KU eases group’s concern about making freshmen live on campus instead of fraternities

Kansas Fraternity Landlord’s League members who raised concerns this month that the University of Kansas might require freshmen members to live on campus instead of in fraternity houses were informed this week that the university has no plans to do so.

“The university will not be making a policy change that would require freshmen in the Greek system to live on campus,” a spokesperson said this week.

Still, the issue has quietly troubled members of the league — a nonprofit made up of Greek alumni associated with 10 KU fraternity chapters — since the University Senate Ad Hoc Committee included recommendations to require all freshmen to live on campus in a gender equity report in 2017.

Though the committee report was not commissioned by the university, it was the second time such recommendations had been made to school officials since former Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little created a sexual assault task force in 2015.

That task force recommended that freshmen fraternity members should be required to live on campus so that they are exposed to campus programming aiming to prevent sexual assault.

It also suggested that fraternity houses should delay recruitment until the second semester of freshmen year so that the pledging process does not interfere with the “unfamiliar and rigorous academic demands of the first year.”

Later that year, administrators announced that requiring all freshmen to live on campus was not feasible, in part because the University of Kansas does not have enough housing to accommodate all freshmen students.

And while administrators said they had conversations with Greek organizations, freshmen recruitment hasn’t changed at the university.

Spokesperson Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said this week that school officials have no plans to revisit the 2015 recommendations.

Kansas Fraternity Landlords League member David Steen said he and other alumni had wondered if the university would reconsider as it prepares to open more dormitories this year.

“We thought, ‘Is there a possibility this could be implemented?’” Steen said this week.

The gender equity report also made them also wonder if the “issue is still on the table,” Steen said, and prompted members to examine both the 2015 and 2017 reports this fall.

Steen said he found that some of the studies cited by the 2015 task force were flawed and outdated and that some data, including graduation, retention and academic performance, shows that Greek students perform better academically than non-Greek students.

He said reported crime data in the most recent Clery Act Annual Security Report did not indicate a greater risk of assault in non-campus facilities.

“We hadn’t heard that there was any disproportionate problem (related to sexual assault),” Steen said. “To be candid, we were offended by the implication and deeply concerned about the flawed data.”

While fraternity chapters at both the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri can recruit freshmen members after high school graduation, some universities have opted to delay the pledging process, as many sororities do, to second semester.

The University of Southern California announced new Greek recruitment standards earlier this year. Students will not be able to rush until second semester — and only if they achieve a certain GPA.

And consultants who examined risk factors affecting University of Missouri’s Greek students this past fall also recommended that fraternity members should live in dorms for their freshman year in a report released this fall.

Mizzou has not made any decision related to whether or not the recommendation will be implemented.

But such policies are not uncommon, the Columbia Missourian reported last year. Of the 14 schools in the Southeastern Conference, eight have clear policies that ban freshmen from living in fraternity and sorority houses.

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 6:04 PM with the headline "KU eases group’s concern about making freshmen live on campus instead of fraternities."