Submission: Greek life valuable on campus, needs improved sexual assault prevention

Articles such as the piece posted by Aram Ghoogasian in the Aug. 31 issue of the Daily Bruin – “Gender divisions in Greek life promote sexism, should be banned” – provide a very useful service to our campus community by giving us the opportunity to think seriously about issues that are salient not only throughout the collegiate world, but throughout our nation. However, it is also important for the community to understand that UCLA’s Greek community is an outstanding example of Greek life in the context of American colleges and universities, and that both our Greek letter organizations and our administration have devoted enormous thought and effort toward finding ways to make the community the best it can be.

Fraternities and sororities have been an integral part of UCLA’s campus culture for decades with the first organization, Pi chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. being established here in 1923. The ongoing efforts toward self-improvement have produced significant contributions not only for direct participants, but for the larger community. Recent examples include: UCLA Theta Chi earned first place among all fraternities in total donations for the fight against pediatric AIDS during the 2015 Dance Marathon; UCLA’s Panhellenic Council was awarded the 2015 College Panhellenic Excellence Award for the second year; at Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s national leadership event, UCLA’s SAE chapter was named runner-up for Most Improved Chapter Award among all chapters within SAE; for almost 10 years, the Latino Greek Council has provided scholarships to financially assist under-represented first-year freshmen and transfer students; and UCLA Greek Week raised nearly $10,000 in support of the Special Olympics World Games Los Angeles 2015. It should also be noted that the combined GPA for all UCLA fraternities and sororities in spring quarter 2015 was higher than the combined GPA for all undergraduate male and female students.

It is also critical to highlight the continuous educational programming being done in regard to sexual assault prevention. Greeks Against Sexual Assault has become a very influential program within the Greek community. In other areas, Greek organizations participated in a bystander intervention education program during winter quarter 2015, the Greek community has been a regular participant in Sexual Assault Awareness Month for the past several years, and the system has developed a sexual assault awareness training for the entire Greek community that will take place during fall quarter.

In campuswide efforts, Zabie Yamasaki, M.Ed., joined our administration in July as the assistant director of Campus Assault Resources and Education. The focus for this office will be on prevention education for students, with special attention to the Greek community. An important element in this educational process will be the new Sexual Violence website, sexualviolence.ucla.edu. In addition, all new incoming students will be provided with information during their orientation sessions about sexual assault prevention. One result of this will be that any new student joining Greek life will have already received sexual assault prevention education prior to joining a fraternity or sorority.

In closing, the article is correct in suggesting that it will take more than Greeks Against Sexual Assault or the efforts of a few individuals to create the changes needed to optimize our culture. The involvement of the entire University will be needed in order to implement the appropriate changes. As the saying goes, “It takes a village.”

Dougherty is the assistant dean of students and director of fraternity and sorority relations.