Six Greek houses now under investigation

Three fraternities and three sororities are currently being investigated by the Office of Student Conduct. The investigations follow allegations that the organizations, or members associated with them, violated hazing and alcohol policy as well as the Code of Student Conduct. The fraternities under investigation are Beta Theta Pi, Tau Epsilon Phi and Zeta Beta Tau. Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta and Sigma Delta Tau are the three sororities that OSC is investigating. Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Director Scott Reikofski could not discuss specific allegations against each organization, but made general statements about the six investigations. "Some of those may not necessarily be violations, but I can tell you that what is being investigated is a different range of alcohol violations, hazing and violations of the Code of Student Conduct," Reikofski said. "They're not all hazing-related, and they're not all alcohol-related necessarily. Not all of these are necessarily related to new-member programs," Reikofski added. OSC Director Michele Goldfarb confirmed that these investigations began immediately before spring break and suggested that the findings may be released in the upcoming weeks, although she could not give a target date. "We're moving quickly," Goldfarb said. "Our goal is to get as many students in here as possible that we need to talk to this week, and then there's a bit more time that is involved in preparing a report and articulating the findings to OFSA." The investigations will determine whether or not each Greek organization has "collective responsibility of violation of University policy," according to Goldfarb. SDT President Gabrielle Arnay was not fazed by concerns that the sorority -- already on social probation and a second probationary agreement -- has more at stake in these investigations than the other groups. "I'm sure that from the investigation, SDT's name will be cleared, and we'll move on with business as usual," Arnay said. "This was not a hazing violation by any means. This was nothing at all like last year." Beta Theta Pi President James Hoyt, Alpha Chi Omega President Vivian Rotter and Delta Delta Delta President Stephanie Yarcia declined to comment last night. The presidents of Tau Epsilon Phi and Zeta Beta Tau could not be reached for comment. In the past, multiple Greek organizations have been investigated concurrently -- especially during pledge season -- but Greek life officials expressed concern that there are now six. "I'm disappointed, and I think everyone is disappointed," Panhellenic Council President Elizabeth Kimmelman said. "I really don't know what has caused all these investigations, but it's not something that I'm happy about, and it's not something that we anticipated." "I'm really concerned about the volume of these investigations," Reikofski said. "We really stepped up a lot of the different types of training this year. "I guess it's a little premature to say I'm disappointed or not, but... I think I am a little surprised." But OFSA Associate Director for Programming Lea Shafer said that the success of proactive education programs may in fact have contributed to the increased number of investigations. "I think when you increase knowledge of something initially, there's always an influx of incidents because the college community is now informed about things like, 'What is hazing?'" Shafer said. In light of these investigations, the Greek community is already examining possible changes to make for next year. "There is a particular program that is done by the National Panhellenic Council that we're going to research and hopefully implement," Kimmelman said. "The fact that investigations are even taking place says that we need to look at the problems and what we can do to fix them." "We want to... see what needs to be amended to try and help educate students and give them more knowledge and resources that they need so that they don't get into these situations," Reikofski said. "We continue to need to be vigilant and renew efforts to get students to comply with and buy into what are a set of very strong internal and external regulations," Goldfarb said. "It looks as if we've got some work to do." But InterFraternity Council President Seth Cohen said he will wait for the OSC's findings before taking action. "Until some sort of cause for alarm is determined, we will deal with it accordingly when the time is right."

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