Mizzou announces Greek system reforms, addressing hazing, alcohol, diversity and more
The University of Missouri on Thursday revealed reforms to its fraternities and sororities — major changes, in some cases, for a 150-year-old Greek system with long-held recruiting and initiating practices.
Some of the more drastic changes — including stricter guidelines on when freshmen can move into fraternities, as well as requirements limiting initiation periods to no more than eight weeks — will be gradually implemented through 2021.
The announcement comes after two years of discussions on ways to make the system safer.
University leaders in early 2018 convened a 40-plus person advisory board — made up of Greek students, alumni, parents and advisers and landlords — after a damning consultant’s report exposed risky behaviors and ineffective policies in Mizzou’s fraternities and sororities. That board made recommendations last summer, and university leaders have continued to meet with students since.
“We’ve been good listeners,” said interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Gary Ward, who commissioned the Dyad Strategies report after receiving safety concerns about Greek life. “We think we’ve put out a set of recommendations that people are comfortable with.”
In a departure from a Dyad Strategies suggestion that freshmen be banned from fraternity houses altogether, the university will make exceptions for chapters with the best behavior, grades and university standing.
The university’s historically white Interfraternity Council chapters have typically recruited new members out of high school and then allowed them to live in the house their freshman year — a tradition that Mizzou said is only practiced at six other universities in the country, including the University of Kansas.
But national experts and school officials have said live-in freshmen are at risk of hazing because they are often “uninitiated” and hold less power than older fraternity brothers.
Chapters must maintain an average GPA of 3.0 for two consecutive semesters and violate no hazing or alcohol policies, in addition to meeting other requirements, by 2021 to keep the privilege of housing freshmen.
The new policies will also require new members to have a 3.0 high school or college GPA, take 12 credit hours and violate no university policies to move into a chapter house as a freshman. Otherwise, they can move in second semester, as long as their fraternity caps freshmen residents at 10 percent.
Jeffrey Zeilenga, Mizzou’s dean of students, said the university will help Greek students keep their grades up.
“We are willing to assist with having an academic adviser working with that particular chapter to help that chapter achieve academic goals,” he said.
The university will also implement “limited amnesty” policies so that anyone who reports hazing and works with university staff to fix problems would not be charged for past violations.
In the past, entire chapters could be shut down for hazing violations involving a few members, Greek students have told The Star, and the practice gave students little incentive to report transgressions.
“Our goal is to stop hazing,” Zeilenga said. “If someone comes in and reports that hazing takes place and they are willing to be proactive in changing their culture, that’s great.”
Ward told The Star that it took time in the wake of the November 2017 report to ease concerns from some that school officials were “looking at ways to get rid of the Greek community.”
“The idea that we would want to get rid of it was the last thing in the world that we wanted to do,” Ward said. “We have to do whatever we need to do to preserve it and strengthen it.”
He said he intentionally devoted many months to listening sessions, open forums and advisory board meetings with parties passionate about making sure Greek life at Mizzou continues, including representatives from the student-run councils that govern four Greek groups: Interfraternity Council, the Multicultural Greek Council, the National Pan-Hellenic Council and the Panhellenic Association.
Kathryn O’Hagan, the assistant director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said it was these student leaders who became very involved in reform efforts that ultimately were approved by university leaders.
“I would say they have been some of the strongest advocates for the changes that have been recommended and have taken up a passionate approach to supporting the recommendations,” O’Hagan said.
Matt Elben, president of the Interfraternity Council, said in a statement that the changes would promote safety that would allow the Greek community to continue to thrive.
“The review of MU’s fraternities and sororities has been a comprehensive process that has included input from dozens of Greek students from day one,” he said.
Ward stressed that reforms would not be successful without continued input from those who directly understand Greek challenges.
“You don’t just say we’re going to do this that and the other thing in a few months,” Ward said. “You better be deliberate. You better be listening to people and asking questions.”
Ward said he commissioned the advisory board to study the system’s most pervasive problems — hazing, problematic drinking and drug use, inconsistent support for cultural-based fraternities and sororities and a need for more consistent academic and recruitment policies.
His goals, he said, were to make Mizzou a “national model” for Greek practices and to build a “culture of mutual interest” that improved upon a historically fractured relationship between the university and the Greek community.
“I think for a long time we weren’t seen as partners,” said Ward. “You had the Greek community and you had the university community. And we’re one and the same … we’re joined at the hip.”
Other changes to Mizzou’s fraternities and sororities include:
▪ Hiring a new diversity and inclusion staff member at the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life to support culturally based Greek groups.
▪ Funding a workspace that will help Greek students from four councils better collaborate as well as a year-round Greek Ambassadors program that promotes fraternities and sororities to incoming students and parents.
▪ Creating a universal new-member orientation program developed by both Greek leaders and university advisers that provides guidelines for how fraternities and sororities recruit and intiate new members. These processes differed greatly from chapter to chapter in the past.
▪ Shifting fraternity recruitment from the spring or summer before new members’ freshmen year to the late summer/fall. Fraternities would be encouraged to hold spots for new members until the beginning of the school year, and be required to use a university-approved bid process.
▪ Requiring fraternities and sororities to address alcohol consumption during recruitment, as well as register large recruitment events with the university.
▪ Limiting social events with alcohol to four hours. These events must be held only Thursday through Sunday, and never during the first week of classes. High school students may not be present at events with alcohol.
This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 10:27 AM.
