Looking to make an example out of us

[bubblegum]

I'm so stressed out and worried. Here's the whole deal:

There is a new fraternity (I'll call them ABC) on our campus and they are not yet recognized by the Multi-Cultural Greek Council (which my sorority is in). A lot of my girls are friends with the guys in ABC and we've done socials and parties with them, even though we're really not supposed to...since they're not recognized. Things have been pretty lax in our council and many of the orgs have bent the rules or broken the rules. However, right now, the council is dominated by our rival sorority and the ABC's rival fraternity.

We were supposed to have a party with ABC at a club downtown. Somehow, the Greek Life Office got wind of it and I got called into the office. The advisor to the Multi-Cultural Greek Coucil (he's new...the council just got an advisor this year) basically said to me "It has been brought to my attention that you're having a party with an unrecognized organization. According to the council rules, you're not allowed to have any events or activities with unrecognized organizations. There can be increased liability for you and the university. You're giving credibility to this unrecognized group. It'll discourage organizations from petitioning to be recognized. It harms the other organizations in the council when you have events with an unrecognized organization rather than an organization in your council." He went on to say that he knows about how lax things had been in the past and orgs break rules without being called before judicial, but that since he's the advisor now, things are going to change. And then he said that he doesn't want to see our chapter get kicked off campus and that I really needed to "do the right thing". At the end of my meeting, he said that he was only doing this to "look out for your chapter's best interest" because of liability.

Now, I know liability is a serious matter and I understand wanting to encourage recognized orgs to do events with the orgs in their council, but I just got the feeling that he was being really insincere. I didn't feel at all like he was doing this to keep us out of trouble. I felt like I was being implicitly threatened. I felt as if he was implying that if I didn't do what he wanted, he was going to make an example out of my sorority.

So I ended up calling ABC and telling them we were backing out of the party. We weren't going to pass out party flyers anymore. We weren't going to profit from the party. We weren't going to get into the party for free anymore. We weren't going to wear letters to the party. We weren't going to bring our rush flyers to the party. We weren't going to try to rush girls at the party. We were going to go simply as regular patrons. We weren't making sisters go, but a lot of the sisters felt bad about backing out on ABC so last minute and wanted to at least go to the party so ABC could make more money.

After I talked to ABC, I went back to the advisor and told him all of this. He said it was ok. The only thing he expressed concern about was that it might still be viewed as a joint party. In his words, "There's just one thing. If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck...." I reiterated that we had completely backed out of the party and that if girls decided to go to the party, it would be as individuals and as paying customers. He didn't say anything else. He just wished me luck with my semester and my classes before I left, so I thought everything was cool. BTW, all of this occurred before the party actually took place. So, I had the whole thing resolved before the party took place...or so I thought.

Someone of the Multi-Cultural Greek Council's executive board just told me that they're going to call me before judicial next week. I'm really scared for my chapter. Yeah, we were in the wrong for setting up a party with an unrecognized org, but after I was called in to see the advisor, I went and got us out of co-sponsoring the party. I let the advisor know what I did. I got the impression that this was an acceptable solution, since he didn't say that we had to do more than that. I feel really frustrated. I feel like the fraternity and sorority that dominate Multi-Cultural Greek Council are out to get us. I'm actually pretty sure of who it is that ratted us out to the advisor. They've actually tried to mess with us before. They caused all sorts of drama last semester by calling one of our pledges and pretending to be one of us and cursing out that pledge. They caused drama for us the semester before by sending us an anonymous email claiming to be one of our pledges and threatening to go to the Office of Greek Life and telling all these outrageous lies (like that we force them to drink, even the ones that are underage and even the ones that don't drink alcohol). I really don't know what to do. I wish I could get even with them, but I know that's not the solution. And on top of that, we've always prided ourselves on being the classier sorority and always taking the high road and refusing to stoop to their level. I'm sorry this is such a long post. I just need to vent. And if anyone has any advice, that'd be appreciated.