The UR Sorority and Fraternity Review Committee held its first meeting on Friday. The committee, which has been charged with reevaluating the mission of the Greek community at UR, was started this year to help deal with recent problems and make sure that fraternities and sororities are able to contribute to the community at The College.
The committee includes Asbury, Burns, Green, President Thomas Jackson, several alumni and trustees and several Greek and non-Greek students.
“Many of the constituencies that care about the Greek community are there,” Asbury said.
Student representation involves interfraternity councils, SA Senate, Residential Advisers, and Class Councils.
Dean of The College William Green has been suggesting such a committee for some time, and the founding comes in addition to Associate Dean of Students in charge of discipline Matt Burns’ formation of a Greek review committee last spring to aid in judicial matters.
Recent incidents, some of which have resulted in disciplinary actions, highlighted the need for the committee.
“There’ve been enough things that have happened or gone wrong that it warrants us sittting down as a community,” Dean of Students Jody Asbury said. “It’s a chance to identify the places we may need to rethink.”
Green also felt that this was an appropriate time to form the panel.
“The College has changed a lot over the last five years,” Green said.
Last Friday’s meeting was mostly an informational meeting for the committee, and the next few meetings will continue to focus on giving information to and sharing information among committee members.
“We’re asking questions like ‘What kind of Greek community should we have?'” Green said.
Meetings are private, and most of the items discussed so far remain confidential. The committee will not, however, deal with individual cases – their charge lies with general trends and policies.
“In no situation are we, as students on the committee, talking about other students,” junior Jesse Bailey said.
“I was asked to sit on [the committee] because I was involved with a lot of community activities,” Bailey said. He also said that the committee wanted perspective from someone involved in non-Greek activities.
Senior Dustin Sherer, former Sigma Chi President, is one of the Greek representatives on the committee.
“If I can influence the outcome of things, I know I can stand up for some of the issues that the fraternities and sororites would want,” Sherer said.
Brown can be reached at cbrown@campustimes.org.
