Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan announced on Saturday that all fraternities and related activities would be suspended through at least Jan. 9.
The action comes after a week in which a Rolling Stone magazine report detailed a sexual assault that allegedly occurred on the university’s campus in 2012 that it says was handled improperly. Sullivan said in a letter to members of the university community that she has asked the Charlottesville Police Department to investigate the incident. “We can demand that incidents like those described in Rolling Stone never happen and that if they do, the responsible are held accountable to the law,” Sullivan added. “this will require institutional change, cultural change and legislative change, and it will not be easy,” the admitted, adding “we are making those changes.”
The university’s Inter-Fraternity council said Saturday that all fraternities would voluntarily suspend social activities for the weekend, but Sullivan decided that was only a first step, deciding instead to suspend the organizations through the beginning of the Spring semester.
In a letter sent to parents on Friday night, Sullivan said that sexual assault “has no place in our society, much less in an academic community characterized by freedom and civility.”
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