A Faculty Senate committee report released last week discouraged moving Greek recruitment for first-years from the beginning of the spring semester to fall break.

“The report of the university ad hoc committee on Greek recruitment” is the culmination of a yearlong investigation of the issue of moving formal Greek recruitment to the fall semester.

“The committee’s charge grew out of an effort by the SMU National Panhellenic Council to have Greek Recruitment moved from its present timing, immediately prior to spring semester, to Fall Break,” the report said.

“Faculty Senate has adopted a schedule that does not include Fall Break for the 2007-2008 year, which makes an earlier recruitment more difficult. More significantly, the National Panhellenic Council has taken the initiative in addressing some of its concerns by revising its recruitment procedures, particularly those regarding the ‘no-contact rules,'” it said.

The Panhellenic Council offered multiple reasons to consider moving recruitment, including the alienation of first-years in the fall semester, the distraction from academics brought on by preparing for spring recruitment, and the affect of the no-contact rules regulating interaction between sorority women and first-years, the report said.

“Some of the concerns that the committee expressed were some of the reasons Panhellenic proposed a change in the timing of recruitment,” said Panhellenic Council Advisor Shannon Sumerlin.

Arlene Manthey currently serves as the Student Affairs development officer, but at the time she served the committee last year, she was the director of Student Activities. She said the biggest obstacle facing the committee supporting fall recruitment was the fact that many top tier schools SMU aspires to emulate have formal recruitment in the fall.

“SMU needs to be a top 50, top tier institution,” Manthey said. “If you compare most of those schools, Vanderbilt, Duke, Tulane, it’s deferred recruitment.”

At the onset of her participation in the committee, Manthey said she was “absolutely” in favor of moving recruitment. Now she said she’s on the fence.

“Question marks were raised,” said Manthey, particularly in regards to the Interfraternity Council chapters.

“I believe we are one Greek community. The timing of recruitment should be the same for all Greeks,” she said. “But until we get something internally fixed in our fraternities, I couldn’t jump up and down in support of fall recruitment.”

Manthey said the dangers of hazing and the rigors of fraternity member development programs limit first-years’ ability to focus on academics and their grades suffer.

IFC Advisor Ryan Williams said, “If there are concerns about the way the Greek community is operating, changing the time doesn’t address the issues.”

Williams added SMU has been operating on a deferred recruitment plan for “at least 40 years,” and that if changes were made the committee’s concerns would not be stopped, but rather “manifested in other ways.”

In its evaluation of Greek life, the committee investigated the role social activities have in students’ academic lives.

The committee recommended Faculty Senate and the Provost Office convene a group to study “the extent to which current academic practices, rather than encouraging student excellence, may inadvertently contribute to SMU’s anti-intellectual ‘party and alcohol’ culture.”

The committee suggested the new group study whether class-scheduling practices that include avoiding Friday classes affect the academic culture, as well as grade inflation and the relative rigor of first and second year courses.

The committee’s main target was the “high number of Greek-sponsored parties in the Fall Semester.”

“These parties allow first-year students to investigate particular fraternities and sororities and to network with upper-level students. Unfortunately, they also often provide opportunities for students to engage in alcohol and drug abuse as well as other troubling and risky behavior,” the report said.

The report said these parties, especially when they occur on school nights, affect class attendance and participation, but doesn’t affect academic performance.

“The troubling fact is that our students appear to have the ability to go out several nights a week and still earn respectable grades…the fact that so many students are able to perform well academically while spending a significant amount of time at mid-week parties suggests that we are not challenging them sufficiently academically,” the report said.

The report was also critical of SMU’s hands-off policy toward Greek bus parties.

The report cites the SMU Office of Legal Affairs argument that Greek off-campus parties must be independent of the university to limit SMU’s liability if something goes wrong.

The report said the committee was advised, “If the university has any input into these parties, it could make us liable for damages as a result of them. Any ‘control’ efforts (e.g. rules, guidelines, guidance) the university (Student Activities) seeks to impose on Greek parties is “total acceptance of responsibility” for what happens at the parties.”

The report encouraged the university to reevaluate this position, arguing the position undermines the university’s goals in its mission and ethics statements.

“The present policy allows (and even tacitly encourages) Greek parties to be highly irresponsible and potentially dangerous events. In the committee’s unanimous opinion, it is only a matter of time until one of these parties results in tragedy,” the report said.

Williams and Sumerlin agreed with the committee’s assessment of the lack of bus party oversight.

Manthey said Student Affairs should be able to counsel Greek students on how to effectively host these functions, including helping chapters follow their risk management policies, as well as school officials keeping informed on when events are happening.

“We’ve always been told, ‘hands off,'” said Manthey. “How can we help students become better risk managers that way? Let us help them be responsible and host events that are safe.”

Williams said Greek chapters, both the fraternities and sororities, see the fall semester parties as recruitment tools, but added he didn’t think they were the most effective means to recruit new members.

“Everyone thinks they must do XYZ, if that’s bus parties, whatever, to keep up with the Jones,'” Williams said.

Williams added many fraternity men have told him they have had a more rewarding recruitment experience by using social activities other than parties to successfully recruit new members. If more fraternities followed suite, the chapters would be recruiting higher-quality members, Williams said.

Ultimately, the report said, Greek life and the party culture on campus will affect SMU’s recognition on the national level.

“As we strive to improve as a university-and to be taken more seriously on a national level by prospective students, counselors and “rating” agencies-we must address the party culture of our student body,” the report said. “Failure to do so will harm our ability to attract and retain the kind of students we need if we are to reach our goals of becoming a top-tier school. The most important reason, however, to address the problems highlighted in this report is simple: our students deserve it.”