‘Don’t be a bystander’: UC Berkeley Greek life, clubs respond to Cornell 7 case | Student Life

Students spoke about the recent allegations of gang rape at Cornell University, Greek life culture and patriarchal systems at a Speak Out Now Berkeley meeting Thursday.

At the event, club members and attendees expressed frustration about the incident at Cornell University and the lack of repercussions alleged perpetrators of sexual assault on college campuses tend to face.

The impetus for the meeting came after an anonymous student at Cornell University alleged that 7 members of the Chi Phi fraternity raped her in 2024 and promoted their actions to a group chat of more than 50 of their fraternity members.

“In light of what has happened at Cornell and the broader national conversation around SVSH and Greek life, we are taking this opportunity to look critically at the systems we have in place at Berkeley and identify where they can be strengthened,” said Leah Parvini, the president of the UC Berkeley Panhellenic Council in an email.

Considering the alleged assault at Cornell University, Parvini said PHC plans to increase its collaboration with Greeks Against Sexual Assault at Berkeley, or GASA, encourage greater peer-to-peer education and donate PHC proceeds to SVSH prevention.

Parvini also said PHC hopes to have a roundtable discussion with the Interfraternity Council, or IFC, and GASA to discuss risk prevention, bystander intervention and chapter culture.

“More broadly, I think this moment demands PHC and IFC to reflect together on the systems already in place at Berkeley and identify where they can be strengthened, which is a much larger/time-consuming conversation,” Parvini said in the email.

According to Pavel Karabelov, the president of the UC Berkeley IFC, there have not been conversations among the UC Berkeley fraternities about what steps they should take to combat issues of sexual assault following the Cornell case.

There are 26 UC Berkeley-affiliated fraternities this year and 11 disaffiliated ones, according to the UC Berkeley Student Leadership & Engagement website. The website cites “risk management” as a reason for half of these fraternities’ disaffiliations.

“SVSH is an extremely serious matter, and anyone who engages in such conduct must be properly held accountable,” said the UC Berkeley Lambda chapter of Chi Phi in a text. “Any incident must lead to immediate removal of the individual from the fraternity, or removal of the fraternity from campus.”

As a new chapter, Chi Phi said it hopes to build a safe and welcoming environment in the community, stating it has had internal discussions about recent events and plans to raise money for victims’ legal funds and collaborate with other Greek organizations to raise awareness and shift campus culture.

“We are strong supporters of the consent talk at the door, and we believe that everyone, both in a fraternity and at an event, must play an active role in ensuring people’s safety,” said the Lambda chapter. “Don’t be a bystander.”