We are sending this letter in response to the article titled “Nearly half of UW fraternities faced punishment during 2016.”
As the article points out, the university sets clear expectations for all student organizations, including Greek Life chapters, and holds organizations accountable through probation and other sanctions when violations occur. It is also important to point out that while 45 percent of fraternities had a sanction of probation or higher, the violations and sanctions vary greatly in their severity. A general probation sanction alone means that there was a violation, but no restrictions on events are currently being placed on the organization. All sanctions levied by the Committee on Student Organizations (CSO) are meant to have an educational component as the CSO hopes that the educational sessions, programs and sometimes pausing of certain activities helps the organization to improve moving forward.
Also, it is less well known that unlike other registered student organizations, Greek Life chapters are subject to internal and external monitoring that acts both to prevent problems and to expose violations when they occur. Internally, chapters must report in advance to their governance council when they are holding social events and monitors from their governance council drop in unannounced to check whether the event is being run in accordance with a risk management plan. Externally, chapters on Langdon Street have a Madison Police Department officer assigned to monitor their houses and report problems.
We would agree that high-risk drinking is a significant problem within the Greek Life community as we have seen in the AlcoholEdu data. Greek Life staff and students continue to work hard on addressing this issue through the required risk management training for all Greek Life chapters, required registration for all social events and required event monitoring by Greek Life peers to ensure that proper risk management protocols are being followed.
In addition, to the community’s credit, they have taken concrete steps to try and address this issue by requiring that all new members must attend a Badgers Step Up! (BSU!) session. The program focuses on leadership development, bystander intervention, alcohol education, resources and UW-Madison policies related to alcohol. BSU is required by one member of every registered student organization.
By moving beyond the minimum requirement for BSU! and requiring all new members to attend, this is one way that our Greek Life community is taking the issue of alcohol at their events seriously and we look forward to continuing improvement in the years ahead.
Do you have a response for Dean of Students and Vice Provost for Student Life Lori Berquam, Assistant Dean and Director of the Center for Leadership and Involvement Eric Knueve, Interfraternity Council President Michael Foy and Panhellenic Association President Rachel Gold? If you have any comments or questions on this article or The Daily Cardinal's initial investigative report, please email opinion@dailycardinal.com.
