One day after InterFraternity Council President Conor Daly asked the University to crack down on underground societies, many of his fellow Greek leaders said they support Daly's remarks.
Daly came out in favor of abolishing what he calls "pseudo-Greek" organizations at Wednesday afternoon's University Council meeting, claiming that groups such as the Owl Society, the Tabard Society and Theo operate like fraternities and sororities but can skirt University rules.
Yesterday, Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Director Scott Reikofski said he supports Daly's condemnation of underground societies.
At the same time, Reikofski acknowledged that there is a limit to how much the University can do to crack down on off-campus underground groups.
"There's freedom of assembly," he said. "It's not like we can bust in like [in] a police state."
BiCultural InterGreek Council President Tia Rideout also said she supports Daly.
"Those groups do engage in illegal activity in terms of hazing and dangerous behavior," said Rideout, a College senior. "Most likely, people are going to think they're Greeks, and they're not Greeks... it's confusing freshmen, and it's also taking a lot of pledges away from Greeks."
But Panhellenic Council President Alison Ng, a Wharton junior, refused to either support or refute Daly's allegations.
"I don't have a comment on that," Ng said.
She did say, however, that Panhel does not have the same kinds of recruitment problems with Tabard as Daly said the IFC does with the Owls and Theo.
"There are definitely girls who rush Tabard and who rush Panhellenic organizations, but Tabard never purports to say that they're a Greek-letter organization," Ng said.
Daly, a College junior, said he is angry with Theo and the Owl Society because he believes the two groups are stealing potential members away from InterFraternity Council-affiliated organizations.
"They rush the same way and effectively steal members from our houses that follow the rules," Daly said. "We can't compete when [Theo and the Owls] are breaking all these rules."
Daly claims that this year alone, the underground groups won 15 freshmen away from two IFC fraternities.
Daly expressed particular concern about Theo, which he said is made up, in part, of members of the former Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.
SAM was suspended two years ago for violating dry rush while on social probation. In March of 2000, OFSA released a decision that "prohibited [SAM] from holding meetings or participating in, hosting, or sponsoring campus functions, using the name of Sigma Alpha Mu, the Greek letters, nicknames or other insignia, or otherwise functioning as a chapter."
But Daly said some former SAM brothers are violating these conditions through "perpetuating a fraud because [Theo is] posing as SAM in some ways."
Daly claimed that the Sigma Alpha Mu national organization is not pleased with the situation.
"I don't know where the national organization's going with this, but I know that they're not very happy," Daly said. "I think they'd be stupid not to" take action against Theo.
Reikofski said he is also aware that Theos may be misrepresenting themselves to freshmen.
"My belief is that... they're telling these guys that when SAM comes back that they will be a part of that," Reikofski said.
In fact, general practice in the Greek community is that, when an organization recolonizes, new members cannot be affiliated in any way with splinter groups.
For example, when Psi Upsilon -- better known as the Castle -- returned to Penn in 1995 after being forced off campus in 1990, prospective brothers had to sign statements affirming that they were not members of the Owls, which was formed from the remnants of Psi Upsilon.
SAM's national executive director could not be reached for comment.
Reikofski said that he believes these groups are giving legitimate Greeks a bad reputation.
"When the Tabard Society is out openly and blatantly hazing on Locust Walk with their lunchboxes and their women dressed as Fembots... [people] don't see that that's particularly Tabard," he said.
Rather, when members of the Penn community see hazing behavior, they associate it with the Greek system, Reikofski said.
Another of Reikofski's and Daly's concerns is that Greek groups are covered by their national organizations' liability insurance, while non-Greek social groups must assume all financial responsibility themselves. Daly said freshmen who join underground organizations might not understand all the risks involved.
OFSA and the Office of Student Conduct have been collecting and analyzing information regarding underground student social organizations.
OSC Director Michele Goldfarb said this is nothing new for her department, which is always on the lookout for rule-breaking and bad behavior.
"I think the concerns that Conor raised last night are not new concerns, and we are constantly looking for ways... to reduce hazards," Goldfarb said yesterday. "There's no new initiative in place as far as that goes."
Goldfarb did acknowledge that some activities of underground organizations are troublesome.
"My criticism of groups that are acting outside the scope of recognized organizations is not that they congregate together," she said. Rather, Goldfarb becomes concerned when these groups "are invoked in either policy violations or legal violations."
At the meeting on Wednesday, Daly also stressed the need for the University to regulate hazing by groups, such as sports teams and academic honor societies.
A representative from Theo declined to comment on Daly's remarks. Members of the Owls and Tabard could not be reached for comment yesterday.
