Olo Culture Just the Evidence Thrasher Needed That Fsu Deserves Greek Life Again

The houses on Florida State's Greek row are quieter than usual nether an indefinite ban on all fraternity and sorority activities. It's unclear, however, if the ban volition succeed in creating what FSU President John Thrasher has called a "new normal" and "new culture" for Greek life at Florida Land University.

Thrasher'south decision to shut down Greek life activities came after the death of Andrew Coffey, a 20-year-one-time pledge at Pi Kappa Phi who was found unresponsive after a party the dark earlier. Law suspect alcohol was a factor in his death.

During the ban, FSU fraternities and sororities are prohibited from hosting new member events, affiliate meetings, tailgates, socials, philanthropy events and homecoming events. Students are allowed to continue living in their Greek houses.

On Friday, the Pi Kappa Phi national organization decided to close down the FSU chapter permanently.

While other universities have deployed similar punishment for fraternities and sororities — a decision that solicited Thrasher praise and criticism —  information technology's difficult to measure out if a ban tin can turn around fraternity and sorority culture.

[Acuity for Andrew Coffey set for next week]

[FSU students weigh in on Greek Life pause]

Leaders at University of Central Florida, but a few hours south of FSU in Orlando, made a similar conclusion back in 2013. Today, they stand backside their decision to temporarily ban Greek activities, after a photo surfaced showing Sigma Chi pledges being forced to drinkable. The photograph was posted online with the caption "Forcing a pledge to chug while 2 others puke in misery."

"Nosotros are confident that it had a positive touch on our community," Kerry Welch, acquaintance vice president for student engagement, said, referring to the determination to suspend Greek life. "We were concerned that we were heading down the wrong road" and then a ban was put in place "before an incident similar the one at FSU occurred."

Welch explained that it was not just that one photograph that prompted the decision.

Clemson Academy in South Carolina, University of Virginia and West Virginia University have besides in the past temporarily banned Greek life after campus tragedies.

Just experts say it'southward the actions and dialogue that follow in the wake of a ban that have the power to change campus culture, non necessarily the ban itself.

At this point, it'southward non clear what adjacent steps Thrasher will have.

"For this suspension to end, there will demand to be a new normal for Greek Life at the university," Thrasher said. "In that location must be a new culture, and our students must exist full participants in creating it."

Only Thrasher gave little particular about how that new culture would be created. The FSU website says the university volition work "to provide opportunities for students, advisers and alumni to appoint in dialogue and discussions" to improve the Greek life experience. Thrasher did not specify the problems — hazing, partying, substance abuse or criminal offense — he wants to address. Police are still investigating what led to Coffey's decease.

At UCF, the 2013 pause led to the formation of an anti-hazing task forcefulness, made up of sports teams, Greek chapters, students and staff. The university too brought in an exterior consulting group to aid chapters develop strategic plans.

Additionally, the university adult a support group for students new to Greek life and implemented moratoriums on alcohol use during certain times of the year.

"You can't make it all become away past standing up on a pulpit and saying, 'This is no more than.' It takes a lot more than that to truly address the problem," said Alison Kiss, the executive director of the Clery Eye, a nonprofit that educates colleges and universities almost preventing campus violence and hazing.

Buss fears that the fraternities with problems volition ignore the intermission and go underground, something that's becoming more and more common at U.S. colleges. In 2015, ane of UCF's oldest fraternities transformed into a "no rules, no regrets" unregistered student arrangement — now the subject area of a BBC documentary — after losing its lease for alcohol possession, public urination and trashing school property.

"Yous can't but brand a 180 plough. Information technology'southward a procedure," Buss said.

Hank Nuwer, a journalism professor at Franklin College in Indiana who has tracked hazing deaths for 40 years, is concerned that the decision to suspend Greek life essentially shuts down the opportunity for open dialogue.

"Had he come up forward and said, 'Nosotros're going to do a task force' — now we've got a dialogue going. Now, the hose is turned off," Nuwer said.

Nuwer would similar to encounter Thrasher lead the charge to put together a task force and campus-wide strategic plan, like to what UCF has washed since 2013, as well every bit enlist presidents from other universities.

"They're non going to reform on their ain," Nuwer said of the fraternities at FSU. "They demand to take their anxiety held to the fire."

But the problem goes deeper than Greek life. Through the years, hazing, substance abuse and campus violence accept haunted sports teams and other extracurricular activities, most notably the Florida A&M University marching band.

['We've got a serious problem,' FSU President Thrasher says]

[President Thrasher: 'In that location volition be a new normal for Greek Life']

Co-ordinate to Nuwer's research, since 1838, at that place have been more 200 hazing-related deaths nationwide.

Although UCF, like about universities, has non seen the cease of controversies in its Greek capacity since the infamous 2013 ban, Welch said the solutions they've implemented seem to be working.

"I mean, knock on woods, we have been fortunate not to see some of the extreme behavior that is popular in the news," Welch added.

In recent years, fraternities at UCF have come under investigation for alleged rape, fights, booze corruption and property devastation — actions that take been met with interruption, probation and charter revocation.

Only now, Welch said, fraternities and sororities know the academy takes these problems seriously, and keeps a campus-wide ban in its arsenal for potential punishment.

"The halt has a sort of urban myth near it and information technology may, in some ways, assistance students recognize that we practise care and we volition accept activity," Welch said.

Caroline Glenn is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact her at caglenn@floridatoday.com or 321-576-5933, and follow her on Twitter @bycarolineglenn and like "Pedagogy at Florida Today" on Facebook.

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Source: https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2017/11/10/more-than-ban-needed-to-solve-florida-state-university-fsu-greek-culture-experts-say/851123001/