UT wants to grow fraternities despite controversy

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 Cathy Briscoe relished retirement.

She was president of her local garden club and spent most of her days swapping stories with friends. That is until she made the decision last month to return to the working world and move into the Phi Sigma Kappa house here at 1800 Fraternity Park Drive.

Briscoe is one of several adults living on the University of Tennessee Knoxville campus this fall as fraternity house coordinators. It’s a new requirement that aims to curtail bad behavior while giving fraternity members 24-hour access to a mentor and adviser who lives down the hall.

It is one of many changes that have faced Greek organizations at UT in the wake of the “butt-chugging” scandal that brought them national ridicule in 2012.

Critics said the incident exposed the dangerous culture that had developed inside UT’s fraternity houses. But officials at the university now say the added attention and stiffer requirements adopted in the years since have created a stronger and safer Greek system, one they are investing in heavily.

Lindi Smedberg, the director of UT’s Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life, said her staff has been tasked with growing Greek programs through a robust marketing campaign and expanded offerings.

“Our goal is to have a large sorority and fraternity community,” she said. “We want to have a lot of options for students.”

It might seem counterintuitive to push for growth at a time when fraternities and sororities across the country are enmeshed in a slew of controversies surrounding racism, hazing, substance abuse and sexual assault, but it is actually in line with local and national trends.

In 2009, 3,549 UT students were part of a Greek organization. That number jumped to 3,965 last year, largely due to the sororities of the Panhellenic Council, where Smedberg said “membership has shot through the roof.”

Growth has been even more pronounced at the national level. The North-American Interfraternity Conference, which includes thousands of fraternity chapters, saw its membership grow by about 30,000 in the last three years, and the National Panhellenic Conference, which includes thousands of sororities, saw about the same growth between 2013 and 2014.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why these Greek organizations are growing, but sociologist Matthew W. Hughey from the University of Connecticut said it might be because students see the organizations as a potential connection to good jobs after college.

Historically, recessions have motivated “many people to flock to Greek organizations to provide a leg up,” he said.

Smedberg said the groups are growing because they promise easy access to tight-knit friendships on a sprawling campus with tens of thousands of students.

“When students come to college they really want to belong, and I think the fraternity and sorority experience provides them with a sense of belonging,” she said. “They get to almost immediately interact with people who they want to be friends with.”

Growth after a scandal

Growth of the Greek system at UT is inescapably tied to an embarrassing episode that became a national punchline.

In September 2012, a Pi Kappa Alpha brother was hospitalized with a blood alcohol content more than four times the legal limit. Police in Knoxville said he had used an alcohol enema in the fraternity house to get drunk faster, a practice dubbed “butt-chugging.”

In the wake of the scandal, the university indefinitely suspended the fraternity and commissioned a task force to recommend changes. A few of those recommendations, including house coordinators for fraternities and more demanding standards, are taking effect this year.

“The minimum standard bar has been raised,” Smedberg said.

The university also has invested more resources and space into the Greek system. And two staffers have been added to the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life since 2011.

The moves are in the university’s best interest, said Danny Glassmann, associate dean of students.

“A larger vision for the university is that we continue to find ways in which we’re allowing students to experiment with their education and learn and practice it,” Glassmann said. “All those skills they’re learning, a Greek organization is ideal for them to get to practice those with their peers.”

Smedberg and her team have revamped the marketing campaign targeting incoming freshmen, reviving the Greek Torch, a colorful booklet that introduces students to the 41 Greek organizations on campus. They brought in current students like Collin Gatlin to speak to the new freshmen and their families at orientation.

Gatlin understands why many students might be reluctant to join a Greek organization. That’s how he felt when he arrived on campus in 2012. He pictured a life of constant partying.

But, he said, his attitude changed when he got to know the brothers of Alpha Gamma Rho at the insistence of his father, who was a member of the same chapter in the 1980s. Now he leads recruitment efforts on behalf of UT’s Interfraternity Council.

“Once you get into it you really notice that the priorities are set on relationships and the actual brotherhood,” he said. “It was so extremely different than I expected it to be and it continues to surprise me.”

Diverse options

As part of the revamped marketing efforts, Smedberg and her staff are stressing the four different councils, or clusters of fraternities and sororities, included under the Greek umbrella. Also included are the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which includes historically black fraternities and sororities, and the Multicultural Greek Council, which includes organizations that pivot around different cultural groups.

Like most colleges, UT does not keep track of the racial or ethnic makeup of individual Greek organizations. But Hughey said he has found that largely white organizations in the Interfraternity and Panhellenic councils typically have 3 percent to 5 percent non-white members.

Hughey said universities need to work harder to make sure the resources, like posh on-campus houses usually afforded to largely white fraternities and sororities, are evenly dispersed. When they are not, he said, Greek organizations can “function as vehicle of exclusivity” for a privileged few.

“That status system exists,” he said. “It’s not just a matter of diversity of choices. We’re talking about a matter of inequality here.”

But Tenea Lowery, assistant director of the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life who works primarily with the traditionally black and multicultural groups, said students’ freedom to chose the group they want to join is positive.

“Historically, people want to go where they feel a sense of identity, but that does not exclude them from networking and engaging other areas,” Lowery said.

Ready for Rush

While staffers at the university are concerned with the evolution and growth of the Greek system as a whole, Briscoe, who calls herself the Phi Sigma Kappa house mom, has a more narrow focus: fixing the house up for Rush next week.

In the weeks since she moved in, she’s hung paintings on the walls, added throw pillows to the sofas and lined tables with bouquets of brightly colored roses.

“This job has kind of tapped into a lot of my dormant talents,” she said with a laugh.

She has two sons, so she’s had some experience managing a house for young men. She said she hopes to offer support and advice to her 30 or so college-age roommates.

Briscoe is a big supporter of Greek life at UT, and she was well aware of the hazing incident that paved the way for her position.

“That would not have happened on my watch,” she said. “It would cost me my job.”

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.

Sororities and fraternities at UT Knoxville

Greek organizations at UT are spread across four different councils that oversee different clusters of sororities and fraternities.

The Panhellenic Council and the Interfraternity Council are the biggest and oldest groups on campus, and oversee most sororities and fraternities, respectively. The National Pan-Hellenic Council includes historically black sororities and fraternities and the Multicultural Greek Council includes other groups that were created to celebrate specific cultures.

2014-2015 academic year membership by council

Panhellenic Council: 2,337

Interfraternity Council: 1,508

National Pan-Hellenic Council: 41

Multicultural Greek Council: 78

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Source: Tennessean
UT wants to grow fraternities despite controversy

 

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