The hands-off relationship that has existed for 20 years between the University and its 56 fraternities and sororities is changing with the creation of the Fraternity & Sorority Life office under the Office of the Dean of Students.
In response to a request from the Board of Visitors to review problems with the Greek system, the Fraternity Working Group made numerous recommendations at the Board's April meeting including the creation of an office that would handle Greek affairs relating to the University.
The Fraternity & Sorority Life office officially began conducting business on July 1 under the direction of Asst. Dean of Students Aaron Laushway. The office will serve as a resource to all Greek organizations including the Inter-Fraternity Council, the Inter-Sorority Council, the Black Fraternal Council and the Multicultural Greek Council.
Before the office was created, Laushway generally handled Greek affairs, and was also the University's liaison to several other student groups.
Now, his main responsibility will be to head up the new office along with the standard duties of an assistant dean, such as being on-call some weekends to handle incidents involving students.
The creation of the Fraternity & Sorority Life office is a major development in University/Greek relations because of how close it brings the two entities together. Before, the only relationship that formally existed between them was the Fraternal Organization Agreement, a document defining the legal relationship between Greek chapters and the University. The FOA kept Greek chapters at an arm's length from the University to protect the University from being sued over fraternity-related incidents.
This hands-off relationship "clearly didn't work," Laushway said. Additional administrative support was needed to strengthen the Greek system, he said.
The students running the Greek organizations agreed.
"The actual relationship between the University and the Greek chapters wasn't well defined," said Kevin Stokes, co-chairman of the Black Fraternal Council.
"The new office offers the fraternal organizations the chance to strengthen the Greek system and improve interactions between the four councils," Stokes said.
The new office will help the Greek organizations strengthen their student self-governance, coordinate programs and events, promote fraternity and sorority life on-Grounds, and more clearly define themselves, Laushway said.
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