University reinstates greek judicial board

Reviving a greek tradition that ended 20 years ago, the administration is shifting cases involving greek chapters from the Undergraduate Judicial Board to a newly established, student-led greek judicial board.

The board's members, which will be comprised of representatives from each of the University's fraternity and sorority umbrella groups, will hear cases involving everything from sorority rush to excessive noise, hazing and alcohol.

Sue Wasiolek, dean of students and assistant vice president for student affairs, said the creation last summer of the Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life was the main impetus for creating the board.

"It's something we've been thinking about for a while," she said. "Twenty years ago, the Interfraternity Council used to hear cases. That board lost credibility, and for a long time greeks were not given the opportunity to self-govern."

A pool of about 35 justices are in the midst of training with Kacie Wallace, associate dean of students for judicial affairs. The board hopes to be ready to hear cases sometime in February. Lou Leskosky, a senior and Interfraternity Council judicial board chair, said the new board already has three cases waiting to be examined.

A seven-member panel will hear arguments for each case. The panel will include a majority of the same umbrella group as the chapter charged, including the panel's chair. The remaining members will come from the other councils. Also, no justice will sit on a panel hearing a case involving his or her own fraternity or sorority.

Leskosky said the board's creation was important in giving greeks the ability to self-govern. "I really am hoping that it will [help greek-administrative relations], because when it comes to the investigation, it will be a group of students deciding this," Leskosky said. "A greek organization should not have to go before Dean Wallace whenever we're in trouble for this or that."

Todd Adams, OFSL director, said minor policy violations will still be heard at the council level and that his office would still take care of most communication between the University and national fraternity offices.

Administrators noted that Wallace and the UJB would still have jurisdiction in cases against individual students, but students did not seem concerned about being punished twice. "People understand the line between individuals and the group," said Panhellenic Council Executive Vice President Laura Hirsh. "Between the greek judicial board and the administration, no one's trying to screw anyone over twice."

Administrators and student organizers alike stressed the idea that greek organizations should have the ability to make decisions about themselves and have the opportunity to self-govern.

"They made a big deal out of the fact that they trust us, that this is something that's happened in the past and been abused, but the big issue is trust," Hirsh said.

Because Wallace's office will no longer address greek affairs, students may no longer feel that the administration is speaking with two voices-the positive from the new greek life office and the punitive from judicial affairs.

"I'm not sure how accurate it is that we have spoken with different voices," Wallace said. "It may have been heard differently. We've tried all along to make sure we're on the same page. I hope the greek judicial board gives the perception that there's more consistency in how things are handled."

Furthermore, with a student-led board doling out punishments, fraternities will not be able to directly blame the University for their woes. Kappa Sigma and Sigma Alpha Epsilon both cited harsh University-mandated sanctions in their decisions to disaffiliate from their respective national organizations in 2002.

So far, Leskosky said the board has met with approval from rank-and-file members of the greek community--all fraternities except Phi Delta Theta currently have justices on the board.