Reported sexual assault at UChicago frat house under investigation
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The University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus. Photo: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Warning: This story includes reporting on sexual assault and rape.
Chicago police are investigating a reported sexual assault at a University of Chicago fraternity house earlier this week.
The big picture: The UChicago investigation comes amid heightened national scrutiny of campus sexual assault allegations, fueled in part by a former Cornell student's lawsuit over how the university responded to her report of a gang rape.
The latest: UChicago alerted the campus on Oct. 13 that a person of interest had been identified after a reported sexual assault at the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity house on Oct. 11.
- As of today, no one had been charged, and the investigation is ongoing, Chicago police tell Axios.
State of play: Fraternities and sororities are not recognized student organizations at UChicago, but all students are required to follow school rules and policies.
- The person of interest is not a UChicago student or affiliated with the university, the school said in a statement.
- School officials say he was banned from campus.
What they're saying: AEPi said in a statement this week that it's working with Chicago police and that members chased the man out of the building and stayed with the woman until authorities arrived.
Zoom in: "Separate from CPD's ongoing investigation, the University will continue to communicate with students who are members of the fraternity or were witnesses to gather information about how this event unfolded," a university spokesperson tells Axios in a statement.
Context: A former Cornell student alleges in a lawsuit that seven fraternity members at that school raped her in 2024. Cornell has hired a former DOJ official to investigate its handling of the case.
- The accused men deny wrongdoing, and the criminal investigation has reopened.
- The Cornell case is prompting more people to call the National Sexual Assault Hotline, RAINN said in a statement, but as the organization's Megan Cutter added, "Unfortunately, the systems that are here to protect and provide justice let us down."
Zoom out: Students who experienced sexual assault were slightly more likely to contact campus police (11.2%) than local police (9.4%), according to a 2019 Association of American Universities survey of students who sought help or reported incidents.
- Counseling was the most commonly contacted resource, at 46.8%.
What's next: "As the University learns more, it will consider whether violations of University policy occurred, and will initiate disciplinary actions as warranted," UChicago's spokesperson says.