Greeks educate members about date rape

The Arizona Daily Wildcat reported Friday on the alleged rape and assault of a sorority pledge.

Today, members of Pi Kappa Alpha will be listening to a discussion on the issue.

Chapter president and political science junior Doug Lipsky, said the chapter has a speaker come to the house about once a month. This month's speaker will be discussing the issue of acquaintance rape, Lipsky said.

"We thought that it would be appropriate to have a speaker on this topic," Lipsky said. "It is in light of recent events and to educate my members a little more (on the subject)."

Every semester members of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity attend a lecture in which the topic of acquaintance rape is discussed, said chapter president and marketing senior, Neil Lieberman.

Lieberman said in every lecture the members are educated on what could happen as a result of an incident involving acquaintance rape. He said they also discuss the effects and the involvement of alcohol as well.

Panhellenic association president and communication senior, Jennifer Gerth said the association as a whole conducts several programs with regards to member education. In addition her organization holds a new member symposium each semester. Acquaintance rape is only one of many topics discussed in these educational settings.

"Last spring it (the new member symposium) was on date rape," Gerth said.

Gerth said that while she was unaware of the report in the Wildcat, she was sure the issue would be discussed at the next executive meeting, to be held today.

Lieberman said members of his chapter had discussed reports published on Friday, however, no formal discussions have taken place as a chapter at this time.

"I know people are concerned," Lieberman said. "We will be discussing it, we are just kind of waiting to see what happens because right now it is still alleged, we don't want to jump to any conclusions."

Jme Tanowitz, administrative vice president for Alpha Epsilon Phi and Judaic studies junior said her sorority periodically invites staff members from Campus Health Service to discuss the topic of acquaintance rape.

"We haven't (discussed it) yet," Tanowitz said with reference to the recently published report. "Tomorrow night we have our first meeting since anything happened and we will be discussing that."

Chelsea Carden, finance sophomore and standards committee member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, said her chapter conducts educational meetings on acquaintance rape every semester, similar to many other chapters.

"We do it normally just because we don't want anyone to get hurt."

The chapter recently held a meeting to educate pledges in light of recent events, she said.

"We just had a meeting with our pledges (about acquaintance rape)," Carden said. "We got pamphlets from Campus Health that talked about how to be safe, we told them how careful they have to be."

Carden said pledges were spoken to specifically because they are new to campus and with recent reports they (the chapter) felt it was important to discuss. Active members were also given the brochure and participated in the discussion.

While many chapters have been and continue to discuss the issue, Chadd Garcia president of Alpha Gamma Rho and agriculture and resource economics senior said there is really no discussion of this issue within his chapter.

"We're a small house and we are very selective of who we let in," Garcia said. "We don't really have a problem with people mistreating women."