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By Alexandra Brodsky • @azbrodsky • 9 years ago

Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: Alpha Phi stands with survivors

Everyone who works with survivors of gender violence agrees the wrongly named Safe Campus Act is a truly terrible idea. The bill, introduced by House Representatives Matt Salmon (R-AZ), Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Kay Granger (R-TX), would forbid schools from investigating sexual assault cases until the victim reports to the police. But so many survivors, for good reason, don’t feel safe reporting the police, which means that, under the Safe Campus Act, they’d have no one to turn to at all and will miss out on necessary school services.

Guess who supports the bill? The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC). In fact, the bill appears to be the direct result of July lobbying by groups like NPC, who know that the real way to make colleges safer is to discourage victims from reporting.

But there’s good news! Last month, Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity left the NPC, which many thought was in response to the Conference’s political stances. And yesterday Alpha Phi sorority became the first national sorority to come out against the Safe Campus Act, breaking from the rest of the NPC membership. In a statement, Alpha Phi wrote:

We believe our sisters who are survivors should have choices in how, when and to whom they go to for support or to report the crime. They should have their own voice and the support and encouragement they need to move forward including reporting as they choose to.

We believe universities should remain accountable for the safety of their campuses, and should continue to raise the bar to ensure that they report and respond to crimes and keep students safe. Their ability to do so should not be diminished.

We believe that each of our chapters and our members should have their own voice and should work with their communities to fight sexual assault. Alpha Phi members are strong women and leaders who can and will make a difference.

Bam.

Wanna speak out against the Safe Campus Act? Sign Know Your IX’s petition here and then tweet the link to your friends under #UnsafeCampusAct.

 

Washington, DC

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com. During her four years at the site, she wrote about gender violence, reproductive justice, and education equity and ran the site's book review column. She is now a Skadden Fellow at the National Women's Law Center and also serves as the Board Chair of Know Your IX, a national student-led movement to end gender violence, which she co-founded and previously co-directed. Alexandra has written for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Nation, and she is the co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project: 57 Visions of a Wildly Better Future. She has spoken about violence against women and reproductive justice at campuses across the country and on MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, ESPN, and NPR.

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com.

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