FSL works to stay out of trouble
Fraternity and sorority leaders discuss ways to stop patterns of risk violations at USD
Elisabeth Smith | Associate Editor | The USD Vista
In movies, Greek Life seems to be a non-stop party where the alcohol is always present, or someone is jumping off a roof. Yet, no amount of illegal activity seems to ever result in a chapter getting kicked off campus as long as they band together like the brothers and sisters they are.
However, at the University of San Diego, Greek Life, officially known as Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL), is not like the movies because the students’ actions actually have consequences. USD, like many campuses across the nation, has not been immune to the negative press that stems from the Greek community. There may not be a Greek row or Greek houses, but there are social events, and with these events come risk-management issues the university and FSL leaders try to prevent.
Despite the efforts of the university, Interfraternity Council (IFC), and Panhellenic Council, risk-management issues happen fairly often at USD. Just as the spring semester started this February, the Lambda Chi Alpha (Lambda) chapter was removed from USD’s campus. Rumors circulated among the Greek and university community, and Lambda members claimed they were robbed of due process from the university. But the issues surrounding the chapter never made it through USD’s hearing process early in the spring semester because the national chapter revoked their charter before any more damage could be done.
Representatives from the former Lambda chapter declined to comment on their removal from campus. However, Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life DJ Mahoney explained the situation further.
“The chapter had violated FSL guidelines several times over the last several years,” Mahoney said. “Some of the things were consistent behavior issues, and in terms of earlier in the semester, for the chapter to be removed, that came from the national organization, not the university. So in support of the board of directors’ decision, the university decided to remove (Lambda) from campus so that we are not recognizing groups that are not also recognized by their organization.”
In March, the Pi Beta Phi (Pi Phi) chapter was issued a cease and desist from the FSL office, halting their chapter activity until a full investigation into alcohol misconduct allegations occurred. While Pi Phi has now gone through the FSL hearing process and is reinstated on campus, these consistent, cyclical issues in the FSL community are cause for constant concern for student leaders and university staff.
Pi Phi’s president Yasmin Yancy issued a statement regarding her chapter’s conduct.
“Our chapter expects all of its members to act in accordance with Pi Phi’s values and policies at all times,” Yancy said. “We are currently receiving additional fraternity support and are executing a strategic plan stemming from a recent risk-management issue. As we move forward, we have found success in partnering with the university, Pi Beta Phi volunteers, and staff through open and honest dialogue to ensure our chapter members better understand the policies in place. We will continue to focus on the safety of our members and our prevention education programming.”
Panhellenic president Kate Burnite oversees the Panhellenic Council, a group consisting of the nine sorority presidents and delegates from each chapter. As part of her job as president, Burnite works with IFC president junior Valentin Huerta, as well as staff in the FSL office, to educate chapters about risk management and how to handle issues when they occur.
“My job is just the reactive stuff, like when something goes wrong,” Burnite said. “(Now) we are working toward getting proactive, because the history of Greek Life is very much reactive. It’s just, ‘Do what you want and when something goes wrong we’ll deal with it.’ But, the university is totally on board with us changing that and making it a lot more proactive, so we can figure out how to train people, so that these problems don’t happen.”
Despite the training that executive members of Greek organizations are required to attend regarding risk issues, chapter members continue to act in ways that negatively affect their chapters.
“We’re college students, and a lot of the problem is that we forget that things are dangerous because we don’t want to think about the negative implications of those things,” Burnite said. “So a lot of (my job) is not fear mongering, but making sure that there is a recognition that bad things happen in the Greek community all over the country, and wanting to make sure that we’re proactive in (preventing) that.”
When issues such as underage drinking or hazing occur, the FSL office must determine whether to bring the chapter to a hearing, or refer individual students to the Office of Ethical Development and Restorative Practices. The hearing boards consist of six students, three sorority women and three fraternity men, who are chosen from a group of students that are trained to facilitate the hearings every year. A staff member, the Panhellenic president, IFC president, and Mahoney all preside over the hearings as well.
As peer-driven processes, the hearing boards require the chapters in question to present sanctions that they believe are appropriate for their actions, but the Assistant Vice President of Student Life, Cynthia Avery, has the last word on decisions regarding chapters. Burnite and Mahoney emphasized the restorative nature of these hearing boards.
“The peer-review process is intended to provide outcomes that aim to correct behavior,” Mahoney said. “Sanctions can include: additional educational programming, and putting social events on pause. It’s much less of a punitive process, it’s really something where we hope we can provide people with the tools to operate and treat one another positively.”
Despite the restorative work that the FSL Hearing Board tries to achieve, there is still a distinct cycle of issues that the community faces. These cycles are apparent when looking at past FSL Hearing Board findings, as the FSL office strives to have transparency with their processes and findings on their website. While official guidelines are available for anyone to see, the hearing board findings do not come available until after each semester and are not always updated on time. Currently only findings from fall 2014 to spring 2017 are available to the public.
Burnite recognizes those cycles and said part of the issue is that hearing boards look at allegations as isolated incidents.
“There totally are cycles of behavior, a lot of it re-entrenches the idea that, ‘We’re invincible and nothing is ever going to happen to us,’” Burnite said. “One of the hard things about our peer-governance hearing system is that we have to look at reports as isolated incidents. That’s done so we don’t hold chapter reputations against anybody in hearing. But, that also means that even if a chapter was on probation last semester, and they get called back into a hearing, we’re not thinking about why they were on probation, we’re thinking about what happened just then.”
Mahoney echoed Burnite’s sentiments, explaining that chapters that go through educational programs in order to make improvements can lose progress when members graduate and new members are recruited.
“(For example), what happened in 2012 and 2016 could be for very different reasons, even if the same thing happened,” Mahoney said. “(The hearing board) really does try and look into that specific context, and who else is involved or impacted in the situation.”
With the recent removal of Greek organizations at USD, such as Alpha Phi chapter in 2016 and Lambda in 2018, Mahoney noted that the Greek community is starting to have conversations about ways to correct this pattern of behavior. Despite these conversations occurring at the leadership levels within these organizations, the message does not always make its way down to every member.
“I think that our sorority community is very mindful that their actions can have consequences, but on the fraternity side — there’s a level of that too — but sometimes groups fall into the mindset that, ‘Oh it won’t happen to me,’” Mahoney said. “It’s the same mindset as students who are using fake IDs at a club, they’re like, ‘Oh the last three people got theirs taken away, but it won’t happen to me so I’m gonna try.’”
This mindset that is present in many young adults has greater consequences when they are involved in a Greek organization. But it appears that the community is trying to move forward from the poor decisions of their peers and implement a culture that creates real change, not just avoidance of the specific actions that got another chapter in trouble.
“I think the university is committed to the well-being of the students, and that is more paramount than a chapter celebrating 50 years at USD,” Mahoney said. “If they’re not doing it right, then they don’t need to be here because they’re affecting students’ experience.”
In regard to improving the community’s actions, IFC president Valentin Huerta is very positive about the progress in the community.
“(We have) all new leadership, and each new class is different,” Huerta said. “My class is leading the community right now, and everything is more positive, more liberal, more progressive. We’re enhancing those risk-management policies, actually taking responsibility for our actions, and being aware that our actions have a lot of consequences and influence on campus.”
Huerta said he is focused on teaching new members these expectations for behavior and enhanced policies. This leaves a gap in the membership base where students who are already members but not part of this new generation of leaders, or are older members that are about to graduate, and may still hold onto the leadership mentality of their former members who made poor decisions in the past.
“I think you can’t teach an old dogs new tricks,” Huerta said. “Our main focus is new members, so right now we’re revamping new member series, we’re remodifying the rush process, letting people know what they’re getting into.”
The new practices that IFC and Panhellenic are attempting to implement may improve Greek Life at USD for now, but if history is an indicator of the future, this cycle of problematic behavior may come around again once these leaders have moved on from the community. With the national narrative of Greek Life continuing to be negative, real systemic change across all chapters is necessary for these organizations to thrive, or merely survive, on college campuses.