House Bill 2042 was recently filed in the Tennessee State Legislature. If passed and signed into law, this bill would ban Greek life organizations from all state institutions of higher education. Should this bill be enacted, over 195 Greek life chapters would be shut down across the state which would leave 9 universities Greek-less for the first time in ages.
The primary and House sponsor of the bill Representative John DeBerry (D-Memphis) was excited to open up a dialogue about what he felt was the current state of Greek life. “Many [Greek life organizations] started as service organizations that were doing great work, but some have lost their mission and message and purpose,” remarked the Representative, “We need to make them examine how they got where they are today and fix it.”
While some organizations may have lost their purpose, Greek life as a whole has thrived in the state of Tennessee, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for a plethora of charities and causes as well as participating in over 65,000 hours in community service in just the Fall semester of 2017. Additionally, Greek life as a whole in this state has an average GPA of 3.0 making these students leaders in both service and scholarship on their campuses and in their communities.
Dr. Keith Carver, Chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Martin, stated, “Greek life plays an important role in the vitality of our campus. Our Greek letter organizations have been a fixture at UT Martin for five decades, and we are a better place because of their engagement in philanthropy and contributions to student life.”
The bill was filed on January 30 with no Senate sponsor; however, Rep. DeBerry is confident that a sponsor will soon step up and speak out against Greek life in the Senate.
“We have to be statesmen,” said the Representative, “Greek life has served a tremendous role in our country. This bill is just to say that if we want to keep it that way, then we need to face issues and not sweep them under the rug.”
The only issue presented was the claim that schools were facing lawsuits. However, no statistics were provided to indicate what states these schools were in and whether or not they were public or private universities. Additionally, no information was given stating that the alleged lawsuits were due to Greek life activities.
While the comments made by the Representative appealed to the ideas of compromise and positive change within the Greek system, the legislation itself speaks to eradicate Greek life completely from all state-funded universities.
To stay up to date with what is happening with this legislation go to: http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB2042
Photo source: UTM Greek Life