The student body calls on UNC-Chapel Hill to immediately disband all non-professional, non-cultural fraternity organizations on-campus. These institutions are an immediate concern this semester as they threaten public health, have historically upheld systemic racism, violence towards people of color, and sexual violence towards women. We do not want them to have a place on UNC’s campus any longer.

Public Health Threat

Some fraternities have openly admitted that they plan to host parties in the fall, which have the potential of becoming super-spreader events. Specifically, the house mother of DKE said “They’re not going to wear masks in the common areas. They’re going to have parties.” Other fraternities have not been so bold, but made no statements committing them to abstaining from parties in the upcoming semester. UNC cannot allow such blatant violations of state and national safety guidelines to occur on-campus.

Sexual Assault

It is well-known among the student body that UNC fraternity members have committed numerous sexual assaults. Some frats even have a reputation as “rape frats.” Statistics are likely to underreport the true scale of harm, but the National Institute of Justice lists that being in a sorority is a risk factor for experiencing sexual assault. A published 2018 longitudinal study demonstrated that individuals who had interest in fraternities were more likely to perpetrate sexual aggression than others. The Daily Tar Heel published student experiences of being drugged at frat parties. These fraternities have been given ample opportunity to fix their rape culture, but have not done so.

Racism 

Because fraternities do not publicly disclose their membership, it is difficult to find conclusive statistics on possible discrimination. There are, however, many anecdotes. @dearunc is filled with stories of frat discrimination against pledges, inducted members, and women trying to get into their parties. A 2019 Politico article recounts one UNC-alumn being told that “my president says it is okay to kick out the n*****s.” Another recounts being told she could not enter a house because “no slaves” were allowed. This comports with an incident in 1979 when the Chi Phi fraternity openly mimicked the Ku Klux Klan and depicted a white student in blackface being lynched in their yearbook. Taken together, we see not just individual acts of racism, but a culture of it.

To conclude, UNC fraternities have repeatedly and systemically harmed many of Carolina’s most vulnerable students. We feel that they are more than a danger. To us, they are an embarrassment to UNC. We want our University to join the likes of Harvard University, Boston College, and Notre Dame University in banning on-campus fraternities, making it clear that they do not have a place on modern college campuses.