BU frat under fire for sexually suggestive party promos

Boston University has withdrawn recognition of a fraternity after learning that frat members promoted a holiday party with sexually suggestive and misogynistic videos and photographs.

The party promotion images reportedly included naked women, and women kissing each other.

The images depicted “a culture of abusive behavior that openly celebrates verbal sexual coercion, belittling women, grabbing, groping, forced kissing, and the badgering of women for sex,” Assistant Dean of Students John Battaglino wrote in a Feb. 6 letter condemning Kappa Sigma’s involvement, BU Today reported.

The Dec. 10 “University Blackout” party was set to happen at Boston Royale nightclub. The event was eventually cancelled, the report said.

“‘Blackout parties’ have become associated with a social sanctioning that it is okay to take advantage of intoxicated women,” the letter continues. It acknowledges a “heartfelt” apology letter from the frat’s president to the dean of students.

It also admonishes the chapter and its national leadership to “develop a method to reexamine your own behavior as members of an all-male organization within a culture of violence that often regards sexual assault as acceptable behavior or as ‘just sex.’”

Kappa Sigma’s Boston University chapter President Nicholas Supple told The Daily Free Press that “while being suspended from campus is never a good thing, we’re confident that we will be able to find common ground with the school, and we welcome this opportunity to strengthen our chapter internally and our working relationship with the community.”