Fraternity discipline at Boston University is not a serious problem, both internally and within BU guidelines, according to fraternity leaders.
Punishment depends on the violations, which exist on two levels, according to College of Arts and Sciences senior Tim Pettit, the president of Kappa Sigma. Violating the self-imposed rules of the fraternities and sororities is dealt with among the inner-fraternity and inner-sorority councils. Rush sanctions and imposing fines are the normal decision of punishment; however, Pettit said such penalties are rare.
“We haven’t had a case like that since I have been here,” he said.
The second level of violations are those that go against Boston University’s policy and are dealt with by the Dean of Students.
“For the most part, our fraternities and sororities here operate within the standards that have been established,” said Assistant Dean of Students Allen Ward. “They contribute a lot of positive things to our campus.”
Other schools use different means to determine punishment. Stanford University deals with interdisciplinary issues within its Greek systems through a “peer review.” A Judicial Board is formed of members from the Inter Fraternity Council, Inter Sorority Council, African-American Council, and three non-fraternity students. The decisions this group encompasses relate to allegations of misconduct, university violations, alcohol-related incidents and questionable behavior.
CAS junior James Ng, the president of Tau Epsilon Phi, said students are often left out of the decision-making processes at BU and a system such as Stanford’s could be helpful.
“Looking at a peer of yours on a council that you have a relationship with would be tougher, at least for me, than looking at an administrator,” Ng said.
Pettit said it would ideally be great to have a peer-review type of government, but, “because we are such a small community, it isn’t really fair or feasible to have a small group of students given preferential treatment.”
“If the members are interested in the system and upholding what it stands for,” Ward said, “they are excellent, wonderful tools, but if there is no allegiance to the community’s standards and they are biased to their own chapter, then they are ineffective.”
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