Fraternities and sororities that drop below certain grade-point average minimums may soon be placed on probation, according to a set of recommendations recently released by the University Council Committee on Quality of Student Life.
As part of its annual report, the committee outlined five recommendations for improving Penn's Greek system.
The recommendations include instituting a grading system for fraternities and sororities, as well as placing any Greek organization on probation if it fails to meet these standards. The report also recommended that fraternities and sororities at Penn increase interaction with their national chapters.
While Greek student leaders generally said that the recommendations provided some useful feedback, they also believe that some of the recommendations deal with concerns that are already being addressed.
They also said that the soon-to-be-released Program for Excellence, a revision of the 21st Century Report on an Ivy League Greek System published in 1996, focuses on many of the concerns expressed by the committee.
The committee "helped to not only give us some constructive ways in which we can improve on the issues that they were concerned about, and goals that we could set," InterFraternity Council President Mark Zimring said. "But also to give us some sort of idea about where their biggest concerns were."
Additionally, the committee suggested that the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs better separate its roles as an office of both Greek accreditation and program support. According to the committee, the two roles -- one supervisory and evaluative, and the other collaborative and collegial -- conflict.
Finally, the committee urged the University Council to begin a comprehensive review of Greek organization policies.
Chairman Anthony Rostain said that the committee interviewed those people involved in the Greek system, like Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs staff and the director of student conduct, to ultimately arrive at its final recommendations.
For instance, the committee found that different fraternities' have different levels of commitment to rules and requirements.
"Certain frats really make an effort to do the community service and to follow the guidelines and they come to the meetings every month," Rostain said. "And there are other frats that basically disregard these meetings and don't really particularly care about their community service role."
Panhellenic Council President Kristen Buppert said that the committee's recommendations may not be what is best for everyone involved.
"I think that some of the things that they recommended, we need to keep in mind that they're recommendations," the College senior said. "And in the spirit of both groups continuing to work with each other, these may not be exactly what is in the best interests of the student and the University."
"Some of these things, a lot of these things, are things that are already in place," Buppert added, referring, for example, to the recommendations regarding the establishment of a grading system to monitor registered versus non-registered Greek parties.
However, the two leaders also acknowledged that the committee's report was helpful in some ways.
"Kristen and I both met with them on several occasions, and it was kind of an opportunity for us to discuss with them things that we were doing," said Zimring, a College senior. "It was very beneficial, very constructive."
Some of the issues covered in the committee's report happen to coincide with those included in the Program for Excellence, but according to both Buppert and Zimring, work on the plan began spring semester last year, before the committee's research.
"A lot of the stuff they were concerned with, we were already instituting into the new plan," Zimring said.
Buppert echoed Zimring, saying that the Program for Excellence adequately deals with most of the committee's recommendations.
"When the report is presented, I think it'll be made very clear that the majority of these recommendations are met," she said.
Rostain said that this year's Quality of Student Life committee will "continue to investigate the impact of fraternities on student life."
"There are lots of questions still unanswered," Rostain said. "We don't really have a good handle on what students think is the impact of fraternity life."
