing and reflection, these organizations can become more welcoming and positive spaces that empower their members to grow and flourish.

MARS firmly believes that everyone benefits from spaces where people respect one another, hold one another accountable and engage healthily with their identities.

We recommend IFC, FSL and NU reinstate the requirement and enforce the requirement. In its decision, FSL cited the time pressure from existing mandatory substance use training, but we cannot reduce the harm of substance use without addressing consent.

This requirement is asking for 90 minutes of time, once a year, which is more than reasonable. We also call upon each IFC-member institution to reach out independently to MARS and schedule a workshop this spring before they are required to.

Finally, we encourage students concerned by this change to contact FSL and demand that the training requirement be reinstated immediately. The importance of education and accountability, especially concerning consent, violence, power and Greek life cannot be overstated.

This current situation is unacceptable, as it perpetuates the idea that IFC-member institutions do not need to take responsibility for safety in their spaces. However, this mistake is fixable, and easily so.

Signed,
Savir Maskara, Victor Criollo and Austin Segal on behalf of MARS, Survivor Advocacy through Greek Engagement, Sexual Health and Assault Peer Educators, and Sustained Dialogue

Editor’s Note: This letter may not represent the views of every individual registered member of each of the four named organizations.

The authors of this letter can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.