Five Towson Sororities on Probation (Alcohol)
 

The Towerlight reports that alcohol at Bid Day activities has resulted in probation for five sororities:
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Phi Mu
Phi Sigma Sigma
Zeta Tau Alpha.

The paper's article is at:


http://media.www.thetowerlight.com/m...-3025639.shtml

A few excerpts from the article:

"They violated the 'no drinking' [rule] during formal recruitment. We substantiated there was drinking on the field. There was drinking prior to the event. And that is against their policy as it relates to recruitment," Patrick Daniel, director of student activities, said.

Formal recruitment is supposed to be a "dry" recruitment.

Daniel said the University learned of the infractions because numerous injuries were reported and there were pictures on Facebook. . . .

The social probation will last until Spring Break 2008.

"They cannot tailgate. They can't participate in Homecoming events. They can't have events with other chapters. That includes fraternities and other student organizations. [There will be] no formals, semiformals, no date parties or crush parties, no socials," he said.

Whether there was also underage drinking at Bid Day is still under investigation, Daniel said. Individual sorority members are going through the judicial process. . . .

Thank you, AGD, for not being on that list. :eek:

I know we have some Towson students on GC. I'm curious as to what they think of the situation.

I'll definitely echo that, and say thank heavens KD is not on that list. However, all of the sororities there were sanctioned... So that does tell you that this is a Greek-wide problem, and not just a problem for the houses that got CAUGHT. I am interested in seeing what a "long-term" solution to a situation like this would be, since a student mentioned that there needed to be one in the article.

I'm sorry but this is super ghey.

There are 8 sororities on NPC. 5 are on total probation, and the other 3 were "sanctioned." I'd love to know what the other 3 didn't do.

If that many groups are on probation, they'll just back each other up, cover for each other, and party illegally. When everyone's a criminal, no one is.

Dumb.

Precisely what I was alluding to. It seems to be a common occurrence in their Greek system; like I said, the other five just happened to get "caught."

I can tell you that the 5 sororities sanctioned are very angry about the sanctions which are deemed to be excessively harsh. The problem started because the recruitment counselors decided to get drunk before bids were handed out that day. Apparently this is a stupid "tradition" that the girls let get way out of control. Every sorority was involved including AGD, KD and AXD so they were sanctioned. The other sororities were probated because there were supposedly worse offenses. I know there was at least one group that was openly drinking at the Bid Day "Running of the Bulls" but I know for a fact that AOII was not since we actually had two alumnae advisors present who witnessed the whole thing. The university was notified of the drinking by an advisor for one of the groups so Panhellenic was not allowed to handle this internally. Towson was also mad that some girls got hurt during the festivities including a NM of one group who was taken off the field by EMS and sent to the hospital with a concussion. I understand that the tradition is for the girls to tackle the new members as they run toward their new group. Apparently all groups participate and the fraternity men sit on the sidelines and egg it all on. Running of the Bulls will never occur again. (I'm thankful for that!) The groups on probation are allowed to submit an appeal. Towson is holding fast to punishing the whole group for the offense of a very few. It's unfortunate for the NMs of these groups and the responsible women who did not drink on bid day. AOII actually did a great job of investigating and assigning sanctions to our members that were involved. They are understandably embarrassed, but they'll survive and hopefully learn a big lesson.

Am I reading this wrong? It says the sanctions are in effect until Spring Break 2008.

Why is that harsh? It's a few months away.

IMHO, tradition or not, they should have known better. It's not like the concept of dry rush is a new one.

And based on how I thought Greek Life worked, everyone in a particular GLO is responsible for following the rules because we all represent the same organization. And while the entire chapter of ABC or XYZ may not have ALL been drinking, what members do reflects on the entire chapter.

The reason they think the probation is harsh (social probation until Spring Break 08 and University probation until fall 2008) is that the error in judgement was committed by recruitment couselors who were not in contact with the sororities who had counseled their members that there would be no drinking allowed on bid day. The Panhellenic advisor apparently failed to enforce this policy. The women of the chapter did not drink on bid day but cannot have any socials and are on social probation for nearly the entire school year after doing nothing wrong. Social probation for the women caught drinking would be appropriate. Social probation for chapters who followed the rules except for their members out of their reach is inappropriate. Also, three chapters had drinking recruitment counselor sisters but no harsh probation...not sure how that is fair either.

Hmmmm I thought dry rush was an NPC-wide thing and not something that varied from campus-to-campus.

I'm not sure I understand why the Recruitment Counselors needed to be in contact with their chapters to know that. Considering they were Recruitment Counselors to begin with, you'd think they'd be some of the first to know about policies concerning recruitment with their own school.

You would think so, but this was across the board in panhellenic so apparently someone wasn't doing their job. Also, many of the counselors are sophomores who never participated in formal recruitment and may not have ever heard this rule. If everyone assumes that the rule is known and doesn't make sure, things like this happen. Panhellenic is very weak on campus...a strong advisor is desperately needed.

Honestly, I'm not trying to "shake the finger" at anyone, I'm just saying that it sounds like everyone knew it was against the rules, but it was "tradition" so they did it anyway without any regard to the consequences.

Every sorority chapter is responsible for educating their women on what is and what is not allowed during recruitment. My home chapter holds a recruitment retreat every spring (which is obviously way before disaffiliation takes place) where the chapter's recruitment team goes over everything with everyone so that we are not in violation of anything come fall recruitment time. Maybe that is something that the chapters at Townsen should consider since they are lacking in the Panhellenic Leadership department.

Maybe it's going to take strong sanctions like this for everyone to "wake up" and do everything they can to ensure this does not happen again in the future.

This is why I think in order to apply to be a Rho Chi/Chi Pi/Rho Gamma/whatever you HAVE to have had at least one year on the other side. At Iowa State, I think you had to have both - you had to have gone through formal recruitment and you had to have one year on the other side as an active before you could apply to be a Rho Chi.

I presume Towson is not a dry campus?

How long before someone claims after bids are open, Rush is over? Dry rush???

I'm not condoning being drunk in public, and if any of those drinking were under 21, they should be charged with "minor in possession" as well. But to put organizations on probation for following tradition??????

What's next? Elbow-length gloves and tea-party bid openings?

The no-alcohol rule also applies to Bid Day.

Thank you, OTW, for locating and posting that NPC Unanimous Agreemnet. Now I remember it's right there on the NPC web site, not a big secret at all.

If the tradition is against the policies that everyone agrees to follow (and by joining a fraternity or sorority at some point during the NM/Initiation process you agree to follow the policies), then heck yeah, discipline is warranted.

I may have a tradition of speeding to work every day, but my tradition isn't going to stop the police tradition of writing a ticket when I get caught.

PsychTau

I was a little shocked at this myself. I think they have so many counselors (54 with only about 275 PNMs) that they take anyone who wants to do it.

Don't get me wrong...there were some bad things going on at Bid Day. There were chapters that were openly drinking on Burdick Field. The campus has to take a stand, but I have to say that they are not accepting that the University has some responsibility in this mess. The Panhellenic advisor (an employee of Towson) let these obviously intoxicated women run across the field with their NMs...my PH advisor would have sent us home so fast our heads would have spun. He also wasn't the one reporting the activity and presumably watched it happen the year before without addressing the problem. I agree that something had to be done, but I don't agree that it is right to punish an entire chapter for the actions of one sister. Why is it that alcohol infractions are the only ones that get this type of attention? When members break other rules, they get to accept their punishment without affecting their sisters who didn't have anything to do with their activities. Anyway, just because it is "tradition" to celebrate the end of recruitment by drinking doesn't mean they know it is against the rules. It means that they like to drink with their "recruitment counselor sisters" before returning to their real sisters. Further more, this campus is very laid back. I don't think they do recruitment retreats or talk much about recruitment before the event. These are extremely "no-frill" only talk kind of parties. I was really amazed how little preparation and practice went into the week. They don't practice singing. They get to the party about an hour before, throw up some decorations and starting chanting.

You've mentioned the Panhellenic advisor many times. While I do agree that he or she should definitely bear part of the punishment (maybe a probationary period to determine if they really are fit for the job) I do not think he or she is the sole person to be blamed.

There's a guy at work who has been doing his job for the past 4 years. And everytime something doesn't work out, he blames it on someone else. "Bob didn't show me how to do it". Screw that. If it was something he needed to know, he should have taken the initiative to either ask someone or figure it out himself.

So let's imagine that there are sophomores joining the Rho Chi group. Regardless of how laid back the campus is or rush is or the Panehellenic advisor, the chapter should TELL THEIR MEMBERS in a meeting or retreat or somewhere (they do have meetings right?) what is and what is not appropriate behavior.

The chapter should take the initiative to nip that sort of thing in the bud because the behavior of all sisters - whether you are wearing your GLO shirt or not- reflects on the ENTIRE GROUP.

I have a feeling that the chapters who got the major punishments will likely do something to that effect in the future.

Instead of throwing an "It's not fair" tantrum, they should be focusing on why things happened and deal with the members who obviously failed to present the group in a positive light.

Lets pretend ABC had a few members who were hazing. The newspaper headlines would not say "Five StateU students were charged with hazing" it would say "ABC members charged with hazing."

I don't disagree with your ideas, but you are generalizing. All I can speak for is AOII which did inform it's members of the rules, but this happened once the members returned for recruitment. Sure, there needs to be better planning and things should change. I completely agree...the problem is that the actual problems are not really being addressed. Towson seems to be making an example of the greek system to cover its own tail after students were injured at a university sponsored event. It's a public relations and legal nightmare, but throwing the chapters to the wolves like these women started this without help from a lax administration is ridiculous. As for adressing the members involved, AOII has made changes and is holding the actives involved responsible. The university applauded our decision to require them to present an educational conference for the campus about alcohol abuse and placing them on AOII social probation until Spring Break 2008. Hmmm....wonder where they got their sanction idea? The truth of the matter is, the campus created an atmosphere with no authority to police the chapters which are allowed to run around doing what they see fit. Each chapter should be held responsible, but so should the university and panhellenic advisor who have the authority in this situation. Last time I checked, college students aren't always the most informed or responsible humans...I think that's why we have advisors in the first place. Can you place all the blame on the advisees when the advisor didn't do his/her job? In the end, I don't have a personal stake in this...I advise the chapter, but whether or not they have socials this year effects me not one bit. I just find it unreasonable to ruin the first year for the NMs who were punished twice by ruining their bid day with drunk recruitment counselors then ruining their year with probations.

OK, this is really messed up. A Rho Chi for every 5 girls??? Why on earth would you need so many, especially at a school where it sounds like things are fairly informal? Plus they absolutely should NOT be girls who've never gone through rush on the other side, unless you're desparate to get people to do it.

This doesn't just affect the sororities - it affects the fraternities who won't have partners to build floats with for Homecoming, or to mix with. I wouldn't be surprised if the fraternities lose some pledges because of this.

DGTess - if the Rho Chis are sophomores, they're most likely not 21.

The Rho Chis should be punished and the whole program overhauled, but putting 5 sororities on probation and the other 3 on sanctions is kind of like putting a whole sorority on probation because Tanya 21 went to the bar on her own during rush and got smashed.

They weren't put on probation for "following tradition". They were put on probation because they (allegedly) drank during recruitment, which is prohibited.

I do, however, think that the individuals should be disciplined, and not necessarily the entire organization. But I wasn't there and don't have all the details.

AOII International asked this same question...apparently there is a rule in the Campus Panhellenic Bylaws that requires 8% of total membership as Rho Chis. A little overkill...sounds like they are not willing to have a sliding scale to match the number of Rho Chis to the number of PNMs. As for the fraternities...it definitely effects them and will effect Homecoming.

And the issue would be... ? ;)

I've also been told that the panhellenic advisor knew exactly what was going on and was partying on bid day himself. These women definitely made the wrong choice that day, but after talking to many of them, they were clueless that this could happen. Dumb... I know, but even if a rule is well known, if administration overlooks the breaking of said rule for years, this is seen as permission to break the rule. Luckily there were no serious injuries and things finally will change. It takes more than just a single chapter, member or alumna to make these kinds of changes, it needs acceptance by the entire system and change at every single level, ie. University, Panhellenic, Chapter and Individual. Focusing everything strictly at the Chapter is ignoring 3/4 of the problem. In the end, the women in these chapters are amazing...I was so impressed seeing the emphasis on philanthropy on this campus. They will rise above this fiasco and be strong again.

Excellent example regarding Risk Management and Hazing and why certain "traditions" should not be continued.

This is utter foolishness all the way around. They have way too many Rho Gammas. My school had only about 20 something for over 400 PNMs, first of all.
Second of all, don't they usually put these women up in some kind of housing accomodation during the recruitment process? My school does, and we made it clear there was to be no drinking, boys, etc. at anytime. So if something like this had happened I honestly don't think that the chapters would have taken the fall in this type of situation, the whole of Panhellenic and our Advisor would have been hauled in with a quickness because it is our responsibility to maintain the standards of the accomodations during that time.

And lastly, for those who keep insisting that these Rho Gammas "may not have known" I find it impossible everyone is required to know their organizations alcohol policy (usually for insurance/risk management purposes) unless you belong to some renegade chapter that has utter disregard for "The Book" and throws it out the window. I know that we are made very aware of what is expected of us at all times in my chapter. And I'm taking a wild guess that it is mandatory for all other NPC chapters as well. That is simply a vital part of risk management and new member education and any chapter who ignores it is in violation of the risk management policy by not putting that information out there. When you are a new member you usually have to sign paperwork and complete programs clearly stating this. Now whether the chapter abides by them is another story, but in that case then they are clearly in violation. I'd find it hard to believe that there is any group that lacks sometime of clearly stated information regarding the alcohol policy for new members and sisters.

But regarding this particular case, I feel like Panhellenic and the Advisor is responsible because chapters, while having policies against these activities, are unable to enforce them while members are disaffiliated. ...Come to think I believe we had Rho Gammas sign information stating that they would follow certain rules as a precaution...they dropped the ball over there BIG TIME!

I agree that the Panehellenic Advisor should also be reprimanded if he knew this has been going on and not doing anything to do it.

At the same time, I also agree that college students are not the most responsible or informed people on the earth, and that is why we have advisors. The individual chapter advisors (at least at my alma mater) were the ones who made sure the Exec Board did their job of informing the rest of the chapter about all risk management/Org/NPC rules.

With that said, I realize that Rho Chis have to disaffiliate, but if they were informed of all the risk management/Org/NPC rules and still chose to drink because everyone else was doing it and it was tradition, it is still a violation of the rules, and they are still members of their orgs even if they were disaffiliated.

Those girls let the rest of their Bid Day Sober Sisters down.

Exactly. It's why THEY AND THEY ALONE should get the punishment, not the whole sorority. If my whole sorority got put on probation because of something like this, that girl's life probably wouldn't be very pleasant.

[QUOTE=BabyPiNK_FL;1536777]This is utter foolishness all the way around. They have way too many Rho Gammas. My school had only about 20 something for over 400 PNMs, first of all.
Second of all, don't they usually put these women up in some kind of housing accomodation during the recruitment process? My school does, and we made it clear there was to be no drinking, boys, etc. at anytime. So if something like this had happened I honestly don't think that the chapters would have taken the fall in this type of situation, the whole of Panhellenic and our Advisor would have been hauled in with a quickness because it is our responsibility to maintain the standards of the accomodations during that time.

This is Maryland. We don't do rush that way, as in before school starts and all. Even at the University of Maryland, it isn't done this way. And not all the sisters live in the house either.

The university I attended was also pretty informal, so I can understand how some members may not realize how seriously they can get introuble for not following certain rules; especially as sophmores. I do however think a majority of the blame should be put on advisors and the recruitment chair on panhellenic. I was recruitment chair and it somewhat frightens me that a general statement was not made informing all members that even though this is tradition it is NOT PERMITTED and anyone caught disregarding the rules will be punished. I think it's a little irresponsible to punish women who most likely did not understand the severity of their actions. Something must be done but to put the chapters on social probation for basically the entire year and campus probation until next fall may be a very premature rash decision.

One more thing, are their any measures being taken towards the advisor who new this was going on and alegedly participating in these drinking activities.

[QUOTE=33girl;1536833]Exactly. It's why THEY AND THEY ALONE should get the punishment, not the whole sorority. If my whole sorority got put on probation because of something like this, that girl's life probably wouldn't be very pleasant.[/QUOTE]

I'm thinking maybe the University did that for that very reason.

So for the 6 or 7 people who messed up in those chapters, the entire chapter is having to pay for it. While they were "disaffiliated" with their sorority for that period of recruitment, it doesn't exempt them from following NPC rules or the rules of their GLO. I am not aware of any NPC org that allows their group to have alcoholic beverages at recruitment events.

Whether we like it or not, our members and their actions represent the entire chapter even if they aren't wearing shirts with giant 4-inch double-stitched greek letters across their chests 24/7.

If this had been a hazing incident, the entire chapter would likely get punished even if only a handful of members were the ones taking part in it.

The dingbat Panhellenic advisor is partly at fault because it doesn't sound like he did anything to stop it the last few years, and the University finally caught them, but just because the advisor diidn't straight up stop them does not mean it's OK to drink during Rush Week.

I don't know what the chapters there do as far as informing their members what behavior is acceptable, but in this case it seems like the chapter leadership needs to do more to educate their own members because the Panhellenic advisor isn't doing his job.

Totally off topic, but I REALLY think there needs to be a universal name for Recruitment Counselors. When I went through, they were called Rho Chis, then it changed to Pi Chis, then it changed to Rho Gammas. It should be the same on ALL campuses. *Sorry for the hijack!*

Slightly ot - I've known several cases where the fact that the Greek advisor was a man and really had no clue about NPC has been a problem. I really wish campuses would have an advisor for fraternities, and one for sororities. Money may be the issue - but I think it might help in many situations.

This is an unfortunate situation, and my only hope is that other campuses with "traditions"that are liability nightmares are paying attention. At least the advisors . . .

i wonder if any chapter advisors are present during these festivities? unless the advisors are alumnae members of the towson chapters, it seems that they should have known that alcohol is a no-no during recruitment and bidday.

Even if the advisors were alumnae of Towson, you'd hope that their training through HQ would mean they would know that drinking was a DEFINITE "no-no".

There are at least three reasons why this would be silly at Towson:

1. Sororities at Towson do not have chapter houses. It's not like you'd have a Rho Chi living with 80 of her sisters.
2. School is in session during recruitment. These women have other things to do with their lives other than recruitment.
3. Since school is in session, the only place to put the Rho Chis would be a hotel. That cost would probably get passed to the PNMs in the form of a hefty registration fee. A lot of women who join sororities up here are "maybe joiners", and a high fee will drive away a lot of "maybes".

I was only speaking for AOII. I think I said that several times. Since I am not an member of your sorority, I wouldn't know what your chapter put in for rush, so don't be offended by my comments. If you went to a southern school, you'd see the difference in recruitment prep that I speak of. Anyway, I am aware that some chapters were guilty of more than having drunk Rho Chis...but, AOII was not one of those chapters. Again, I said I was speaking for my chapter which was supervised by two alumnae who had stressed to the girls that drinking was not allowed. I agree with you that having a greek advisor that would enforce rules would make Greek life at Towson better. There are amazing chapters at this school, but any group will get out of control if not advised well.

Did you read I heart Recruitment? It's the only place I've heard the term "maybe joiners" used.