Syracuse University Student Association leaders said student voices and ideas should be used to help define and implement recommendations made in an external review of SU’s Greek life released on Monday.

The review was based on a survey sent to full-time non-University College students at SU, focus groups and interviews with more than 260 individuals. It identified five strengths in SU’s Greek life community, as well as six challenges.

SA Vice President Kyle Rosenblum said the recommendations in the review, which was sent to the student body via a campus-wide email, did not explain in detail how the suggested changes will be implemented. He said he hopes student ideas will influence how the recommendations play out, he said, and SA will work to make sure student ideas are involved.

“There’s not substance there, but that substance comes with creating committees to actually implement these solutions,” Rosenblum said. “That’s why it’s so critical to make sure we’re having student voices and key stakeholders involved in these discussions in order for them to work.”

Challenges of SU’s Greek life presented in the review included law enforcement jurisdiction related to parties, hazing and event security; unrecognized groups operating on campus and diversity and inclusion within Greek communities.

The best way to implement recommendations is to listen to underrepresented students, SA President Ghufran Salih said. Salih is a member of the School of Information Studies’ professional fraternity, Kappa Theta Pi.

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Chapters in the National Pan-Hellenic Council, the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations and the Multicultural Greek Council said they felt marginalized within SU Greek life, according to the report. An unattributed participant in the report said that “SU doesn’t understand what it means to be an underrepresented student.”

“It’s true. The university in its entirety doesn’t understand what it’s like to be an underrepresented student,” Salih said. “Speaking to the students who actively and outwardly express their frustration with the system and seeing what they think the next step should be is important.”

Salih said students have spoken with her about the relationship between cultural Greek organizations and SU’s Department of Public Safety, as well as communications surrounding Greek life. She said that she was happy the concerns that had been brought to her were included in the report.

However, Salih said she was surprised that inconsistencies in recruitment across organizations was not among the challenges listed in the report. Some students who wanted to join culturally-based or professional fraternities thought the recruitment process was the same as joining a Panhellenic sorority or fraternity due to a lack of communication, she said.

Communication was listed as a challenge in the review, particularly surrounding policy, information and policy implementation in Greek life.

Communication in the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, both internally and with the student body, should be improved following these recommendations, Salih said.

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Rosenblum said he was surprised that the sense of community that Greek life creates was not included in the list of strengths.

Salih said she sometimes finds it difficult to talk about her culture with her fraternity brothers. Making Greek life more inclusive and accessible would create opportunities for open conversations, she added.

“To me, the future is for (Greek life) to build a more inclusive and open culture,” Salih said, “A lot of people see it as exclusive — which in some ways it is, because there’s a recruitment process. I hope it drives towards being a more open community where you can talk about difficult topics.”

Putting emphasis on the regulation of unrecognized fraternities and sororities is crucial to reforming Greek life, Rosenblum said. There are currently 11 unrecognized Greek organizations at SU, four of which were suspended or expelled in the past year.

Though the review is aimed at all of Greek life, SA Speaker of the Assembly Will Pritchett said the distinction between the three spheres of Greek life — social, cultural and professional — is an important part of addressing the different experiences and challenges within each group. He said Greek life can be an asset to the campus if the three types of Greek life have an honest conversation about how to improve.

“If Greek life is done right, you can truly develop friendships that will last a lifetime,” Pritchett said. “But I feel like a reason that this report exists is because it’s not being done right all the time.”

Published on January 15, 2019 at 10:08 pm

Contact Natalie: nrrubiol@syr.edu