WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT
FRATERNITIE Editor’s Note: The author is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
STORY WILL FISCHER // DESIGN EMMA KUMER
THE NORTHWESTERN COMMUNITY STRUGGLES TO ADDRESS A CULTURE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT IN GREEK LIFE
I
t was a cold winter morning during Caroline Scott’s sophomore year. She needed to make a phone call. She was still trying to piece together the previous night’s events. She dialed a friend, who she knew she had been with the night before. His voice came through. “Oh, you don’t remember?” His nonchalance caught Scott off guard. She replied that she didn’t. “Oh well you know, we had blackout sex.” Scott was shaken. His response had been so casual, so normal – was she crazy? She didn’t want to overreact, but she felt terrible. “I felt like a slut,” Scott says. “I felt like I had asked for it. I felt like it was my fault. I felt so violated and so used.” Unsure of what to do, Scott apologized on the phone, saying she was just trying to figure out what was going on. His response did not console her: “This is just what happens in fraternities.”
PHOTOS ELISSA GRAY
