At the beginning of the semester, DePauw partnered with Nolan Security & Investigations, LLC to provide security for all open registered fraternity chapter events.
DePauw is now faced with many worried fraternity members.
Angie Nally, director of Public Safety, reached out to many security companies over the summer and found that Nolan seemed the most reliable as well as most eager to work with the fraternities and get to know for whom they would be working.
"In the past, there have been instances where security companies were hired, but they had no information about what kind of party they were working," Nally said, "and they were really ineffective in what they were doing."
Although fraternities have been asked in the past to provide security at larger events such as the weekend of the Monon Bell Classic and Little 5, there has never been a steadfast rule that required security at all open registered events prior to this semester. This new partnership between the University and Nolan creates an additional subsidy that the fraternities were not expecting and had not prepared for in their budgeting.
Along with the cost is the fact that many fraternities have not worked with Nolan in the past and may not be comfortable switching over so suddenly.
"The company we've used in the past we're very comfortable with," junior Jim Perry, president of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity said. "They've done an excellent job and guys are familiar with their faces."
As a result of their concerns, Perry and Delta Tau Delta president junior Nick Freund began a petition to voice their concerns. Nine out of the 10 Interfraternity Council (IFC) presidents have signed this petition.
Senior Johnny McGinness, president of Sigma Chi, was the only fraternity president who refused to sign the petition. He believes that the new partnership will create a reliable security system for university-registered events and will also help combat risky alcohol behaviors.
"It scares me a little bit for us as chapter presidents to say that we don't want this security, for whatever reasons, if we're trying to promote an image that says that we're taking every step that we can to make sure that it is a safe environment for people to come over and attend social events," McGinness said.
PJ Mitchell, coordinator of greek life, emphasizes that this safety component is the main reason for creating the contract with Nolan.
"The goal is to help support the chapters, to make their parties safer and to provide a little extra support for their risk management," Mitchell said. "Giving them more resources in order to have good, safe parties."
Both Nally and Mitchell recognize that there are still kinks to be worked out. Even though the petition has not been formally submitted, the University has begun communicating with the 10 fraternity presidents in order to get all concerns out in the open and to work with them in an effort to keep the petition at bay and avoid any run-ins between the University and the fraternity chapters regarding this situation.
"We're opening as many lines of communication as we can with the chapters," Mitchell said. "If there are areas of concern, we can work with the presidents and chapter leadership to see how we can address those."
Mitchell, Nally and Dorian Shager, dean of campus life, met with all of the fraternity presidents at an IFC meeting last Wednesday, where presidents voiced their concerns, and some issues were cleared up.
"There might still be some questions and we all feel that way because it's a new thing...but we have not been given a petition," Nally said. "I think the majority of the people that I've talked to seem to be supportive of the third party security. They just had some logistical questions."
IFC is working on moving around budgets to help fraternities finance the unexpected extra cost. In the meantime, the University is considering connecting with other security companies that fraternities have worked with before in order to bring back that sense of familiarity.
"I'm not opposed to the idea of looking for alternative security companies in the future, but we need to get this off the ground before we start adding additional options," Nally said. "I'm not saying that I won't do that, but we want there to be some consistency at fraternity parties."
The University and greek chapters are trying to work together to create a safe situation that everyone can benefit from.
"Any time there's something new, there is potentially some apprehension," Mitchell said. "We'll be open to hearing how it goes at the chapters and make any adjustments that we have to make throughout the process."
