Their Students Died at Frat Parties. Now These Presidents Are Trying to Make Sure That Never Happens Again. (Excerpt)
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Sarah Brown
August 2, 2018
In April, three prominent college presidents sat before an audience in Chicago of dozens of campus officials. They were there to talk about their experiences as leaders during one of the most tragic campus crises imaginable: when a student dies at a fraternity party.
For Eric Barron of Pennsylvania State University, it was Tim Piazza, who died after becoming intoxicated and falling down stairs in a fraternity house in February 2017. For F. King Alexander of Louisiana State, it was Maxwell Gruver, who died at a hospital following an initiation ritual in September. And for John Thrasher of Florida State, it was Andrew Coffey, a fraternity pledge found unresponsive the morning after a party in November.
The trio was pleased to see in attendance so many administrators who felt strongly about making Greek life safer. But none of the three really wanted to be there. Alexander put it this way: “Eric and John and I have kind of become experts in something we never wanted to become an expert in.”
The three men are among a small, but growing, cohort of college presidents who say they are tired of worrying every weekend that a student is going to die at a fraternity event. Led by Barron of Penn State, they are trying to spur a national charge against the bad behavior that has become synonymous with such organizations.
Conversations around reforming fraternities and sororities tend to be cyclical. A tragedy happens, and campus leaders condemn the incident and demand change. A task force might come together and make recommendations. Then other issues command the institution’s attention. The commitment wavers. The discussion dies down.
Barron and his colleagues stress that this time will be different. But will it?
Since Tim Piazza died at Penn State’s Beta Theta Pi house — when members of the fraternity failed to call 911 for nearly 12 hours, despite his worsening condition — Barron has become the chief spokesman for changing the status quo. If the organizations didn’t clean up their act, he said last year, “We will see many empty houses and then the end of Greek life at Penn State.”
But Barron also knew that he wanted to take his crusade beyond Penn State, to establish a new normal in Greek life. In his view, that means campus administrators taking a more active role in getting the chapters back to their foundational values of leadership and service. It means scaling back the self-governance model that the organizations have long treasured.
It also means creating a “national scorecard” that would make data on fraternity and sorority performance and misconduct publicly available.
To start, Barron proposed the national conference. Amid the most recent wave of high-profile hazing incidents, plenty of presidents were making changes in fraternities and sororities on their own. Why not come together, he thought, and exchange ideas?
That’s how Barron, Alexander, and Thrasher came to share the Chicago stage in April, at an event sponsored jointly by Penn State, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and the University of Iowa. They then got the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities involved, requesting to speak at a June meeting; Barron and Alexander led the discussion. The APLU has asked the three of them to do so again, at the group’s annual meeting in November.
“Do I want to do it? No,” Alexander said. But he feels like he has little choice. His colleagues need help.
The presidents face an uphill battle. They’ll need to work with national fraternity and sorority organizations, and with the alumni who remain closely involved with their individual chapters and often balk at sweeping changes. They’ll need to work with lawmakers to pass stronger anti-hazing statutes. Perhaps most importantly, they’ll have to get students on board.
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