Sigma Chi works with students to ‘bridge the gap’

It has been less than a week since Abby Bruce’s Facebook post alleging sexual harassment at Sigma Chi’s annual Derby Days dance competition caught national attention, but much has changed since then.
It would be easy to pit Bruce and Sigma Chi President Clay Wooley against one another. On one hand there’s Bruce, who spoke out about a sensitive issue, and on the other, there are representatives of the organization who would suffer because of those comments. But that is not the case.
Instead, Bruce, Wooley and Sigma Chi Vice President Max López said they are working together to create a positive change out of a negative incident.
“People might ask – and people should ask – why are you in correspondence with him? As president of this organization that allowed for this incident to occur, why are you giving him ability to have any kind of say in this conversation?” Bruce said.
The answer, according to Bruce, is because through this dialogue, the conversation surrounding sexual assault has grown on campus.
“That is why I’ve been so willing to work with him – because there is a sense of mutual respect,” Bruce said. “There is a sense of listening and really trying to understand and trying to make this turn into the most positive thing it possibly can for this University.”
The three have spoken several times since Monday, which Bruce said has expedited their ability to make progress on campus.
“It’s important for us to work together because it bridges the gap,” Bruce said. “It connects both sides of the argument and really gets to the center ground of where we need to be as a University and represent every community group on this campus.”
Wooley said he realized how much he didn’t know about sexual assault several times in his conversations with various people across campus this week.
“Max and I went to some training. We went to some seminars on campus. Clearly, it wasn’t enough,” Wooley said.
Wooley said because of this experience, he wants to see a change on campus – and it has already begun.
“I know this is the ultimate goal: to not only fix the Greek system, but move into the groups in the University and bring us all together,” Wooley said. “This is everyone’s problem.”
On Wednesday, Brandi Hephner Labanc met with all Interfraternity Council executives and IFC fraternity presidents to give them an ultimatum.
Alexis Smith, a sophomore international studies student, said Hephner Labanc’s words were indicative of a larger change on campus.
“To actually have a university official saying ‘We’re tired of statements. We’re tired of just going through the motions,’ was really positive,” Smith said. “It makes you feel like you have someone on your team, like we have people in the Lyceum fighting for us, too.”
Smith said working together, as she and Bruce have been with Wooley and López, is important to entice true change.
“This has to be a collaborative effort. Women know the ways they’re oppressed. They know where they feel uncomfortable,” Smith said. “Fraternities and our University can’t begin to look at these problems and create solutions until they uplift women’s voices.”
This week has been a learning experience, according to López.
“The amount of education that we’ve received in the past five days has clarified so many different things for me,” López said. “I’m a completely different person than I was Saturday morning when I woke up. I believe that if every student was aware of the statistics and everything that goes into this really heavy subject matter, I think there would be an entirely different attitude taken towards this.”
López and Wooley spoke to Rebels Against Sexual Assault officials throughout the week and said they are partnering with RASA to build a better University.
“I said, because of what we were doing, I was looking forward to working with RASA as a whole in a way that I don’t think a fraternity has done before,” López said. “Clay and I aren’t going to drop this. This is something that I think has touched our hearts in a way that I think we’re going to be involved with this for the rest of our lives.”