From the AANews, “Woman reports rape at Eastern Michigan University fraternity house.” The commentary on the mlive.com site is kind of interesting. Among other things, this event is used by one writer as an example of why Ypsilanti is so “ghetto” (as if rape and/or sexual assault never ever happens over at U of M or something); about the Greek system at EMU; about the “he said/she said” nature of the crime; etc.
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From my understanding, this is a fraternity that is really on its way ‘out of the door’ and I believe was on probation or nearing charter revocation anyway, so this should hardly reflect on EMU’s greek system, since the administration (IFC/Campus Life/that fraternity’s national HG) appears to already have taken action (assuming my source of information is correct) in addressing the problems this fraternity chapter in particular is causing/encouraging.
Just a head’s up, it was the Kappa Phi Alpha House, they’re a “local fraternity”. No charter, no nationals to revoke they’re membership. They have existed on campus for years with no one to answer to. I was a member of the greek system at Eastern 10 years ago and they were a problem a long with Arm of Honor because they have no National Fraternity to hold them responsible. The Ann Arbor news really should make sure the fraternity they’re referring to exists on EMU’s campus.
I lived across the street from the frat house in question until October or so (about three years spent on North Normal), and this doesn’t surprise me one little freaking bit. I had to call the Ypsi police on a few occasions because they had LOUD parties going on til 1 or 2 am.
I once saw a fight break out in the street (my bedroom faced the street and caught the brunt of the noise), and once saw the police break up a party, resulting in a stream of kids coming out the front door like the place was some sort of clown car or TARDIS (for the Dr. Who fans out there). It was as though the kids were coming out and going round back to come out again.
This frat is just bad news all the way round.
Anon: I agree. AA News should make sure they’re actually reporting correct information.
Reading the comments is horrendous. Victim blaming, name games, and fighting among Greeks & non Greeks. And the article isn’t all the great either.
I hope this gets cleared up, and my heart goes out to the girl.
Ed. Note: I moved Kayla’s comment here because I think she meant it to be here.
sitedad:
Can you please fix some nonfactual information? EMU does not have an Alpha Omega Alpha chapter, which is an honor medical society. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Omega_Alpha
The rape happened at the Kappa Phi Alpha house, and AA News reported bad information.
Louie, Louie, we gotta go now! Sounds like animal house.
Just for the record, local sororities/fraternities are not ALL bad news. I was part of a local sorority at U-M that existed for about 100 years until the late eighties/early nineties. It was well respected; some of its early members were Sara Caswell Angell, Alice Chipman Dewey (wife to John Dewey), Alice Crocker Lloyd, and its namesake in New York boasted literary luminaries such as George Eliot.
That being said, from the little I’ve read, it sounds like this frat may have been founded just to party? The website for the fraternity that Campus Life lists had its domain expire (looks like its been down at least since March 0f ’07, as that’s the first page the Way Back Machine has archived – with simply an error code, and the current registered owner is probably a squatter since May ’07), and the contact listed on the page does not come up in the EMU directory/LDAP. How serious could they be if they didn’t even keep this information up-to-date?
This news was very unsettling to me and to see so much information being reported inaccurately makes the situation worse. EMU is going through a positive transition under the leadership of Dr. Martin, the Regents, Dean Mielke, Dean Polite, Dr, Gragg and many, many others and for this incident to put us in the spotlight right now is bothersome.
Noah Borton does an outstanding job with the greek organizations on campus and this incident should in no way be a reflection on him and the Campus Life department. The Grrek Life Assessment program that he has put together goes to show just how positive of an experience being a member of a greek letter organization can be. As an assessor for the program for the fourth year now, I can personally speak to the many positive things that those organizations are doing in and around the campus community.
As far as the postings on WXYZ, MLive, the Detroit dailys and others blaming the victim, get over yourselves. Might I say if this was a friend, daughter, sister or relative of yours there is no way that any of you malcreants would be saying what is being said about her.
Regardless of her being drunk and an underaged drinker, “NO ONE” deserves to be taken advantaged of in such a manner and be possibly raped. Until all of the facts are out (remember Duke University), we all need to reserve judgement and let the appropriate authorities conduct their investigations.
I couldn’t agree more with Eric. It sounds like the perpetrators are not affiliated with the fraternity. Just curious, to what level is one responsible for the actions conducted by others inside your house?
At a party you are hosting and supposedly checking IDs for….FULLY
Just like if a kid sneaks into your pool in the backyard and drowns, or a thief cuts himself on one of your knives while he is robbing you, or if you are a bartender and serve someone who is already drunk and they get into a car accident…liable!
But especially if you willingly let someone into your house at a party, you have some level of responsibility to not let potentially dangerous people into your house, or maintain some control so that incidents like this do not occur.
Sitedad: I meant for it to be over there, since you repeated the incorrect info about the chapter. However, thanks for moving it over.
Thanks for your comment, Eric. I agree, none of this should be a reflection on Noah, and he’s a fantastic adviser to the Greek system. I doubt we’d be where we are without him. In that vein, though, I have yet to see anything where people have called him or Campus Life out, and I hope it stays that way. If someone has, then they need to take a look and see how good of a job Noah does.
Eagle Talon is right, with regard to hosting & responsibility, if I understand it correctly.
couple of things I want to point out about the Fraternity –
they were founded on EMU’s campus in 1902 and have been continuously operating since. They are infact local, which is its own set of challenges. However, how many national orgaizations have folded up/left campus in the last couple of years? As for the website – an administrative error caused them to miss renewing the site, someone squatted on it, and it cost too much to get back.
Finally – while Kappa Phi Alpha has had a long reputation for its hard partying ways, its existence for 107 years, and the large # of distinguished alums it has produced is a testament to the organization.
I don’t understand how people can talk bad about fraternities like this. Having parties on the weekend only is not bad and the people that talk down about having parties needs to be more understanding. The point of having parties is the get rid of stress from the long school week that we all had to put up with. They are not throwing parties just for themselves but for all that need a brake in there studies in a responsible manner. The meaning of college is to have an experience of a life time while gaining knowledge. The only time a FRATERNITY (NOT FRAT) gets acknowledge is for something negative, no one tries to see the good things that they do. With the whole Greek fighting with one another is true but for a reason. The Greek life members that are employed here at eastern is tearing apart the Greek system and favoring the leaders that are running the Greek community (IFC). It is unjust to have members that are in a fraternity actively as they cast an unfair advantage towards non IFC board members in the favoring of there own. The Greek life president never responds, gives no one in the time of day, and favors the ones closes to him giving no respect to other fraternity that he chooses not to know. Passing judgment because of the crest a fraternity stands behind, not the person standing in front of him. The eastern board members are killing Greek life as time goes on and one person cant stand up for everyone but we all as one can, taking back OUR Greek community and fight for something that we all care about…GREEK LIFE. GREEK UNITY. Its time to stand up.
Hey Jason — I am unfamiliar with any scholarly literature (studies) that would validate your claims, direct and implied, in the following sentences: “The point of having parties is the get rid of stress from the long school week that we all had to put up with. They are not throwing parties just for themselves but for all that need a brake in there studies in a responsible manner. ” I am aware of many studies showing the harm and risks associated with drinking parties by college age people. Can you cite any scholarly studies that affirm a real positive result that benefits college students who attend drinking parties? Are you really arguing that the party reference in this post and string of comments was a “responsible” party? Is that an argument that serious defenders of the Greek organizations really want to make? I don’t think so.
Using a year old instance of a fraternity party gone bad is a very weak foundation from which to launch your defense of the Greek system at EMU from some vaguely described attacks.
I commend any university officials who are seeking to enforce the rules and decent behavior on organizations affiliated with EMU. You should too, Jason.
At what point does personal responsibility become a factor? Obviously I’m not attempting to blame the victim here but lets consider what the article says. So this girl gets really drunk, starts “getting affectionate” (AKA hooking up) with some guy who’s name she doesn’t even know, then goes into a bathroom with this guy and 3 other guys, which i’m sure was an accident. They were already in there when she walked in. If there are four people in the bathroom why would you go in there anyway? Was she about to use the bathroom in front of four guys that she doesn’t know? Rape is by no means acceptable, honestly i think it’s one of the most dishonorable, cowardly crimes an individual can commit, but she was hooking up with one of these guys like minutes before all this happened. So its like one second its consensual and the next second its rape. It’s not like these guys kidknapped her, dragged her back to their apartment and did their thing.
Don’t blame the fraternity. How is the fraternity supposed to effectively judge the character of every person at every one of their parties? Most people can hardly effectively gauge the character of people they talk to every day, let alone some guy whose ID they glance at for 5 seconds. I mean what does a rapist look like? I would say the best rape preventative in these types of situations is don’t get belligerently drunk with people who you’ve never met, and if that fails at least exercise basic COMMON SENSE, like not walking into bathrooms with four random guys whose names you don’t know when you’re in a vulnerable position.
If anything this is a perfect reason why we should lower the drinking age. These kids get to college and mommy and daddy aren’t there looking over their shoulder anymore. Of course their gonna party. But that’s not the problem; The problem is a lot of these kids have never really drank before. They don’t know their limits and everybody wants to be a badass, which inevitably leads to extreme binge drinking and thus terribly poor decision making by everyone involved.
Dominic, it does seem to me that you are trying to blame the victim. Proving that the victim made some poor choices hardly proves she wasn’t a victim.
Perhaps the question of personal responsibility you raise should be directed at the group of men who, in instances like this one from a terribly run frat house a year ago, if the reports are close to accurate, sexually exploited an intoxicated woman.
I imagine that the woman at the center of this episode regrets getting drunk at that party, with those men present. That she made a mistake hardly means she wasn’t ill treated or that the men in question possessed “personal responsibility” in their behavior.
You certainly sound like you are excusing the men’s conduct and blaming the woman for letting herself get into a bad situation. That’s the old double standard, and it’s inexcusable.
I can’t remember the details of this case because it happened quite a while ago, but wasn’t this a case where the woman later on recanted her story and said she wasn’t actually raped?