It's springtime. Well almost. And alcohol monitors follow the revelry. From what I understand, these beer bouncers -- trained under a regimen set-forth by the University -- are supposed to be like the Secret Service agents stationed at the periphery of the Superdome. With the Super Bowl and World Economic Forum out of the way, the agents are moving on to Salt Lake City for the Olympics, Senior Feb Club bar nights, Greek mixers and honor society inductions. Party people watch out.
It's springtime, and that means Greek life and campus life start living. Every February or March, some fraternity, sorority or other socially-inclined campus organization goes and splatters its name across the front page of The Daily Pennsylvanian after rush infractions are reported or investigations into alcohol-related incidents are confirmed by the Office of Student Conduct. The most recent example is on the front page of Friday's DP.
I'm not going to name names, but these things happen. Most recently, two fraternities were forced to go dry after violating the University's alcohol policy and the code of student conduct.
And last Friday, a new set of Greek letters, complete with a file photo of the chapter's house, stared back at me while I leisurely strolled along Locust Walk, the hub of Greek life. It was a fine spring-like day, and I'm thinking, here we go again: yet another investigation into an alcohol-related "incident" (DP parlance). The season's only just begun. There will be more stories, more bouncers ready to bounce anyone who looks under 21, including my approximately five-foot physique. The protections and precautions are not my gripes -- they're reassuring.
I have a problem with what happens after.
In conducting these alcohol-related investigations and other conflicts, the University -- primarily the Office of Student Conduct and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs -- draws out the process longer than it took to indict Zaccarias Moussaoui. We're dealing with alcohol here, not rape, not sexual harassment, not global terrorism.
I imagine these investigations require interviewing many witnesses, talking to national Greek organizations and coordinating security efforts of Olympic magnitude. Thoroughness is imperative. Understandably, there are non-alcohol-related investigations that seem to go on indefinitely. Take the probe into anti-homosexual fliers lambasting a fraternity last month and obscenities spray painted on that same fraternity's house. We still don't know who the Kilroys are and may never know.
However, those chapters and other campus organizations accused of some infraction ought to know their fates. And in the interest of safety, students should also be informed. One of the above-mentioned "incidents" occured in February, but the punishment was not dealt until April.
During the wait, accused organizations are often temporarily suspended -- meaning they cannot hold any chapter activities. And as OFSA Director Scott Reikofski told The Daily Pennsylvanian last year, there have been fraternities in the past that have been under investigation and "not found in violation of anything."
Thus, reputations are ruined during the intermission. On the other hand, some organizations go ahead and get themselves into more trouble while on hiatus, threatening their chapters with dissolution. Lengthy suspensions and investigations, besides creating semantic confusion for students, leave good names hanging in the balance for months, sometimes semesters, without closure. And how are the not-so-good names supposed to reform themselves, if they are frozen in suspension?
It appears to me that there is a need for complete, careful investigations, but conscientiousness need not require so much time. I hope the University moves swiftly with its current fraternity investigation. In the meantime, I'll watch out for Osama bin Laden.
Aliya Sternstein is a senior Psychology major from Potomac, Md.
