Another School, Another Mass Fraternity Suspension

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

Pick your poison.

Either throw your hands up in the air and just say 'Well, there's nothing we can do" and let the alcohol abuse continue, or get sued out of existence and / or get kicked off campus by school admins because your org is not taking control of the problem.

My chapter has never had a hazing problem--and that is an interesting discussion as we were chartered in 2002. We don't have a hazing problem because we haven't ever had members with a tradition of hazing. Looking at our larger, more traditional chapters, one can only speculate now, but when I was an active attending conventions, spending time with guys from other chapters, I'd say some definitely hazed.

NPHC had a history of hazing problems - people were getting seriously harmed and some died. We were faced with dealing with the problem or literally getting sued out of existence. We made the choice - zero tolerance on hazing. Members and chapters caught hazing are disciplined (suspended, expelled).

This is pretty much the same for NIC (and former NIC groups) but YMMV as far as how responsive an HQ is.

I know that in SGR all undergrad sorority functions must have chapter advisers present.

How do you define a sorority function? I can see chapter advisers being present for initiation. But 6 of your members and their significant others and a few randos want to get together,and mayhem ensues, was that a chapter function?

My point is that it all depends on how IFC fraternities want to handle the problem.

If *you, IFC member*, aren't going to take control and deal with this, others will and they won't be so nice about it.

Structurally, we are different than NPC and other conferences. The NIC does not govern. They do not legislate. They mostly represent our combined interests to outsiders by doing things like lobbying. What they cannot do is tell Sigma Nu we have to have fully alcohol free housing. It isn't their place.

IFC is a different group at each school at many schools, NPHC affiliated groups and MCGLOs are members of the IFC. SAE and Lambda Chi are not members of the NIC, but I'm sure most of their chapters still participate in their local IFC.

I, an alumnus, am not a member of any IFC. When I was chapter adviser, I did not answer to or have really any dealings with our IFC.

And I think we largely are taking care of business. I think you have a few schools with strong traditions of hazing and partying that are hard to change because those groups still have the same alums coming back to teach about how things were in the good 'ol days.

I think you'll see these trends are mostly occurring in chapters which have had these trends. Largely, newer chapters whose early alumni take care to isolate themselves from bad traditions are going to have a better trajectory.

Unfortunately, there's too much money in those mainline Division I school chapters to do what needs to be done in a lot of cases and let them sit dormant for 20 years or so.