On Tuesday, August 30, College of Charleston President, Glenn McConnell announced to students that The College had “suspended all alcohol-related activities for its fraternities and sororities effective immediately.”
This created an uproar among students and even made national news on sites like Total Sorority Move.
McConnell stated that this was “not a knee-jerk reaction to an isolated incident” but instead “a serious response to a series of dangerous behaviors” that were believed to be connected to members of Greek life on campus.
Following McConnell’s announcement, College of Charleston’s Executive Vice President for Student Affairs, Alicia Caudill, released a statement specifically to members of the Greek life community. Caudill stated: “Since last week, there has been a high level of concerning incidents, including student hospitalization and drug use, occuring off campus. These events have been clearly connected to nearly half of our IFC fraternties and Panhellenic sororities. The number of these incidents, the seriousness of the allegations and the unsafe environments the chapters are creating for members and prospective new members are troublesome.”
Cauldill went on to outline what McConnell’s new policy meant for chapters on the campus. Cauldill said that chapters are “not permitted” to have “any events with alcohol on or off campus, including events formally or informally sponsored by [an] organization.” She also noted that “if members of [a] chapter attend such an event hosted by another chapter, [their] chapter will also be considered in violation.” This means ultimately that if one chapter member is found out to have attended an alcohol related event informally sponsored or hosted by another chapter, their entire sorority or fraternity chapter will be held at fault.
Cauldill did encourage the Greek life community to “continue to meet regulary to conduct fraternity and sorority business” such as chapter meetings, executive council meetings and sisterhood or brotherhood type events. The chapters are also still allowed to “host social events without alcohol” but these must be approved by The College at least 14 days prior to the event. Many chapters have already cancelled events they had previously planned for the upcoming weeks due to these sanctions.
So what does this mean for the Greek life community at College of Charleston? Chapters under investigation or those that violate these temporary sanctions will be required to complete educational programs and may, if severe enough, face suspesion.
More updates will be made on this topic as the story progresses.