“NOT EVEN HALF THE SOLO CUP…”
READ OUR ARTICLE DETAILING ANONYMOUS STUDENT NEW’S INTERVIEW WITH THE VICTIMS OF THE PHI DELT ROOFIE INCIDENT
Written By Bella Armour
On Thursday February 22nd, the University of Oregon's Interfraternity Council (IFC) announced their decision to temporarily disband Oregon fraternities from throwing parties with alcohol until spring term on Instagram (see more here). According to this statement and the IFC website, Phi Delta Theta and Delta Sigma Phi are on an Interim Action status, pending the outcome of the student conduct process. Although not directly stated in their post, this decision was made after events from the weekend prior came to light.
Anonymous students, referred to in this article as B and U, are freshman at the University of Oregon and have been frequenting fraternities for the entire school year. On February 10th, B and U decided to go to Phi Delta Theta, also known as Phi Delt, around 11:30 after only having one or two drinks before. Later, they were offered drinks by an individual they knew, and at that time trusted.
“Not even half the solo cup was filled up,” they said, explaining how their night progressed.
Both ended up safe at home with no memory of how they got there, thanks to their sober friend, but described their symptoms as a loss of memory— like “blacking out,” headaches, nausea, and dizziness.
All these are symptoms of being roofied. According to Sunlight Recovery, rohypnol, known as a roofie, is a small pill that was originally prescribed to help individuals struggling with insomnia. Now, its known as a “date rape drug,” as well as GHB and GBL, and is illegal in the United States under the Controlled Substances Act. These drugs are popular as they are odorless and only stay in individuals systems for about 72 hours. A 2016 study discovered that 7.8% of female college students and 8.5% of non-college women in the U.S. are victims of being roofied, and B and U believe that they are a part of this statistic after the 10th.
“It was actually really hard to get tested, it cost over 300 dollars. I went to UO health center the following Monday, and they didn't have the specific test either,” B said. Both freshmen went to 5 different urgent cares and hospitals in order to figure out what was in their system.
Because of this, as well as the stigma against women and their stories, cases like this aren't commonly reported or dealt with properly—which in turn continues to less and less women reaching out for help about the issue.
“I actually went home to take a blood test the following weekend,” U said. “A really big part of it— we don't even know if the drug they tested me for was the drug in my system, and obviously that's the intention.”
In the following days, the girls spoke to RA’s about how to navigate this and reached out to a UO confidential advocate, getting funds in order to afford to pay for various drug tests. The University of Oregon’s resource for protecting students from sexual and domestic assault or abuse, and other similar instances, 541‑346‑7233 (SAFE), is open 24 hours and is dedicated to providing professionals to listen and give advice regarding these situations.
“Overall, the school has been supportive. They provided us the resources, we just haven't been kept up to date about what's going on, what is happening, if there is anything at all being done about it,” B said.
The lack of information surrounding test results or just action against perpetrators is scary. Although UO fraternities aren't throwing for the next few weeks, they will be—and these types of drugs and individuals continue to be out in our community.
“I think it can teach a lesson, there has been a consequence. But some of them are still going to throw parties. And when events with alcohol start back up, so will this behavior,” U said in regard to the interfraternity suspensions—it's clear that a more long-term solution is necessary to discourage and protect other individuals from these actions.
B and U posted videos on Tik Tok surrounding their situation on the 13th, which is actually how I found them for this interview. In the videos, they emphasized their frustration with hospitals, the individuals who they believe drugged them, as well as how they felt about the entire experience.
“We were really lucky that we had a friend to get us back home before anything else worse could have happened,” said B. “That's my main purpose of posting about it on social media, I want to spread awareness and prevent it from happening in the future.”
These girls, despite being educated and safe, were taken advantage of at the university's Phi Delt fraternity, and continue to speak up bravely about the issue. Although they went through this experience, both B and U faced it head on, and were not scared of the consequences they could have faced speaking up about their perpetrators—badass. After this incident, B and U hope to gain conclusive results about their drugging, that their offenders are given just consequences, and that the university will protect their students to prevent situations like this from happening again.
B and U have made an official Report with the Eugene Police department following the incident. We thank them for this interview and their bravery in speaking out. We will update this article as more information becomes available.
