Last month, the student-run Cornell Daily Sun reported on a lawsuit filed by a former student alleging she was gang raped by several members of the Chi Phi fraternity on Cornell University’s campus in 2024. The report gained national attention, renewing scrutiny of fraternity culture and placing a spotlight on how universities respond to allegations of sexual misconduct.
In light of this, some members of the DePaul community have questioned whether DePaul is doing enough to prevent sexual misconduct in Greek life and at the university broadly.
“I think that what the fraternities at DePaul and every institution should do right now is advocate,” said Bella Wolfe, a 2026 education alumna and former member of Delta Gamma. “Educate their members on consent and what rape culture looks like in a fraternity.”
On Tuesday, Oct. 7, DePaul’s Title IX coordinator Molly Lamping Fleck sent out a campus-wide email outlining DePaul’s policies about sexual and relationship violence, discrimination, harassment and resources on reporting. Although the federal government has narrowed protections for university students who make sexual abuse claims, Lamping Fleck vowed in her email that the university will continue to remain vigilant.
DePaul fraternities themselves have also publicly condemned sexual violence on college campuses. Sigma Chi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Phi Kappa Si, Phi Gamma Delta Alpha Epsilon Pi and Pi Kappa Phi all posted statements to Instagram in late September.
“Putting a statement out saying ‘We condemn the actions of this fraternity, at this institution,’ while it happens every day in the halls of your own institution, it feels almost otherworldly,” Wolfe said.
Templates and trainings
Wolfe created an email template for college students to contact their universities and demand more education on sexual misconduct within fraternities. She said she created the template for those who feel powerless and consumed by online discourse about sexual misconduct.
“Let me try and make something that’s accessible and easy to follow, something that people can quickly do in five minutes that might end up affecting change,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe said that she initially emailed DePaul on Sept. 29 and shared the template via her Instagram story the same day. Wolfe said many of her followers used the template to send their own emails and thanked her for creating it.
DePaul’s Office of Student Involvement, which oversees the university’s office of Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL), responded to Wolfe’s email on Oct. 7. The response outlined existing procedures for education on sexual misconduct and consent at DePaul.
In a statement to The DePaulia, University Communications said all new Greek life members are required to complete FSL 101 — a series of online training modules that include information on bystander intervention, reporting procedures and resources available from the Office of Gender Equity. Members must complete the training within three weeks of initiation, according to DePaul’s Fraternity and Sorority Life directives.
Wolfe questioned whether online training modules adequately address issues surrounding sexual misconduct.
“You cannot expect that to be effective, also in giving it to people online and making it sort of like, ‘Oh, find the time to do this,’” Wolfe said. “You’re inviting a culture of, ‘This doesn’t matter. I don’t want to do this. It’s taking my time away.’”
University Communications said new members are also required to attend a “Vinny Vow” training, a 2.5-hour long skills-based training on consent, sexual violence prevention and bystander intervention strategies.
“It’s a baseline training over what consent means and what sexual misconduct is,” Dylan Vanderjagt said, a senior member of Sigma Chi studying film and television.
Power dynamics at parties
For Wolfe, concerns about sexual misconduct extend beyond consent education. She cited problematic power dynamics between fraternities and sororities.
“Sororities aren’t the ones who host the parties. Fraternities are the ones that host the parties and are the ones that provide the alcohol,” Wolfe said. “It’s something that automatically places the power into the men’s hands.”
A 2023 study published in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse found that women in sororities are four times more likely to experience rape than their nonsorority counterparts.
FSL Directives include substantial regulations around events with alcohol hosted by Greek life organizations. All events with alcohol must be registered with DeHUB 14 days in advance and held in a third-party venue. Further, open parties — events allowing nonmembers without invitations — and BYOB events are strictly prohibited under all circumstances.
“Official mixers are things that we do, usually for service,” Wolfe said. “Unofficial mixers are essentially like a party between groups. It’s where a lot of the alcohol is involved, where drugs are involved.”
University Communications said the Interfraternity Council, the governing body of all social fraternities at DePaul, called a meeting with DePaul’s Office of Gender Equity to discuss consent and the university’s Title IX policies. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding, including sexual violence.
Vanderjagt said all members of social fraternities were required to attend, and members who had scheduling conflicts were given resources to make up the meeting.
“DePaul is responding to a situation that doesn’t involve them in a very appropriate way,” Vanderjagt said. “It’s been very nice because members like myself or those who got initiated freshman year haven’t taken their Vinny Vow in two years. It’s been a really great refresher.”
The connection to hazing
Online discussions regarding sexual misconduct in fraternities have highlighted the relationship with another controversial aspect of Greek life: hazing. While hazing and sexual misconduct are distinct from each other, they can both involve coercion and pressure to conform to group expectations.
“As far as hazing goes, that’s something that ties, in my opinion, directly back in to sexual assault and rape culture,” Wolfe said. “It should be handled in the exact same way.”
A 2025 study from the American Psychological Association found that “positive attitudes toward hazing and views downplaying sexual assault were correlated.” The study also found that college-bound men who intended to join fraternities were more likely to endorse sexual and hazing violence than men who were uncertain or uninterested.
Hazing is classified as a Class A misdemeanor in Section 12C-50 of Illinois law. DePaul prohibits hazing of any form for all student organizations including Greek life in its Code of Student Responsibility.
Fraternity and sorority chapter presidents and chapter recruitment officers are required to complete a hazing prevention training, which provides guidelines to recognize and report hazing.
Historically, DePaul’s Interfraternity Council has taken disciplinary action in response to reports of hazing. Multiple sources named Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) as an example. DePaul suspended its SAE chapter in 2025 for four years following an investigation into complaints of hazing, University Communications said.
“DePaul is very strict about it,” said Heather Derrick, a senior member of Delta Zeta studying public relations and advertising.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon has been involved in controversies that resulted in suspension at other Chicago area universities. CBS News reported that Northwestern’s SAE chapter was suspended in 2017 just five weeks after Loyola’s chapter was suspended.
Derrick said that at DePaul, SAE gained the nickname “Sexual Assault Expected” — a play on the acronym of the chapter.
“I literally remember finding out they got kicked off and I popped a bottle of champagne,” Derrick said.
Reporting and resources
In her Oct. 7 email, Lamping Fleck reiterated ways students can seek support from the university, adding that all faculty, staff and student employees are mandated reporters. This means they are legally required to tell the Title IX office about sexual assault incidents.
This includes resident assistants (RAs) who are uniquely positioned as both students and employees in campus residential facilities.
“When I was an RA, if an incident were to happen, I would have to report it as a mandated reporter to the Title IX office and say, ‘I know this from this student, this has happened,’” said Zadie Feast, a former RA and first-year law student.
According to DePaul’s Formal Title IX Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures, the Title IX office assesses reports to determine whether they “fall within the scope of Title IX.” If confirmed, the office then asks the alleged victim if they wish to move forward with a formal investigation.
Feast said this approach puts a burden of work on alleged victims in a time that is already traumatizing and tumultuous for them.
University Communications said, “We consistently evaluate and update these resources and welcome feedback from the DePaul community on how to strengthen these prevention efforts.”
Feast questioned how accessible DePaul’s sexual violence resources truly are for victims.
“Schools love to say, ‘We have available resources. We’re here to help,’” Feast said. “But then when you report stuff, it’s like, how actually available are these resources?”
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