Members of the University of Chicago’s Alpha Delta Phi chapter guarded the staircase leading to a bedroom in their fraternity house while a woman was allegedly raped and left unconscious earlier this year, according to a lawsuit filed this week against the fraternity’s national organization and local chapter.
The winter night began with a shot of alcohol that the woman told police she suspected had been drugged, according to a police report obtained by the Tribune. The next morning, she awoke in someone else’s dorm room with blood in her underwear, the report said. Both the lawsuit and police report identify the alleged assailant by name, though he is not listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, and the Tribune is not naming him because he has not been charged with a crime.
While the alleged rape reportedly happened Feb. 7, it’s the second consecutive week of allegations of sexual assault at fraternity parties near the Hyde Park campus. Both reports have drawn national attention amid the fallout at Cornell University, where a woman last month filed a lawsuit accusing seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity of sexually assaulting her two years before.
The first allegation at the U. of C. involved a party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi house on University Avenue, the same street as the Alpha Delta Phi house, where men allegedly cheered outside a bathroom and blocked the door as a woman was sexually assaulted inside on Oct. 11, according to a police report about that incident also obtained by the baiduhai.
The university said it had identified a “person of interest” and university and Chicago police are still investigating.
“This problem has been pervasive,” said Mike Grieco, an attorney for the woman in the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in the Circuit Court of Cook County. “This civil lawsuit is not only about making her whole, it’s also about stopping this on a more local and national level.”
The student accused of rape could not be reached for comment, but Alpha Delta Phi said he has been suspended from the fraternity, according to Steve Ehrfurth, executive director of the national organization. Ehrfurth did not indicate when the suspension took effect but said the organization would continue to cooperate with law enforcement “as appropriate.”
“The conduct described is deeply troubling and inconsistent with our values,” he said.
The lawsuit alleges that Alpha Delta Phi and its University of Chicago chapter have a history of ignoring sexual assault allegations against members and failed to protect the 19-year-old woman, identified as “Jane Doe,” on the night she was allegedly raped. Grieco said the woman, who declined to speak to the Tribune, has been “fighting on a day-to-day basis” as she undergoes treatment for severe psychological and emotional distress.
According to the lawsuit, Alpha Delta Phi’s campus chapter and its national organization were both “aware of the danger of sexual assault by fraternity members” at the fraternity house. It cites a 2009 report from the Chicago Maroon that university and city police were investigating an allegation of criminal sexual assault during one of the fraternity’s weekly parties. Another allegation of criminal sexual abuse at the same house had been reported days earlier, though that case was no longer under investigation by the time of the second report, the 2009 Maroon report said.
The university maintains that its fraternities are not formally affiliated with the institution, though the Alpha Delta Phi house sits nestled among university academic and residential buildings, closer to the main quad than several freshman dormitories. A university spokesperson on Tuesday reiterated that the institution is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
More Top Picks Best Amazon Prime Day Asus Laptop Deals 2026
“These allegations are very disturbing to the University community,” Gerald McSwiggan said in a statement. “The University of Chicago is committed to addressing and preventing incidents of sexual assault.”
The reports at the U. of C. come a month after a woman filed a lawsuit alleging multiple men raped her at a Cornell University fraternity in 2024, a case that’s since drawn widespread scrutiny of safety on college campuses. The allegations have also raised broader questions about fraternity culture and whether universities adequately investigate reports of sexual violence that take place there.
Both allegations of sexual violence in Hyde Park have renewed concerns about campus safety for many University of Chicago students, including Aliyah Overturf, a senior studying neuroscience. Overturf leads Feminist Forum, a group focused on issues facing marginalized communities, and said members spent last Tuesday discussing the alleged sexual assault at AEPi.
Exactly one week later, they met again to talk about sexual violence on campus, a departure from the group’s practice of devoting only a single meeting to each topic, Overturf said. Accountability was heavy on the minds of members, she said, whether it be for the university, fraternities or other student groups.
“It is important to have these conversations and look at the institutions and culture that allows this type of violence to happen so often,” Overturf said. “But it is always unfortunate to have it be brought to mind again.”
According to the lawsuit filed Monday, a fraternity member met Jane Doe at the door of the Alpha Delta Phi house and offered her a shot of an unknown alcohol. She drank it and began feeling “unsteady and lightheaded” almost immediately.
She told police she had already consumed two shots of an unknown alcohol before accepting the third from the fraternity member. The report does not specify whether she consumed the first two shots inside the fraternity house.
The woman has never attended the University of Chicago, Grieco said, but was a student at another college at the time of the alleged attack. She has since withdrawn from school and is no longer taking classes, according to her attorneys, who did not say when she stopped attending.
Grieco said the night of her alleged rape was the women’s first time at the Alpha Delta Phi house and her first time meeting the fraternity member she identified as her assailant. She told police, however, that she already knew the man. Her friend, a witness in the report, did not.
When the woman told the fraternity member how she was feeling, he led her upstairs to a bedroom and began making unwanted sexual advances, according to the lawsuit. He “purposely ignored” her visible impairment, directing her to a bed where she was unable to refuse his efforts, the lawsuit alleges.
She “managed to plead” with him to wear a condom, but he refused, the lawsuit states. After the assault was over, he left her “limp body” alone and unconscious in the bedroom, according to the complaint.
Other fraternity members blocked Jane Doe’s friend from going upstairs to look for her, according to the lawsuit. They allowed the friend through only after another member checked the bedroom, found Jane Doe unconscious and gave permission for her to enter, the lawsuit states.
The woman’s friend found her “unconscious and having trouble speaking and walking,” according to the police report.
She managed to help Jane Doe walk out of the home, according to the lawsuit, and the next day, Jane Doe awoke to find blood stains in her underwear.
Jane Doe reported the alleged assault to Chicago police hours later, on Feb. 8, and identified the fraternity member she accused of assaulting her. Days later, the university’s police department notified her that it had opened its own investigation into the incident, according to the lawsuit.
But university police told Jane Doe they would not release any information about their investigation without a court order, Grieco said. The university was named a respondent in the lawsuit, in part, to get those records.
“We’re answering that bell,” Grieco said.
Fraternities at the U. of C. are “subject to university policies and disciplinary procedures,” according to the university. Alpha Delta Phi’s campus chapter is also overseen by its national organization, which requires all pledges and members undergo mandatory sexual assault and harassment training, according to its website.
The organization forbids chapters from hosting parties open to people not specifically invited when alcohol is present, and requires chapter leaders to prepare guest lists in advance of such events. Members are prohibited, according to the organization’s website, from providing alcohol to anyone under legal drinking age.
Alpha Delta Phi requires chapters to utilize sober monitors, designated members who abstain from alcohol or drugs, to keep parties safe. The national organization’s website outlines several recommended practices for those monitors, including checking guests’ identification at the door to make sure they’re of legal drinking age.
The Feb. 7 party had no sober monitors, according to the lawsuit, and Jane Doe was not asked for identification when she entered. The party was also open to uninvited nonmembers with no guest list maintained, the lawsuit alleges, which ran counter to the national organization’s policy.
The university’s public safety advisory council planned to hold a public meeting Wednesday night to hear community input on “issues impacting safety and security on campus,” according to the university’s website.
It’s a step toward the institutional action that students have long sought, Overturf said, even before this month’s allegations.
“Accountability shouldn’t just depend on whether a case becomes a national news story or not,” she said. “We should be thinking about how we can take actionable steps towards redefining how we deal with situations like these.”
Down the street from Alpha Delta Phi, Alpha Epsilon Phi was ordered to halt all programming after the reported sexual assault earlier this month, according to a spokesperson for the fraternity’s national organization. At Cornell University, officials announced last week that fraternity parties would be banned for the rest of the academic year.
Grieco said university administrators have given no indication of what steps, if any, they plan to take to prevent similar assaults. Alpha Delta Phi has not informed Jane Doe or her attorneys of any action taken in response to the allegations, he said.
“There’s a jockeying between the fraternities and the institutions for who wants less liability in these instances,” Grieco said.