The president of an international sorority told members of the group's University of Virginia chapter to stay home from a big frat party planned for this weekend — instructions that some members saw as sexist.  Tammie Pinkston, international president of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, issued the directive out of fears of frat-house dangers, as the UVA community gears up for Saturday’s "Boy’s Bid Night," a fraternity event in which new members are welcomed into the campus brotherhoods.  The night of parties was expected to be one of the first big fraternity events since the prestigious university lifted a ban on Greek life earlier this month. UVA suspended all fraternity and sororities in November, after the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity chapter was implicated in an alleged gang rape said to have taken place at one of its parties.  In a Jan. 20 letter, Pinkston requested that all 2,000 sorority sisters at UVA refrain from attending "Boy's Bid Night" parties, the Cavalier Daily reported.  “We believe the activities on Men’s Bid Night present significant safety concerns for all of our members and we are united in our request that the 16 (National Panhellenic Conference) sororities not participate,” Pinkston wrote.  Pinkston said the UVA campus’ “tumultuous” fall semester, highlighted by a Rolling Stone article on the alleged gang rape, should prompt the Greek system to prioritize safety.  The National Panhellenic Conference — which oversees 16 sorority chapters at UVA — said it supported Pinskton's directive but could not impose it on all chapters. But sorority members fired back and created an online petition urging the university to revoke the “discriminatory” order, which they say “perpetuates the idea that women are inferior, sexual objects.” More than 2,000 people signed the petition by Wednesday morning.  “The policy is sexist, implying that women can only be safe by being kept away from men,” one signer wrote.  “Why must women make adjustments while men can continue?” another asked.  Fraternity brothers said they were also upset because the mandate vilifies them and the Greek system as a whole.  “I think fraternity members are frustrated,” UVA Inter-Fraternity Council President Ben Gorman told the student newspaper. “They have been written off as incapable of being responsible individuals without the chance to demonstrate [that] they can hold safe social events.”  Some of national sororities sent representatives to visit their UVA chapters this week to outline similar stay-at-home edicts. The sorority leaders threatened to punish the local chapters with suspensions and/or fines if their members defied the ban, students told the Washington Post.  Fearing punishment from their superiors, some UVA sororities have scheduled mandatory in-house meetings or sisters-only retreats for Saturday — creating a conflict for members that they hope keeps them away from frat parties.  UVA was embroiled in controversy last fall by the Rolling Stone article, which described in graphic detail the alleged gang rape of a student named Jackie inside a campus frat house in 2012.  But after it was published in November, critics quickly questioned the reporter's efforts to track down the alleged suspect and the credibility of her sources. Charlottesville, Va., police launched an investigation, but investigators closed the case earlier this month, saying they failed to “substantive basis to confirm that the allegations.”  Still, the article prompted the school to reevaluate its Greek system.  During a months-long Greek life shutdown, sorority and fraternity leaders developed new rules to “create a safer student environment,” some of which regulate alcohol at student parties.
The international Alpha Delta Pi sorority created a controversy at UVA by instructing members not to attend a frat party.