The feed includes more than 20 reports of rape and several more reports of sexual assault, physical assault and coercion by students of the prestigious university.
Many of the allegations focused on a fraternity, the St Andrews chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, a popular US-based student group that has also faced multiple allegations and police investigations of sexual misconduct in some of its chapters. from United States.
The St. Andrews-based fraternity branch has suspended several of its members after the allegations.
Students like Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge have attended St Andrews, which is the third oldest university in the English-speaking world and regularly sits near the top of the world ranking for higher education facilities.
A spokesman The institution said Monday that it had contacted the owners of the Instagram page and offered its assistance to those who filed complaints, including offers of advice and help in reporting complaints to the university or the police. CNN has reached out to Police Scotland for comment.
He added that the university would introduce a mandatory orientation module for the next academic year, focusing on consent.
“We welcome the efforts of the ‘St Andrews Survivors’ account to provide people of all genders with a space to express their experiences of sexual misconduct,” the university said in a statement. “The primary concern of the university is to ensure that survivors know that we are ready and willing to support their decisions and take action, facilitate police reports and provide ongoing support accordingly.”
More allegations against Alpha Epsilon Pi
The Alpha Epsilon Pi university chapter was met with particular scrutiny, after several alleged victims said members of the group attacked them.
Neither the St Andrews chapter nor the US-based national fraternity has responded to CNN’s requests for comment, but the former said in a July 3 statement: “We found the content of these abhorrent allegations, and we are taking them. seriously”.
The fraternity is not an official university society.
“The chapter immediately suspended members who recognized any role in the alleged incidents and entered them into the Alpha Epsilon Pi expulsion process, which allows for a thorough investigation,” he said, adding that “it would conduct a review of the leadership of our chapter to hold them accountable for the actions of our members. “
A series of Instagram posts specifically accusing the St. Andrews chapter were later removed from the “St Andrews Survivors” page, but Alpha Epsilon Pi St Andrews said in a statement that it “did not participate” in that move.
The university spokesperson told CNN that St Andrews advised the page’s creators about the legal risks of specifically naming organizations in the posts, but both the university and the account’s creators said the institution did not attempt to suppress the accusations.
American-style university fraternities are much less popular in UK universities, which generally favor societies funded by a student union, but some have small chapters in Britain.
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