As the oldest Greek organization on campus, Phi Sigma Kappa has deeply ingrained itself into the AU and Washington, D.C., communities. We have built a dedicated and enthusiastic alumni club having initiated nearly 1,100 brothers, and contributed in more ways to the school that hosts us than is possible to name in this short space.
The business of being a fraternity in 2010 is not an easy one, with the challenges of an ever-changing school policy and general negative stereotypes of fraternities. Couple that with the dedication we have to maintaining our traditions. These all exist in somewhat of a conflict. We understand, however, that these challenges are faced by all greek organizations, not just Phi Sig.
As of last week we acknowledged several mistakes made by our chapter with honesty and professionalism. It is important to note that despite our full cooperation throughout this process there are still several obstacles to properly handling violations such as ours, which occur more often across all of greek life than the university would like to admit. Given that the new greek life coordinator has been brought in on a platform of reforming AU’s greek system, it is even more important we have a fair system that the greek organizations understand and respect. Some of our charges, specifically violations of the cumbersome rules regarding rush were caused by nothing more than ignorance on our part to extensive new policies from the greek offices. And while we may feel that the university’s extending interest in what greek organizations do off of campus is intrusive, we understand the responsibility that we have as an active social organization at AU.
We further look forward to becoming more conscientious about the IFC, which we admittedly have not always been in the past. But it is things like ratifying a new constitution while barely understanding what pragmatically implementing it involves, or being discrete with information that should be confidential, that hinders the proper governance of greek life at AU. When private information, such as rumored details of our charges, show up in this newspaper before they are officially presented to the charged organization, it undermines the operation of this supposedly self-governing body. This breach of trust was both unprofessional and clearly meant to hurt our ongoing recruitment efforts. So if the Office of Campus Life wants to raise its level of influence on things like the rush process, then it should deal just as seriously with what it might see as the minutiae.
After addressing the charges brought forth by IFC through the Judicial Board, we have already begun to make progress on following through with our sanctions. These include participating as an organization in AU’s Campus Beautification Day, and scheduling a lecture on responsibility and alcohol, which will be open to all Greek Life. Additionally, we have a previously planned philanthropic Wing Bowl benefiting Dreams for Kids on March 18 with thousands of dollars in committed donations.
Our relationships with the school and other fraternities are things we have always respected, and after these recent events we will work to grow even stronger. One of the most important things we will take away from this is the seriousness of our place as a well-established fraternity at AU.
Joe Rotondi and Garrett Asta are both brothers in the AU chapter of the Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity. The views expressed here are their own. Responses can be addressed to edpage@theeagleonline.com.
