Former SU student files 1991 rape lawsuit against university, greek life
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UPDATE: This story was updated on Dec. 2, 2023, at 9:00 a.m.
Content note: This article includes mentions of sexual assault.
A former Syracuse University student is suing the university, fraternity Sigma Chi and sorority Delta Delta Delta, alleging she was drugged and raped at the fraternity’s chapter house in 1991.
The lawsuit filed on Nov. 17 also names current Sigma Chi Treasurer Ethan Hirsh and President Luke Rogers and current Delta Delta Delta Treasurer Emma Spadea and President Claire Harris alongside their respective local and national Greek organizations. All of the Greek life-adjacent defendants are being sued for negligence. The plaintiff is also suing SU for negligence, negligent breach of assumed duties and negligent misrepresentation.
Both the plaintiff, then a freshman, and the man accused of rape are named under pseudonyms in the lawsuit.
In September 1991, Delta Delta Delta and Sigma Chi hosted a celebration for the sorority’s new pledges, one of which was the plaintiff, the plaintiff alleges. The party was hosted at Sigma Chi’s fraternity house and allegedly had a trash can filled with alcoholic punch made with 190-proof grain alcohol. The plaintiff said she was later told that a separate thermos of punch had been spiked with ecstasy.
After she started drinking, the lawsuit states she “quickly became intoxicated.”
“She went upstairs with Defendant Roe, who began kissing her in a bedroom. Plaintiff stated that she was not interested in having sex, had a boyfriend, and said ‘no, don’t do that’ when Defendant Roe continued trying to engage in sex acts with her,” the lawsuit states.
Another fraternity member allegedly entered the room “but failed to act or stop the rape,” according to the lawsuit. After going to what was then University Health Services, the plaintiff reported the rape to the police.
She alleges that after a story regarding her assault was published in The Daily Orange on Sept. 23, 1991, members of Delta Delta Delta told her “she was no longer welcome in the sorority” when she tried to attend a sorority meeting.
Members of Delta Delta Delta harassed the plaintiff for making the report of rape and for “potentially causing trouble for them, their sorority, and the fraternity and its members, and ‘ruining their senior year.’”
The plaintiff then withdrew from pledging the sorority and “had neither the strength nor support from the University to move forward on her report to the police.” She withdrew from SU after her sophomore year.
According to the lawsuit, the university failed “to reasonably and safely manage and oversee the actions of the Fraternity and Sorority Defendants despite undertaking such obligations to do so and actively promoting to students and Plaintiff their purported qualities and membership.”
The university also failed to “accurately disclose” the risks of participating in Greek life at SU and failed “to offer, provide or identify for Plaintiff any of the services and advocacy available to her at the Unviersity following her report of being raped.”
Along with claims of negligence, the lawsuit states that Sigma Chi International “(conspired) with other national fraternities and sororities and (shared) information about the claims for injuries, rapes and deaths, and lawsuits related thereto, for purposes of coordinating the manner in which they operate … without affecting their operations or increasing their costs and liabilities.”
SU’s chapter of Sigma Chi referred The Daily Orange to its national organization. The national organization wrote to The D.O. that they do not comment on active litigation.
Karen Hughes, the chief executive officer of Delta Delta Delta’s national organization, told The D.O. that victims of sexual assault deserve support, but took issue with the lawsuit suing current students.
“The allegations in the suit are that in 1991 a former member was assaulted, and that she was not well supported by the campus community,” Hughes wrote. “While we understand she is looking for justice now to move forward from that incident, that will not be achieved by a claim against the current leaders of our chapter who were not born when the incident occurred.”
Per university policy regarding active litigation, SU also provided no comment.
The lawsuit was filed under the New York Adult Survivor’s Act, which created a one-year window for people to file civil sexual assault lawsuits. The window ended Friday.
