Penn State Says It Will ‘Take Control of Greek Life’ After Student’s Death

Pennsylvania State University on Friday vowed to take “bold and unprecedented steps” to toughen oversight of its Greek organizations by assuming control of misconduct investigations and the process of punishing chapters that commit hazing, alcohol, and other violations.

In doing so, officials will eliminate the role of Greek student leaders in adjudicating such cases and recommending sanctions. The university says it will also take a more aggressive role in policing social events, a practice that had also traditionally been left up to students.

Administrators are describing the change as a radical departure from the self-governance model that is a hallmark of fraternity and sorority life at most campuses. “We are proposing that Penn State take control of Greek life,” Eric J. Barron, the university’s president, said during remarks at a special meeting of Penn State’s Board of Trustees.

Experts on fraternities and sororities praised Penn State for taking a more active role in tackling hazing and alcohol abuse, though they questioned whether the university had sought enough buy-in from students and alumni to make the changes effective.

Since 19-year-old Timothy Piazza died of injuries suffered during an alleged hazing incident at Beta Theta Pi fraternity in February, Penn State has responded aggressively. University officials quickly banned alcohol at Greek events for the rest of the semester, and in March, they imposed additional restrictions on fraternities and sororities.

But Mr. Barron said in April that many Greek groups didn’t seem to heed the new rules. He wrote an open letter to the Greek community predicting that, if things didn’t improve, “we will see many empty houses and then the end of Greek life at Penn State.”

“If new rules can just be ignored, or behavior just goes underground, and if there is no willingness to recognize the adverse impact of excessive drinking, hazing, and sexual assault,” he wrote, “then is there any hope?”

Previous Efforts

University officials had in the past tried to preserve self-governance in Greek life while making adjustments to mitigate poor behavior and ensure student safety, said Nicholas P. Jones, the provost, in an interview. Penn State had allowed the Inter-Fraternity Council to play a leadership role in many, though not all, investigations of misconduct involving fraternities, Mr. Jones said.

“For many years, we tried to work within that system, which is fundamentally broken,” he said. From now on, he said, the university will take on “a much more authoritative and controlling” role.

Mr. Barron said on Friday that Penn State would also create a team of eight to 10 university staff members to monitor fraternities and sororities and do random spot checks at parties. The number of social events Greek organizations could hold with alcohol each semester was scaled back in March, from 45 to 10, and a new policy was instituted allowing only beer and wine to be served by trained bartenders. Officials will also impose strict restrictions on the size of such events.

“We’ve had limitations in the past in terms of our ability to do monitoring,” Mr. Jones said, noting that fraternity houses are private property. “With this new model, we’re asserting our ability to do this as one of the conditions of [university] recognition.”

Administrators should exert more control over disciplinary issues, said John D. Foubert, a professor of higher education and student affairs at Oklahoma State University. Mr. Foubert said he had seen fraternity and sorority adjudication processes that were “basically a kangaroo court, where they were just trying to get each other off.”

“I don’t think you can really count on 19-year-olds to say, No, my 19- and 20-year-old friends shouldn’t be underage drinking,” he said. In his view, however, Penn State’s actions aren’t especially groundbreaking: “A lot of these things have been done in other places for a long time.”

Gentry R. McCreary, chief executive and managing partner at Dyad Strategies, a risk-management firm that works with fraternities, agreed that it’s not new for administrators to play a significant role in Greek misconduct cases. Recommendations by fraternity leaders have been subject to reversal by administrators for years, Mr. McCreary said.

When members of Penn State’s Kappa Delta Rho fraternity were found to have operated a sexist Facebook page two years ago, the Inter-Fraternity Council recommended that the chapter retain its university recognition. Damon Sims, vice president for student affairs, reversed that decision and suspended the fraternity from campus for three years.

But the university’s plan to monitor fraternity parties is different from what many colleges do, Mr. McCreary said. It’s also risky. “That’s a huge assumption of liability to send their staff in to check on social events,” he said. “They better be sure that, if there’s any indication that something might be afoul, they immediately shut that event down.”

Making such policing efforts successful will be challenging, Mr. Foubert said, as fraternities could easily keep a lookout for university staff during parties and come up with ways to warn underage drinkers about the presence of monitors.

Mr. Barron also announced that the university would defer the recruitment process for new members until at least the second semester of freshman year — in the long term, Mr. Jones said, officials would like to delay it until sophomore year — and would enact a no-tolerance policy for hazing.

Chapters found responsible for hazing violations that involve “alcohol, physical abuse, or any behavior that puts a student’s mental or physical health at risk” will face “swift permanent revocation of university recognition,” according to the university. Any policy violation committed by a Greek organization will be noted on a new “report card,” which will also describe the academic performance and service hours of each fraternity and sorority.

Students who join Greek life will now be required to sign a “social and behavioral contract” with the university that clarifies expectations and to go through additional educational programming before and after the rush process.

Mr. Barron said he’s considering requiring new Greek members to read the grand jury’s presentment in the continuing court case against Beta Theta Pi, which outlines in grim detail the events that led up to Mr. Piazza’s death.

Asked whether Greek student leaders were involved in crafting the new policies, Mr. Jones said that the changes were informed by the work of a university task force that included students as well as faculty members and alumni.

“I will emphasize, though, that we cannot do this without full engagement and partnership with all of these organizations,” Mr. Jones said. “Moving forward, that is going to be critically important.”

Potential for Backlash

To Mr. McCreary, however, it didn’t sound like university leaders had prioritized buy-in from the Greek community when they crafted the changes — which could provoke a backlash.

Administrators should be involved in investigating serious hazing cases, he said, “but to say that we’re completely moving away from any notion of student self-governance might not be the right step.”

He pointed to Louisiana State University as an example of an institution that has found the right balance within its Greek misconduct process and built trust with fraternity and sorority chapters and alumni. Lower-level allegations are often investigated by Greek student leaders, who submit a report and work together with university administrators to resolve the situation.

If the university feels that students have failed to hold a chapter accountable, officials can step in, Mr. McCreary said. “But they give students an opportunity to self govern and take responsibility for their own behaviors,” he said.

In observing Penn State officials, “I detect a lot of frustration,” he said. “My fear is that, in frustration, we’re going to look for quick fixes.” One change he characterizes as a misguided quick fix: delaying new-member recruitment. There’s “zero evidence,” he said, that putting off the rush process helps combat alcohol abuse or hazing.

Still, Mr. McCreary applauded Penn State for supporting the addition of hazing to the list of crimes colleges must include on annual security reports required by the Clery Act, the federal campus-safety law. Mr. Barron also said he wanted to work with state lawmakers to increase the penalties for hazing.

Mr. Foubert, of Oklahoma State, thinks Penn State could have gone further with its reforms. “If they wanted to do something dramatic, they needed to be doing something different, it seems to me,” he said, “and I don’t see anything different here.”

Moving forward, Mr. Barron said he would like to see other institutions follow Penn State’s lead. He’s proposing a national conference on improving Greek life.

“As president of Penn State,” he said in his remarks Friday, “I am resolved to turn the pain and anguish that is radiating through our community into decisive action and reform.”

Sarah Brown writes about a range of higher-education topics, including sexual assault, race on campus, and Greek life. Follow her on Twitter @Brown_e_Points, or email her at sarah.brown@chronicle.com.