Another elite US university has been thrust into the spotlight over sexual assault allegations, weeks after disturbing reports emerged of the alleged “Cornell 7” gang rape at Cornell University, an Ivy League institution.
Now, a 21-year-old woman has reported being raped in a bathroom at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house near the University of Chicago, while a group of men allegedly gathered outside the locked door, cheering and shouting, “When’s my turn?” and “Let me in.” The alleged assault took place during a party in Hyde Park in the early hours of Sunday, The New York Times reported.
University of Chicago authorities said on Tuesday that they had identified a “person of interest” in the case and barred the individual from campus. No arrests have been made so far. Chicago police told local media that they were investigating the allegations related to the sexual assault case. They also said the survivor was receiving treatment at a hospital.
The woman, who is not a University of Chicago student, attended the party with her 21-year-old friend Mia Lara and another friend after seeing it advertised on the fraternity’s Instagram account.
Lara said the three women were dancing in the basement when her friend began kissing a man and later disappeared. While searching the house, Lara found a small group of men cheering outside a locked basement bathroom door and “saying things like, ‘When’s it my turn?’ and ‘I want to go in there’”, she told the Times.
Shortly before 2 am, Lara forced her way into the bathroom and found her friend undressed and sitting on the floor, slumped against a wall, with her underwear pulled down, according to the report. A man, who was also not a university student, had his hands on the woman’s wrists as she shouted, “Make it stop” and “Get me out of here,” Lara said.
Lara later chased the man outside the fraternity house and accused him of assaulting her friend. He allegedly replied, “She wanted to.”
A spokesperson for Alpha Epsilon Pi’s national organisation said the person suspected of the assault was not a member of the university chapter. “We do not believe that any AEPi members were involved in this horrible act, nor were they complicit with it,” spokesperson Jonathan Pierce said in an email to the Times.
Fraternities at the University of Chicago are not formally affiliated with the institution but remain “subject to university policies and disciplinary procedures,” according to the university.
In an Instagram statement, the fraternity said it was “deeply disturbed by the sexual assault that occurred on the night of Saturday, October 10th” and added, “We condemn this violence unequivocally.”
“We became aware of the situation through one of our sober monitors being called over by the victim’s friend,” the University of Chicago chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi said. “We immediately responded and multiple members of the fraternity, including our risk manager, arrived at the scene, providing assistance to the victim.”
“A member stayed with the victim until the necessary authorities arrived, only leaving after the police had asked him to do so. The party was shut down immediately following our notice of the events,” the fraternity added.
The fraternity has said the suspect was not one of its members and that the party was stopped after its members learnt of the reported assault.
Source: India Today