The offices of Campus Life and Greek Life have suspended a requirement that all of AU's greek organizations provide the university with members' off-campus addresses, according to Student Government President Joe Vidulich.
However, Campus Life is considering extending the requirement to all AU students living off-campus, he said.
"To limit it to just the greeks would have been discrimination," Vidulich said.
Vidulich met with Vice President of Campus Life Gail Hanson Nov. 8 to discuss the situation. He also met with Greek Life Coordinator Danny Kelley the same week about the issue.
The university will make a decision about whether to reinstate the requirement and extend it to all AU students some time next semester. The university will be seeking student input in this process, Vidulich said.
The university has required greek organizations to submit off-campus addresses to a database in the past. Interfraternity Council President Elliot Friedman said he had not been aware of the policy before the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity introduced a resolution opposing it. Greek organizations had to submit the last reports that required disclosure of members' off-campus addresses prior to the start of Friedman's term in February.
Pi Kappa Alpha members Pete Surprenant, a senior in the School of Communication, and Andy Acs, a senior in the Kogod School of Business, drafted the resolution after the Office of Greek Life asked Pi Kappa Alpha to re-submit its roster. Pi Kappa Alpha's roster included on-campus addresses and some off-campus addresses, but was not as complete as the office required, Surprenant said.
In previous years, the fraternity had complied with what Surprenant called "an invasion of privacy."
"This information could only be used by the school to hurt greek life ... they're not swinging by and making sure we're alright," Surprenant said.
Hanson will meet with President Neil Kerwin in the spring semester to discuss whether or not to require all students to provide the university with off-campus addresses, she said.
"As long as we agreed that we should discuss it, then it was appropriate for Greek Life to take a hiatus and just wait until we get the outcome of the larger discussion," Hanson said.
The university sometimes used the greek database to determine the source of neighborhood complaints, Hanson said.
"If there's a persistent problem, and sometimes there are persistent problems, sometimes a [fraternity or sorority's national office] is notified," she said.
However, the university is sometimes able to use the database to determine that disturbance complaints do not originate from a greek house, Hanson said.
Most of the time, when the university receives complaints, the neighbors already know who lives in the house and with which organizations they are affiliated, according to Kelley.
"Oftentimes when they do call, it's been after a couple of disturbances," he said.
The university will also investigate greek behavior practices on other college campuses and the policies endorsed by greek organizations' national headquarters, he said.
Shaina Egly, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences who lives off-campus, said she was OK with the possibility of being required to register her off-campus address with the university.
"You're pretty much already in the system because of registration," she said.
Sahra Peterson, a senior in the School of International Service who lives off-campus, also said she was fine with the proposed requirement.
"Why would you hide where you live unless you have something to hide?" she said.
Fraternity representatives present at an Oct. 30 Interfraternity Council meeting voted in favor of collectively refusing to follow the requirement.
