University of Virginia Suspends Fraternities After Rape Report

The University of Virginia suspended its fraternities and related social activities until Jan. 9 after an alleged 2012 gang rape in a fraternity house was reported last week in Rolling Stone magazine.

In the meantime, the university will hold meetings of students, faculty, alumni and other groups “to discuss our next steps in preventing sexual assault and sexual violence” at the school, President Teresa A. Sullivan said in a statement posted yesterday on the UVA website.

Sullivan said the university’s Board of Visitors is meeting Tuesday to discuss the allegations as well as campus policies and procedures regarding sexual assault. The spring semester starts Jan. 12 at the school founded by Thomas Jefferson.

The Rolling Stone article tells the story of the alleged gang rape at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house and the university’s poor handling of it and other cases of sexual assault.

Sullivan has asked the Charlottesville, Virginia, police to investigate the 2012 assault and urged anyone with information to come forward.

“The wrongs described in Rolling Stone are appalling and have caused all of us to reexamine our responsibility to this community,” Sullivan said. “Rape is an abhorrent crime that has no place in the world, let alone on the campuses and grounds of our nation’s colleges and universities.”