Two Chico State fraternity chapters are trying to retool their organizations after being suspended by the university for more than a year.
Sigma Pi and Phi Kappa Alpha, which were each suspended by the university in May, have begun to rebuild their chapters after university investigations revealed violations of university policy regarding alcohol consumption. Sigma Pi was also reprimanded for a hazing violation.
The first step the fraternities took was choosing to remain affiliated with the university in spite of their suspension, a prospect that carries hefty risk and reward.
Remaining affiliated with the university during a suspension can sometimes be a death sentence for Greek chapters, which cannot recruit new members during the duration of their punishment, said Thomas Jelke, a Miami-based Greek life consultant. Attrition and graduation can eat away at a fraternity’s membership during multi-year suspensions that prohibit the chapter from recruiting new members to replace them.
But for the chapters that are committed to turning their reputations around, suspension is often a highly-effective strategy, Jelke said. Chapter members who join for the wrong reasons are weeded out when the party ends, and members who care about the values of the organization stick around to rebuild the chapter from the ground up.
“Strength through attrition isn’t unheard of,” he said. “It’s almost as common as a chapter not being able to handle the attrition and falling apart.”
Members of the national organization that oversees Chico State’s Sigma Pi chapter flew across the country to meet with President Zingg shortly after the alcohol-related death of Mason Sumnicht, who was widely reported to be pledging the fraternity before he died.
Sigma Pi’s national organizers scrutinized the chapter to make sure it aligned with the fraternity’s values, said Michael Ayalon, Sigma Pi’s executive director. Part of that process included expelling a “significant” portion of the membership that weren’t willing to change their behavior, he said.
Chapters that take their punishment and shed scofflaw members are often safer than so-called “underground” fraternities that balk at the suspension and decide to operate without the university’s oversight, Jelke said.
He speaks from experience. Jelke was hired to evaluate Chico State’s Greek system after a student, Matt Carrington, died in a 2004 hazing incident in the basement of one such underground fraternity, Chi Tau. Members of the fraternity, which has since been disbanded, were the focus of a criminal investigation that eventually led to the passage of “Matt’s Law,” an anti-hazing statute.
Not all punished fraternities choose to serve their punishment, preferring instead to operate independently of the university and continue recruiting new members. Sigma Chi severed ties with the university in May after an investigation revealed that chapter members repeatedly brewed beer in their chapter house. The fraternity had been affiliated with the university for more than 20 years at the time of its departure.
Sigma Pi and Phi Kappa Alpha may have enough members to weather the recruitment prohibition, according to membership figures from the university. Sigma Pi, which has served six months of an 18-month suspension, has 25 registered members, and Phi Kappa Alpha, also six months into its three-year suspension, has 60 members.
During that time, the fraternities will receive risk-management training and work with the university to ensure that they’re ready to return to the Greek system when the suspension is lifted, said Malcolm McLemore, a program coordinator for Chico State’s student life and leadership office.
“Neither party wanted this to be a ‘lights on, lights off’ situation,” McLemore said.
The upcoming months are critical for the fraternities, which must change their priorities to ensure that they don’t violate university policies after they rejoin the Greek system as an active chapter, Jelke said.
“They are different than the chess club,” Jelke said. “The chess club changes with membership. To really change a fraternity, you have to change the culture.”
Ben Mullin can be reached at [email protected] or @benmullin on Twitter.
