Cal Poly Greek Leaders Working to Strengthen Leadership
Greek organization leaders are working to educate members of the fraternities and sororities and put an end to sexual assaults.
Cal Poly’s Greek system both fraternities and sororities remain on social probation for at least one month. One fraternity has also been suspended or disaffiliated with the school for a minimum of six years.
Pi Kappa Alpha or PIKE could be disaffiliated with the school. The group says they will appeal. In a statement Pi Kappa Alpha leaders write;
The Iota Theta Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha is appealing the six-year suspension decision by the university. “The chapter is disappointed in the result and acknowledges some social registration policies were overlooked. However, we want to state that this chapter does not tolerate sexual misconduct. Moreover, our Fraternity conducts regular education for each of its members on this important topic and the importance of treating people with dignity and respect. We fully cooperated with authorities and we were notified by the police that the allegations of sexual assault did not result in any charges being filed. Given the unfounded nature of the charges, we believe that a six-year suspension for a social policy violation is inappropriate and disproportionate, “said Ellis Good, president of Iota Theta Chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.
VP of Student Affairs, Keith Humphrey, said police conducted an investigation into a party at the Pi Kappa Alpha house. “Their conclusion of that investigation resulted in numerous safety violations and alleged sexual assault that stemmed from that party.”
“We care the most about lowering the number of occurrences.”
Cal poly senior and inter-fraternity council president Alex Horncliff said the school and Greek life leaders agreed on the social probation with one goal in mind; coming up with a plan to change fraternity culture.
“It starts with leadership, ” Horncliff said, “What I wanted was to find out what leaders think. Asking the presidents’, they gave me positive responses. They did say yes, we might not be able to party during social probation, and we might have even lost money on social events, but we can understand that the problem we’re dealing with is far larger than social events.”
Horncliff said, “There are four layers; you have university, you have council, you have chapter, and you have the individual.” He said the council is drafting a plan he hopes will influence all Greek organization members and make progress.
Humphrey said, “We’re hoping to see safer party management practices, and better leadership.”
Fraternity leaders will have a summit this weekend and submit plans to Cal Poly officials next week.
