Cardinal Rule Broken by Our Greek Advisor ;-(
 

Hi everyone,

Thank you everyone who contributed to this thread and my original post. Thank you for helping me sort all this out and for your honesty, as usual. I apologize if I offended anyone. Not my intention. Peace out.

Here's a 10-year old thread on the subject.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/ar...p/t-17203.html

No one then could point to a specific rule forbidding this. 10 years is a long time though and rules could have been amended. If you can quietly and discretely get ahold of the rules and determine whether or not anything wrong happened here that's fine. I imagine your research will likely lead to the conclusion that it's not specifically proscribed, but it looks icky (for lack of a better word). If that's all you've got, your campus could probably do without some sort of a scandal. If your research reveals that there is a problem, I certainly would bring the issue to your adviser so that she might first have the opportunity to address it in a constructive manner.

If you decide to make this a confrontational affair, you may very well alienate the administration and consider the rest of your term wasted in terms of any ability you're going to have to accomplish any sort of agenda.

I could only tell you how to deal with this within an NIC group and specifically my NIC group only. In Sigma Nu, our Law states at Art. 4, Section 2.2 "NO DUAL MEMBERSHIP. No Chapter shall elect or initiate into the FRATERNITY any member or former member of a General College Fraternity, except as provided by this Article." (The Article doesn't have anything further which is of any help).

If it came to my attention that we had this issue and we were dealing with an alumnus who had graduated more than 2 years ago, I'd have to first go to the High Council (or national governing board) and file a complaint there. Assuming the High Council approved the filing of the complaint, I'd have to then give the Defendant notice (there are procedures for that) and a trial would be commenced wherein the active chapter would be the jury. The only question before the body would be whether the Defendant is a member of more than one general college fraternity, once a verdict is given, this can be appealed to the High Council and then to our Grand Chapter (our national convention). I left a lot of details out, but you get the idea. In Sigma Nu, such grey areas are decided by collegiate chapters and then are subject to appeal. It's a potentially nasty and confrontational process. I've been through it a couple of times. Not pleasant in the least.

Know your facts before proceeding. If there's any grey area, I'd leave it alone.

It is a big deal to those of us who are well beyond college years, too. She might be a great administrator, but I personally do question her. On what grounds? I don't know. But I don't feel as tough she made the correct decision and it would indeed have been a deal-breaker if I was on the panel.

It's not JUST that she did it... it's that she felt so entitled to do it that she was comfortable enough to state it in an interview.

You may be in the minority. You may even be "alone." But I don't like it one bit.

At the same time, there are probably a lot of confidentiality/employment ethics at play here, so I definitely wouldn't tell anyone if I were you, because it would end up reflecting more poorly on you than her.

The rules of one NPHC sorority clearly state:

Any female student currently enrolled at a college or university where there is an active chapter on campus or in the city is eligible to apply for membership, provided that ... <snip> the student is not a member of any society holding membership in the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc. or the Panhellenic Conference, Inc.

That said, I think it's best to leave this one alone.

Everyone said what I was thinking...I don't like it at all, but I'm not sure you can/should do anything to try to change it.

Sounds like she was upfront with the NPHC (if what she's telling you is true?) when she joined.

Not saying what she did was right. But maybe the NPC/NPHC rules were unclear 10 (or so?) years ago when she joined the NPHC org.

Delta is among the GLOs that explicitly states applicants cannot be initiated members of another NPC and NPHC sorority. Racial and ethnic minority (which is the predominant demographic of NPHC GLOs) PNMs are still relatively rare at most schools. Therefore, it is very rare for such an NPC member to become an NPHC aspirant. In turn, it is extremely rare for an NPCer to successfully become an NPHCer. There are the extremely rare instances where a couple of people will slip through the cracks over the years.

Personally, based on the bit of the OP that I read so forgive me if I missed some key points, I would handle the situation by placing an anonymous call to the NPHC sorority's headquarters. It does not matter whether people at your school like her and are fascinated with her knowledge and experience. It does not matter whether the people at your school are oblivious to what is going on. The fact of the matter is some of our GLOs do not mince words when it comes to this stuff.

This might not be a bad idea. I might consider running it by your school's general counsel (or better, a private attorney licensed to practice in your state) first to make sure you're not violating any confidentiality agreements you may have signed in the course of the interview process or might be breaking any laws by making such a disclosure.

The rules have been clear for much longer than 10 years. They were definitely clear when I was an aspirant and that was almost 20 years ago. This person knows what she got away with. She would probably not bring this up in front of certain people. Those people probably include other NPHCers, many of her sorors, and members of her alumnae chapter.

Co-sign. Good way to handle it without being in the middle of the fracas...

Gotcha...was attempting to give benefit of the doubt...wanted to see glass 1/2 full...all that other metaphor BS. :D

I tend to think that for this reason, things will blow up in her face without somebody actively dropping a dime on her. Word will get out eventually to these people.

I would not run it by anyone first. There is no confidentiality agreement in this person boasting about both NPC and NPHC membership. The info could have come from anywhere as far as the GLO NHQ's concerned.

If the story given to the OP is to be believed, and the NPHC sorority knew about her NPC membership and approved her anyway, then nothing can be done and technically no rules were broken.

I don't know how many (if any) of the NPCs have written rules about joining an NPHC after being initiated into an NPC. She may stand to lose her NPC membership, but it doesn't sound like she cares.

Either way, IF THERE ARE NO RULES AGAINST IT, how is this much different than being in an NPHC and APhiO or an NPC and SAI?

I would think seriously about making an anonymous phone call before you do it.

She is much loved by your community. If you get fingered as the person who made the call, there is going to be a lot of backlash towards you. It's going to cause a lot of drama. If she is not a member of your GLO, either NPC or NPHC, she hasn't broken any agreements to any group that you have a responsibility for. Is it really worth it to protect someone else's GLO?

I would expect that since you have questioned her on this issue, you will be the one fingered as having made the call to her organizations.

I was a whistle blower in college. The backlash, hard feelings, and hangover from that have made me very cautious about ever doing it again. It would have to be something that effects me and mine very directly or something extremely damaging (ie. Enron or Sandusky) before I would be a whistle blower again.

This wouldn't be worth it to me, if it wasn't my GLO. There's a lot of stuff that people do that is wrong. Choose very carefully which issues are worth making a stand on.

I wish that NPC groups didn't do such a poor job of keeping members engaged after college.