While the University’s nine “wet” fraternities are required to be alcohol-free by December, most aren’t waiting that long to go dry.
According to Student Activities Director Gregg Lobisser, all of the nine sororities and 13 of the 15 fraternities have submitted letters of compliance. Lobisser said the University was “quite pleased” with the response of fraternities and sororities to the new standards, which were approved by University President Dave Frohnmayer in May.
Greek Life will publish an Endorsement Standard Review on Sept. 30 describing how willing student house members have been to cooperate with the dry ruling.
Sept. 1 was the deadline for the house corporations to submit a letter of intent to comply, but there is a grace period. If the owners of the remaining two fraternities do not comply by Dec. 31, President Frohnmayer will notify the National Panhellenic Organization, at which point the organization will most likely withdraw the chapters’ affiliations. The University will also revoke the fraternity’s privileges, services and resources.
Lobisser said that then the remaining two would be deemed “rogue fraternities.”
According to Lobisser, the new standards were designed in response to declining membership and a lack of compliance with existing standards, and are aimed at helping the greek system “attract the best and the brightest.”
Lobisser insisted that, despite the media attention given to the substance-free housing provision, University officials are putting just as much emphasis on other aspects of the standards, like the provision requiring greek members to maintain a GPA equivalent to the University average.
“It tends to be lower than all other undergraduate peer groups,” Lobisser said of the GPA average of the greek system. But he was quick to add that in recent years there has been a general trend — with some “ebbs and flows” — toward higher grades at the University’s fraternities and sororities.
In order to facilitate a further increase in GPA, the new standards also require chapters to have a three-term GPA equal to the campus men’s or women’s average, or to be moving toward it.
“I do believe collectively (the new standards) will begin to lift and strengthen the system,” Lobisser said.
But Shane Meisel, president of Beta Theta Pi, had the opposite view.
“I think these policies are going to prevent some people from looking at the system,” he said. “Some people will say: ‘I just moved out of my parents’ house, I don’t need to move into a place that’s even more strict.’”
Meisel argued that many of the new requirements, such as the installation of fire sprinkler systems by 2004 and the appointment of live-in housing directors by 2005, place an unfair economic burden on greek chapters. Meisel said that, while he agrees many greek members need to improve academic performance, the University’s policy doesn’t take into account that few undergraduates “have all the extra requirements that greek members have.”
Beta Theta Pi was among the first chapters to submit its letters of compliance, but Meisel said the motive for such quick compliance was fatalism rather than enthusiasm.
Chapter adviser John Kanan echoed that sentiment. Kanan said he opposes the new standards — particularly the substance-free housing provision, which he called “discriminatory” — because they take away the ability of individual chapters to govern themselves.
“Internally, (fraternity members) must learn to manage themselves as a business,” Kanan said. “Unfortunately, the University feels that they have the authority to regulate off-campus activities. I’m very concerned about that.”
Nevertheless, Kanan said he recommended quick compliance to chapter members when the new standards were approved.
“There’s no sense in going through a full term with alcohol in the house and then having to shut it off in winter term,” he said.
Kanan, who is Beta Theta Pi’s district chief for Oregon, said the fraternity system seems to be suffering for past sins. Beta Theta Pi, in particular, is doing much better now than five years ago, when, he said, it was “out of control.”
The University chapter of Beta Theta Pi is the last in the Oregon University System to go dry. The OSU chapter was closed down five years ago but has since been re-colonized. As a condition of re-colonization, the house remains alcohol free. The Willamette University chapter was forced to go dry by the general fraternity because, Kanan said, “they were not controlling what they did.
“Beta Theta Pi firmly believes in self-government,” he said. “But if (a chapter) is not meeting its obligations, the general fraternity steps in to make sure that they do.”
Leon Tovey is a freelance writer for the Emerald. Family/health/education reporter Jillian Daley contributed
to this report.