Fraternity at St Andrews pressured to hand over students’ names
Demands for US-style fraternity at Prince William’s alma mater St Andrews University to hand over names of students suspended over string of sex attacks at society events
- Some members of Alpha Epsilon Pi were suspended following string of claims
- AEPi said members who ‘acknowledged any role’ were referred for investigation
- Local MSP Willie Rennie said the society should pass information on to the police
Published: 09:28 EDT, 14 July 2020 | Updated: 10:22 EDT, 14 July 2020
A student fraternity embroiled in the sexual assault allegations sweeping St Andrews University is under pressure to pass the names of implicated members to police.
Several members of the Scottish university’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), an all-male and predominantly Jewish society, were suspended following a series of claims made on the St Andrews Survivors Instagram page.
AEPi said members who ‘acknowledged any role’ in the allegations were swiftly suspended and referred for expulsion pending investigation.
The fraternity insists it ‘unconditionally opposes’ sexual misconduct and pledged to root out any offending members.
But it is facing calls to abandon an internal probe and hand over information to the authorities because of the seriousness of the allegations.
A student fraternity embroiled in the sexual assault allegations sweeping St Andrews University (pictured) is under pressure to pass the names of implicated members to police
Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Willie Rennie, whose North East Fife constituency includes St Andrews, urged AEPi to cooperate with officers
Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Willie Rennie, whose North East Fife constituency includes St Andrews, urged AEPi to cooperate with officers.
‘This is not an issue for AEPi to resolve themselves; it has gone well beyond that,’ he told The Times.
He said it was for detectives, not AEPi’s leadership, to drill down into the ‘deeply worrying allegations’ for the sake of the complainants.
But the fraternity insists it will work with police should an investigation be launched.
Media spokesperson Jonathan Pierce told MailOnline: ‘Since these anonymous allegations against unnamed individuals were first made public, Alpha Epsilon Pi has said that we will completely cooperate with all investigations made by proper authorities.
‘They are clearly better equipped and trained to handle that investigation than is our organization.
‘To the best of my knowledge, at this time, no one from the police has approached any members.’
He added: ‘If anyone has indicated that that our members are not being cooperative, I am not aware of it and I believe that is completely untrue.
‘There is absolutely no room in Alpha Epsilon Pi for this type of behavior and if the allegations are properly investigated and found to be true, we will immediately begin the process to expel those members from the fraternity and hope that they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.’
More than a hundred episodes of misconduct were alleged to have taken place at the world-famous institution (pictured), including rape, sexual assault and domestic violence
Since its inception earlier this month, the St Andrews Survivors Instagram channel has been flooded with claims from current and ex-students about rape, sexual assault and harassment.
More than a hundred episodes of misconduct were alleged to have taken place at the world-famous institution, including 20 claims of rape and dozens more for sexual assault, harassment and domestic violence.
One anonymous post said: ‘I was out drinking and had met a frat boy through friends. I had a meltdown outside The Union and he comforted me, I explained that I had been sexually assaulted on another night out.
‘He offered to take me to his for some water since he lived nearby and I didn’t. I was very drunk and so he put me to bed and he was going to sleep on the floor.
‘I woke up sometime later and he was in the bed with me feeling me up. I can’t believe anyone could do this.’
According to its bio, the St Andrews Survivors account aims ‘to expose the reality of sexual abuse at our university’ and ’empower survivors’
A university spokeswoman said that AEPi is not an official St Andrews society but vowed to ‘take action’ and ‘facilitate Police reporting’.
‘The university is making sexual education mandatory for students, but it is not believe any of the claims have been reported to police.
St Andrews is the UK’s third oldest university and was attended by Prince William and Kate Middleton.
‘Multiple’ accusations were directed at members of AEPi, a branch of a US college fraternity which counts Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg among its alumni.
Some of the allegations reportedly occurred at society events, which include toga parties but also charity fundraisers.
On July 3, AEPi released a statement saying: ‘Alpha Epsilon Pi St Andrews was made aware of allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and rape against multiple members of our fraternity, including incidents at chapter events.
‘We find the contents of these allegations abhorrent, and are taking them extremely seriously.’
It added: ‘The chapter was unaware of these allegations before they were brought to light. As soon as chapter leadership was made aware of the allegations we assembled our members to gather additional information.
‘Following these discussions, the chapter immediately suspended members who acknowledged any role in the alleged incidents and entered them into Alpha Epsilon Pi’s expulsion process, which allows for thorough investigation, a standard that will apply any time more evidence comes to light.’
It is not clear how many members were suspended, but the Daily Telegraph reported two.
AEPi has faced sexual abuse allegations at other universities, including the Penn State chapter which was suspended following a police investigation.
MailOnline has approached AEPi for additional comment.
