Cornell University announced plans to increase oversight and punishments for its fraternities and sororities on Friday following yet another hazing incident on its campus.
Among the changes announced by the university are harsher punishments for hazing incidents, a ban on hard alcohol (over 30 percent) in fraternity and sorority houses and a mandated full-time live-in adviser in Greek houses.
The school also announced that it will create an online scorecard, published annually, that will publicize each organization's judicial affairs history to the campus community and the parents of students.
The school also mandated reviews of each chapter's events management guidelines and of the Chapter Review Board Process.
In a letter from Cornell President Martha Pollack to the school, the school announced those measures and others, while banning the Sigma Nu fraternity from campus for three years due to hazing violations. The details of the hazing incident were not included.
Hazing in Cornell's fraternities and sororities has been a persistent issue at the school, even involving the death of former student George Desdunes in 2011.
According to Cornell's website, which makes hazing violations and their details public despite its status as a private school, seven different fraternities and sororities were found in violation of hazing rules last year.
The Cornell website does not include any entries or details for hazing incidents from this year, though Pollack's letter noted other violations are pending. She said the hazing behavior was "extremely coercive, demeaning, sexually inappropriate and physically dangerous."
Cornell's changes come at a time when scrutiny has increased on Greek life culture across the country on issues ranging from hazing to racial insensitivity to sexual assault.
Like Cornell, Syracuse has had issues with its Greek life system and student behavior. Four fraternities have been suspended or removed from campus this year.
The most recent incident came last month, when the engineering fraternity Theta Tau drew national attention for creating a video that used racist and anti-Semitic slurs, along with depicting scenes that were homophobic and mocked disabled individuals. The fraternity said the video was "a roast" of its senior members, defending the behavior as "offensive" but not a sign of prejudice.
The Cornell announcement came on the same day that Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud informed the SU community that he plans to name someone by June 1 to oversee a review of Greek Life at Syracuse. Syverud said the school has consulted with eight other universities on the best ways to perform a review.
Along with a review of Syracuse's Greek system, Syverud has also said that he will require fraternity and sorority members and advisers to participate in implicit bias and training in inclusiveness.
At a variety of town hall meetings over the past two weeks, some Syracuse students have criticized the culture created by the fraternity and sorority system. Others have noted that issues of insensitivity and sexual misconduct are a campus-wide issue and not just a product of fraternities and sororities.
In a sign of how difficult schools have found it to change the culture within fraternities and sororities, Cornell's announcement noted that it conducted a review of its Greek system in 2012 aimed at changing behaviors. The school said some of the recommended changes were never fully implemented.
In Cornell's announcement, Pollack defended the school's tradition of fraternities and sororities having a positive impact.
According to a release from Cornell, Pollack noted that "fraternities and sororities have a prominent history at Cornell and that members of these organizations have made great contributions to the university."
The release quoted Pollack as saying the fraternities helped to 'foster a vibrant community spirit on our campus and in Ithaca through leadership, volunteer work and other forms of engagement.'
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