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Over a number of nights final August, tons of of protesters gathered outdoors the Phi Gamma Delta home in Lincoln, Nebraska, and demanded the college ban the fraternity following studies that a member allegedly raped a 17-year-old lady. “Kick them out!” and “No means no!” college students chanted throughout demonstrations that attracted nationwide media and introduced protests to Phi Gamma Delta chapters elsewhere.
The fury prompted College of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) directors to close down the Greek group—extra generally often known as Fiji—pending an investigation into the alleged sexual assault. UNL later suspended the frat’s operations by means of 2026 over violations stemming from alcohol use.
Now Fiji is combating again in a weird lawsuit that accuses college officers of retaliating in opposition to them due to members’ help of former President Trump.
The federal grievance alleges the college has wrongfully focused the frat for the reason that January 2017 Ladies’s March that occurred in cities throughout the nation following Trump’s inauguration. UNL Chancellor Ronnie Inexperienced and Andrea Barefield, the director of Scholar Conduct & Neighborhood Requirements, are listed as defendants within the swimsuit.
The lawsuit claims UNL directors “engaged in a sample of retaliatory conduct primarily based on the Chapter and its members’ political viewpoints and political speech” and have been a part of an effort to “punish” Fiji for supporting Trump.
A college spokeswoman advised The Every day Beast the varsity doesn't touch upon pending litigation.
On Jan. 21, 2017, Fiji members unfurled the president’s marketing campaign banners from a balcony of their frat home and chanted, “Trump, Trump, Trump” as ladies marchers handed them, in keeping with the grievance.
On the time, some marchers claimed the frat boys yelled different vulgarities together with, “No means sure,” referring to intercourse with out consent, and requested feminine demonstrators whether or not their feminine genitalia was blue, in reference to the Democratic Occasion. (Fiji denies its members made such statements.)
The lawsuit, filed on Feb. 18, claims the 2017 Ladies’s March was the start of a sample of self-discipline in opposition to Fiji. Some march contributors complained to Inexperienced and college brass, who then launched a Title IX investigation and suspended the frat. “Whereas habits outdoors the fraternity through the Ladies’s March attracted public consideration, our investigation has proven broader conduct points on the fraternity,” Juan Franco, the previous vice chancellor for pupil affairs, mentioned in a February 2017 assertion.
One month later, Franco introduced Fiji can be suspended till 2020 due to a sample of habits together with “reckless alcohol use, hazing and inappropriate sexually primarily based habits, together with a sample of sexually harassing conduct.”
Franco added: “Whereas not the focus of the suspension, feedback made by Fiji members Jan. 21 outdoors the fraternity home throughout a ladies’s march have been in line with the sample of sexually harassing conduct evident in a number of different incidents.”
Fiji’s suspension was lifted in spring of 2019, the grievance says. However the troubled frat was placed on probation in 2021 following accusations of underage consuming.
The fraternity was finally shuttered in August 2021, when a 17-year-old faculty pupil reported that she’d been raped by a 19-year-old member of the group, on the evening of the primary day of courses. The alleged rape occurred simply earlier than 4 a.m. on Aug. 24.
Scholar newspaper The Every day Nebraskan reported that the lady advised police that she and an 18-year-old feminine acquaintance went to the frat celebration collectively. She mentioned the pal left earlier than the alleged assault however ended up driving her to the hospital afterward.
The investigation into the alleged rape continues to be ongoing, a college spokeswoman advised The Every day Beast.
Final October, the Lincoln Journal-Starreported that the 19-year-old male pupil had left campus and hadn’t been charged by college police or some other company.
In its lawsuit, Fiji seems to disclaim the assault ever happened. “Within the early morning hours of Aug. 24, 2021, rumors started circulating on social media that acknowledged, amongst different issues, that a feminine College freshman was sexually assaulted on the Chapter Home,” the courtroom submitting states. “The Fiji Plaintiffs are unaware of who initiated these rumors. To the Fiji Plaintiffs’ data, these rumors are unfaithful.”
In accordance with its lawsuit, Fiji says its chapter and members “condemn sexual assault” and reached out to school police to help within the latest sexual assault investigation. “Thereafter, the proof gathered from this cooperation was used to cost the Chapter with violations of the College’s alcohol coverage in direct contravention of the College’s Title IX coverage,” the grievance states.
The frat’s grievance alleges Inexperienced and Barefield violated their First Modification rights to freedom of speech and freedom of affiliation, and their Fourteenth Modification proper with respect to deprivation of property and liberty with out due course of.