Alfred University to Dissolve Greek System

[madmax]

Originally posted by JenniferAKO710
okay,
I hate computers........

What I meant to reply with was the list that you see above, which is a list of Alfred University contacts. As for contacting the local chapter of Lambda, there should be some information off the unversity website... www.alfred.edu



I think ultimately we need to see what comes down the line. I am sure the University has not even considered the possibility that we may want to still exist, such has occured on other campuses. This is a suggestion that we got from a trustee member:

"Encourage the current sisters to present a plan to the VP of
Student Affairs that would incorporate the following issues:
1) a request for current sisters living in the house to continue to do so until a time they specify
2) a financial statement of the sisterhood's health and ability to keep the house for the period they define
3) a statement or pledge that they will abide by the University's regulations, signed by each sister
4) identify an organization that they would like to work with to ensure the house will stay in "good hands"
5) a request to archive historical documents and placques through Herrick " (our library)

This sounds to me like they want to phase out the system. These "defined periods of time", would suggest as much. We are working to join with other houses in presenting a united front and come up with a plan.

Your financial records are none of the school's business. I personally wouldn't give them any of that info.. If they want to know how long you plan on staying in your house, just tell them, "forever".

[KPU1190]

Hello again all -
I am writing in response to the post by AKOmicron, where she touches on the press release and what was said in it. I would just like to reflect on the portrayal of the university versus the greeks (this feels like an essay).

First off, I'm not sure if I spoke about the " While the board’s action was taken at its meeting late on Friday, the announcement was delayed until today to permit Gerald Brody, vice president of Student Affairs, to notify presidents of fraternities and sororities of the board’s decision. “We wanted to extend that courtesy to our students,” said President Edmondson. " part of the press release, I know it's a technicality, but the Press Release was sent out before the e-mail to the entire AU Campus. And I don't mean by a few minutes or so. GLO presidents were notified, and I speak for my house, around 12:00 noon that day. The Press Release was released at 2:00 PM, and the mass e-mail was sent to AU students at 4:30 PM.

Secondly, I'm not sure how many Trustees actually sit on the board of Trustees, but there are 45 people listed on the website. The address for this is: http://www.alfred.edu/faculty/html/b...f_trustees.cfm

Thirdly, to my knowledge, the Task Force met with 6 Greek Students. I do not feel that 6 Greek Students are a fair representation of the entire Greek System, ESPECIALLY since some of those 6 students were members of the same GLO.

Fourth, " At Alfred University, the Task Force found membership has declined from 45 percent of the student body 40 years ago to 10 percent today. Among entering freshmen last year, only 4 percent expressed an interest in joining a fraternity or sorority, raising questions of their long-term viability, a concern heightened by the fact that fewer than half the members currently live in the chapter houses. " For a school that has 2,500 students, 10% is a decent sized amount of students. For those who might have a little bit of trouble with math (No offense intended towards anyone) that is 250 students. Yes, there was a much higher percentage back 40 years ago. BUT, also, at the same time, there were a LOT fewer organizations at AU. Today there is over 100 organizations on campus, catering to every interest you could possibly imagine. About the part about entering freshman, I don't know how many of you knew that you would be interested in going greek when you were an entering freshman. As for me however, I was a straightedge, deadset, ANTI-GREEK person when I first set foot on this campus. I can guarentee that I too checked the "NO" box on that little questionnaire that went around with my housing packet. As for the "fact that fewer than half the members currently live in the chapter houses" part.....Well, where do I begin? I'll start with DZ, since there seem to be a lot of DZ posts on this thread. As I understand it, the reason that the DZ sisters here have not gotten an official DZ house is that if they did, they would need to have a Housemother and curfews. The housemother part, I have been told in the past, is not possible at the moment, because of the cost to hire someone to live in the house full time. Also, They would not be able to build a house off-campus in a location easily accessible (less than 2 miles) to campus, for two reasons. 1.) The Village of Alfred (town that the school is in) has passed laws quite a while ago that prevent the building or NEW occupation of buildings to be used for Fraternal organizations. GLO's that already have houses are "Grandfathered" in, like DeltAlum posted. Also, there are no houses for sale that could be bought in the area. 2.) Alfred University (back when GLO's were recognized by the university) had a policy stating that any GLO that was created or that was to move into a new house, must, in order to retain recognition from the university, move ON campus into a house that was already existing or that was built for them on a street called Greek Row. This was a provision created because AU thought it had a chance to become Ivy League, and as I have heard, one of the requirements was that greeks were on campus. I am not sure of the validity of that, but either way, they above is a policy maintained by the university.

Fifth, "Additionally, “Greek membership does not reflect the changing campus population in terms of women, minorities or international students, all of which have an important future at Alfred University,” Bernstein said. " If any of you have seen Wednesday's NY Times, the version that had the article AND the picture, I would like to point out that the picture shows 5 members of my Fraternity. Out of the 18 current actives, and I can explain why that number is low in another post, 1 is African American, 1 is Haitian. Just graduated recently in the past 5 years, there have been, I'd say, between 5 and 10 Spanish/Puerto Rican/German exchange students/Arabic. Compared with a total of graduated students in the past 5 years of around 35-40, I think that between 17% and 25% of our population in the past 5 years is not too bad. I can not speak for the rest of the system, but I know that most of the other houses, if not all, had at least one or two "ethnically diverse" people in them. As for the fact that that the number of sorority members hasn't gone up, for the past school year, there was an interest group set up for a new sorority, which would continue through next smester and possibly be a colony next year. I foget the name of the National that was sponsoring them, but I do know that it had gotten off the ground, and there was a decent amount of interest shown in it.

Sixth, "The Task Force also learned that students in Greek houses tend to drink more and more often than their peers at Alfred University " I don't know where they tried to come up with this, but this past semester, there was an absolute minimum of social events hosted by greek houses. During this semester, the amount of alcohol related write-ups in on-campus dormitories was higher than it had been in the recent past. This fact, while I do not have the numbers here, has been determined by the office of Residence Life. The write ups, in general, were for students drinking in their dorm rooms or for being drunk in their dormitories. Do note, however, that the majority of these write ups occured on nights where there were NO greek hosted events held that night.

Seventh, "There are also growing numbers of violations of University policy. This spring, six of the 12 Greek organizations (eight fraternities and four sororities) were under sanction for violations. " While, unfortunately, this is true, the university does not tell the public that there was BASICALLY a witchhunt going on, where students that did go to a greek house and drink and came back intoxicated but were not causing any types of noise violations were told to tell the RA/RD where they were drinking or they would be written up. This happened more than once, not only on nights when a Greek Hosted event took place, BUT even on nights when one hadn't taken place. Very Salem Witchhunt style.

Eighth, "It also hired additional staff to work with the Greek organizations " The only staff I know of is the Assistant Dean of Students, Daryl Conte, whose position was extended in 1992 while there was an Interim Assistant Dean as I understand, to include Greek Organizations specifically.

Ninth, " “The University has repeatedly encouraged fraternities and sororities to set higher academic standards for themselves and to police their own behavior, but overall, they still do not meet our expectations.” " As for this, I would like to say that while the average GPA of Greeks is lower than the schools average, it has been increasing throughtout the past few years. Also, the rate at which matriculation is reached for Greeks is much faster than that of non-greeks. Also, The past two years there have been TREMENDOUS strides towards creating a well run, unified, and PRODUCTIVE Inter-Greek Council (IGC). During this past semester, guidelines for internal Judiciary action for infractions that were not deemed serious were created, and implemented into the IGC constitution, which was fully revised as well. Previous to IGC, there were seperate Greek Councils, Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC), and Panhellenic Council. These two organizations were combined, creating IGC, and since then, the Greek System has been becoming more unified, and actually working together in order to "police their own behavior". It is not like we completely ignored them and conitinued on our way, we were trying to change things.

Tenth, "Furthermore, the task force noted, the University has offered financial assistance to the Greek houses, including establishing a revolving loan fund to help them with repairs to their houses. " It was reported in a Newspaper in a statement by a university administrator, I can't remember who, that the university has spent around $100,000 over the past few years. Where has this money gone? I can speak for my house when I say that we have not seen any of that money, in the form of a loan or otherwise. As for the Revolving Loan Fund, I speak for myself, and I have been here for 4 years now, that this is the FIRST time I ever heard of a Revolving Loan Fund to help with repairs. Was this $100,000 spent on salaries?

While this was not in the Press Release, there has been mention of houses being in rough condition, I can't remember the exact wording, in different news articles. I would like to point out the fact that while the Task Force was meeting, they made appointments to visit some of the Greek houses. Unfortunately, the trustees could not make it to the appointments that they had made, and ALL of the appointments were cancelled. Back in February, Dean Brody, who is mentioned in some articles and in some other posts by AU students, took a quick tour of ZBT Fraternity. Let me note that while ZBT is not a model of the perfect Fraternity house, there are NO structural problems, and NO code violations. Let me also note that every year, the Village of Alfred requires us to have a house inspection, by the Village Code Officer. This Code Officer checks Fire and Safety Systems, Structural issues, and Sanitary issues. If a house does not pass the code inspection, the house is condemned until it is brought up to code. This past year, not one house was condemned. The Code Officer is not employed by the school, he is employed directly by Village, so there is no bias involved.

Ok, I believe I have said everything that I wanted to say for now, so I will wrap this up. Thank you to all of you patient and interested enough to read this entire post.

Joseph A. DeLuca III
Kappa Psi Upsilon
'1190'

[Tom Earp]

Joseph, a most enlightening listing!

It sounds like a whitewash cover up to me!

I think you and the other Houses might get together and notify your Alums and see if they will write on your behaves.

I would have them especially if any donate money to the school point that out and plainly say that the well is dry!

I dont know how A U does homecoming but at most Schools, if the Greeks do not participate, teh parade and attendance is a heck of a lot lower!

I hope that the National Organizations have Balls to try to work this out!

Good Luck!!!!!!!

[KPU1190]

Hi again to everyone. I'm starting to feel like a regular!

My Fraternity's corporate board president asked me if I could post this message.

We are trying to organize a protest/rally to take place during the University's Reunion weekend. This year, it falls on the weekend of June 8th, in otherwords, in two weeks. He is planning on heavy participation from AU Greek Alumni as well as AU Non-Greek Alumni....Basically anyone here that supports the Greeks.

He is requesting the presence of other Greeks from around the country who are in support of us at this reunion. Generally, at the University sponsored Reunion events, there are around 100-200 alumni that show up. On top of that, there are about another 300-400 Greek Alumni that show up that do not partake in the University scheduled events. Our Corporate Board President has been coordinating efforts with Alumni from other houses here in Alfred to try and make this a success. He is also trying to get media coverage there.

So, to sum it all up, if any of you out there in Cyberspace are in the area and would like to participate, we all (well, the Greeks and their supporters) here in Alfred would be extremely appreciatiive to have you here. If you would like to know more about this, or would like to get in touch with my houses Corporate Board President, please, feel free to email me, and let me know. My email address again is delucaja@alfred.edu

If anyone has any further suggestions, or comments on this, please feel free to reply to this, or if you would rather not post to the site, feel free to email me.

Thank you again, for your continued support. It is appreciated greatly.

Joseph A. DeLuca III
Kappa Psi Upsilon
'1190'

[33girl]

Originally posted by KPU1190
As I understand it, the reason that the DZ sisters here have not gotten an official DZ house is that if they did, they would need to have a Housemother and curfews. The housemother part, I have been told in the past, is not possible at the moment, because of the cost to hire someone to live in the house full time.

That doesn't sound right, unless it is a brand new policy by DZ nationals, because the DZ house at our school DEFINITELY doesn't have a paid housemother, and I would seriously doubt that they have a curfew. (none of the houses do)

If there is student housing in the area, there is NO way they can prevent multiple members of the same fraternity from living together, any more than they can prevent people with brown eyes or of the same major from living together. In other words, just because I live with 3 of my sisters doesn't make it a "fraternity house" as far as city code is concerned.

[lifesaver]

I just cant get past the fact that the president of the university stands on a "moral ground" regardign the greeeks at AU, and he was amember of a chapter that killed someone, while he was an undergraduate, an upperclassman, who might have very well been involved in the hazing that resulted in chuck stephens death.

Whats that I smell, fresh bread, no. Pizza? No, not that either. hummmm.... Oh I know, its hyprocracy.

[lifesaver]

Originally posted by 33girl


That doesn't sound right, unless it is a brand new policy by DZ nationals, because the DZ house at our school DEFINITELY doesn't have a paid housemother, and I would seriously doubt that they have a curfew. (none of the houses do)

Could be a requirement of the housing corp. Ya dont have to have a house to have a housing corp. In fact, you cant get a house till you have a housing corp set up....

[KPU1190]

Originally posted by lifesaver
I just cant get past the fact that the president of the university

Lifesaver -

I would just like to make a quick clarification. Gene Bernstein was formerly the President of Klan Alpine, another Local Fraternity here in Alfred, not the President of the University. He also served as the Chair of the Task Force that was created to determine the future of the Greek System. Also, he graduated in 1969, 9 years before the death of Chuck, so he can't personally be held responsible for the actions that caused the death of Chuck, although he could have helped change his houses pledge process while he was both an active member and also during the years following his graduation as an alumni.

Joseph A. DeLuca III
Kappa Psi Upsilon
'1190'

[KappaTarzan]

be hopeful to everyone who's school no longer recognizes GLOs.. it some ways it can be better. we do not get funding like other campuses do, but we are also able to run our programs the way we choose (such as 6 week new member education processes instead of a regulated time), and we dont' have to give the school a copy of our new member education program! there are obviously ups and downs, but we are prospering even though we are not recogized. we have on campus:

sororities
KDFnas
FSR
AST
AW

fraternities

STG
FKS
OP
SFO
DKF



we all have a pretty big base of members. it works! dont' give up.

[crzychrisj]

I'm a Lambda Chi Alpha alum from Alfred, and... I'm still kinda in shock about all this, especially as we just get re-chartered in October. We fought an uphill battle with the university administration for 4 years. They were never supportive, and would find any reason to push us out. Our national fought like hell and they stood behind us, and we got our charter. Now what do we have to show for it? Nadda! Being in a Greek organization and part of the greek community on campus as a whole was the best part of my college career, so I'm not going to stand by the wayside and watch the whole system fall apart. We (/\XA) started local, and if we have to, I don't see why we can't go back to it. But I'd hate to see us have to break away from International /vice-versa. It's all part of the experience. I've got over 200000 brothers out there and I know every last one of them stands behind me in echoing Dee Snider's infamous words "we're not gonna take it!!" I say f**k the university, they never helped any of us anyway. I'm still wearing my letters, and I sure hope every other active and alum from Alfred does too! Thanks to all the rest of you non-alfredians for all your support, and to those of us caught in the mess, don't give up!

Chris /\XA KS 1371

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I just want to extend my best wishes to the greeks at Alfred. I hope that you spend the summer working together with your alumni and inter/nationals (if that applies) in order to resolve this very upsetting situation. Good luck!

[DeltAlum]

This hurts, especially from a major city newspaper. Unfortunately, it appears to be well thought out and researched. This is an editorial -- an opinion -- but still offers comments from both sides.

This kind of thing is difficult to recover from, and is the reason that we must all take a hard look at what we're doing, and the possible consequences so as not to let an administration like Alfred's find itself in the position to be able to make a like decision.

Editorial
Buffalo News
May 28, 2002

No Greeks for Alfred

Take a bunch of kids away from home for the first time, put them in a
fraternity or sorority house, mix in liberal amounts of alcohol and a
cultural erosion of respect for authority, and what you get is an
incubator for bad behavior.

At Alfred University, a campus of 2,400 students located in the
foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, that concoction has led to six
of the 12 Greek organizations on campus being suspended, placed on
probation or losing their affiliation for violations such as hazing
and alcohol abuse. The university understandably has had enough. Last
week it announced it was eliminating the Greek system from campus.
Who can blame it?

The decision came after a special Trustee Task Force concluded that
the school's Greek system had become dysfunctional, and that "the
educational mission of the university and its Greek system were no
longer compatible." The task force was formed after the death of
21-year-old Alfred student Benjamin Klein, who was beaten by two of
his fraternity brothers before he died. The beating didn't lead to
his death, but it was the motivating factor to study the Greek system.

The task force studied 20 comparable colleges, that is, small liberal
arts colleges in the Northeast. Virtually all those schools found
that the Greek system needed dramatic reform, or had already
eliminated it. Virtually all of them suffered the same problems, said
Gene Bernstein, a former head of Alfred's board of trustees and head
of the task force. Among them were exclusion of minorities and
generally bad behavior largely fueled by alcohol.

Not all fraternities or sororities are versions of "Animal House."
Some, particularly at large universities, can provide a sense of
family within a huge academic environment, said Sheldon Steinbach,
vice president and chief counsel at the American Council on
Education, which represents 1,800 two- and four-year colleges.

Still, an increasing number of schools - especially smaller
Northeastern liberal arts schools - have moved to eliminate the Greek
system. Colby, Middlebury and Bowdoin have done so. But even larger
universities, where fraternities are active, have experienced
increasing problems, said Brett Sokolow, president of the National
Center for Higher Education Risk Management.

Fueled by alcohol - public health studies show that members of
fraternities and sororities drink more than non-Greek students -
university officials at campuses across the country have been
struggling to reform the system. In fact, since 1992 Alfred has had
an assistant dean whose primary, if not only, responsibility was to
try and bring the Greek system up to some reasonable standard of
behavior. Clearly, the effort failed.

In the past two years, more than 60 deaths nationwide have been
linked to fraternity or sorority activity, mainly drinking. As Alfred
University President Charles Edmondson pointed out, if that many
deaths had been associated with varsity athletes, the NCAA would be
conducting an investigation. Edmondson called the numbers an epidemic.

Steinbach, of the American Council on Education, says that while the
deaths are intolerable, they are not out of proportion for what you
would expect from a similar sized population.

Perhaps. But we see no overriding reason to put up with the problems
that arise from out-of-control fraternities. And to their credit,
neither do Alfred officials.

[33girl]

Pardon my French, but what assholes.

I doubt if they bothered to ask any of the current Greek students or Greek alumni their position - this reads like they just went by the school's press release and the school's research/contacts (like the ACE VP) and put their own condescending spin on it.

This is masturbation masquerading as journalism.

I sincerely hope every Alfred student's family and every Alfred alumnus who supports the Greek system cancels their subscription as soon as possible.

[DeltAlum]

33,

I understand your frustration, but you've missed the point.

This is an EDITORIAL. You mention assholes and it reminds me of the saying that opinions are like assholes -- everyone has one.

This is the OPINION of the Editorial Board of a major metropolitan newspaper. Who may or may not be assholes. Many are.

The fact is that they went a lot farther to tell both sides of the story than they had to in an editorial forum. They quoted a man who representes four year schools who spoke in favor of GLO's:

"Not all fraternities or sororities are versions of "Animal House."
Some, particularly at large universities, can provide a sense of
family within a huge academic environment, said Sheldon Steinbach,
vice president and chief counsel at the American Council on
Education, which represents 1,800 two- and four-year colleges."

An editorial takes sides -- there was no compelling reason for them to use the Steinbach quote except for some (perhaps small) attempt at fairness. Remember again, these are opinions, not necessarily facts. They still have to be dealt with, though.

Quoting again:

"In the past two years, more than 60 deaths nationwide have been
linked to fraternity or sorority activity, mainly drinking. As Alfred
University President Charles Edmondson pointed out, if that many
deaths had been associated with varsity athletes, the NCAA would be
conducting an investigation. Edmondson called the numbers an epidemic.

Steinbach, of the American Council on Education, says that while the
deaths are intolerable, they are not out of proportion for what you
would expect from a similar sized population."

Personal comment: ANY death is intolerable when its caused by stupidity -- proportion be damned. Sixty? I have to reluctantly say that Edmondson is right -- if there were sixty sports related deaths, people would be screaming at the tops of their lungs at the NCAA. They're in the public spotlight even more than we are.

Anyway, my point still is this -- we've somehow gotta stop giving these people fuel for their fires. This editorial board could have been a LOT tougher.

[33girl]

DeltAlum, I know it's an opinion and not a news story. But just that first sentence is so inflammatory. Again, can you think of any other group that it would be acceptable to say that about?

Plus I would like to know the exact circumstances of those "more than 60 deaths linked to fraternity or sorority activity in the past 2 years." As we've discussed before, on sites like stophazing.org, if a sorority woman is crossing the street from her house to another house it's labeled a "Greek related death." It's kind of like the Naomi Wolf death from anorexia stats. Very elastic.

And I still say, if you are displeased with this opinion from the editorial board, cancel your subscription. This is the main reason I don't subscribe to either newspaper here - one kisses the mayor's ass until their lips are chapped, and the other is so far to the right it makes Pat Buchanan look like one of the Chicago Seven. The mayor's ass-kissing paper did a story (even worse since it WAS an actual news story) about Waynesburg dissolving their Greek system a couple years ago. It was so slanted it was ridiculous. The part that amused me the most was that the reporter said "the majority of the student body is anti-Greek" but of the 8 students he interviewed, 7 of them were in favor of continuing the Greek system.

Once again...as Butt-Head would say, paper or plastic?