Greek life committee to delay report

Deignan has previously stated publicly, including at a USG Senate meeting on Dec. 11, that the Greek Life Implementation Committee would release its recommendations early in the spring term. And as late as last week, President Shirley Tilghman said the committee would issue a report by mid-March.

But three weeks into the new semester, the committee has still not prepared its report on how to frame the policies and will likely not meet its publicly announced deadlines.

“We have received a great deal of feedback, mostly from students, which has helpfully informed our discussions,” Deignan said in an email, noting that the committee hopes to conclude its work in the next four or five weeks. “We look forward to sharing our report with the community when it is complete.”

In October, Tilghman created the group and charged it to “clearly describe the kinds of actions and interactions that should be prohibited under the policy; to suggest appropriate, fair and effective penalties to encourage compliance and to suggest the best methods to communicate and assess compliance with the policy.”

The committee is facing the challenge of developing how to enforce the new Greek life policy, which prevents freshmen from participating in any form of rush. Because the terms “Greek life” and “rush” are not easily defined, part of the committee’s responsibility is to clearly enumerate exactly to which types of organizations and activities the new rule will apply.

When the Working Group on Campus Social and Residential Life first proposed the rush ban in May 2011, many students who attended open forums about the policy pointed out that it would be logistically difficult to apply a ban solely to Greek organizations due to the difficulty of defining exactly what they are.

In August, Tilghman announced in an email to the student body that she and the trustees had approved the policy but decided to defer its implementation for a year in order to give Deignan’s committee an opportunity to address students’ concerns.

Deignan said that throughout the fall semester the committee met with the USG, residential college advisers, residential college staff, Greek organization leaders and eating club presidents to solicit advice on how to construct and phrase the policy.

At the December meeting with the USG Senate, many USG members asked about the group’s transparency and whether it would be willing to provide regular updates on its progress. Deignan said it was important that the group release all its findings at once, noting that she did not think that “flying trial balloons would be an efficient way to work.”

Earlier in the fall semester, the group held a sparsely attended open forum in Frist Campus Center to discuss the policy, especially regarding ways the committee can ensure that Greek groups don’t try to find ways to get around the policy.

“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.