The ‘pause’ on Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic chapters was officially lifted after a letter was sent this evening to all current and aspiring Greek life members.
Chloe Abshire, the assistant dean and director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, wrote that the university has been “pleased with the progress students have made in working collaboratively toward a positive resolution.”
She wrote that President John Simon and Vice President for Student Affairs Ric Hall reviewed plans created by Panhel, IFC and collectively between the three council presidents, including the Cultural Greek Council. Simon and Hall specified that creating these plans would be a condition for the pause to end.
“Students are in agreement that they will be held accountable to the action items that specifically address the health and safety concerns that resulted in the initial pause,” Abshire wrote.
The end of the ‘pause’ marks four weeks since aspiring Greek members were expected to sign bids to join fraternities, and five weeks since new members signed their bids to join sororities. Chapters could not participate in activities affiliated with Greek life, and were prohibited from contacting new and aspiring members.
IFC and Panhel chapters were effectively shut down starting Tuesday, Jan. 28, when the respective chapters were notified of a ‘pause’ via an email sent by Simon and Hall.
The initial email was addressed to current and aspiring members of the Greek community, citing a “deep concern” regarding their safety and well-being.
“Now the responsibility and accountability of living these values and upholding the implementation timeline is with each individual who is a part of this community,” Abshire wrote. “We are invested in supporting students as they begin to implement their plan and will encourage them to embrace peer accountability through their chapter and council procedures.”
Simon and Hall said in the Jan. 28 email that the pause would continue until members of the IFC and Panhel chapters came up with a plan to resolve the apparent issues of reckless behavior involving alcohol and drug abuse.
“With regard to the resumption of social activity and new member processes for the IFC and Panhellenic chapters, meetings are being held with those directly impacted by the resumption of activities as we move beyond the pause,” Abshire wrote. “In order to move forward, it is important that all members of the fraternity and sorority community contribute to the solutions that have been identified over the course of the past four weeks.”
The ‘pause’ followed several disciplinary actions against Greek chapters within a one-week span. Lehigh’s chapter of Phi Kappa Theta was dissolved on Jan. 20, Theta Xi was suspended from conducting any events on Jan. 24, and Delta Chi was temporarily suspended on Jan. 27 pending an LUPD investigation of drugs and alcohol in their house, according to university conduct records.
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3 Comments
Please ask Lehigh leadership to identify what is their plan to address the alchohol and drug problems with the rest of the student body which i understand is actually a much bigger problem and about 75% of the students.
what source identifies non greek incidences of drug/alcohol abuse? tell us about what you know
Yeah, go for it, Steven. Why am I not surprised that a guy who’s made a long career out of helping major corporations figure out how to screw labor to the wall around the world is now here saying, “you know, the real problem isn’t secret societies chronically in the news for rape, vandalism, disturbing the peace, turning members into alcoholics, racism, homophobia and misogyny, and now and then killing their own members with alcohol — you know, the ones that don’t seem to be able to clean it up, despite twenty years of Stern Admonitions — the real problem is average dormitory halls, plus the Ultimate, theatre, and Harry Potter clubs, so *why are you letting them off the hook so easy, Fake Newsters*?
Just deal with the fact that your fraternity has problems. Also that it’s wrong to make a career out of exploiting people so that you can go live in some astronomical tax bracket in Cheeverland. I genuinely believe that if you’re going to advise people to balance their globalized whosis by trying to hire people at approximately nothing a day, you should have to go work one or a simultaneous handful of those jobs for five years first, while your kids are small.