There are various ways to provide feedback about the report, including submitting comments via the online survey on the report website through April 6 and participating in the open student forum that Vice President for Campus Life Cynthia Cherrey and I will host at 3 p.m. April 2 in Frist Campus Center, Room 302.
Our 11-member committee — which included six undergraduates, half of whom are affiliated with a fraternity or sorority — consulted widely before drafting our recommendations. We held an open campus forum and last fall an online survey received 433 responses from members of the University community and alumni. We also met with residential college advisers, members of the Interclub Council, leaders of Greek organizations, the Undergraduate Student Government and residential college staff members.
Throughout our work, we kept in mind the goals of the policy to ban freshman affiliation with Greek organizations: To reaffirm the centrality of the residential colleges and eating clubs in residential and social life at Princeton; to encourage freshmen to explore a variety of interests and take full advantage of all the opportunities on campus; and to ensure that students who choose to participate in fraternities and sororities do so only after they have had the benefit of a full year on campus.
Our goal was to recommend policies that provide clear guidance about what activities would be prohibited and what the consequences would be for a student who knowingly engaged in such activities.
For example, under the new policy freshmen would be prohibited from affiliating with a fraternity or sorority. We recommend a definition of affiliation that includes activities such as pledging, rushing and participating in any activity sponsored by a fraternity or sorority. Students could not solicit the participation of any freshman in a fraternity or sorority with solicitation defined to include a similar range of activities. Freshmen would be covered by the policy from the time they are admitted through the end of the spring semester of freshman year
As for recommended penalties, students who solicit the participation of freshmen in Greek organizations or affiliated activities should expect to be suspended, and freshmen who join, pledge or rush a fraternity or sorority should also expect to be suspended. Freshmen who attend or participate in other Greek-sponsored events or activities may be subject to a lesser penalty (e.g. disciplinary probation).
For the purposes of our report, “sponsorship” by a fraternity or sorority could range from an invitation on behalf of a fraternity or sorority to the use of fraternity or sorority funds to support an activity. We recommended that activities occurring on and off campus be covered by the policy.
Our report recommended that the mere presence of members of a fraternity or sorority at an event should not, by itself, be considered an indication of sponsorship. We also recommended that the rules be clear that casual conversations about Greek organizations would be permitted.
We hope that students will take the time to read the full report, including its suggestions for how to best communicate policies to students and parents, and will offer any comments or suggestions they may have during the ongoing discussion about our recommendations.
Kathleen Deignan is the dean of undergraduate students and chair of the Committee on Freshmen Rush Policy. She can be reached at kdeignan@Princeton.EDU.
Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this column inadvertently stated that "Freshmen would not be able to covered by the policy from the time they are admitted through the end of the spring semester of freshman year." In fact, the sentence should have stated, "Freshmen would be covered by the policy from the time they are admitted through the end of the spring semester of freshman year." The 'Prince' regrets the error.
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