The College Fix

Mandatory diversity and sexual assault prevention workshops twice a year

Just a month after a fraternity lost its on-campus housing for two years because of a single party that made offensive jokes about women, Stanford University instituted new rules governing Greek life.

Under the university-wide Standards of Excellence (SOE) program, Greek chapters will evaluate themselves for their “commitment to fraternal organization, commitment to the Stanford community, commitment to responsible citizenship, and commitment to stewardship,” the Stanford Daily reported.

Those self-evaluations in turn will be scored by the Greek division of Residential Education. If a chapter is given a “needs improvement” score, it will have one quarter to address concerns and then be removed if it doesn’t “meet expectations,” the Daily said.

The affected organizations include the African-American Fraternal and Sororal Association, Interfraternity Council, Intersorority Council and Multicultural Greek Council.

Evaluation processes for Greek life are nothing new, according to Gentry McCreary, affiliate consultant for the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management.

“The best sororities actually have enforcement built in and in turn have the most effective policies,” McCreary said in an interview with The College Fix. “These standards are not different from what we see on other campuses from chapter level to participation to educational services.”

McCreary estimated that 60-80 percent of universities with sororities have self-evaluation processes, he said.

Greek organizations at Stanford have other new requirements in addition to the self-evaluations.

They must host two events each year on diversity and sexual assault prevention. Chapters must also have a yearly program on “health and wellness, hazing prevention, and alcohol and drug education,” according to the new policy.

“I don’t see any downside to this,” said McCreary.

The policy also requires fraternities and sororities to share their members’ grade point average in the evaluation. This is “to improve the quality of Stanford’s Greek letter organizations and the experiences these organizations provide to their membership,” the policy says.

McCreary said Vanderbilt University “has a similar process and probation status with academics and it works well.”

Greek Life organizations did not respond to Fix questions about the new pollicy.

Sign an ‘anti-hazing sheet’

A sorority member at California State University-Long Beach told The Fix that similar rules have been in place since she joined in 2012.

“These rules are extremely helpful and actually help active members decide who would be good asset to our chapter just by looking at grades and who is continuing to do well in school,” Delta Gamma member Natalie Wagner said.

They make sure that “everyone stays on track and if they are slipping a little bit, we can help them!” Wagner said in an email. The higher a member’s GPA the previous semester, the fewer study hours are required.

New Delta Gamma members at CSU-Long Beach go through a three-hour seminar on alcohol awareness “and what to do in critical situations,” such as hazing prevention and “how drugs mix with alcohol,” Wagner said.

Sorority members also have to sign an “anti-hazing sheet” when they join,” which “ensures that we will not be hazed and we cannot haze anyone. It’s really helpful,” Wagner said. “There is definitely less peer pressure and now we all know how to take care of people who do drink too much.”

College Fix reporter Samantha Watkins is a student at Point Loma Nazarene University.

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