Few attend forum on Greek ban implementation

Around 20 students attended a forum held on Wednesday night that was intended to solicit student feedback on implementing the recent ban on freshman rush.

The panel was led by five of the 10 members of the committee charged with defining prohibited actions, determining penalties and communicating the specifics of the policy to the student body.

Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan, the chair of the committee, was joined by English professor William Gleason, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Victoria Jueds, Arda Bozyigit ’12, Shreya Murthy ’13 and Jamie Joseph ’13.

Associate Deans of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne, as well as Thomas Hellstern ’12, Jacob Nebel ’13 and Kees Thompson ’13, were absent.

Murthy and Gleason made it clear from the beginning that the committee had not yet made any decisions and was still very much in the listening phase, and that the purpose of the meeting was solely to ask for the opinions of those in attendance regarding the committee’s threefold charge.

“We know that a lot of you are upset about the ban itself, but unfortunately that’s not what we’re here to discuss,” Murthy said. “There’s nothing we can do about that.”

Deignan began the meeting by noting that the committee has already met with RCAs, residential college staff, the Interclub Council and the newly formed Greek Council to solicit suggestions.

The committee expects to complete its work early in the spring term, at which point it will make recommendations to President Shirley Tilghman, who issued the group’s charge and will either accept the suggestions in full or modify them.

Much of the discussion between the panel and the students present focused on issues the committee could face in defining what exactly a Greek organization is, as well as what exactly constitutes rush.

Jueds noted that while everyone present knew what fraternities, sororities and rush were, the challenge facing the committee is how to define them sufficiently without going too far.

While fraternities and sororities are generally understood to be primarily social organizations with Greek letters and national ties, the University needs to define them in such a way that they can still target Greek organizations that attempt to get around the ban, committee members explained.

“We know what sororities and fraternities are, but the concern is that a group may reconstitute itself without Greek letters and possibly without a national organization, yet still retain the other characteristics,” Deignan said.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

One student brought up the example of the Scandinavian Club, which frequently advertises its study breaks that are mainly social in nature. Others noted that they joined selective eating clubs primarily for social reasons.

“It’s hard to find one or even several characteristics that make Greek organizations different from other organizations but similar to each other,” one student said.

The forum had a somewhat easier time generating specific ideas of what defined rush, particularly for sororities, which have a clear four-day rush period. Gleason said that since rush would continue for sophomores, it should be fairly clear to define what freshmen should not do.

But the panel asked students if there were any other actions besides formal rush that could be defined as solicitation or affiliation.

“What the president wants us to do is to envision what life will be like when that four-day process is moved to sophomore year, and what might take its place freshman year and if we’re concerned about that,” Jueds said.

Deignan asked sorority members if there were any interactions with freshmen besides formal rush that they thought the committee might want to prohibit. Students responded by saying that, while they did have pre-rush contact with freshmen, they did not think that this should be prohibited.

“It would be nine months of what happens the first month,” one student said of how she envisions next year without rush.

When the conversation moved on to punishments, some students suggested that a probation would be a fair penalty for the first offense and possibly suspension for a second offense.

“I think probation would be very effective,” one student said. “I’m a freshman, and I don’t want to be put on probation.”

Attendance was significantly lower than that at similar meetings held last year after the ban was announced. While many students spoke in their capacities as members of sororities, no one present was affiliated with a fraternity.