Greek groups told to submit ‘standards binders’ to SAO

The Boston University Student Activities Office now requires fraternities and sororities to submit paperwork known as ‘standards binders’ to ensure that they are financially solvent and structurally sound, Greek life officials said.
SAO implemented the new standards program this semester to involve BU with Greek organizations on campus, as other universities with similar Greek life populations have already done, SAO Programs Coordinator Su Bartlett said.
‘Lots of universities have programs to track the progress in Greek life,’ Bartlett said. ‘It is important to have statistics and information about what is going on, so we can devise tangible goals and be sure that we reach them.’
Sororities and fraternities must turn in documentation on nearly every aspect of Greek life, including explanations of chapter values, organization, recruitment, new member education, philanthropy, academics and their relationship with BU.’
The more than 20 Greek organizations on campus will also need to disclose a roster of all members, including statistics on them, proof that they can pay their debts and an anti-hazing pledge.
Fraternities and sororities will be rated as poor, satisfactory or excellent. Greek Life will put chapters who receive a ‘poor’ score three years in a row on probation. Bartlett said she hopes to expand from the general category system to a number system once the program gains traction.
Though rankings are meant to show which chapters are living up to BU’s expectations, they will initially be kept within the Greek community out of possible privacy concerns. In the fall of 2009, Bartlett plans to release the rankings without private details to BU as a whole.
‘I need to know that all the chapters are in good financial standing, but I don’t need to know details,’ he said. ‘I need to know that the chapters are having meetings, but I don’t need to know exactly what happens at these meetings.’
The information fraternities and sororities will turn over is no more extensive than what they are expected to give their national organizations, Bartlett said.
Bartlett said hazing at other schools prompted the call for discussion at BU.
Last April, a BU student was hospitalized with alcohol poisoning after attending a sorority mixer.
‘There are things all Greeks need to work on,’ Bartlett said. ‘This will remind us to have conversations about those things.’
Intra-Fraternity Council President Seth Stern said he thinks the new standards program will lead to progress within the Greek community.
‘This is a big step, but it will be really helpful,’ Stern, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, said. ‘It will help smaller chapters get more recognition and will get positive information out.’
Stern said no one reported concerns about privacy to him regarding the new standards, because almost all of the information is on file elsewhere. He said putting everything in one place would simply make Greek life more efficient.
Kyle Langan, the new member chairman for Sigma Chi, said some’ of his brothers expressed an initial aversion to the program, most have come around to embrace it.
‘A lot of chapters like to do things their own way,’ Langan, who is also IFC recruitment chair, said. ‘But now it is a point of pride to be the best, and to be the best, you have to prove it.
BU’s Sigma Chi chapter had a problem with scholarships, because members made the minimum grade point average of 2.5 for fraternity acceptance but were not maintaining it. Brothers also work to dispel the ‘Animal House’ mentality, Langan, a CAS junior, said.
‘The worst problem at recruitment is hazing,’ he said. ‘BU is a hazing-free campus, but some freshmen don’t know that, or act like they don’t know that.’
When Greek organizations participated a trial run of the new SAO standards program last semester, its members addressed the problem by giving out more awards for high grades and mandating more library and study hours.’
Langan said the new program could make the IFC a more legitimate governing body and help fraternities move from what he described as ‘malicious destruction’ to more supportive competition.
‘This could open up much-needed dialogue,’ Langan said. ‘It will help each chapter put pressure on one another to be better.’