Editor’s note: This article discusses sexual assault. If you or anyone you know has experienced sexual assault, the Aurora Center’s 24-hour helpline can be reached at (612) 626-9111.
Four years ago, a group of student protesters marched down University Avenue, also known as “frat row,” to denounce rape culture and demand the University of Minnesota take action to stop sexual assault after a string of sexual assault reports occurred across University fraternities.
On Sept. 10, dozens of University students continued this legacy with a march starting from Cooke Hall and ending at the Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) house, led by recently formed student group UMN Against Frats.
The FIJI house was chosen as the end location of Friday’s protest to show solidarity with the protests at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) after a sexual assault was reported at its FIJI chapter.
With chants of “All frats are FIJI,” protesters made their message clear: they stand in solidarity with the protesters at UNL and victims of sexual assault at the University of Minnesota.
“I think what’s happening at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is giving different schools momentum to continue this work,” said a representative of Abolish Greek Life UMN, who asked to remain anonymous due to safety reasons. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that sexual violence has happened on campuses, but I think now people are tuning [in] especially with what’s happening at FIJI.”
Abolish Greek Life UMN is another recently formed student group that uses their Instagram profile to post stories written by students about their experiences with two Greek life organizations, the Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils. Many of these stories depict sexual assault at fraternity houses and experiences that caused students to drop out of greek life.
“What we hope to do by posting victim-survivor stories is just [to show] solidarity,” the Abolish Greek Life representative said. “Some of the members of the group did experience sexual violence on campus and didn’t feel like they had the outlet to talk about their stories and I think that’s so true for so many other victim-survivors.”
Advocacy in the Greater Minneapolis Community
Like Abolish Greek Life UMN, other groups in the Minneapolis community are working to elevate the voices of victim-survivors. One of these groups is called Break the Silence.
Anishaa Kamesh, a board member of Break the Silence, said the organization is a “grassroots, survivor-led organization that works to support survivors and dismantle rape culture through a trauma-informed and victim-centered approach.”
In the past, Break the Silence joined conversations surrounding sexual violence on campus. In 2017, they organized a non-violent protest in response to sexual assault allegations against 10 University football players,
“We have aligned ourselves with survivors in the community in their fights for justice and accountability through nonviolent demonstrations,” Kamesh said.
Aside from their direct-action work, Break the Silence has fought for four years for legislative change to eliminate barriers for victim-survivors. They recently helped pass a bill in the Minnesota legislature ending the statue of limitation for sexual assault cases. This bill went into effect on Wednesday.
Another group on campus, the Aurora Center, works to provide free, confidential and accessible resources to student and staff victim-survivors. Housed in Appleby Hall, the Aurora Center advocates for victim-survivors at the University of Minnesota and Augsburg University in the legal system, academic settings, through medical examinations, law enforcement and in finding safe housing.
“Our mission is to serve all student survivors and concerned people regarding sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking and sexual harassment at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, as well as Augsburg University,” said Katie Eichele, director of the Aurora Center.
The Aurora Center focuses on giving victim-survivors back the control and choice in processing an experience that took away that control and bodily autonomy, said Gavin Grivna, the associate director of the Aurora Center
“I think it’s important that [victim-survivors] have the ability to choose, following what has taken place because a survivor doesn’t have a choice with what they experience,” Grivna said. “Being able to create that choice and autonomy is really important and what we prioritize.”
The Aurora Center staff members are dedicated to supporting victim-survivors’ decisions and providing the right services to address their wants and needs, Grivna said.
“At the end of the day, we just want the survivor to feel supported,” Grivna said. “There’s places and people they can go to for support, to be heard, and engage in what a healing journey looks like for them.”
While the services and resources at the Aurora Center on campus are available as free, confidential support for victim-survivors, the first-ever national memorial to honor victims and survivors stands in Boom Island Park.
This project, started by Break the Silence, is meant to create a safe space for victim-survivors in the Minneapolis community to heal and reflect, according to Kamesh.
The recent student-led protest, along with advocacy efforts led by groups like Break the Silence and the Aurora Center, are just some of the recent advocacy efforts at the University and greater Minneapolis community that provide safety and healing to victim-surivors, while striving to end the stigma of speaking out against sexual violence.
However, according to the representative from Abolish Greek Life UMN, there is still a long road ahead in the fight to end rape culture and the silencing of victim-survivors rooted in fraternities — and in society as a whole.
“It’s going to be a long battle and I hope it continues,” said the representative from Abolish Greek Life UMN. “I’m hopeful because I’m seeing a whole bunch of other people getting involved, and I think there needs to be a long-term solution, just because it shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of the students to do this work.”
JS
Oct 4, 2021 at 10:08 am
Wait, what? Women or men have the right to sell sex as a free choice of theirs? Prostitution is illegal in Minnesota. Any buying or selling of sex, or facilitating such a transaction, is considered prostitution by the state and will be prosecuted. Most of the state’s laws and penalties related to prostitution are covered in State Statute 609.324.
Minnesota enacted Safe Harbor Laws to protect youth under age 24 from being sexually exploited. That’s why I am so angry that Seeking (aka Seeking Arrangements) is even allowed to exist, much less being advertised on our campuses. I tried to comment earlier and had links to past articles that glamorize sugar daddy/sugar baby arrangements but my post was not published…hmmm? Please search them yourselves and read the articles by searching on Sugar baby in past articles. These arrangements are misleading, selling “escort services”, it’s a fine line. They are preying on our vulnerable students with the promises of financial support. I tried to get the administration’s attention but they ignored my plea. In 2019, we had 542 students registered on Seeking Arrangements. Membership is free with a .edu email address. I’ve heard the numbers increased during the pandemic. Look up Sugar Baby University and see what you think.
JS
Sep 30, 2021 at 5:39 pm
Wait, what? Women or men have the right to sell sex as a free choice of theirs? Prostitution is illegal in Minnesota. Any buying or selling of sex, or facilitating such a transaction, is considered prostitution by the state and will be prosecuted. Most of the state’s laws and penalties related to prostitution are covered in State Statute 609.324.
Minnesota enacted Safe Harbor Laws to protect youth under age 24 from being sexually exploited. That’s why I am so angry that Seeking (aka Seeking Arrangements) is even allowed to exist, much less being advertised on our campuses. I tried to comment earlier and had links to past articles that glamorize sugar daddy/sugar baby arrangements but my post was not published…hmmm? Please search them yourselves and read the articles by searching on Sugar baby in past articles. These arrangements are misleading, selling “escort services”, it’s a fine line. They are preying on our vulnerable students with the promises of financial support. I tried to get the administration’s attention but they ignored my plea. In 2019, we had 542 students registered on Seeking Arrangements. Membership is free with a .edu email address. I’ve heard the numbers increased during the pandemic. Look up Sugar Baby University and see what you think.
Al
Sep 27, 2021 at 1:21 am
There is a very fine line between selling your body, which everyone has the right to do so, and being forced or manipulated into doing so. There is a clear difference between a “sugar daddy,” and the situation which you describe which I am shocked you don’t see. Do you simply see ALL sex work as something that should be banned? You tell of very emotional stories, which are horrible at repeated across the world with both genders, but completely ignore the valid points of a woman’s or man’s right to use their body as their wish, and label me as someone who simply does not care about victims. That is an extreme assumption to label me as “crass,” while you label yourself as the bringer of morality by saying you care about something completely different from what I discussed in my comments. You simplified and construed my comments to work around the narrative you are creating which is that me discussing a person’s right to engage in sex work, as a supporter of the “sex slave trade.” That I would not care if my son or daughter were to be forced or manipulated into becoming a slave. A slave is someone who does not possess a choice, and I am again shocked you would direct my comments in such a light. There is no discounting the stories of victims but for you to use the story you describe to label me as your target, or otherwise, a supporter of sex slavery. The shallowness which you have to take my comments for freedom and say that it, again, applies to sex slavery, or just as horrible, rape of any kind. If that is your opinion you may want to read the text a little closer, because you are only finding what you wish in my comments. Freedom has absolutely nothing to do with sex slavery or rape of any kind, and for me to have to further share with an intelligent person as yourself is shocking. Freedom stops the moment a person is FORCED to do something they do not wish to do. Why would you take what I have written (which was not to do with sex slavery but the right for any person to use their body as they wish, and additionally, the VERY REAL consequences of “banning” frats) and construct such a false narrative? My response never discounted the experience of any victim, on the contrary, I detailed how the mission to label all “Frats are Fiji” and shut them down could severely damage and limit any resources or recourse for victims to access on campus. My response to the extremely strong mother’s comments about taking action against posts for “sugar daddies” etc is something you have twisted. I cannot discount the experiences of any victim, but for you to mitigate my explanation and defense for a human being’s right to own, or sell, their body and say that it is meant as some attack on her or her daughter is grotesque and beyond insulting. You are taking offense for somebody else and her daughter, and then further labeling me as some shallow emotionless attacker. Then to use another victim’s story about a horrible situation of forced sex slavery in a way that makes it seem as if I somehow label that as freedom and support it… I honestly do not understand. You seem like a very intelligent individual, but in response to your manipulative narrative of my comments, I can only shout, “how dare you,” at this laptop screen. It is one thing to misconstrue the intentions of someone, but for you to take my comments and create your own to put me in such a light is disgusting. You are brave enough to share your story and I’m sure that act has inspired many others to do the same. You offered an inspirational, and emotional, survivor story, but instead of sharing that narrative to inspire or caution, you used it to target me as someone who would be supportive of such atrocities. I do hope you read this to completion one day because you are the last individual (based on your first post) to create such a shallow narrative from comments that never offered any support for sex slavery, victim-blaming, or any other aspects of rape culture. I posed questions, and identified obstacles with the topics of shutting down frats, and the right of every human being to do what they wish with their own body. How is the sex slavery you offer in your response to my comments, and any other sex which is done against one’s will, freedom? Where did I ever discount, question, or otherwise discredit the traumatic experiences of the mother, her daughter, OR EVEN YOU? How can you manipulate my words just to make me some terrible attacker, while you hop in with your own completely unrelated narrative to allow you to appear “holier than thou.” Oh because you’re some divine individual by dramatically stating, “I do” after falsely accusing me of supporting sex slavery? How could you spin such a narrative, in which I am the villain but you are conveniently the only one who stands for justice? Where did I advise this publication to publish specific content? You have targeted me unrightfully so for multiple viewpoints which I do not have and have certainly not expressed in my comments. The pain you have expressed is real and heard, although I acknowledge that there is nothing words can do to aid in the continuous struggle. I have no issue with the expression of hurt, in hopes it will lead to healing, and allowing all victims a place they can feel not only safe but comfortable enough to be heard. What I do have an issue with, is the fact you wrap the pain you have in with a false narrative that implies I am somehow for the very horrifying acts I had repeatedly said I was against. That is not ok. That is linking me into not only beliefs I don’t hold, but acts for which I had no control over. You do not know my experiences, nor those of anyone else that hasn’t shared their story. So why in your attempt to target me, would you continue after labeling me a supporter of sex slavery, with your specific trauma as if I am somehow rooting for you to suffer further? I don’t know if you meant to just further express your story, or if it was an another subject for which you think I am supportive of, but it deserves it’s own comment, or reply, if the latter is true. This is disheartening, if not, grotesque how you chose to frame my words. Lastly, how F- dare you act for even a moment as if I, or 99% of planet earth, would “not care if your daughter or son get involved with life or have institutions which groom young women and men into the sex slave trade” especially without EVER considering the circumstances I or any other individual has experienced. It reflects extreme self righteousness that you would depict anyone, let alone someone who posted what I did above about the freedom to CHOOSE, as indifferent and vein to the thought of their child being forced into sex slavery. C’mon…really?
-Read closer, and next time, label the right people as emotionless creatures before you try to appear, I’ll use the phrase again, “holier than thou” with your response.
-The pain carried by any victim is real and deserves support. Whoever reads this, you don’t need to be silent, somebody cares, and so many more people are willing to listen.
-With sincere love, handshake, hug and best wishes going forward in all of life’s highs and lows…..(AL)
praiseinterracialmarriages
Sep 22, 2021 at 9:20 pm
As a man who was sexually assaulted by a woman while I was a pledge at Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, before it recently returned after I gave a complaint to the University of Minnesota Student Affairs attorney Nick Barbatsis in 1986 due to drug dealing and poor leadership, I see that rape is a difficult thing from which to recover. I still have nightmares of it, and an Augsburg University football player with whom I spoke in 2019 began to break down in tears recounting how a woman drugged him and how several people held him down and forced penetration. He was upset that he could not stop the assault. Women are also sexual aggressors and the American Journal of Public Health detailed a study of well over 1,200,000 women and 1,200,000 men: There was just a three-thousand difference in the amount of men versus women who were raped.
Here is what the American Journal of Public Health reported in June 2014, in a study entitled “The Sexual Victimization of Men in America: New Data Challenge Old Assumptions”:
“…in 2011 the CDC reported results from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), one of the most comprehensive surveys of sexual victimization conducted in the United States to date. The survey found that men and women had a similar prevalence of nonconsensual sex in the previous 12 months (1.270 million women and 1.267 million men).5 This remarkable finding challenges stereotypical assumptions about the gender of victims of sexual violence. However unintentionally, the CDC’s publications and the media coverage that followed instead highlighted female sexual victimization, reinforcing public perceptions that sexual victimization is primarily a women’s issue.”
Women, you do not have a monopoly on being raped. The difference between you and men is that the press covers female victims and undermines public policy by not doing due diligence and documenting male victims. Apart from pregnancy, the psychological damage is the same: Difficulty with trust and intimacy. Difficulty with self-esteem and depression. Suicidal ideation and execution. Productivity problems. Financial hardship over the course of years due to feeling out of sorts with the rest of the world.
A University of Minnesota police officer laughed at me in Fall of 1986 when I called to report my being raped, perpetrated by an acquaintance while I was sleeping. He said, “Barry: Relax. Enjoy all of it you can get. I’m not going to take a report.” I recently spoke to MPD Sex Crimes Unit LT Emily Olson to determine what is currently happening in Minneapolis. She said that the Unit doesn’t discriminate: Women, if you rape a man in Minneapolis, get ready for arrest if you are known and are identified.
The bias against men reporting this crime to political bodies is so insidious that I, as a 42-year member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL), as a volunteer, and international lecturer in the 1980s on the DFL, and officer for ten years, was banned from both Minnesota DFL Senate District 60 (in which the University of Minnesota Minneapolis Campus is located) Central Committee meetings; and by right of that, I was banned from Minnesota DFL Congressional District 5 Central Committee meetings — despite having thwarted a physical attack on former Minnesota State Representative Ilhan Omar on the night she was attacked by other women several years ago. My ban was apparently for life. This said, over three million women and men marched on Washington, DC in 2017 to protest criminal behavior by men, and only men.
The individual who banned me had, assumingly, hang-ups about mental health considerations, as when I’d much earlier identified as one with depression, anxiety and PTSD, which were all outgrowths of severe abuse, both including the rape, sexual molestation by two female job interviewers over several interviews in 1982 when I was 20-years old and seeking employment for the first time as an adult, and other crimes on the Minneapolis campus against me by men who frequently beat, stalked and harassed me for two academic years due to learning from a medical student brother of my diagnoses, he refused to respond to me. He looked through me, around me and over me and never said one word to me — until the allegation of sexual harassment due to notifying my colleagues of the need to look into this public health and safety concern. My GPA fell to below a 3.0 average, and I didn’t make it to law and public affairs school.
Men, if you are raped by a woman, have the courage and persistence to move forward with a criminal complaint. Go to the press about this. Find an attorney who will speak on your behalf. The Minnesota State Bar Association, an organization of judges and attorneys, can assist you in finding an attorney if you do not use the University of Minnesota students’ attorneys for care. Do not let the notion that women were once considered as “the fairer sex” interfere with you taking a very objective and determined stand toward putting the women behind bars and being responsible for your medical and legal bills, with additional financial punitive judgments against her and into your pocket. My rapist was a master’s in social work student from Costa Rica who I’d met through a former fiancée at the Weyerhaeuser Chapel at Macalester College four years earlier. My fiancée was a Bolivian woman whose dad later became president of that nation.
At age 59-years, I have never married and have concerns about the maturity, emotional balance and integrity of women, as I’ve also been stalked by a female medical student who knew intimate details about my family life and residence before ever speaking to me, and who was apparently seeking a rich boyfriend. She was literally breathless when we began talking, hyped about meeting another possible prince charming. Her home residence was in Minnetonka, MN, as I later learned. Her behavior was eerie and hellbent on being around wealth for the sake of wealth. As one who’s enjoyed friendship with poor Native Americans, Latinos, and Africans, as well as guys whose uncles were billionaires and who are millionaires many twenty-times over, as well as with members of the middle class on all continents including Antarctica, I am interested in people with character and integrity, not wealth. Wealth will come with time. Moreover, it is not an end to life if millionaire or billionaire status is not reached: Learning to live with oneself is far more important.
Please know that I don’t hate women. I support and encourage women in Africa, the U.S., and formerly in Japan, China and Mongolia. I paid for gynecology surgery out of my pocket for a young woman who I unofficially adopted who had pain from heavy menses and uterine fibroids. I’ve paid for obstetrics care for another woman in Africa, and am taking an interest in assisting yet another woman in Africa develop better reading and writing skills in her mid-twenties as she has less than a junior high school education, as is true of many women in Africa.
The difference between women and men who are raped and molested is that parents and other family members take a caring interest. My stories have led to me being ostracized by my family, though my dad has been a fine conversationalist and political satirist, and an attorney who received high praises from University of Minnesota Law School grad, Minnesota Attorney General, U.S. Senator, Vice President and Ambassador Walter Mondale, after whom our law school has been named. Mondale and his family were neighbors of my family in the 1970s and 1980s when they were in Minneapolis.
Of the fraternity nicknamed FIJI, I also lived there for a while. One of the forms of entertainment which they watched in 1987 were snuff films — films where people were shown being killed with hay forks and axes. I was sent away from the house during their ceremonial weekend and returned to find that my room and belongings had been used by crass and ungroomed youth who spit chewing tobacco into my coffee mug and left my room in disarray. Phi Delta Theta, whose frequent motto was “I felt-ah my date-ah,” was a place where men felt that they were societally inured to have sex, get drunk and get high. I was blackballed for not taking an interest in their drug and liquor parties.
I, myself, was led to believe that sexual encounters at a young age was necessary by older members of my family who got on my case because I was still a virgin at age 19-years. In one hapless moment, I unbuttoned a date’s blouse and begin to go for her breasts. She cried. I didn’t date for several years, feeling horrible that I’d misread and misunderstood the situation due to societal and cultural pressures. That period was nearing the end of the Sexual Revolution around the world where free sex and nudist colonies abounded, and “The Joy of Sex” was a manual which some adults of the 70s had around their home. It was a time of confusion and exploration. Women were as active as men in their determination to “show their maturity” by getting sexually involved with people they barely knew.
However, well led and well organized fraternities and sororities can serve a social, cultural and commercial good, as they bring together people who, under the right circumstances and leadership — and organizational culture — can lead to long-term relationships and networking opportunities. I haven’t made use of this, but I see that, under better conditions, they can be a force for good. The problem is getting mature and interested advisors and role models involved who set up rules for behavior and communication which are healthy and productive — not the beer, liquor and sex cultures which I’ve seen prevalent in my days as a visitor, member and border in a variety of fraternities. Delta Delta Delta Fraternity (Tri-Delta), in 1990, took in a female border with bipolar disorder and sex addiction. She was routinely passed around for sex by the fraternity members. I was a border and concerned for her health and safety. I contacted her dad, who was an administrator at University of Minnesota House Services during that period, to share my concern as the woman was a subject of gossip.
Being in college and developing an understanding of sexuality go hand in hand. Problems will crop up. It is important for women and men to set boundaries with the people they are around. This is a learning process. Perfection never comes, but wisdom follows.
Barry N. Peterson
Minneapolis, MN – USA
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, Class of 1996
praiseinterracialmarriages
Sep 22, 2021 at 9:40 pm
Sex slavery is a problem all over the world. I knew a woman from Japan who had difficulty in high school, ran away from home, and got involved with older men. she was taken in by the Japanese mafia and frighted with threats of death and violence to her family members were she to leave.
She finally bought a ticket to the U.S., where a madame — a prostitute slave master, found her and got her involved with sex slavery in Missouri. She fled back to Japan, where the mafia caught up with her again.
She went to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and appleied for asylum and held as a trafficked person. She made it to the U.S. and was given guidance, a job, and a place to live. I haven’t seen her for several years, but my first impression of her was very heartwarming. She had married, was a mom iof a newbordn baby girl, and told her story while crying.
You may not care if your daughter or son get involved with life or have institutions which groom young women and men into the sex slave trade. I do. Some of your questions are interesting, and I touched on them in my own comment, after your your reply to the parent who spoke of her daughter’s travails. Your comment about freedom to use their body as they desire was, in my opinion, slovenly and crass.
Advising the Minnesota Daily to not publish ads from Seekers or other organizations like this is something which I support.
With regard to the University of Minnesota Student Affairs Office and General Counsel’s office in the 1980s and 1990s when I was a student, the administrators and police officers were deadbeats and money-grubbers who didn’t take an interest in my situation with having been stalked, harassed and beaten by two low-life criminals for two academic years, and who interfered with my studies and future life. I’d desired to become an attorney, diplomat and businessman. I am in poverty at the age of 59 due to being fearful of going into public places after this University and earlier U.S. school officials refused to lift a hand against violently abusive male and female students. I had no problems during studies in Scandinavia and Central America, and my grades were at the 3.66+ GPA. American arrogance is a plague and humiliation to human life.
I am the son of a highly ranked and now retired attorney whose friend included the son of U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey (whose name appears on our school of public affairs), and who was our Minnesota Attorney General many years ago. I haven’t had a comfortable hug in many years, and have difficulty with physical shows of affection given decades of physical and sexual abuse by women and men. So much for White privilege.
Al
Sep 22, 2021 at 1:58 pm
Doesn’t a female over the age of 18 have a right to own her body? And therefor shouldn’t she be allowed to use her body to make money? I agree there should be restriction on WHO is allowed to post on university property (anyone who isn’t apart of the university), but to restrict anyone’s way to make money from their own body is not something the university or anyone else (other than the individual) should be able to decide.
Sexual assault is not a choice for the victim. Female or even male when it is referenced in some hazing rituals. The problem with “shutting down” frats is that they will never shut down. They may not get sponsorship from the university, but that only means that the parties they throw (they will always find an easy way to do this) and any incidents that occur at them are out of the jurisdiction of the university. The college can’t step in, provide punishments, or even attempt to plan for the future, so frats will have more freedom than they do now.
Another thing I don’t understand is why frats, and not sororities, are being targeted for protest. There are hundreds of cases that don’t make headlines which involve sever sorority hazing, and heavy reinforcement of what society deems rape culture. I could at least be supportive in theory if this was a movement that would address all concerns of this issue, not just what was front page news. There are countless other frats AND sororities that have conducted horrible sexual assaults and hazing, but yet, their focus seems centered around just one aspect of the on campus rape culture.
JS
Sep 22, 2021 at 12:01 pm
As a parent who’s daughter was victim of sexual assault at a U of MN fraternity, to the students behind this movement, I commend you! The journey to healing is long and hard, especially because the victims face the stigma of speaking out. Within this rape culture, lies victim blaming, where women are told to change their own behavior in order to avoid being assaulted or raped. The violence is often downplayed as part of college life. Unfortunately, our university’s ongoing support of fraternities doesn’t present them as “unsafe” until they are and there is another victim.
The other issue that needs to be addressed is the campus advertising of sites such as “Seeking” which promotes sugar daddy/sugar baby relationships as a means to pay bills. I’ve read several articles advertising sugar daddy sites in the MN Daily. These sites are dangerous and they prey on young vulnerable college girls. The allowable advertising on campus gives girls a false sense of “safety” until it isn’t. It’s an open door to human trafficking…watch the news!
Please, U of MN administration, step up and work together with these students to keep our university safe for everyone! I tried to get your attention when our daughter was a student there but you didn’t listen. Our family’s lives are forever changed as a result of the rape culture of the U of MN fraternities! Don’t look away and keep letting it happen.