Jewell officials say KA hazing case proves program is working

[hoosier]

Sat, Jan. 01, 2005

Greek system meeting test

Jewell officials say hazing case proves program is working
By MIKE SHERRY
The Kansas City Star


When almost half of a fraternity's membership is disciplined for verbally abusing a pledge, it is generally not treated as good news by campus administrators and chapter representatives.

Yet that is what is happening at William Jewell College in the wake of an incident involving the school's Kappa Alpha chapter.

“I could not be more pleased with the outcome,” said Rick Winslow, dean of students.

Winslow and others are happy with the resolution because the incident provided an early test of the college's major initiative to overhaul its 128-year-old Greek system. The plan was outlined just three weeks before Winslow took an October phone call from a parent alleging hazing at the Kappa Alpha house.

Fourteen of the chapter's roughly 35 members were barred from Kappa Alpha chapter activities as a result, according to local and national fraternity representatives.

The episode was the latest example of transgressions that last year led Jewell to set about revamping its Greek system.

The process started with the appointment of a 38-person Greek Strategic Plan Committee. Then, in October, students, alumni and administrators announced the committee's 10 goals.

Key among them was having Greek organizations police their own in matters like the hazing incident.

Winslow said the Greeks also have made strides toward other goals, including integrating fraternities and sororities into campus life.

For instance, he said, Lambda Chi Alpha was a key supporter of a campaign against violence toward women; Phi Gamma Delta held a campuswide holiday reception at its house.

In addition, Winslow said, the college has started raising funds for a sorority complex as part of the goal of uniting Greek organizations.

Sara Reynolds, president of the sorority governing body, also has seen the effect of the Greek Strategic Plan on her house, Zeta Tau Alpha. In recent elections, she said, members evaluated candidates in part on their support for the transformation plan.

Winslow said he hoped all the goals could be achieved in 2005, although Reynolds said that might be a little ambitious.

Whatever the time frame, the Kappa Alpha incident offers hope that the overall plan will succeed, especially since the test came before a full-blown Greek judicial process was in place.

Before the Greek strategic plan, Winslow said, his office would have taken a more active role in discipline. “In the old days,” he said, “Student Affairs would have dictated to the chapter what needed to be done.”

The school's Greek Judicial Council also would have participated, Winslow said. Its decision would have been subject to review by the college's Committee on Campus Organizations.

Under both systems, campus administrators retain the authority to expel students for major violations. Winslow said Jewell would work with Liberty authorities in cases that might involve criminal conduct.

In the Kappa Alpha incident, Winslow said, his office largely left the discipline to the chapter's national office and alumni.

The big difference in the Kappa Alpha issue goes beyond process, said Don DiPaolo, the Detroit-based consultant who is helping Jewell with its transformation.

The effort to reform the Greek system has developed trust and collaboration among parties that were often adversaries in the past. “That is a new spirit that did not exist before,” he said.

The alumnus adviser to Kappa Alpha's Jewell chapter, Tyler Griffin, said the administration might well have shut down the chapter after this incident, as it did Sigma Nu two years ago.

Griffin, who has known Winslow for several years, said he might have been able to work with the dean to fashion an outcome similar to the November discipline.

“I would hope we would have gotten here, regardless,” Griffin said of the action against the 14 members. “But the strategic plan got us here quicker.”

The punishment probably stung some members, said Zach Frey, 21, president of the Kappa Alpha chapter when the hazing charge surfaced. But Frey saw some value in making the fraternity a test case for greater Greek self-governance, because it gave legitimacy to the Greek Strategic Plan.

Although progress is being made at Jewell, DiPaolo said, the college is coming late to a Greek reform effort that has been under way on other campuses for a decade.

The Greek system at Jewell, he said, has been such an island that these nationwide reform efforts have largely gone unnoticed.