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Fort Valley State alumni president 'very concerned' about allegations

Gross says her association is focusing on the positive while the investigation process is carried out.

The President of the Fort Valley State University's National Alumni Association calls the allegations of sexual misconduct tied to a sorority "very concerning.”

She says until they get more answers, the alumni are focusing on current students and the University’s accomplishments.

President LouAnn Gross says her group is following the GBI's investigation closely but could not shed more light on the investigation itself.

“It would not be to the advantage of Fort Valley for me to discuss things that people are saying when I don't really know exactly what happened and we've not had a discussion regarding what allegations, other than there being allegations of sexual misconduct,” Gross says.

Wednesday, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which has a chapter at Fort Valley, confirmed the allegations involved sexual misconduct.

It came after one of their members employed at the campus was placed on administrative leave.

Three students talked to 13WMAZ on Friday after leaving campus.

They were juniors and said they were worried the school would lose its accreditation due to the investigation. All three were female. No other students would agree to speak and none of them would agree to go on camera.

“We want our students to know that we want to protect them from any type of exploitation at the University,” Gross says.

She says they have a zero-tolerance policy for exploitation or hazing.

“We want them to know they're one of us and we promised when they came onto that campus as freshmen that we would protect them,” Gross continued.

Gross pointed to the University’s work in research, rehab and agricultural programs as a sign of the positive things FVSU was doing. She also said they were not worried about the University’s accreditation.

Gross also expressed support for the University’s President.

On Friday, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said there was no update to the investigation.

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