Purdue alumni, students join to improve Greek standing on campus

"The campus and the Purdue family have stepped forward — along with strong support from national fraternity offices — to encourage our fraternities and sororities to take positive action to make sure their chapters are ones in which they can take great pride," said Pablo Malavenda, associate dean of students.

The consensus for action coincides with Purdue's suspension of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity for violations of university regulations just before finals week in the fall semester.

According to charges brought by the university, the Delta Tau Delta men had taken a member to a bar, bought him drinks until he became ill, bound him with duct tape, and then took him to his girlfriend's sorority house, where they left him dressed only in his boxer shorts in sub-zero weather. The couple had just made a personal commitment, commonly called "lavaliering," in which a fraternity member gives the woman his Greek letter charm.

The fraternity had already been on probation for hazing violations involving sleep deprivation and verbal abuse. During a probationary period, a fraternity is subject to suspension if it continues to violate policy.

Delta Tau Delta's national office, located in Fishers, Ind., conducted its own investigation concerning the most recent incident and concurred with the university's findings, supported the suspension and also issued its own sanctions that included membership suspensions and expulsions from the fraternity, which have already taken place.

"While we are disappointed that we must suspend this chapter, we are very proud that our students, faculty and alumni are stepping forward and our local and national officers are supportive," Malavenda said.

Corrective action related to all Purdue fraternities is moving forward on several fronts, including:

• Purdue's student-run Interfraternity Council (IFC) is funding a summer conference to explore solutions. The group is inviting Greek alumni leadership, Purdue staff, house officers, chapter advisers and representatives from national corporate offices. On the table is a proposal to form a Greek alumni council to take an active role with the student organizations.

• Purdue IFC and faculty advisers are reviewing the IFC's judicial process, by which the members self-govern the houses.

• The IFC is working with the sanctioned houses, faculty advisers, staff and alumni to develop strategic plans to get these houses back on track.

• The IFC is reviewing standards for parties, lavaliering, initiations, serenades and other rituals that sometimes lead to violations.

• A network of house directors who live primarily in the sororities are collaborating to review and strengthen the assistance they provide.

• Purdue's Dean of Students office will work with the student leadership to develop community expectations and standards.

• The office is inviting Greek organizations to assist in designing materials that will help share the message that suspension limits organizations' participation in activities and has a serious impact on a chapter. Although a chapter maintains a formal connection with the university, suspended chapters no longer have the rights, privileges or protections the university grants to organizations in good standing. They cannot participate in university-sponsored events, such as Homecoming, Grand Prix and intramural sports; receive university funding; use university facilities for any event or activity; or use the university's logos, trademarks or name. Such sanctions, in turn, limit the ability to recruit new members.

IFC President Zach Brettnacher said his group wants to be a catalyst for change.

"Fraternities historically have meant brotherhood, service to the community and upholding high ideals as scholars," Brettnacher said. "Most of our fraternity members want to strive for that ideal, but it is up to us to take actions to make sure we create an environment and community values that support those standards."

Jim Russell, executive vice president of Delta Tau Delta, said his national organization is very involved in helping its Purdue chapter set a new course.

"We regret the errors in judgment that were made by the students involved in this incident and have worked diligently with the chapter in the past five months to set clear expectations on what appropriate conduct must be," he said.

"Going forward, Delta Tau Delta endeavors to not only partner to assure a vibrant and values-based Greek community at Purdue but also to be a leader in the renewal effort ahead. The alumni expect the undergraduate men to learn from this experience and to be positive contributors to the campus. After conducting a thorough review of the membership, we believe in their ability to meet these challenges."

The fraternity has until April 14 to request an appeal, which would be heard by the Campus Appeals Board. The board of eight — three undergraduate students, one graduate student, two members of the faculty and two administrators —is separate from the Office of the Dean of Students. If upheld, the suspension could be changed to probation in October and the chapter could apply for full restoration of privileges as early as May 2007.

"While we are thinking long term about how to encourage better behavior, we also are doing what is possible to encourage responsible conduct for the rest of the year," Malavenda said.

Besides offering more than 40 non-alcoholic activities for Grand Alternative week, which ends April 23, the university and local law enforcement officers met with the presidents, social chairpersons and risk management officers of all Greek and cooperative houses on Wednesday. The topic: Celebrate responsibly and avoid trouble.

"While we try to educate and facilitate the efforts across campus to set our Greek chapters in order, we also need to not lose sight of the fact that most of the chapters are not in trouble," Malavenda said. "In fact, the chapters are actively engaged in making this a better college experience for our students as well as a better community for all of us."

A few recent examples:

• Seventy-five percent of the students involved in the Boiler Volunteer Network's recent Boiler Blast — a year-end service project — were members of fraternities and sororities. This year, student volunteers worked with area residents to beautify local parks, plant trees and help neighborhood associations.

• On Monday the IFC and Panhellenic Association helped sponsor speaker Mark Sterner's "DUI: A Powerful Lesson" and required attendance from 80 percent of their members.

• Big Man on Campus — a Zeta Tau Alpha talent show — brought in $48,000 to support the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation this spring.

Writer: Jeanne Norberg, (765) 494-2084; jnorberg@purdue.edu

Sources: Zach Brettnacher, (765) 494-2717; cell: 765-430-7865, zbrettna@purdue.edu

Pablo Malavenda, (765) 494-1232, pablo@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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