Fraternities face stricter policies, later recruitment
After a year of patching up last August’s hazing scandal and working to rebuild the organization’s reputation, Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Keith Ellis is stepping down, leaving Student Life and the Fraternity Council to carry out a slew of changes to this fall’s recruitment.
Ellis spent the past year dealing with incident reports and promoting alcohol awareness in rebuilding USC’s fraternities after last year’s rush halt, but he says that’s only part of a much larger problem that isn’t unique to just Greek organizations.
“I think we still have a lot of work to do,” Ellis said. “I’m very confident in the leadership we have here and the rest of the staff will be able to continue the work that they did.”
In stepping down, Ellis says he will remain involved as a risk management advisor, though he would not specify on Monday for which fraternity. Such boards are now a part of many fraternities as a result of last year’s rush suspension, while five fraternities collectively shed 300 brothers through membership evaluation cut-outs.
“It was a tough year,” Ellis said. “We had a lot more losses than we did wins.”
Ellis says he will use his time to work on his doctoral dissertation on hazing. A full-time doctoral student at the University of Kentucky, he had intended to carry out his research while working at USC. But when rush week was slammed with alcohol and legal scandals, and subsequent media attention, he found himself preoccupied with doctoring USC’s image and pushing for dry policy enforcement.
“I really want to give that work the time it needs, especially now when there’s so much national attention on it,” Ellis said. “It’s a prime time to make an impact as we educate the world on hazing and what it does to students.”
Ellis hopes that this year, fraternities will abide by strict alcohol-free rush standards that he and Fraternity Council President Jordan Cox insist have always been in place, but not well-enforced. Recruitment week is to be 100 percent dry, and violators will face a $2,500 fine and revoked recruitment privileges on first offense. A second offense will strip the organization of a recruiting class for the following semester as well, and a third offense will bring a chapter review meeting by the Greek Conduct Board, composed of sixteen fraternity and sorority presidents.
“When we have someone break a rule, we want to address it from our end first before it gets worse,” Fraternity Council Vice President of Recruitment Zack King said.
Other changes include a higher GPA requirement, from 2.5 to 2.75. Official fraternity recruitment has also been pushed back to the week of Sept. 9, with optional academic and leadership sessions scheduled in the two weeks before rush. Fraternities and potential pledges will also be required to participate in a community service project before recruitment. Sorority recruitment will remain the first week of school.
“I’m looking forward to everything being back on track for our recruitment process,” King said. “I want to be known for how well we do recruitment, not how badly (we did it). Going to conferences and seeing how people think of us in terms of recruiting because of last year, I want to change that stereotype back to a positive.”