As the university community reacts to recent occurrences of harassment and hate crimes throughout the campus, the culture of DePauw's greek system — that of fraternities in particular — has also been drawn into conversations about making DePauw a safer and more inclusive place.
But not everyone thinks it's appropriate to blame fraternities for the recently turbulent climate on campus.
"What I think sometimes the newspaper and others perceive as a fraternity problem is really a campus problem," said greek life coordinator Eric Wolfe '04.
President Brian Casey stated that recent events have caused concern about the fraternity culture on campus, but he maintains the belief that there are various fraternity cultures on campus. The lack of "monoculture" in DePauw's greek life makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint a single fraternity life.
"I think houses have different personalities ... I'm not sure you can say ‘fraternity life' and have it mean one thing," Casey said. "I think there are very distinct fraternity lives here."
As of Nov. 4, six of DePauw's 10 Interfraternity Council fraternities are on probation, under review or under investigation.
"I think we're at a time now when we're seeing that a lot of them are under investigation," Wolfe said. "I don't know if there's one particular thing that has caused that, just sometimes it happens out of coincidence that we have a lot that are in that situation at the same time."
While at times there may not be any fraternities under investigation, Wolfe says the "feel" of whether or not a chapter is in trouble is sometimes more significant than actual restrictions or penalties.
Senior Tyler Giesting, president of Sigma Chi fraternity, said it often seems that probations and investigations of fraternities on DePauw's campus happen all at once.
"I don't know what it is," Giesting said. "Honestly it probably fits with the change in leadership."
Giesting said that new leaders might be more mindful and aware of potential mistakes if a chapter undergoes probation at the beginning of a new leadership. Transitions, Giesting said, are important in maintaining strong fraternity organizations. He sees it as the role of Campus Living and Community Development to help with this and continue to upgrade the standard of socializing for these new leaders.
Some of the efforts that Campus Living and Community Development plans to make in order to best prepare and train the members of the IFC community include new member education training, bystander intervention work and facilitated discussions involving controversial and dangerous campus occurrences.
DePauw's new website, set to launch next month, will include a revamped section that will provide more information about hazing, a topic about which members often have questions.
"I think it's always concerning when we have chapters participating in unsafe behavior," Wolfe said.
He hopes that the efforts the university is taking will help prevent potentially unsafe environments.
Wolfe said that issues some chapters might struggle with, although they differ by chapter, include academics, drug use and risk management.
"And another chapter, I think, hadn't really engaged in a philanthropy event before, and so [we're] creating a new culture within their chapter about service and philanthropy," Wolfe said.
Wolfe hopes DePauw's greek system will produce members who work toward the betterment of their local community as well as their much larger community — nationally and globally.
"Really I think the role for our fraternity and sorority community is to develop young leaders that are community-minded [and] focused on values," Wolfe said. "They're values-based organizations. So their role to me is to look at their values and bring those to the forefront."
Wolfe says leadership has always been difficult for DePauw students since the majority of them are very overcommitted and academically engaged, which he encourages. The responsibility of being a chapter leader is a huge commitment, and it can be difficult to balance the different interests pulling at a leader.
As the greek system thinks about elections and transitioning leadership around this time of year, Wolfe says there is a constant struggle and it's important to look at the new leaders and see to it that they move the greek community forward.
Jeff McCall ‘76, professor of communication and theatre, sees leadership as an important issue to address in DePauw's greek culture today. McCall, whose fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha no longer has an active chapter on DePauw's campus, has been a part of the faculty at DePauw for 26 years.
"One of the things I think has really hurt the Greek system is that the university went out and created a bunch of duplexes and what were supposed to be autonomous living units," McCall said. "And what that has done is lured a lot of upperclass greeks out of the greek houses. And when I was in school here myself the leaders in all the greek houses were the seniors. And think of how few seniors now live in their own greek houses."
McCall said he thinks it must be more difficult for greek houses to manage themselves when the seniors, the most mature members with the most experience at the university, are no longer amidst the chapter on a day-to-day basis.
While he sees it as important to create a cohesive campus community, McCall said that isolating seniors in living units on the edge of campus could create rifts in the community overall.
"Do we want seniors segregated from the rest of campus?" McCall said. "Do we want the seniors bonding with themselves and not lending their leadership or their collegiality or their wisdom to sophomores or juniors, whether in the dorms or in the greek houses?"
According to McCall, when he attended DePauw in the 1970s the dormitories operated more like greek houses. The dorms had their own officers, social activities and intramural teams.
"I think there needs to be an effort for the people who are not in [greek] houses to feel like they're more part of the DePauw culture too," McCall said of current greek-independent interaction.
Casey also stated that a divide he sees is greek-affiliated students distinguishing themselves from independents.
McCall said he questions why dormitories currently don't have their own teams for events like Little 5 or why they don't organize their own philanthropy events.
Also in the ‘70s, McCall said it was "no big deal" to be greek at DePauw. Unlike at some larger, state universities, McCall distinguishes DePauw's greek life from potentially elitist and snooty attitudes among greeks at other universities.
"The fact 70-plus percent of students are affiliated with greek life is thought of by many students as simply an ordering system rather than an elite system," Casey said. "Because it's so common, it's not a big deal."
While this may still be the case, McCall said he encounters many faculty who don't have a lot of experience with greek systems generally or who assume DePauw's greek system is synonymous with that at other universities, when it is really quite unique.
This misunderstanding, McCall said, may be part of what creates potentially negative images and stereotypes against the greek system at DePauw.
"There's plenty of ruckus and irresponsible behavior in the dormitories, but nobody says, ‘Well, we've got to close Humbert because they've had this misbehavior over there in recent weeks,'" McCall said. "But when there's misbehavior in a greek house, it's not that uncommon for folks to say, ‘Well that house shouldn't be allowed to continue.'"
Senior Mitchell Turnbow, president of IFC, has had to deal with people questioning IFC's role on DePauw's campus.
"Since I've been on campus, IFC hasn't had a great reputation," Turnbow said. "So [we're] trying to better our name and make sure we're doing the things that we're supposed to."
Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Cindy Babington said she sees the negative news about the fraternity system publicized much more than the more abundant positive aspects.
"You're always scrutinized," Giesting said. "Somebody's going to always be trying to scrutinize you ... Waiting for you to kind of slip up, I think. But perception is reality. It's more or less true. So you do have to be mindful of your perception and your image. Not that it should control you or anything. But it's important how you present yourself. You're ambassadors for the outside world and ambassadors for DePauw."
McCall, who thinks it's unfortunate that greek chapters don't receive attention for the many positive things they bring to campus, said that greek houses should do more to market themselves and talk about what they do well, being sure to make their positive works and efforts known.
"But, I think they also have to behave themselves and look introspectively to say, ‘What are the kinds of things we're doing that maybe call negative attention to ourselves,'" McCall said.
Working with DePauw's fraternity system as a greek life coordinator, rather than as a student, has helped Wolfe see different elements of the culture.
"I was president of my organization, too, so seeing it from that view of course then we were doing a lot of things really well and everything was doing great," Wolfe said. "I think that a lot of that has to do with perception, too. So sometimes when we're in those roles we perceive that our organization is a really awesome organization when really there are a lot of things to work on."
The issues in need of attention from the DePauw fraternity system, Wolfe said, are the same issues it was working to address 10 years ago. As members cycle through the system they are continually in need of education and guidance.
"Any organization has to continually evolve to be able to survive," Babington said in an email. "Since fraternities on DePauw's campus have a long history overall, they may not be as nimble as newer organizations."
"I think what IFC would like to make sure everyone understands is that we have noticed the same things everybody else is noticing," Turnbow said.
IFC is taking steps to improve the effectiveness, safety and inclusivity of the fraternity culture at DePauw in order to make sure that all students can participate in and enjoy greek life.
"I think that's what's so great about this campus is that people are willing to talk and people are willing to listen," Turnbow said.
Although IFC is addressing ways to improve fraternity life at DePauw, Turnbow does not see these considerations as a threat to the overall health of DePauw's fraternity life.
"The most positive part is definitely how great our greek system is," Turnbow said. "I think sometimes we miss how great it is because we don't see other systems."
Giesting, too, sees a bright future for greek life at DePauw so long as the university can continue to foster and support a relationship with the greek system.
"There was a time in DePauw's history where the greeks felt like they were under-appreciated by the university administration," McCall said. "And I think whenever you feel like you're at odds or under pressure from the administration, it's going to cause you to draw in and maybe be more defensive and maybe not as cooperative with the rest of the university community if you need to be."
Over the past 20 or 25 years, McCall said, DePauw has had an "awkward" relationship with its greek system. But he sees the greek system as having a lot to contribute to the campus community and hopes that DePauw and the greek system can work together to focus more on their positive efforts instead of worrying on micromanaging and over-regulating social events.
While Giesting said that it sometimes feels like the university micromanages the actions of fraternity chapters, he knows the university is trying to do what is in the best interest of its students. The culture, Giesting said, is changing. But he sees most of that change for the better and part of a more progressive community.
"I'm not looking for a perfect world, perfect fraternity, sorority community," Wolfe said. "I just don't think that that's going to happen. I think we can be better in those areas that I mentioned before in terms of our culture."