In the shadow of a newly-defunct Coed Fraternity Sorority Council, and in the midst of building a brand new Greek Leaders Council, summer Greek presidents are uniting to take a stand against the Office of Residential Life's new house monitoring policy.
Although the GLC constitution has yet to be finalized, the freshly-elected GLC leadership has already begun to give a unified voice to the Greek response to the controversial new ORL policy mandating unannounced safety checks of Coed Fraternity Sorority houses by college personnel.
"The GLC is an ad hoc committee to deal specifically with these [new ORL] proposals," President of the Interfraternity Council Duncan McLean '03 explained. Although the council plans to build upon its organizational structure, its members feel that confronting the issues at hand in a united matter is currently the most important matter, he said.
In a letter that was signed by the presidents of all Greek houses and will be submitted to ORL officials this morning, the Council contests the recently announced policies regarding Safety and Security walk-throughs of CFS houses and proposes an alternative system of fire and safety checks.
Under the GLC's proposal, "each CFS chapter will have a House Manager trained by fire safety officials allowing the House Manager to integrate fire Safety and Security checks into current house inspections," in theory eliminating the need for Safety and Security officers to regularly patrol houses for such safety concerns.
Furthermore, CFS houses will carry out educational sessions on safety and security, which all members would be required to attend, according to the proposal.
Greek leaders want "to work in good faith with ORL and Safety and Security for the fire safety and security of our physical plants," according to Sigma Phi Epsilon Summer President Patrick Granfield '03, who helped draft the letter.
"We are willing to take steps to work with Safety and Security and fire safety officials to be as safe as reasonably possible," Granfield said.
According to McLean, the crux of their proposal is to "put accountability in the hands of the students" and individual Greek houses.
"We feel that CFS members and organizations are capable enough to take responsibility for their own safety," McLean said.
The proposal also outlines four major criticisms Greek leaders have with the policy.
According to the letter, the policy undermines the privacy of CFS houses and was created in the absence of student input and while CFS houses lacked an official leadership council. In addition the letter claims that ORL recommends unnecessary and redundant safety checks, and "does not discuss how residential consistency will be implemented across all non-dorm residences."
The proposal, however, does not tackle the restriction on outdoor alcohol consumption, because, according to McLean, such an argument is more difficult to make, especially over the summer when the majority of Greek house members are under 21.
However, the GLC does plan to form a separate proposal specifically contesting the outdoor consumption restriction in the future, McLean added.
The statement, drafted by Granfield, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority Summer Vice President Kate Douglas '03 and Sig Ep member Carl Gieringer '03, was composed over the weekend and presented at a Sunday meeting of the GLC.
The entire Council had a voice in amending and modifying the proposal, according to Granfield, which by last night had been signed by all Greek presidents.
"Although there are fraternity and sorority differences, there is overall Greek unity and a Greek consensus," Granfield said.
Friday afternoon Greek presidents met at Sig Ep and elected officers for their Greek Leaders Council, with Alpha Theta President Brent Kesler '03 elected as president, Kappa President Melissa Mowat '03 as secretary and Alpha Delta member Dan Brown '03 as moderator.
The Council is to be composed of the president of each Greek house, as well as the presidents of the IFC, Panhellenic Council, Pan-Hellenic Council and Coed Council.
"The idea is to get only the presidents and all the presidents to meet weekly, biweekly or as often as necessary and to appoint positions of responsibility normally handled by CFSC executives to the presidents," McLean explained.
