The entire fraternity suspension saga threatened to devolve into farce Monday in a chaotic, jumbled hearing. The time of "close of business" was discussed for several minutes (It is the opinion of this editorial board that close of business is at five). The wrong version of the Fraternity Council constitution was distributed to chapter presidents. The press was asked to leave for approximately an hour.
Conduct meetings with eight of the fraternities were dropped due to insufficient evidence, calling into question the justifiability of the early actions taken. The exact fraternities that will face the meetings remained unclear at press time. This left at least eight chapters angry at the suspension of their recruitment and tarnishing of their reputations on no solid basis.
With that said, perhaps delay and full contemplation were not possible at the time. The university was "breathing down [the] neck," of the Interfraternity Council (IFC), according to Fraternity Council President Tim Bryson, and self-policing probably looked like an attractive alternative to official action at the time. Additionally, if real risks to PNMs were perceived, then waiting to see what happened and pressing charges later would have been an irresponsible approach.
There likely are no easy answers in this situation, and it will take time for the process to run its course. Still, the early bungling of the allegations and hearings does not reflect well on the competence of the IFC.