By Ella Prieto, Assistant News Editor
In the spring semester of 2020, Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) member Ryan Ahern ’20 launched the Not in Our House Campaign. Working with the Gettysburg College Office of Sexual Respect and Title IX, Ahern hoped to combat sexual assault and gender violence throughout campus with Greek organizations at the forefront of the fight. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the campaign did not gain traction.
Now, Gettysburg College’s Interfraternity Council (IFC) is relaunching Not in Our House. Beginning last semester with the work of Caden Simons ’24 and Ries Faller ’22, the IFC has collaborated with the Office of Student Activities & Greek Life (OSAGL) Assistant Director Trevor McClenon and Title IX Director Amanda Blaugher to bring the program back.
This semester, IFC President Jacob Kezmarsky ’24, IFC Service and Programming Chair Cameron Case ’25 and IFC Inclusion Chair Henry Namiot ’23 are spearheading the initiative.
“I felt like [Not in Our House] was just needed again. People, and fraternity men in general, need more education and better guidance,” said Kezmarsky.
The goal of the campaign is “to hold fraternity men more accountable for their actions, guiding fraternity men in their decision making, and building a safer community for our peers.”
To begin the relaunch, the IFC has worked with McLenon and Blaugher to create an anonymous survey that will aid in framing their conversation on the central themes of the Not in Our House program. This survey was first sent out to all fraternity chapter presidents and then to all sorority women on Feb. 6, but they plan to send it to the greater campus community as well.
“We’re using the survey as a way to frame our discussion on what kind of work people want to see in our program because we thought it was very valuable to have that kind of input,” explained Case.
So far, the IFC has already identified three sections that they want to work on through this campaign: education, advocacy, and transparency. They have already begun to initiate these aspects into the IFC, with their main focus right now on uploading risk management plans to the IFC engageGettysburg website so that any student can view them. These plans will provide a map of the event space with positions for sober monitors and sober snacks and water. For advocacy, they plan to be more involved in the “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” and “Take Back the Night” events.
The IFC Inclusion Committee, which is chaired by Namiot, is also dedicating every other one of their meetings to focus on the Not in Our House relaunch.
“We have a designated committee of people that’s open to all fraternity men that can come and give their input on how the program’s going and what they think we should see or get out of it,” said Namiot.
Kezmarksy also spoke about how they hope the program evolves to be a community of peer education. Kezmarsky, Case, and Namiot all expressed desires to continue their work on the Not in Our House campaign. They hope to have fully launched the peer educational aspect of this program in the fall.
