[Firehouse]

You asked: "short of hiring a lawyer, what are organizations supposed to do?". Let me offer the answer, but first let me say that there are not many bad actors on the scene, only a few. Most college administrators are good and decent people who are just trying to balance the concerns of any administration against the natural craziness of young people. Unfortunately, just as one fraternity's bad behavior can cause a lot of trouble for all Greeks, one weak or hateful or egotistical or agenda-driven administrator can create a deep reserve of animosity among the Greeks and their alumni.
The story I'm going to tell you doesn't have any of those bad people in it, and that is an important point.
There is a major university with an outstanding fraternity/sorority system where one lower level Greek administrator who is no longer there decided she was going to impose a version of something called the 'Delaware Five Star program' on the fraternities. Each fraternity president was called in separately and individually, seated at a table across from some administrators, and told that if he had any objections to this program he needed to voice them now. From now on, they were told, each fraternity would have to be 'accredited' or somesuch term, and would have to perform up to cetain standards the university set in areas the University chose. And if these standards were not met, the offending fraternity would have its recognition withdrawn. In addition, it was implied that the university was considering 'deferred rush' with the veiled suggestion that if there was any opposition to the Five Star Program, deferred rush was still on the table.
Most of the chapter presidents were intimidated. They didn't like this program at all but didn't see anything they could do about it. Administrators generally want to deal directly with the chapters and not at all with the alumni, for obvious reasons. The chapter presidents met privately, sent a letter to the University asking for relief from this imposed system, and enlisted the help of alumni.

There was a meeting over dinner. It was very amiable, no harsh words exchanged. No threats, no animosity. On one side was the then-Vice President for Student Affairs and one or two Greek Life staff, and on the other side were alumni from six different fraternities. All were lawyers and one was a judge. The lawyers very calmly explained the law, and suggested that the University had overstepped it's bounds. It was agreed, said the alumni, that the boys needed to make better grades and need to behave and that the alumni would help set up programs to promote those virtues. It was also noted by the alumni that the fraternities belong not to the University, but to the fraternities themselves, and that recognition is not an arbitrary matter but a matter of established law.
The lawyers made it clear that any forced imposition of a so-called 'Five Star program" and/or any sort of deferred rush would be challenged. The judge ended the discussion by saying, "I must tell you, sir, that if this case came into my court, I would consider it a Civil Rights issue."
The meeting ended, and so abruptly did any attempt to impose the 5-Star System or deferred rush. There were no hard feelings because no one was considered to be bad or anti-Greek, and the lawyers were not arrogant or confrontational.
The morale of the story is this: Fraternities and sororities all have responsibilities that we must acknowledge. But we also have rights. The administration knows what our rights are, and too often they count on the undergraduates not knowing. Alumni guardians providing oversight is the answer.