Mizzou Greek Life Proposals
 

"Proposals to ban women in fraternity houses, require drug tests prompt backlash"

Some of the proposals according to the article:

•A ban on any alcohol except beer at fraternities
•A ban on fraternities hosting out-of-town formals
•A drug-test requirement for in-house members of all Greek organizations
•A ban on women in fraternity houses between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, in addition to the entirety of syllabus week and "Reading Day" every semester

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/ne...655680baa.html

There is so much sexism and violation of individual and organizational freedoms in this I simply don't know where to begin.

I sincerely hope that Mizzou is going to drug-test all of their students on campus if they are going to make members of the Greek community take them for living in the house. Don't even get me started on how ineffective particular drug tests can be--especially if you don't have a background in addictions and know what does and does not show up on tests or for how long certain drugs stay in your system. That's the same argument I've had about drug testing for welfare but, it's another discussion for another day. It does appear that Mizzou is trying to dispose of Greek life.

This has all been hugely blown out of proportion. Which isn't to say that I support the proposals. Generally I don't. But the likelihood of them being implemented as is, is slim to none.

The drug testing proposal is already off the table. That was tossed around weeks ago and is no longer being considered. The document that I guess leaked was an older version.

The Chancellor is having a summit on the 20th of this month to discuss the proposals. Not to dictate their implementation. I'm not even sure that the Chancellor supports the proposals. They did not come from him, or from the Office of Greek Life. They came from some fraternity alumni, who don't necessarily have the backing of their collegian members or of their organizations as a whole.

I think it's good the community is having a discussion. I hate that the proposals are being presented online as if they come with the backing of the university or as if the university is ready to implement them.

Thanks for this insight. I'll wait for one of the lawyers to chime in, but it seems pretty clear they couldn't unilaterally implement some of these at a state U anyway.

Pbear is a lawyer, as well as a chapter advisor. :)

I didn't mean to take anything away from her comment, just meant to say that I wasn't going to speculate on the legality, because others here know much better than I do.

Question: when they say out of town formals, do they mean that people legitimately leave where they are, go to another city/town/resort, have formal there, and stay the night?

Campus Panhellenic (PHA) and IFC have issued a joint statement. It's a good read, I think.

http://greeklife.missouri.edu/2015/0...coming-summit/

I will note that to the best of my knowledge none of the sorority and fraternity properties are owned by the university or on "university property." But I'm not 100% sure on that. I know the streets and sidewalks in Greek town are maintained and owned by the city, not the university. But MU police department has jurisdiction.

I haven't thought through the legal implications, as this isn't my area of practice and I hesitate to commit without research. But I also don't think the proposals are likely to be mandated as is, so that's another reason I haven't thought about the legality. :)

Yes. Columbia is in the middle of Missouri, about halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City. Fraternity formals are in places like Memphis, Chicago, Lake of the Ozarks. They are weekend-long events. A fraternity member will invite a date, drive her in his car several hours away to the venue, rent a hotel room to share with her overnight, and then bring her back.

There's a section of Tom Wolfe's book I am Charlotte Simmons, in which Charlotte describes her fictional experiences at an out-of-town fraternity formal. It's not pretty.

I never understood what people meant by out-of-town formals but this makes much more sense now. I'm also know coming to understand why some (younger) people see formal as a big commitment- it's more than just an evening. Wow, very glad I was never Risk Management for those, must be a logistical nightmare!

Out of town formals aren't that rare for remote campuses, I recall UA formals in Tulsa, KC, Memphis and Dallas. Baylor formals were often held in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston. Of course that was 20yrs ago...

Not to pile on about out-of-town formals, but they're very common at schools here in South Carolina. Fraternities all across the state travel to Carolina Cup in Aiken (a yearly horse event akin to the Kentucky Derby), Myrtle Beach and Charleston for formals and beach weekends, and mountain weekends in Gatlinburg, Tennessee which is affectionately referred to as "Fratlinburg" for the number of weekends it hosts. Every chapter at Clemson will do at least one of these things per year depending on the interests of the chapter and the funds available. These are all date functions, with the fraternity member paying for their date's trip and the date usually painting a cooler and filling it with food and alcohol in return.

Sororities can't host them because the logistics of transport and lodging for a 225-person chapter would be impossible, plus most (if not all) risk-management policies would prohibit such events. These functions absolutely can get out of hand, but I would argue that the only difference between a fraternity party and a formal is that if and when property is destroyed, it doesn't belong to the fraternity. Obviously we've seen this play out in the news recently. I acknowledge that my experience is entirely anecdotal but the one mountain weekend I went to this semester was no rowdier than any of the fraternity parties I've been to during my time at Clemson.

I am thankful that these proposals were suggestions and have next to no chance of implementation because as 33girl said the sexism alone makes my eyes cross.

My thoughts are that the fraternities would be wise to adopt the risk management policies that sororities adopted years ago. This would include- visitation hours at the house, alcohol policies in the house, and prohibiting overnight formals. If it truly is fraternity alumni who are proposing these changes, why aren't they proposing them to their fraternities? I imagine the worry that some wouldn't agree would create a huge inequity between the chapters.

This.

I think there will be some new policies as a result of all of this. I suspect that there will be a required visitation policy of some kind for each house. Maybe that policy will be "we let anyone in, any time" but at least it would be a policy that they have to think through and adopt. I hope that each fraternity is allowed to draft its own policy, but ultimately it is their property, so they need to do what they think is best.

I also hope the out of town formals will be banned. I think many women are in favor of that. I know it's common on other campuses, but it really can lead to some very unsafe conditions. And extremely awkward ones. How would you like to be 8 hours from home and be date raped, only to have to sit in the car with your rapist for 8 hours on the ride back?

I have no strong feelings about the alcohol policy. I would have had very strong feelings about the drug testing, but since that is off the table, it's a moot point. I love the idea of more education, for both men and women, about safety and resources.

I don't really see banning out of town formals. I would be more in favor of putting distance limits in place. St. Louis and KC, the Ozarks seem reasonable but if a girl gets in a bad situation in Chicago or Memphis she's going to have a real problem getting home. Also not allowing individual drivers (renting a bus with a professional driver) would increase the safety on a variety of levels.

The NPC sororities laid down the hammer about alcohol rules years ago and the earth didn't tilt off its axis. I'm sure the active fraternity members think housing and party rules will kill the fun. It won't. But I'm also concerned that it will drive the naughty underground which will NOT help the situation.

Once again, this sounds like a case of young people with way too much money at their disposal. Hard alcohol openly served at parties? Weekend formals in CHICAGO? These kids are going to get a surprise when they go apartment hunting after graduation.

Here's an idea. Cut dues in half, learn to drink shitty beer, and have your formal at the Columbia Holiday Inn. I guarantee that this strategy will be a better idea than the one proposed.

When I was an undergrad, many of the fraternities who didn't get a lot of social events with sororities would instead blow their money on a huge formal as a way of having something cool to point to when they were trying to competitively rush with fraternities who had 4-5 exchanges per semester. At the time, there were something like 50 IFC fraternities and 20 NPC sororities, so a fair number of groups fell into this boat.

I know I'm comparing apples and oranges with the systems, but this is just odd to me. Formals and date parties (for both sexes) were always private affairs where you could celebrate with your brothers or sisters and carefully picked dates - not rush tools.

What I don't understand is why the smaller fraternities don't get together to have mixers with the appreciably bigger sororities. Everyone would benefit.

I would say that today everything is a rush tool. Everything shows up on social media during the year. If the chapter is smart they're managing that year round so it's a flattering light. Even if they go dark before rush starts the eager PNMs would have been following the accounts and already seen everything.

Well along those lines, I don't think that private functions like mixers, date parties and formals have any place on social media where anyone in the world can see them. But of course, the idea of privacy in general seems to be something today's college students have long since jettisoned, so I'll just pack up my brontosaurus and move along.

My niece’s chapter has a long history (since the 1960s, if not before) of taking pictures of each class (senior, junior, sophomore, freshman) at “private” events. For example, the senior class at formal. The senior class at a mixer. The senior class before preference. The senior class at bid day etc. These would go into scrapbooks that anyone could view. Now with social media, many of these pictures are also posted on the chapter’s Facebook page – for example, “Pictures from 2015 Spring Formal”. The pictures posted are all “in good taste” – i.e. pictures you could show to your “uptight” grandmother at church. I believe that all the chapters at her school (sororities and fraternities) post pictures of “private” events on their Facebook pages. Again, these pictures are “in good taste”. Overall, I would say they are good PR tools for the chapters.

Of course, I joked with my niece that these “in good taste” pictures were taken early on in the night. ;)

Yes, I think the concept if "none of your business" is completely lost on most people today.

An update:

University of Missouri fraternities ban hard alcohol

"University of Missouri fraternities will not be able to have hard alcohol at social events this year and any violations will be immediately reported to the Office of Student Conduct as the result of a months-long discussion about how to reduce sexual violence on campus."

http://www.therolladailynews.com/art...NEWS/150909169

Crafting policy around the fact that someone will be raped at a fraternity function is a bit problematic, no? Considering someone apparently will be raped, is a shorter distance all that would be required to remedy the situation?

A lot of these proposed policies, I think, treat our members like non-adults and could adversely affect recruitment for both the fraternity and sorority systems.

When joining a Greek house subjects you to a million restrictions you wouldn't have if you were non-Greek, joining Circle K seems like a lot more fun.