In the past five years, fraternities and sororities at the Inland Empire’s three public universities have been disciplined or received warnings from university officials 44 times, most of them for hazing.
In response to a California Public Records Act request made by this news organization, officials at Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State San Bernardino and UC Riverside released 216 pages of disciplinary letters sent to a combined two dozen fraternities, sororities and other Greek letter organizations on their campuses between 2016 and 2021. Cal Poly Pomona disciplined six organizations, CSUSB disciplined four and UCR disciplined 14.
The disciplinary letters ranged from warnings, to partial or total suspension of a group’s activities, to dissolving local chapters altogether.
Among those disciplined: On Nov. 19, 2019, UCR disbanded the local chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically Black national social fraternity, following the death of Tyler Hilliard, who died Sept. 16, 2018, during an apparent Alpha Phi Alpha pledge event at Mount Rubidoux. According to the letter, “multiple other hospitalizations” resulted from other pledge activities.
But much of the hazing fraternities were accused of may sound mild to older generations (or those who’ve watched “Animal House” or “Revenge of the Nerds”). Sigma Chi pledges at Cal Poly Pomona, for instance, were required to perform serenades at sorority meetings, escort sorority members from their meetings to their cars, dress like other pledges or in uniform, and create and perform formal greetings when speaking to full members.
What’s acceptable behavior by student organizations has changed over the years, due to both changes in California law and universities’ policies.
Bringing in new members — “pledging” — has changed as a result, according to Jonathan Grady, Cal Poly Pomona’s dean of students.
“They really take a very educational, transformative approach to this process,” he said. “I’ve definitely seen a change and universities putting an intentional focus on that educational component, that community component.”
But changes to acceptable behavior for fraternities and sororities isn’t being pushed by adult authority figures alone.
“The students are part of the change, and I would argue that they’re the driving force behind the changes,” Grady said.
Natalie Padilla, 20, is a third-year history major at Cal Poly Pomona. Padilla’s parents were worried when she joined Alpha Xi Delta as a first-year student, scared she’d be exposed to hazing or alcohol abuse.
” ‘Why would you want to do that?’ ” she remembered her father asking. “In his head, hazing was still pledges getting their stomachs pumped after pledge week.”
She has no interest in that sort of Greek experience.
“Why would that be something you want to seek out and be humiliated?” she said. Instead, becoming a new member of Alpha Xi Delta is more about education and connecting with existing members, according to Padilla.
But even when the hazing might be considered harmless fun by some, it can set the stage for more dangerous things later on.
“These things that might appear to be small or harmless can lead to riskier behavior,” said Ellen Whitehead, director of student life at UCR. “Oftentimes, a group might think ‘It’s not a big deal, we’re just doing this, everyone agrees.’ But it could create a power dynamic that leads to other things.”
The test, she said, is whether pledges are being treated as new members, or something less than that.
And it’s not just traditional fraternities getting in trouble: Greek letter organizations for would-be chiropractors and pre-law students were among those disciplined, records from the three universities show.
“Risky behavior happens across the board, not just at fraternities and sororities,” Whitehead said.
And all three campuses have had risky behavior, whether the Greek community is large or small.
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly Pomona released 21 pages of documents, totaling 10 disciplinary letters sent to six fraternities. There are five social fraternities, seven multicultural Greek organizations, one historically Black fraternity, on historically Black sorority and five social sororities officially recognized by Cal Poly Pomona.
Multiple organizations were cited for hazing, including the local chapter of Omega Psi Phi, a historically Black national fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, a national social fraternity, and Sigma Chi, a national social fraternity.
Cal State San Bernardino
CSUSB released 10 pages of documents, totaling four disciplinary letters sent to four different Greek organizations. There are five social fraternities, eight multicultural Greek organizations, two historically Black fraternities, three historically Black sororities, four social sororities and two fraternity and sorority honor societies officially recognized by Cal State San Bernardino.
The four letters were sent to national social fraternities Sigma Chi, Delta Sigma Phi and Delta Chi, and Delta Sigma Chi, a fraternal organization for future chiropractors (and not the same organization as Delta Sigma Phi). Each letter concerned hazing. Organizations were accused of forcing pledges to do exercises as punishment, intimidating pledges in a dark room in a fraternity house, and other non-specified hazing. Delta Sigma Chi also was accused of including fake officer rosters to the university in an attempt to meet grade-point average requirements it couldn’t otherwise meet.
UC Riverside
UCR released 185 pages of documents, totaling 30 disciplinary letters sent to 14 organizations, dwarfing those released by the other two Inland Empire universities. Today, there are six social fraternities, 20 multicultural Greek organizations, one historically Black fraternity, three historically Black sororities, seven social sororities and at least six Greek letter professional organizations or honor societies officially recognized by UCR Riverside.
In addition to the letters sent to Alpha Phi Alpha after the death of Hilliard, UCR also had many more issues with alcohol and parties than Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State San Bernardino do, based on the discipline letters. Students, especially first-year students, were repeatedly sent to the hospital — and sometimes to the emergency room — after returning to their dorm rooms after fraternity parties.
At UCR, fraternities are responsible for making sure only those 21 and older are drinking alcohol at their parties. But that doesn’t always happen.
“The seventeen year old said she told one fraternity member that she was 17 and he responded saying he was 27,” a June 5, 2019, letter to Delta Tau Delta fraternity reads in part. “She said that she was able to obtain alcoholic drinks at both parties, having a sense ‘that the fraternity was avoiding asking me my age.’ She had been drinking vodka shots and a mixed drink, and she and her friend both reported beer was also available.”
The fraternity was placed on disciplinary probation through June 30, 2020, which they apparently completed successfully and are active at UC Riverside today.
The future of Greek life
But if Greek life is changing, it’s still popular on many campuses.
It’s becoming more popular at Cal Poly Pomona, for instance. Or at least, it was.
“Prior to 2019, we did start to see more students participate in Greek life — and then the pandemic hit,” Grady said.
Greek chapter membership plummeted as students attended class online most of the time. But Grady anticipates seeing numbers bounce back with students back at the Pomona campus full-time.
“Students, not only at Cal Poly, but nationally, are telling campus leaders that they miss that connection, they miss that community,” he said.
Grady believes that, even as things change, and become arguably more restrictive, modern fraternities and sororities will continue to have a large appeal on the nation’s college campuses.
“As we think about Greek life now and moving forward, we really have an opportunity to move forward, but never lose sight of why fraternities and sororities were founded in the first place,” he said.
Whitehead thinks Greek groups add value to American universities.
“My niece is joining a sorority at another institution,” she said. “These groups do provide a sense of community for our students. … It’s a good opportunity for involvement and leadership and they do get connected to a good pool of alumni and community members.”
There are more than 26,000 undergraduate students at Cal Poly Pomona, many of them uninterested in making the university the center of their social life.
“People go to campus and then they leave and that’s their college experience,” Padilla said.
But joining a Greek organization meant finding a smaller, more engaged community within the larger student body for her.
“Social life for Greeks means you always have someone to sit with at the cafeteria, or there’s Greek tables at the library and parties you can go to,” Padilla said. “That really is the center of our social life on campus.”
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