Question about policies

[AlphaXi4983]

When the university owns the house of a chapter, does anyone know which rules and policies supercede (university policies or national fraternity/sorority policies)? Do chapters sometimes overlap policies, or pick and choose from both categories? The chapter I am house mother for is having some issues with new policies put in place by the housing corporation board becuase they are more strict than university policies, but I believe that they are in line with what the chapter's national organization has laid out. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[DZRose]

I believe in this situation, your house mother would be obligated to follow whatever rules house corporation has set forth since they are more strict than university policies. At a mininum, I believe that university policies must be followed, unless policies put in place by the local house corp/national policy are more strict, then I would imagine that those policies must be followed.

Is the chapter complaining? It seems odd that your house mother would protest, but the chapter wouldn't.

[AlphaXi4983]

Thanks for your feedback Just to clarify, I am the house mother. And yes, the girls are complaining. The hard thing for me is that I can sympathise with both sides - I understand why the rules are in place from the housing corp board (HCB), but I also understand why the girls do not like them (most specifically the male visitation policy). I am obviously obligated to follow and uphold the rules set by the HCB, but I know that the girls are going to ask me what they can do to try and persuade the HCB to change their minds, so I'm just trying to cover all of my bases before I have to face all of the girls in the house.

[skylark]

This is a hard question to answer in a vacuum without knowing what policies are at issue, but in most situations the answer is that the chapter (and you, as the house mother) have to follow both sets of policies, which results in following the stricter if the policies are different. This is harder to do if the college says to do something that impossible to do at the same time as following your sorority's policies. In that situation, I would contact the sorority first to figure out if they will either (1) grant an exception, or (2) contact the college themself about changing the college's policy if the sorority believes that strongly in its own policies.

[skylark]

After I posted, I saw the clarification on that one of the main policies at issue is the male visitation rule. Most sororities have national policies regarding this issue and I am wondering if the local housing board has chosen even a stricter policy for your particular chapter? If so, I'd contact nationals about this. If this is a national policy being enforced at a local level, then I would try to focus my energy elsewhere and try to find other places to mingle with boys.

[SoCalGirl]

I'd be hard pressed to think of a university and HCB policy that could contradict each other. The girls are stuck following the stricter of the rules. If the HCB new rules seem unreasonable to the girls I would first try to explain why they likely are not. Then, if the girls persist, I'd encourage them to do research on what other HCB rules are on their own campus as well as other chapters at other campuses. I'd tell the girls they should put together an extremely well though out and researched proposal as to why the new rules should be altered. They should have a small committee present the HCB with their findings and should also hear out any explanation the HCB has. Hopefully the girls will come to understand and accept the rules or can come to a compromise with the HCB.

[AlphaXi4983]

Thanks for all your help! My undergrad university did not have greek housing, so I'm learning a lot of this as I go. I'm meeting with the chapter president later tonight, so hopefully we'll get the girls settled.

[fantASTic]

I understand your pain with that rule! We cannot have boys in the house overnight, either...but in our case, Nationals does NOT say that. I believe it is a university policy, but when we are fully recognized then that rule will be rescinded and we can have male visitors.

[Titchou]

In the case of my GLO, we state that the stricter of the two must be followed...and ours is usually the stricter one. Waivers are given from our Council and there is an application process the chapters must go thru. You probably need to research how that is handled by your group's national organization.