Managing Fraternities and Sororities to Reduce Risk

Greek organizations are frequently in the news for high-risk behavior and resulting lawsuits. In the spring of 2015, acts of hazing, racism, alcohol abuse, and sexual violence led to closures, suspensions, or other disciplinary actions for 133 fraternities and sororities at 55 U.S. higher-education institutions, according to a Bloomberg Business report. In June, a Penn State fraternity pledge who said he experienced violent hazing sued the university and the now-suspended Kappa Delta Rho fraternity. Clemson University and Sigma Phi Epsilon asked for the dismissal of two $25 million lawsuits related to a fraternity brother’s death in a fall.

A decade ago, administrators were less involved in oversight of Greek organizations. Now, with increased awareness of liability associated with student actions, "there is a lower threshold for behaviors that are dangerous or chapters that have a pattern of behaviors that are risk-related," said Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA, a national association of higher-education student affairs professionals. "Chapters are being held highly accountable for individual or group behavior. That is why we are seeing more chapters suspended."

The spike in reported incidents and lawsuits has led to calls for an end to Greek organizations, but many college and university administrators want to preserve the tradition. Three UE members—Lehigh University, Cornell University, and the University of Maine (UMaine)—are creating partnerships with campus chapters, national Greek organizations, risk management services, and other organizations. Together, they hope to reduce risks to health, safety, and reputation for the chapters and the schools.

Lehigh Invests in Greek Life

Lehigh, in Bethlehem, Pa., started its "Strengthening Greek Life Initiative" during the 2002 to 2003 academic year, when many institutions began looking at improving or even eliminating Greek organizations, said Allison Gulati, associate dean of students.

About 40 percent of Lehigh students are involved in the university's 17 social fraternities, nine social sororities, three multicultural fraternities, and three multicultural sororities. “We didn’t want to lose that tradition, so the president and trustees made an investment in it," she said. In 2004, Lehigh had one staff member overseeing Greek organizations; now there are five—an assistant dean of fraternity and sorority affairs and four assistant directors. The assistant dean supervises program and prevention initiatives, chapter advising, and alumni relations. The assistant directors advise seven to nine chapters each.

"That [staffing] allows for a high-touch relationship between our administration and the [chapters'] leadership," Gulati said. The advisers meet regularly with chapter presidents and twice a semester with the full membership and executive boards. "The partnership allows everything to work,” she said. Students, faculty, and staff are involved in examining conduct and strategic planning.

Cornell Substitutes Education for Pledging

Tragedy struck Cornell’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) chapter in 2011. A student died from alcohol poisoning linked to pledging at the Ithaca, N.Y., university, and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit followed. Cornell administrators responded with an initiative to replace pledging with a new-member orientation and personal development model.

"It may sound like semantics, but in actual application there are some very specific processes," said Travis Apgar, senior associate dean of students. "We couldn't just say you can't pledge anymore. We needed to give them an acceptable [recruiting] format with room … to make it their own and adapt it to their organizational needs."

Cornell’s tradition of Greek life dates back to the university’s founding in 1868, and, today, a third of the school’s nearly 15,000 students belong to one of its 64 Greek organizations. Administrators expected the resistance they received. "It took a lot of institutional willpower, as well as alumni who had influence with the chapters, to stand behind us,” Apgar said.

Cornell shortened the traditional six-week pledge period to a maximum four weeks of orientation. This change, administrators reasoned, would reduce the potential for hazing and alcohol- and drug-related activities. The university also wanted to eliminate the power hierarchy associated with pledging. "We created a program that established a level plane of mutual respect, instead of pledges trying to gain the respect of senior members," he said. 

Each chapter, with Apgar's office, designs an orientation plan that includes chapter goals and required education on leadership, bystander intervention, sexual violence, and hazing. "Many student leaders have told us this was a positive experience in informing new members and as an opportunity to plan ahead…if an activity should go wrong," Apgar said. 

Efforts to reduce high-risk behaviors may cause an initial spike in reports. "Once you educate people and convince them they should be doing something else, they are more inclined to report those activities," Apgar said. Cornell saw reports double or triple in the first two years of its initiative. "Now the number of reports has dropped off because we have the pieces in place to combat hazing and also the mechanisms for enforcement and consequences."

UMaine Promotes Enrichment and Crisis Management

At UMaine in Orono, administrators take a multifaceted approach to risk management for Greek organizations as its fraternity and sorority membership grows. The school has 18 fraternities and eight sororities representing 14 percent of the undergraduate population, or 1,030 members, up from 751 in fall 2008. Efforts include risk management and enrichment programs for chapter presidents and chapter risk managers, said Katherine Pezzella, assistant director of campus activities and student engagement.

Pezzella's office familiarizes chapter presidents with their responsibilities as the primary contact person for their group. One important task is crisis management training. For chapter risk managers, the focus is on the day-to-day, including how to manage risk at a particular social event. The university also provides fire and life safety training annually for all members, as well as education programs for new members on alcohol and drugs, hazing, sexual assault and violence, and mental health.

Each year, chapters must submit detailed new-member plans. "This is their opportunity to plan … and ask questions. We can talk about anything hypothetically,” such as whether a particular activity would be considered hazing, she said.

Holding Them Accountable

Lehigh uses an annual accreditation process to assess its Greek organizations. Chapters must present written and oral reports to a panel of two staff members, a faculty member, an alumnus, and a student representative from the community. The reports focus on any conduct or safety issues the chapters faced during the year and on their positive programming. All chapter members attend the 40-minute oral presentation, and the panel can ask questions of the president and any members.

"It allows for a dialogue experience," Gulati said. After the presentation, the chapter receives a rating—gold, silver, bronze, poor, or unacceptable. If unacceptable, the chapter loses university recognition immediately. A poor rating two years in a row also means loss of recognition. Lehigh posts all the chapter reports and consequences. (See http://studentaffairs.lehigh.edu/ofsa.)

Cornell offers a number of resources for students in Greek organizations, including hazing.cornell.edu, which includes an online mechanism for confidential reporting of hazing incidents and a log of hazing activities and investigations. In addition to giving the Cornell community and the public access to information, the blotter and other resources “reinforce the expectation that [chapters] are likely to be found out and held accountable," Apgar said. 

UMaine also provides an extensive list of online resources, including semester reports on each chapter’s academic performance, charitable contributions, and other statistics. (See https://umaine.edu/case/greek/forms-and-policies.) 

The university looks at accountability as two-pronged: "Is it individual or organizational? If it's individual, we can be much more collaborative because the chapter leaders are usually as upset as we are,” Pezzella said. “If it's organizational and the leadership knew about it and did nothing or supported the activity, or if everyone was doing it to all the new members, we would put them on suspension until we determined what was going on." In those cases, UMaine works with the chapter and the national organization to investigate and determine consequences.

By Donna Davis, a freelance business and education writer 

More Information

Universities Work to Prevent Hazing in Fraternities, Sororities
Risk Management at Fraternities and Sororities Begins at the Top