In 1947, Whitman College men staged a ‘We Hate Women Week’ in light of changes to the College’s sophisticated dress code and rising operating costs. Writings on this week of actions in The Pioneer–now The Wire–were compiled by a student who was drugged at Whitman College in 2016 in hopes of highlighting the connections between their own experiences at Whitman and those of 1947. The protests of 1947 included a torched march to Prentiss Hall, zero engagement with women and being unkempt “so as not to drive female minds to the breaking point by undue contact.” 

Now, in the wake of The Wire’s uncovering of the WA Attorney General’s investigation into Whitman, many students have come forward with their stories of sexual assault and harassment and a pattern of cultural negligence has emerged.

Lucien Rochellis, who was a Greek Allies Program (GAP) leader and on SVP leadership during their time at Whitman, saw a correlation between some of the actions in 1947 and consent culture on campus today. 

“There’s obviously people including men who are not like that but at the same time in some of the spaces I’ve been in… sports teams and fraternities in particular… there’s often this kind of camaraderie… so people are more outspoken about their misogyny, and one of those big things is a disregard for consent… I think sometimes amongst men there is an unwillingness to learn generally,” Rochellis said. 

One former student, Erin*, who was raped by a fraternity member, told The Wire that, even prior to her assault, she experienced constant harassment from frat members. Before being raped, this student explained that she was frequently assaulted by Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) members and after she was raped she discussed how her rapist was protected by TKE and that dismissive things were constantly said to silence her experience. 

“Every time these men would walk past me they would either grab my waist or butt to push past me, it became a normal part of going to parties,” Erin stated in a testimony to the Attorney General’s office which was shared with The Wire. 

Emails between TKE members shared with The Wire show that TKE was aware of concerns. In the Fall of 2019, TKE was put on probation. The Wire is unable to independently confirm the reason for the probation, but a source familiar with the case alleges it was for an alcohol violation. In an email thread shared with The Wire, one student who was in charge of risk management that year urged the fraternity to look at themselves first before laying blame on others. Yet in 2020, during the same academic calendar year that they had been put on probation, Erin says she was raped by a TKE frat member.

One TKE member noted in the listserv that he overheard two female students discussing the reasons that TKE was on probation, which they believed was due to sexual assault cases against them. This member called this “fake news,” and parodied the conversation, writing that the girls were discussing which P&P session to go to and what to do after the session: “Girl 1: omg yasss maybe we can sodomize eachother with metal straws from our recyclable Matcha cups afterwards!”

Other members replied as well. 

“I was also told we had sexual misconduct cases despite Juli Dunn telling me the exact opposite. Tread lightly on this issue though because as soon as you say we are clean someone will either come forward or fabricate a story like the one I was told,” one member said. 

“People will continue to make up rumors about the Alpha Theta Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon until the day the earth burns over,” another said. 

Juli Dunn declined a request to comment on this matter.

However, in September 2021, Greek leaders voted to put TKE on probation after drugging allegations, according to a source who was present at the vote. This incident, when threaded alongside the others, speaks to the culture in the fraternity that multiple sources discussed. TKE chapter meeting notes obtained by The Wire from October 2021 mention an upcoming talk by Malia Lewis, who was Whitman’s Sexual Assault Victim’s Advocate at the time. 

Malia Lewis confirmed with The Wire that they met with TKE in the fall of 2021.

“I did give a talk to TKE in Fall 2021 regarding how they could improve their reputation by making changes to the way they throw parties and behave at those parties to optimize safety and demonstrate that eradicating sexual violence is of importance to them as a subcommunity,” Lewis said. 

When asked about the meeting notes, Lewis said “That unfortunately makes sense with the vibe in the room.”

Lewis described two elements of the meeting, a lack of masks and being placed at the end of the room furthest away from the exit, as causing discomfort. 

“I pointed out both of those things as decreasing the unspoken/subconscious level of safety in the room, though they likely hadn’t thought about them in advance. [This] related to the overall level of care demonstrated with regard to consent and comfort of others visiting their space,” Lewis said. 

According to Owen Hughes, the current President of TKE, the changes Lewis advocated for seem to be a reality today.

“We have a risk manager, sober roamers and ID checkers working at every party who ensure a safe environment. Furthermore, we do collaborative ID checking with sororities and we have an extensive spreadsheet with photos and names of individuals who have behaved inappropriately or have Title IXs that are not allowed in our house. At each of our parties this year, we have maintained policy and removed all individuals making people feel uncomfortable,” Hughes said. 

Hughes further noted that no current members have been accused or convicted of sexual assault and that the Judicial Board and GAP representative make sure that this kind of behavior is not tolerated. 

Erin explained to The Wire that her experiences were persistent and similar to others. 

“I would walk past houses on campus and like guys would be like, ‘hey cunt,’ and just like call me horrible things,” Erin said. “Victims blame themselves for what happened. So having your college and your peers also tell you that this didn’t happen is really upsetting.”

“I had talked to friends in other colleges and they were just like, how your Greek organization dealt with assault, but that’s really not normal how it was handled. I started feeling like Whitman handled assault really poorly, and I had a couple friends that had gone through the Title IX process and they were just like, don’t do it, it’s really horrible,” she said. 

Rochellis had some of the same experiences as a member of Greek life. 

“A lot of the ways that men engage not only with each other but especially women really rely on there not being consent,” Rochellis said. 

“I think the school would like to communicate that the culture is different than it really is,” Rochellis said. 

“We Hate Women Week” from 1947 indicated that Whitman College has a history of violence against women in many forms, but Erin also notes that in 2021, we shouldn’t expect the same of the college. 

“Greek organizations nationally are known for being hotspots of sexual assault, but they should, in 2021, be places that make sure that their members don’t do this instead of becoming insular,” Erin said. 

Stace Sievert, the Director of Sorority and Fraternity Life at Whitman College, explained in an email that she wasn’t around from 2019 to 2021. However, she did note her own experience working closely with Greek life. 

“It is my experience that sororities and fraternities at Whitman take rules seriously and earnestly work hard to ensure safe spaces for their members, and at events they host for their guests as well,” Sievert said. 

Time will tell whether or not the Attorney General’s Office of Washington State can implement the changes made at Whitman College with regard to sexual violence, but as victims at Whitman College note, their experiences are part of a larger normalization of silencing survivors and centering the safety of men and those in power at multiple levels. 

Erin* is a pseudonym to protect source anonymity.

CORRECTIONS: The article stated that Juli Dunn did not respond to a request for comment. Dunn did respond, but declined to comment. The article has been updated to fix this error.