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University of Illinois fraternities mandate preventative sexual assault training

Normally, I would be the first person to lambaste Champaign-Urbana’s Fraternity/Sorority culture, but today, an instance of good news worth reporting on has come out of the U of I’s Interfraternity Council.

In what may (or may not be) a response to a massive investigation by The Daily Illini last week, the University of Illinois’ Interfraternity Council is now mandating what they call “bystander prevention” training for all 42 fraternities on campus. Second-year members will now have to take this training in addition to the two sexual-assault-prevention programs that all U of I students have to take already.

In a college town with a greek community as vast and powerful as the U of I’s, more education can hardly be a problem – especially when the University seems to have problems reporting sexual assault. It’ll take a while to see if any change does indeed come, but this is a step in the right direction for the U of I’s greek system, the U of I, and Champaign-Urbana as a whole.

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