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Chi Omegas vote on fate
By Stephanie Bennett and Elizabeth Bland
Editorials Editor and Editor in Chief
September 18, 2003
Chi Omega sorority members voted this week to determine the fate of their organization—a move prompted by questions over whether the group’s national executives followed procedure when the sorority returned its charter Sept.4 for alleged hazing violations.
Each member of the sorority, both on campus and abroad, must vote on whether or not to remain a chartered organization by Sept. 20, said senior Michelle Gallagher, president of the Panhellenic Council.
Gallagher said a final decision should be reached within the next two weeks.
Though the sorority is not currently a chartered organization, the vote could reverse the earlier decision.
A press release from Mary Ann Frugé, the Chi Omega National President, and senior Kelly Mahan, former president of the university’s Chi Omega chapter, Zeta Lambda, said “Upon relinquishing its charter, the chapter assumed a status in which its operations have ceased until a definitive decision regarding its future is made.”
Mahan and the Chi Omega national executive board would not confirm what the alleged violations of the organization’s national “Policy on Human Dignity and Hazing” included.
Rather than exist under social probation restrictions that included educational rehabilitation classes and limited social functions, sorority members returned their charter at a meeting with representatives from the sorority’s national executive board Sept. 4.
But some questioned the way in which the sorority members were asked to make a decision.
In a letter obtained by the Old Gold and Black and e-mailed to members of the sorority Sept. 7, parents of some of the Chi Omega members said they were “appalled and outraged,” at the process that led to the dissolution of the sorority.
The letter said, “We understand that you felt you had no choice but to surrender your charter, as the rules imposed were such that you could not bind yourselves or your sisters to the probable consequences of obvious non-compliance.”
Frugé returned to campus Sept. 9 to facilitate a meeting between sorority members, national executive board members and university administrators in the wake of complaints about the process in which the hazing allegations were investigated.
In a press release, Frugé said the Sept. 9 meeting was an informational and question and answer period for the sorority members.
No explanantion of the Chi Omega national “Policy on Human Dignity and Hazing” was provided.
Members of the Chi Omega sorority refused to comment on the vote or decision.
Frugé and members of the Chi Omega national executive board did not return phone calls.
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