Actual "Moratorium Letter:"
Division of Student Affairs
Department of Greek Life
November 10, 2010
Dear Aggie Greek Chapter President:
This letter is written to inform you, as the president of your Aggie Greek fraternity or sorority, the University has initiated a moratorium on all Aggie fraternity and sorority social events. This action is being taken as the result of a number of reports involving hazing, alcohol abuse, assaults, dating violence, and overall complaints regarding the individual and collective behavior of members of Texas A&M University fraternities and sororities.
As of 12:00am on November 11, 2010, fraternity and sorority chapters that are members of the Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council, Collegiate Panhellenic Council and National Pan-Hellenic Council are not to proceed with any new member activities nor host or have any type of social event, house party, or informal gathering which could be perceived as being a chapter-related activity. This moratorium restricts the consumption of alcohol within individual chapter houses, chapter facilities, and prohibits all chapter functions from including alcohol regardless of location. This restriction will be in place until 12:00am midnight November 24, 2010. Philanthropic events, community service and/or educational programs that reflect and encourage high Greek standards may continue.
The Department of Greek Life will be hosting an All-Greek Town Hall Meeting at 7:00pm, November 18, 2010 in Rudder Auditorium at which 75% of each chapter’s membership is required to attend. At that time, Department of Greek Life officials will outline plans regarding the creation of a Aggie Greek Community Standards program to address issues associated with problematic chapter behaviors that include but are not limited to underage drinking, alcohol abuse and unsafe pledging or new member activities.
Given the potential for life-threatening accidents to occur if these expectations are not met, individual chapters that do not comply with the social moratorium will be placed on immediate Interim Suspension by the Director of Greek Life pending an investigation. Any chapter found to be in violation of this moratorium, via the University Greek Judicial Board adjudication process, will be immediately suspended through spring 2011.
Should you have any questions about this matter please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Ann C. Goodman Director of Greek Life
cc: Inter/National Fraternity & Sorority Presidents
Inter/National Fraternity & Sorority Executive Directors
Faculty Advisors, Texas A&M University
Chapter & Alumnae Advisors Mr. C.J. Woods, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs
I'm not an Aggie, but am a Greek and I can tell you one thing: This is total BS. Bureaucrats need a reason to justify their positions and harmony is not justification. I notice Director Goodman lists no Greek organizations on her resume,which seems unusual. (http://greeklife.tamu.edu/contact/staff)
ReplyDeleteMy experience with the vast majority of these organizations is they are anti-Greek, despite a mission of 'advocacy'.
Of the seven members of the Greek Life staff, 4 were members of traditional fraternities or sororities, 2 list no fraternities or sororities and 1 lists an International Fraternity. Several aren't even A&M grads. I know A&M has a unique and proud culture - can non-grads truly understand this?
Also, lets review the content of this letter. It is vague and often contradictory and any lawyer worth their salt could chew this thing up and spit it out like tobacco. If you haven't already, speak to an alumni attorney from your chapter.
Second, this letter cites unnamed, unidentified complaints regarding various vague but ominous transgressions. Where are these reports? Have they been investigated and proven to be anything other than a report? Reports are not facts.
The Director of Greek Life is supposed to be an advocate for Greek Life. Maybe she is, I don't know her at all. Did she write this letter on her own, or is she a puppet for some other bureaucrat?
I'll be interested to learn these things. If you have direct knowledge, keep it posted here!
Sorry for partying
ReplyDeleteLOL...it seems that whomever is in charge of this blog is COMPLETLEY OBLIVIOUS to what is exactly going on. "The Texas A&M University administration is attempting once again to wipe out the Aggie Greek System." Really do you believe the DIRECTOR OF GREEK LIFE want to dismantle Greek Life, when that is there job! I personally know Ann Goodman and I work with her on a daily basic, her goal is not to tear down the Greek System, it is to help us enhance, and realign our mission, values, goals, and perception that we the AGGIE GREEK COMMUNITY hope to achieve.
ReplyDeleteMacho I applaud you (golf clap) for trying to take this to a legal standpoint and bring down a staff, but the fact of the matter is, it does not matter if you are an Aggie or not, if you knew the wrap sheet of the numerous hospitalizations, DD incidents, and hazing charges that have been brought down upon the councils THIS SEMESTER, you would be appalled.
This “time-out” so to speak is a time for our 4 councils to stop and take a look at our plan of action for what US Greeks deem acceptable.
Before you fall-in blindly behind this process, you should understand how it has played out in the several other places it has happened.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to end up with stuff like mandatory substance free housing. That sounds acceptable on one level, but not when they define what is a fraternity property & you have no recourse. When they can and do define people's private apartments as such because they've had one completely non-greek related party there before & now they can't drink in their own home or the chapter can be thrown off campus. If that sounds crazy, go ask Texas State.
They're going to do a bunch of educational junk that they'll require a majority of your chapter to attend. Everyone knows that's a complete waste of time. That's them going through the motions so they can show later that they made an effort to keep you in line so should not be sued for whatever dumb thing you did.
They'll come up with a long list of new risk management requirements (which probably parallels a lot of what your nationals say you "should" be doing). There will be hard-nosed penalties with them for a few years before things start to loosen up again.
You're going to have to do an annual report type thing covering all your major operational areas & it'll be graded by them each year to determine if you stay on campus, are on probation, or whatever the case may be.
In the end, it'll work out fine. It won't change any of these problems, it'll just kick them down the road a little bit.
The whole purpose of this process is not at all to fix the Greek system. Policy cannot do that. The problems there are cultural issues at all colleges, and even more at A&M. The point here it to smack the Greek system around a little bit, to humble them, so that the administration has more control over what's going on. It is in that regard a straight power grab. They have good intentions. They think they can fix the problems if they just had the powers to do so. Most major universities have gone the other way though. They've faced this liability and found it better to keep the University more power-less to do anything about it. Then they can truthfully say in court they didn't have the ability to prevent your dumb actions.
Greek life staffs & Dean's of Students are going to do this kind of thing. If you want to keep them from over-stepping their authority, you go above their head and remind University Presidents & Regents of the millions they're getting or could get from Greek alumni. You pressure them through legislators that control their budget. You put a few of your alumni lawyers in their world. You scare them a little bit, and they'll pull their subordinates back in line. If you don't or can't do that, then you're never going to have balance that allows your Greek system to function.