Greek, interrupted

By April M. Silvaggio  

OCTOBER 6, 2010 10:43 a.m. (0)

The biggest battle of Clemson University’s 2010 Homecoming weekend might not have anything to do with Saturday’s noon football matchup between the Tigers and the Miami Hurricanes.

Instead, students, parents and alumni will be watching the outcome of a Sunday meeting between school officials and fraternity and sorority leaders to see what happens to a proposed ban on activities of the university’s Greek organizations as a means of dealing with alcohol infractions.

The meeting will involve the student leaders of the Interfraternity Council, the College Panhellenic Council and the National Panhellenic Council as well as some 40 chapter presidents of individual sororities and fraternities.

Last week, the administration said Greek student leaders decided to level restrictions on everything from tailgating, house parties and mixers to formals and weekend events in other cities. That decision was recalled.

The threat of widespread sanctions against Greek organizations has caused a backlash from alumni during a week usually meant for celebrating.

“We are hearing from many students, parents and alumni who are misinformed and upset,” said Gail DiSabatino, vice president for student affairs. “There are misperceptions circulating via social networks, email and the news media.”

DiSabatino met with Greek leaders last Friday after what the administration termed a “rising number of complaints, violations of Clemson University policies and alcohol-related arrests involving fraternity and sorority members” that also included an emergency trip to the hospital for a fraternity pledge.

The night before the meeting, the teen drank too much at a ceremony where pledges learn who their big brothers will be and was taken to the hospital by fraternity members. The fraternity, Theta Chi, has been placed under a cease-and-desist order that stops all activities pending an investigation by Clemson’s Office of Community and Ethical Standards.

So far this semester, Clemson University’s Office of Community and Ethical Standards has recorded 44 alcohol-related violations, 15 disorderly conduct violations and four driving under the influence violations. Data from previous semesters wasn’t immediately available, school officials said.

Joan Herlong, the parent of a freshman who is in a sorority at Clemson, said university officials need to work with students to find a solution to the growing problem of binge drinking.

“Binge drinking has become an issue that adults who have been out of college for a long time can’t comprehend,” she said.

She said her older children who are out of college have told her about students who used binge drinking for plausible deniability, meaning if they did something they weren’t proud of they could say they didn’t remember it the next morning.

“As a parent, I applaud Clemson for trying to use peer pressure in a positive way,” she said. “The problem is the kids don’t see it as positive. They see it as punishment. If all they feel is they’re being punished, it doesn’t change the behavior. It just drives it underground.”

And that, she said, could come with tragic consequences.

DiSabatino said the school had no choice but to act. No such sanctions were talked about after the death of 18-year-old freshman Benjamin G. Sprague in December 2007.

Sprague was found dead by a fraternity brother about 7:40 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007. He was at the Sigma Nu house on Lake Hartwell in Oconee County. His death was ruled accidental. An autopsy determined Sprague had a blood alcohol level of .312. Authorities said his death was caused by respiratory failure due to acute alcohol poisoning.

Three students faced misdemeanor alcohol violations in connection with the incident, and sanctions were imposed against Sigma Nu.

“At the time, we took action against the one group, as it appeared to be an isolated incident,” DiSabatino said this week.

Herlong said many believe the university acted this time because it is trying to do everything it can to avoid litigation.

DiSabatino said the Greek leaders she met with last Friday wanted to make the tough decisions themselves, and weren’t pressured by the administration.

James Clinton, a senior from Rock Hill and president of Clemson’s Interfraternity Council, said during a press conference Monday that he and other Greek leaders were shown the problems and had to take action.

Suzanne Pickens, a senior from Spartanburg who serves as Clemson’s Panhellenic Council president, said the initial decisions resulted from an accumulation of events, and not one particular incident.

But some alumni, especially those with Greek ties, aren’t buying it.

E-mails circulating this week have urged alumni to contact Clemson University President James Barker to express dissatisfaction and put him on notice that further contributions to the Clemson Fund and IPTAY are in jeopardy.

And questions have surfaced as to why the early sanctions stopped short, and instead encouraged, Greek organizations traditional involvement with the building of homecoming floats on Bowman Field and putting on skits for Tigerama.

“The university backed off this ‘Cease and Desist’ in light of fraternities refusing to build floats during the week of homecoming,” one e-mail said. “However, many have speculated that this is just a delay of similar actions in order to have floats on Bowman for the 80K+ fans this weekend.”

While alumni said the events that led the student to be taken to the hospital were regrettable, the extreme action only underscored what many had felt for years.

“Clemson neither harbors a friendly environment to Greek organizations, nor does it to students or alumni that are/were a part of Greek organizations,” one e-mail said.

During the press conference Monday at Norris Hall, Pickens, Clinton and Arthur Doctor, National Panhellenic Council president, said the decision to recall the original document was because all of the Greek organization’s leaders didn’t have input.

When asked whether fraternities had threatened not to work on homecoming floats if sanctions were enforced, Clinton smiled and said, “At this point, we’re all building floats together out on Bowman.”

Tailgating will be allowed in the Quad on Saturday under the supervision of the Interfraternity Council and other Greek leaders, Doctor said.

“Everything this week is homecoming as usual,” Doctor said during an interview Tuesday. “We’ve always prided ourselves on being a self-governing board, and the administration is leaving the brunt of the decision-making up to students. We decided to take the week to calm down and get the emotion out of it to do what is best for the whole Clemson University.”

But Doctor stopped short of saying whether “homecoming as usual” meant tailgating would be allowed at off-campus fraternity houses. Saying he didn’t know the answer, he directed questions to DiSabatino. She directed questions on whether any of the original sanctions would still apply during homecoming back to student leaders.

Some alumni said the more than 3,000 sorority and fraternity members have a right to be concerned that their organizations are being penalized because of the actions of a few. They pointed out the advantages of Greek life, the ways in which members of sororities and fraternities contribute to the community.

And they noted many college students drink, regardless of age or whether they belong to a Greek organization.

“The loss of Greek life on Clemson’s campus would have large and a widespread negative impact on alumni, as well as current and future students,” said Nikolaus M. Lischerong, a Spartanburg native who earned his undergraduate degree from Clemson in 2005 and master’s in 2007. “I cannot express strongly enough that while the bad apples seem to always get the majority of the focus, far more good than negative comes out of Greek life.”

Herlong said there are positive things Clemson can do to address the endemic issue of binge drinking among students.

“They need to create an atmosphere where kids are free to be square,” she said. She said Davidson College offers students dormitory choices that are voluntarily alcohol, tobacco and drug-free.

Some Clemson supporters also said the university could show it is serious about curbing binge drinking by arresting students and adults who are falling-down drunk at football games, no matter whether they are affiliated with a fraternity or sorority or not.

“I applaud the meeting on Sunday,” Herlong said. “I would like to see Clemson be proactive in dealing with the problem of binge drinking rather than reactive.”

Gaye Sprague, Ben Sprague’s mother, said today’s college students have come a long way since her days in college in dealing with drunk driving.

“They have formal and informal systems in place to keep their friends from that risky behavior. That is a huge change in culture,” she said. “But an additional change in culture is needed to address the volume of alcohol being consumed and that change has to come from the students to be sustainable.”

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