Examining Responses to a Racist Event in a Sorority and Fraternity Life Community: A Case Study

Abstract

Racism has been interwoven in implicit and explicit ways within historically white sorority and fraternity life (SFL) communities since their inception. However, few studies have provided insight to how practitioners address the realities of racism in SFL broadly, or specifically how SFL practitioners have attended to race-based incidents on their local campuses, the success of these initiatives, and to what degree their actions have been sustainable over time. This project sought to contribute insight to these dynamics by mobilizing a case study approach guided by an institutional response framework to focus on how a particular SFL community at Sunnydale University (a pseudonym) took steps following a racist event that occurred on their campus. Using data collected from five professionals and 19 students on campus, as well as from institutional documents, findings from this study revealed the following: the lack of preparedness and plan to address racist events, how they moved toward immediate and continued engagement in equity work, as well as the challenges with striving toward racial equity. We then provide implications for higher education professionals and future research.