UCSD Students Allege Sorority Covered Up Sexual Assault Cases

In September 2021, Kat P., a student who requested to be identified by her first name and last initial due to concerns about legal retaliation, began spending time with the Zeta Rho chapter of the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta (from here on referred to as ‘Theta’) at UC San Diego. As time passed, she quickly became friends with many members of the chapter, even attending their formals. A year later, on October 5, 2022, Kat P. posted a statement on Instagram titled “A Demand for Sororities to Support SA Survivors,” where she stated that she was assaulted by a member of the Zeta Rho chapter of Theta in January 2022.

Kat P. is not the only person who has voiced such experiences with Theta. In recent years, former Theta members have come forward with a variety of concerns about the sorority. These accounts include accusations of the chapter’s leadership silencing women who present allegations of sexual assault, being drugged at a party, and a culture of racism and racial insensitivity within the chapter.

The post does not focus on the nature of her assault but does go in-depth on Theta’s response to Kat P.’s allegations. “This post is not about the details of the assaults by a former member of Theta,” she wrote, “but to bring light to the severe lack of support, guidance, and policies from sororities at UC San Diego pertaining to sexual assault and the lies that Theta has been perpetuating to protect its reputation.” According to Kat P., Theta purposefully delayed, and later failed, to act upon her allegations, all while refusing to inform Kat P. and others on the progress of their proceedings.

Earlier in the year on March 2, 2022, before Kat P. posted her allegation, Theta posted a statement on their Instagram account saying that “Kappa Alpha Theta has policies and procedures in place to discipline, suspend and remove individual members for unacceptable behavior that does not represent the values of Theta, and the Zeta Rho Chapter has been working since the time of the incident report to put these policies into use. The victim’s report and member discipline process are both confidential issues.” The sorority’s emphasis on confidentiality is in line with Kat P.’s statement, but Kat P. alleges that the enforced confidentiality was one-sided. According to Kat P., the alleged member was in fact in poor standing while under investigation, but she was only dropped as a member on April 7, 2022, one month after Theta’s post.

After Kat P.’s post on October 5, Theta released a response on Instagram on October 7, 2022. This new statement detailed more specific information about the allegations and the investigation into the alleged perpetrator. Theta stated, “Our chapter received the initial report [of allegations] on January 31, 2022, and immediately notified our advisory board to determine the best course of action. During the initial meeting, survivors were given campus resources and encouraged to take the case to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for a formal investigation.”

When Kat P. and her friend, former Theta member Emma D., who requested to be identified by first name and last initial due to concerns about legal retaliation, both came forward in January 2022 with allegations of assault against the same Theta member, they chose to privately report the case to the sorority’s leadership. In an interview with The Triton, Emma D. said that the former Theta president, Megan Rae, requested that Emma D. and the other accusers keep their allegations confidential.

“We didn’t really know how long it was going to be. So we agreed to it initially, because we thought you know, maybe it’d be a couple of weeks where we don’t talk about it,” Emma D. said. “But throughout the whole process, they kept reinforcing that we needed to keep everything confidential.”

Emma D. alleged that the sorority used this confidentiality policy to threaten them into remaining quiet, saying Theta’s executive board told them that “the whole case would just basically be thrown out because it would be an error of due process.” 

“‘You can’t speak about it, otherwise, your case will be gone.’ And we weren’t allowed to talk about it because it was private,” Emma D. said.

According to Kat P., if they spoke out about their experience, the sorority’s investigation into the allegations would not move forward. Kat P. asserted that this was a silencing technique, calling it a “gag order” and saying that the same restrictions were not placed on her assailant. Choosing to undergo the investigation process through the sorority effectively made them unable to approach others about the case.

According to Emma D., Theta’s constitution and bylaws say nothing about confidentiality when it comes to allegations of member misconduct, and in their bylaw documents, there is no mention of confidentiality when dealing with allegations of misconduct or in regards to terminating a sister’s membership from the sorority.

After hearing nothing 11 days after their initial report to the advisory board, Emma D. and Kat P. contacted Rae again to ask about the status of the investigations. According to Emma D., Rae told them that “she didn’t want to go off of hearsay.”

When The Triton reached out to Rae in October 2022 for comment, Rae directed The Triton to the sorority’s Instagram statements and said, “I do not have access to all of the documentation because the situation was handled by our advisory board and headquarters, and the email documentation that I do have all contains confidential information, so I am unable to share anything.”

Kat P. considered going to UCSD’s Title IX office with her case, in the hopes that they would have the resources to handle it, but she chose to go through the sorority first, believing that the organization would respond quickly and that later she could go to Title IX with the sorority’s backing. Instead, she found herself so emotionally and mentally drained by the sorority’s lack of clarity that she chose to not continue the investigation with Title IX for health reasons.

The sorority’s lack of transparency, coupled with the exhaustion that comes with it on the part of victims of assault, highlights the gray area in which Greek organizations operate in the university. Their ability to oversee their own investigations raises some doubts about conflicts of interest and image. According to a study carried out by the United Way of America, “a total of 29% of sorority women reported having been sexually assaulted while in college, four times the rate (7%) among nonsorority members.”

The study focused largely on assaults on sorority sisters by fraternity brothers while under the influence at parties. Statistics on assault of sorority members by other women or assault of fraternity brothers by other men are virtually nonexistent. The prolific nature of assault cases within Greek organizations suggests that the current infrastructure within some the organizations fails to protect its members from the possibility of same-sex sexual assault.

Another Theta member, a fifth-year Psychology major at UCSD who does not want to be identified due to fear of retaliation and will be referred to as Jane Doe, experienced her own silencing when she was drugged at a Phi Delta Theta party involving alcohol during the Memorial Day weekend in 2019 when someone slipped GHB, also known as roofies, into her drink.

Side effects of GHB include “drowsiness, vomiting, mood swings, dependence, as well as more serious symptoms of unconsciousness and respiratory collapse leading to coma or in extreme cases death.” When mixed with alcohol, the risk of overdose on GHB drastically increases.

Doe went to the Theta president at the time, Julia Prinzi, at the chapter meeting following the Memorial Day party and told her she had been drugged. Prinzi was dating a member of Phi Delt at the time, and the victim told The Triton in an interview that Prinzi “didn’t want to believe my story.”

Instead of being taken to the hospital, she was put in a car driven by a drunk Phi Delt member who was dating a Theta member at the time and taken to another Theta member’s house.

Not bringing Doe to the hospital after she had been given the drug potentially put her life at risk, especially since the drug had been combined with alcohol. Prinzi could not be reached for comment.

Doe alleges that the sorority took advantage of the fact that she was drunk and that she hadn’t gone to the hospital to be tested for GHB or be treated for a potential sexual assault to keep her story secret.

When Doe approached Theta’s incoming president Mieko Pretlow in fall of 2019 to discuss cutting ties with Phi Delt, which is a common punishment tactic that sororities use when fraternities they are affiliated with break rules or have poor conduct, she was told that she couldn’t speak about her drugging, an experience similar to that of Kat P.’s, despite the fact that Theta did not carry out any investigation into her drugging. In the past, Theta cut ties with fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) in solidarity with sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma after members of the sorority leveled accusations of assault against PIKE. Pretlow could not be reached for comment.

Instead of cutting relations with Phi Delt, Pretlow attempted to implement a “sober sisters program.” This program, which operated on a volunteer basis, would ensure that a certain quota of sorority sisters at parties would remain sober. Kat P. describes the system as poorly implemented, with no real incentives or punishments for people who did not volunteer.

After coming forward to Theta’s Membership Development Committee (MDC), an executive body within the sorority which handles incoming members, with her story, Doe was called in front of the MDC. The MDC told her that a six month old Instagram post involving the fraternity Sigma Chi went against the rules of the sorority, as Theta had cut ties with the fraternity. The board told Doe that, because the post showed her socializing at an event with a fraternity Theta had cut ties with, the post violated their organization’s code of conduct, and she was informed that the MDC was seeking disciplinary action.

Doe alleged that Theta’s executive board “use[s] their MDC committee to silence members and punish them” and that “under the guise of their members making their own decisions, they [the executive board members] truly do try to guide those decisions.” Doe also mentioned that the board’s reaction to her previously unproblematic post was in retaliation for her allegations of being drugged at the Phi Delt party.

The board’s reaction highlights the insecurity that survivors of assault or harassment feel within organizations meant to foster sisterhood. Doe said she came to The Triton to “[see] Theta’s mask removed,” echoing Kat P.’s desire to make prospective members aware of how the sorority dismissed her assault allegations.

According to the women who spoke to The Triton, silencing members who come forward with criminal assault allegations is a prevalent occurrence in Theta. On April 14, UCSD third year and former Theta member Jaelin Ford said in a statement that when she experienced racist treatment in Theta, her concerns were dismissed and not dealt with. Like Kat P., Ford used Instagram as her platform to detail her experience in her initial statement.

Ford joined the sorority in October 2021 as a sophomore and later became the Event Director, a leadership position in the sorority’s cabinet. In 2021 and 2022, she was the only Black member of the sorority.

In her statement, Ford wrote about an incident that took place the day before the sorority began recruitment for April 2023: “One night, while in line waiting for PNMs [potential new members] to enter, a few of us started talking about elementary and middle school trends, laughing about all the silly things we did or wore. I mentioned how I would wear bandanas all the time because I was always getting fun colored ones in Girl Scouts. Who would have thought the next thing I heard out of her mouth was ‘What, like a durag?’ As I stood there, mouth agape, in complete shock, she started to laugh in my face.” The next day, Ford was paired with the only Black recruit. Ford was told she was paired with the pledge because they had “similar vibes” to one another, but to Ford and the recruit, there were clear racial overtones.

Ford said she felt obligated by her then sorority sisters to promote Theta’s stated values of diversity and inclusion, values which she felt were neither ideologically nor actively upheld in the sorority. Ford experienced a more preemptive silencing by the sorority. She told The Triton in an interview that, while being trained in how to conduct new member interviews, she was told that she should refrain from mentioning any controversial topics, including how the sorority handles race and racism within the organization.

After feeling uncomfortable about being paired with the only Black pledge and about the conversation the night before, Ford approached the Executive Recruitment Board (ERB) with her complaint, asking that they take disciplinary action as well as educational measures such as implementing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training for the sorority.

Ford told The Triton that she followed all the steps that members are trained to carry out when attempting to lodge a complaint. After speaking to the ERB, she contacted the sorority’s advisory board, an administrative group composed of Theta alumni. Ford said this step is meant to be taken when a member feels uncomfortable or unsafe approaching the ERB. According to Ford, however, the advisory board is difficult to contact, and their contact information has to be obtained through the ERB, so a member who fears retaliation from the sorority’s leadership still has to go through the ERB or other leadership members in order to reach the advisory board.

In addition to contacting the ERB and the advisory board, Ford approached UCSD’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD) to ask whether OPHD could assist her in seeking disciplinary measures and change. OPHD, a university-run body whose stated purpose is to “resolve complaints of unlawful discrimination and unlawful harassment through formal investigation or alternative resolution,” was unable to offer any help other than a possible training or a mediated conversation between herself and the perpetrator, given that no illegal activity had taken place. Ford chose not to use OPHD and instead opted to seek an internal investigation through the ERB.

According to Ford, the ERB was uncommunicative with her, and she had to continuously ask them about the status or existence of their investigation. Ford, unlike Kat P. and Doe, was not told explicitly to keep her experiences confidential. She was told, however, that the alleged perpetrator was to remain confidential. Ford said that confidence was broken multiple times, but no disciplinary action was taken in response.

According to Ford’s Instagram post, the woman who made comments about bandanas was suspended for one term, but her sorority membership was not terminated. Additionally, although Ford suggested that the sorority hold Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training, no trainings were held by the sorority.

A range of allegations of Theta silencing members’ concerns about both sexual assault and racism in the organization have come to light over the last few months, although it remains to be seen whether the action called for in Ford and Kat’s statements will be taken.

Tate McFadden is the Arts and Culture Editor and Opinion Editor for The Triton.

Correction: This article was updated at 1:30 p.m. on June 13, 2023 to fix inaccuracies based on updated information from the sources. This article was updated at 12:10 p.m. on June 14, 2023 to fix additional inaccuracies based on updated information from the sources.