Fraternity and sorority presidents met last night to begin setting goals for improvements to the Greek system.
According to Dean of Students Bruce Reitman, the presidents are meeting to form recommendations based on the report on Tufts' Greek community that was recently completed by an outside consulting firm, t.jelke solutions.
After distributing the report, Reitman asked that the presidents of Tufts' Greek organizations, along with the Committee on Fraternity and Sororities (CFS), respond with their thoughts and recommendations by the end of the month.
Upon receiving the report, the CFS told "[fraternity presidents] that they should take it on and read it, and talk about it among the presidents," Sigma Phi Epsilon president and junior Kyle Hiatt said. "They said we could share the information within the houses, but the school doesn't want it to be a public thing."
The presidents of Tufts' fraternities and sororities all received the report last Thursday, Mar. 9. But according to Zeta Psi president Sebastian Gonzales, a senior, few if any of the presidents had completely read the report by the time of the meeting. Accordingly, the group agreed to have the report read by the end of spring break.
The Dean of Students' Office recently released an executive summary of the report that listed its main recommendations. Those "principal recommendations" were as follows:
- "Involve chapter officers and broader chapter memberships in a realignment of the values and purposes of membership in a social Greek organization."
- "Instill and reinforce a commitment to accountability on the part of all members of the Greek system."
- "Continue to offer Greek leadership programs and develop chapter identities around traditional fraternity and sorority core values."
- "Reorganize the judicial mechanisms so that students are more engaged in the process."
- "Develop greater involvement for the IGC, IFC and Pan-Hellenic councils in governance and disciplinary processes."
- "Consider dry houses or strict enforcement of a no-alcohol policy when new members (pledges) are present."
A final principal recommendation in the report said that "it is difficult for the fraternity and sorority program director to be both an advocate for the chapters and an enforcer of policy. Separating these responsibilities would help."
In a Mar. 3 letter to CFS, Reitman wrote, "I ask you to define the scope and priority of the issues that should be addressed and to charge the presidents of the fraternity and sorority chapters to propose remedies for CFS consideration."
He distributed the letter along with the report to CFS members.
