Editorial: We hardly knew ya

The recent decision by Kappa Sigma fraternity to disaffiliate itself in the face of irreconcilable pressures from both the University and its national organization is the latest in a series of administrative signals that even the least socially-conscious undergraduate understands--Duke's greek-dominated social scene is changing.

That change may be welcome, especially if it includes greeks in a constructive way. But until administrators within Student Affairs stop playing games and take their responsibilities seriously by acting in a forthright, even-handed manner, the constructive process that the newly-created Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and many members of the greek scene at Duke seek cannot and will not progress.

Kappa Sigma, the fourth selective group to disaffiliate or lose its University recognition in as many years--a trend that began with Old House CC and also subsumed Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon--is likely no better or worse than a half-dozen other fraternities also on probation or rumored to be in trouble. For example, Theta Chi fraternity has recently been put on notice by the administration and is on probation because its members were playing a drinking game.

By punishing fraternities for such minor problems--which may not be problems at all, but simply run-of-the-mill college student activities--the Office of Judicial Affairs is directly contradicting the merrily-we-roll-along rhetoric of the greek life office. In doing so, both administrators and fraternity members are sidestepping frank discussion of the deeper anxieties and problems that should be addressed.

Indeed, the most troubling aspect of the Kappa Sig debacle is that Student Affairs administrators called nationals to find a solution they themselves were too cowardly or naive to take. Regardless of national fraternity protocols, Student Affairs administrators made the decision to involve an outside presence to resolve issues that could have been more effectively settled within Duke.

If the administration feels that fraternities sponsor activities and behaviors that are unacceptable and no longer tolerable at a top-10 university, it should say so and quit wasting fraternity members' time and precious University resources by playing games.

But if the administration has a more realistic goal of working within the greek system--central to any plan to build a deeper undergraduate community--the unwieldy and inconsistent bureaucratic elements within Student Affairs should provide a strategic and unified vision for what it expects out of residential fraternities at Duke and communicate that goal to fraternities in good faith.

No longer should Todd Adams, OFSL director, be sent out as the ever-chummy friend of fraternities to dangle carrots, while Kacie Wallace's Office of Judicial Affairs continually lurks in the shadows to bash fraternities with a stick. The OFSL cannot be an effective liaison to the greek world unless they are consistent in their goals with the dean of students' other offices.