Campus Life will release its new Greek Life Social Event Management Policy for the spring 2019 semester today, Jan. 31.

The updated policy aims to address power imbalances between fraternities and sororities, give chapters the ability to opt out of security guards at dry mixers and outlines a pilot program starting in March that will increase the number of Greek social events allowed per night from three to four.

Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Austin Sandoval-Sweeney says that addressing fundamental differences between fraternities and sororities is central to the new policy guide.

“We listed mitigating power dynamics as a priority that we want present in the policy and in practice at all social events,” Sandoval-Sweeney said. “One of the big things is that if you look at our fraternities, they live in and have access to some of the most commonly used spaces where social events happen.”

The new policy has changes that are designed to explicitly address these imbalances.

“This semester, we introduced very clear expectations around mitigating power dynamics that advantage [Inter-Fraternity Council] chapters and can be harmful to IFC events,” Sandoval-Sweeney said. “This can include, for example, requiring IFC chapter members to check in at their own events that they host as opposed to in the past we’ve just had guests checking in when they enter. Another piece that we’ve been working is we’ve introduced clear expectations on IFC fraternity out-of-town formals.”

Women’s Panhellenic Association (WPA) president junior Aidan Lisker says the new policies are a welcome first step.

“That is something as a whole that the Panhellenic community and the IFC are trying to tackle,” Lisker said. “These policies are potentially a first step in that. I don’t know that they necessarily target the issue of power dynamics because policy changing about mixers isn’t necessarily going to change the whole culture around power dynamics, but I think it’s a first step.”

IFC president junior Jimmy Abraham said that he hopes further progress will be made towards addressing power dynamics.

“The part about the power dynamics, I’m hoping the IFC and WPA positions that will be working with that part of the policy can keep improving upon that in the future,” Abraham said. “I really did appreciate that it was a major part of it, and it really named that power dynamics exist, and we’re going to start making policies to counteract that.”

The WPA and IFC directors of programming are charged with addressing power imbalances between sororities and fraternities.

The new guide also deepens the role of the student run risk management program. This will include increasing the required number of event captains (ECs) and responsible contacts (RCs) at certain types of events. Each event is required to designate a certain number of chapter members as ECs and RCs, who are required to stay sober and monitor the safety of the party.

“For mixers between chapters, we are asking for more RCs. What we would like to do towards mitigating power dynamics is to have the different RC roles done in partnership between the co-hosting organizations…in order to give a more equal sense of ownership and partnership in those types of events,” Sandoval-Sweeney said.

Lisker noted that she is unsure about the efficacy of adding more student risk managers.

“That is up for conversation because some people thought that was potentially unnecessary, because more cooks in the kitchen doesn’t always make it run better,” Lisker said.

Lisker said she wants the guide to better address sexual assault prevention.

“I’m not fully happy with it. I think that it doesn’t target the problem which is the power imbalance and culture around these issues, and it doesn’t necessarily take into consideration sexual assault prevention,” Lisker said. “I think a common sentiment is that we’re not happy that it’s really targeting alcohol supervision as opposed to sexual assault prevention and culture change and power dynamics and all of the other bigger issues.”

Chapters will now be able to hold dry mixers without the presence of hired security guards, after they fulfill certain RC training requirements.

“For the registered dry mixers, we did not see the security providing as much as a benefit as we would have liked,” Sandoval-Sweeney said. “So, what we are working with chapters on right now is to walk back that expectation of hired security at registered dry mixers. In return, we are asking chapters to complete responsible contact training for their chapter.”

Campus Life staff and Greek life student leaders participated in a nine-hour retreat on Saturday where they discussed the new guide and brainstormed the best ways to implement new ideas. Abraham says the retreat ended up being a valuable exchange among council and chapter leaders.

“I think it went super well. We talked about how we can be a lot more productive, and how we can tackle specific projects instead of just trying to improve Greek life as a whole,” Abraham said. “I also emphasized building a connection between the chapter presidents and the council, and it seemed like all the presidents were receptive to that, which was great to hear. Aidan and I talked about WPA and IFC trying to collaborate a lot more in order to create a more cohesive Greek community.”

Lisker and Abraham both said in the future they would like greater insight into the drafting process of the policy.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding in who the admin really is and who’s changing the policies. I think students including myself would love more transparency in that, as in how and why these policies are changing and who’s changing them,” Lisker said.

“Honestly, I’m not 100 percent sure who is actually making the policies, whether it’s Austin Sweeney, or Lori White, or someone in between, but I think having all the people in one room would be incredible. That would be the way that we can most productively have a conversation,” Abraham said.

Abraham said he wants more standardization of fraternity-hosted events, like listing every RC’s name and number on the house wall with their headshots.

“I hope to create a standard set of things to make sure every chapter on campus is being as safe as possible and something that’s standardized across everyone; so no matter what party you’re going to, you can expect some sense of safety,” Abraham said. “If chapters want to build up more from that, I would love that.”

Lisker also cited financial constraints as a concern.

“There’s on both sides financial concerns about how sororities can’t pay for certain things whereas fraternities have more flexibility in that, so where does the financial responsibility fall on the fraternities if not the sororities,” Lisker said.

Looking ahead to the fall semester, Lisker said that she wants chapters to focus on outreach and education resources that aren’t always from Campus Life.

“Students don’t feel empowered by these policies [and] I think that a big thing is the lack of autonomy in these policy changes,” Lisker said. “People don’t feel like they were consulted—they don’t feel like they were really listened to. So, the next step is to have breakout groups, having people volunteer to be a part of the policy-change making and also having student groups educate one another about these issues so its student-to-student as opposed to just having an administrator telling us what to do.”