Penn State to Post Greek Organizations ‘Report Cards’

It will also list fraternity and sorority hazing, alcohol abuse and other violations.
Published: May 24, 2017

This fall, Penn State will publish a “report card” listing the status of its 83 fraternities and sororities as being either active or suspended. It will also list the histories of their hazing, alcohol abuse and other violations.

Penn State President Eric Barron says the report card’s objective is to help students avoid Greek organizations with bad track records and attract them to groups with good records.

Other U.S. colleges that currently list the infractions of their Greek organizations include Lehigh, Rutgers, the University of Delaware, Lafayette College and Rutgers, reports Philly.com.

The idea for the report card came from the school’s 2015 Greek life task force that was created after Kappa Delta Rho was suspended for three years for hazing, alcohol use by minors and sexual harassment. The incident that actually prompted the publishing of the report card, however, was the death of Tim Piazza, 19, who died after consuming large amounts of alcohol and sustaining traumatic brain injuries when he fell several times at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house in February. All 18 of the fraternity’s members have been charged in his hazing death, and the group has been disbanded.

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A spokesperson for the North-American Interfraternity Conference, agrees with the move but believes the report card should apply to all student groups, not just sororities and fraternities because alcohol abuse and hazing happens in other groups as well.

Campus Safety has reported in the past that hazing experts, including the 32 National Campus Safety Initiative (32 NCSI), have recommend schools publish an online list of fraternity and sorority hazing violations.

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