Editor’s Note: This article contains reference to sexual assault.

This article, originally published on Sept. 23, 2024, has been updated to include a comma in a quote for clarification.

NC State’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life is implementing new initiatives designed to address and prevent sexual assaults on and outside campus. 

The Encouraging Positive Intervention in Chapters, or EPIC, program educates Greek organizations on alcohol and drug use, brave and bold dialogue and sexual violence prevention. According to the FSL website, the program “will build capacity of chapter leaders and their members to engage with these complex topics and how they take responsibility to address them.”

Shelly Brown Dobek, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said this means that FSL needs to take a comprehensive approach to preventing sexual assaults on campus.

“We need to think about initiatives that support either the understanding of the eradication, of the mitigating, of the education, of the reporting of with a lens of, how does [sexual assault] uniquely impact our community,” Dobek said. 

This year, the University implemented a new resource package titled “It Matters.” The training is an online module series with three courses on sexual violence education. First-year students are assigned a core course, while FSL members complete additional modules on consent and bystander intervention. 

David Elrod, associate vice provost for the Office of Equal Opportunity, chose a sexual violence prevention core course that all first-year students are assigned to. Dobek chose one that builds on sexual violence prevention and focuses on foundational knowledge, understanding consent and upstander strategy. 

“What we call an upstander strategy, the idea that I am my brother’s keeper or my sister’s keeper, so not that I’m responsible for his or her behavior, but how do I learn to recognize when things are inappropriate and how do I learn to interrupt that behavior to make sure either that I’m keeping my sister safe or that I’m interrupting my brother if he’s making a risky choice?” Dobek said.

While the “It Matters” modules were delayed initially, they were released three weeks ago with a test sample sent out beforehand. Next year, the modules will be distributed earlier so members can complete them before new member activities begin.

With 3,600 members in FSL, groups of 40 attend in-person workshops annually. Each year, a different topic is rotated to ensure comprehensive coverage of EPIC programs. New members are prioritized for these workshops due to their unfamiliarity with the campus environment. Members who do not attend in-person workshops complete online modules instead. A chapter receives credit after 85% of its members have completed the training. 

In addition to EPIC programs, FSL collaborates with the Women’s Center on campus and sometimes with external organizations like the Raleigh Women’s Center. These partnerships offer curriculum that addresses areas such as survivor support, further understanding of consent and fostering healthy relationships. 

Dobek said the trainings are designed to give students a choice in their education on sexual assault prevention.

“It lets the chapter not feel kind of mandated or required to go through training, but a little bit of, ‘How do I make this fit what we’re experiencing in real time?’ and hopefully increasing the buy-in for their participation so that they’re increasing how much they’re willing to absorb that information versus kind of being held prisoner by it,” Dobek said.

Every year, chapter presidents participate in educational sessions about sexual violence prevention during a retreat for Greek leaders or the monthly chapter presidents meeting. 

Amanda Campos, president of the Panhellenic Association and a fourth-year student studying political science, said some sororities partner with the Raleigh Women’s Center and participate in Take Back the Night.

“You’ll find that a lot of chapters, like my chapter, for example — last semester we’ll do a lot of drives for the Raleigh Women’s Center, just because we pride ourselves on giving back to the community, both within NC State’s community, but also the general, broader Raleigh community,” Campos said. 

Accountability within FSL is addressed through various channels such as the Office of Student Conduct, Title IX regulations, University Police and City of Raleigh Police. The process beyond that depends on whether survivors choose to pursue any action. 

FSL chapters also practice self-governance by holding members accountable for their actions. Dobek said she recounted an incident where a fraternity member was expelled after a reported assault.

“And I can think of an incident a couple of years ago where there was a Wolf Alert that went out saying that there was a sexual assault that had occurred in a fraternity house,” Dobek said. “It was a resident of the fraternity, and they chose to terminate his membership and asked him to move out of the fraternity house.” 

Dobek said victim blaming is not supported by FSL. 

“So I want to say this — no one ever deserves, no matter what choices they’ve made, to be victimized or to be assaulted,” Dobek said. “There are strategies that can increase our safety, but that doesn’t mean we turn around and say, ‘If someone didn’t do that, this wouldn’t have happened.’” 

Dobek said FSL is committed to transparency regarding incidents within its community and is taking measures to reduce assaults on campus. Students seeking resources can visit the Women’s Center in Talley Student Union and the Counseling Center.

Survivors can reach advocates by calling the 24/7 Sexual Assault Helpline at 919-515-4444 or emailing [email protected] to schedule an appointment with campus health.