Dear Friends:

I now have more than 1,000 emails and letters sitting in my office providing advice on Greek life. The advice runs the full gamut – from insisting that it is time to shut the system down to stressing the long demonstrated value of maintaining the leadership qualities of Greek-life self-governance. Many say education is the only way to solve the problem, while others focus on stiff penalties. I am asked to firmly take immediate action and I am told that nothing will work if I don’t take the time to involve the broadest possible set of constituencies in each decision. And, although I have read the many communications, I simply cannot answer them all. But, I also realize that in the hard work over the last few months on this problem, I have not taken the opportunity to communicate what we have done and why. So, that is the purpose of this letter to you.

First, we have had extensive internal discussions on our options, which range from ending our recognition of Greek-letter organizations (we can remove our recognition but actually cannot shut them down as they are private organizations) to implementing a set of far-reaching comprehensive reforms. With the clear recognition that the safety of our students is paramount, the University administration believes that the only choice is to attempt to replace the current Greek self-governance model with much greater University control. The self-governance model that is prevalent across the nation is not working, and we must act in the interest of improving the safety and well-being of our students. I was extremely pleased that the Board of Trustees unanimously endorsed this option during their special meeting on June 2, held solely to discuss these options.

Second, the reforms endorsed by the board consisted of 15 action items. These items came from many sources including the Fraternity and Sorority Life Task Force, which consisted of a very broad set of constituencies, as well as national discussions on alcohol and hazing. Five of the 15 action items are viewed as critical:

1. University control of the misconduct process for serious violations by removing it from the IFC and Panhellenic councils;
2. Deferred rush so that students become established at Penn State academically and socially before joining a Greek organization;
3. Zero tolerance for hazing involving alcohol and physical or mental abuse, where violations will result in swift permanent revocation of recognition;
4. Significant reductions in the magnitude and frequency of social events, which can only be held if there are trained bartenders and only beer and wine is served; and
5. Creation of an independent group to monitor and assess Greek-letter organizations with the capability to do much more frequent spot checks.

The full set of action items can be found on Penn State Update. Next, the University created a Greek-life Response Team (GRT). Some have viewed this as a task force or a group designed to discuss how to prevent hazing and excessive alcohol consumption. However, the GRT is designed to implement the action items endorsed by the Board and therefore consists of individuals (Thomas G. Poole, vice president for administration and chair of the response team; Damon Sims, vice president for Student Affairs; Zack Moore, vice president for Government and Community Relations; Keith Morris, chief, University Police and Public Safety; Frank T. Guadagnino, associate general counsel) who are directly responsible for employees assigned to develop the implementation strategies for one or more of the 15 tasks. For example, one of the action items is focused on our leadership in solving problems related to hazing, and consequently we will work to enable new legislation that increases the penalties for hazing.  For that reason, the VP for Government and Community Relations will serve on the GRT as he has responsibility for federal and state lobbyists and interactions with local governments.

The GRT will also have a partner group, consisting of a dozen or more individuals who will review and react to the implementation plans for each action item. This group will be intentionally broad and representative, involving student leaders, members of sororities and fraternities, members of the Board of Trustees, various faculty and staff leaders, and alumni. This review group will be co-chaired by the vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and the vice provost for Educational Equity to ensure that any proposed implementation plan doesn’t have unintended consequences or miss any population of students. The co-chairs will serve on the GRT for that purpose. Following feedback and revision, it is then my intent to post the specific implementation plans.

It is important to understand that the University’s many student organizations provide unique learning opportunities that expand upon the rich learning experience found within the classrooms at Penn State. We value these organizations because they give our students the chance to practice their leadership and organizational skills, to take responsibility for outcomes, to build community, and to better understand what it means to be responsible for one’s self and for others. These opportunities are abundant within our Greek-letter organizations and we want students to own their experiences within these groups to the fullest extent possible. But until fundamental change is achieved within our Greek-letter community, the risk of relying on self-governance among these organizations is simply too great. The University must instead exercise a heavier hand in the oversight of these organizations and their activities, not because there is a desire to take responsibility from students, but because it must do so in the interest of their well-being, at least for now.

Our focus is here, within our own Greek-life community, but Penn State intends to lead others in this important dialogue and effort, too. These issues are national in scope, and to the extent we can lead the way in finding a better and more sustainable path for fraternities and sororities across the nation, we shall do just that.

I appreciate your many emails and letters, and I hope that I have provided you with a good sense of where we are going, why, and the many roles individuals will play in moving Penn State into a position where we can mitigate bad behavior and also protect the many positive values of Greek life.

Eric J. Barron
President, Penn State

Many members of the Penn State administration and Board of Trustees are wondering if we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Greek life at Penn State.

Seventeen percent of Penn State students are in a fraternity or sorority. We know that students in Greek life self-report excessive drinking that is four times higher than the average student. We know that the vast majority of sexual assaults are associated with alcohol and that an association with Greek life yields a sexual assault victimization rate that is 50 percent higher than the average student. We also know this is a national problem plaguing this generation of students at universities across the country.

For a decade, we have tried to address these problems in myriad ways, recognizing that Greek houses are privately owned, managed by external parties, sanctioned by national organizations, and are not under the jurisdiction of University Police.

We require all first-year students to complete online alcohol and sexual assault education programs.  We added a session for parents and students in New Student Orientation on health and safety, covering alcohol poisoning, the connection between alcohol and sexual assault, and information about both Pennsylvania laws and University policies. Every first-year student receives three communication pieces from University Health Services at all alcohol education workshops. We require that fraternities and sororities participate in educational programs on alcohol, sexual assault, and hazing. We require students who have violated laws or policies related to underage drinking, public drunkenness, excessive consumption, or driving under the influence, either on or off campus, to attend two private sessions with trained alcohol counselors in our BASICS program and hold them accountable through the University’s conduct process. Yet excessive drinking and sexual assault continue.

We have worked hard to partner with the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council to try and convince Greek-life-leaders to self-police and self-regulate adverse behavior. After all, our students are adults and must accept responsibility for their actions.

But the case of Kappa Delta Rho (KDR) was particularly troubling because the evidence from State College police suggested several instances of hazing, the use and sale of drugs and underage drinking, and harassment of females. KDR lost its recognition by the University for three years, forcing the members to vacate their house. The decision to revoke recognition of a fraternity or sorority is typically a joint action between Greek-life-leaders and the University in cases where the behavior is particularly problematic. Nationally, the revocation of recognition and vacating of a house, is the most severe of penalties that can be levied against fraternities.

In the case of KDR, Penn State’s Interfraternity Council decided to continue to recognize the group, with certain stipulations. But Penn State imposed a more severe three-year suspension. The behavior at KDR was so disturbing that I also created a Task Force on Fraternity and Sorority Life. The goal was to maximize the benefits of Greek life and minimize the negative behaviors. The Task Force was set up to reach consensus by combining the views of the State College community, Greek life and the University. The Task Force reached agreement on some areas, including a new “report card” that would inform parents and students about everything from average grade point to service hours to police citations and sanctions. The objective was to provide a “buyer’s guide” to help students avoid groups that had poor records and be attracted to groups with good records. The thinking was, that perhaps a “buyer’s guide” would affect the economic status of the house. At the same time it could reveal any negative trend in behavior over time, allowing us to intervene earlier by putting a house on notice. The Task Force did not reach consensus on the more challenging issues surrounding the control of excessive drinking and large parties at fraternity houses.

But surely the closure of a chapter and vacating of a house would be a deterrent for all others, and a “report card” would provide warning signs on when an intervention was needed. The tragic and heart-wrenching death of a student at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity completely changed this view. The Beta fraternity was viewed as a model fraternity and reflected a national perspective on many best practices. The house, privately-owned and situated like all other fraternity houses on private property, was beautiful, the subject of a multi-million dollar renovation. Both the Beta alumni and the national organization provided strict rules of behavior. The brothers had a ‘no alcohol’ policy, which stated that anyone caught drinking would be expelled from the fraternity. There was live-in oversight as contracted through an external agreement with the national organization. The owner of the house wired it for video surveillance. There were no outward signs of large parties, which are frequently the bane of community members. All indicators suggested a “model” fraternity. Yet, a death occurred because a student was forced to consume dangerous amounts of alcohol in a hazing ritual. The story is even worse. The story is incomprehensible.

Beta has been permanently banned at Penn State. Its “model” behavior was a charade. Despite all of the efforts above, the evidence of problems within the University’s Greek-letter community remain. The University made the decision to impose new, more aggressive measures, including:

• Formal recruitment of new fraternity and sorority members, also known as rush, will be deferred one semester so that only students who have completed 14 credit hours may participate. No new freshmen at Penn State will be able to rush next fall. In consultation with various constituents within the Penn State Greek-letter community and their national organizations, other requirements and the possibility of deferring rush until a student’s sophomore year will be considered for 2018-19. Further discussion about the size of new membership classes within these organizations will be part of an ongoing review.

• New social restrictions will include a strongly enforced prohibition against underage possession or consumption of alcohol in chapter houses and activities. Service of alcohol at social events must follow Pennsylvania law (e.g. limited to those 21 years of age or older), and must be distributed by RAMP trained servers only, though third party, licensed RAMP certified servers are preferred. Only beer and wine may be served, and kegs will not be permitted.

• Attendance at social events will be limited to the legal capacity of the chapter house. No day-long events will be allowed, and no more than 10 socials with alcohol per semester will be permitted for each chapter, a reduction from the current limit of 45, which was established by Penn State’s Interfraternity Council.

• Failure by the Greek-letter organizations to effectively prevent underage consumption and excessive drinking in their facilities and activities may lead the University to adopt further restrictions, including the possibility of declaring that the system must be completely dry.

• These social restrictions will be enforced by a new monitoring protocol that will use both third parties and a combination of student leadership and University staff. When discovered, any violations of these expectations will result in appropriate and significant disciplinary action.

• There will be no tolerance for hazing in these organizations, as all hazing is a violation of Pennsylvania law. Hazing that involves alcohol or serious physical abuse will likely lead to loss of University recognition. Increased educational programming focused on preventing hazing will be mandatory for all chapter members.

These steps build upon the University’s general moratorium on socials involving alcohol through the remainder of the spring semester.

We allowed one social event involving alcohol as long as all of the rules above were followed – Parent’s Weekend. Apparently this was a mistake. Nine of the University’s 82 fraternities and sororities that we know about violated at least one rule, and one fraternity – Sigma Alpha Mu – violated almost every rule that was imposed. The drinking was excessive and was not restricted to beer and wine. There was no third-party licensed server. The party was open to anyone and people with no formal association roamed freely in and out with access to handles of liquor. Those roaming in and out included some who were underage. Even some parents were visibly intoxicated. Now, these fraternities, particularly Sigma Alpha Mu, face decisions by the University.

Equally troubling are the signs that bad behavior will not end with our rules, it will just go underground. After the new rules were announced, an email from an IFC leader was sent to chapters using a derogatory term to describe women, while encouraging members to have the alcohol upstairs and not have it on the main floor where it risks having checkers discover a violation.

If new rules can just be ignored, or behavior just goes underground, and if there is no willingness to recognize the adverse impact of excessive drinking, hazing, and sexual assault, then is there any hope?

In the past, Greek life had a powerful positive effect on many of our alumni. The positive is well worth protecting – the value of brotherhood and sisterhood and the great service associated with Greek life. But the stories cited above cannot continue. If they do, I predict that we will see many empty houses and then the end of Greek life at Penn State.

Quality Advocates session set for Feb. 10

President Eric Barron will discuss the “All In” initiative at the Office of Planning and Assessment’s next Quality Advocates session. It will be from 9-10 a.m., Friday, Feb. 10. The session will be held in Room 508 Rider Building on the University Park campus. All interested faculty, staff, administrators, and students are invited to attend.

For more information and to register for this Quality Advocates session, call the Office of Planning and Assessment at (814) 863-8721 or email opa@psu.edu. Representatives of Penn State campuses interested in participating in this event via videoconference also should contact the Office of Planning and Assessment to make arrangements.

Another brown bag lunch turned into a “wow” moment for the power of Penn State. An informal group of faculty and students from two colleges, the College of the Liberal Arts and the College of Health and Human Development, joined together starting in 2003. They found themselves through common interests and turned those interests and interactions into a large and vibrant group of scholars called the Language Science Research Group. Today, the Center for Language Science (CLS) has millions of dollars of research funded through the National Science Foundation’s Partnership for International Research and Education Program (PIRE). The interests of the group are diverse – from language acquisition to bilingualism to cognition to neurobiology. Their research and education goals are equally diverse – to dispel myths associated with bilingualism; to delay the onset of age-related dementia and memory loss; to address speech disorders; and to enrich lives through the deeper appreciation of the cultures and peoples across the world.

I had no idea that we could harness a science of the bilingual mind for so many applications and purposes.

I enjoyed the brown bag lunch immensely, but I really need to give a tip of my hat to CLS for a very different reason. I heard a great overview and then was introduced to a group of graduate students who described their roles as mentors to undergraduates — and then, all of the science presentations were given by undergraduate students. Undergraduates in laboratories, in communities around the world, even in isolated areas of the world were the language is endangered.  These students were deeply engaged in research — designing and completing experiments focused on truly interesting problems. I left the lunch realizing that here was another remarkable example of what can only be described as a scholarly community — tightly knit among faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. And in the process, CLS is providing educational opportunities that are transformative for a wonderfully diverse and engaged set of young scholars and, very clearly, creating the language scientists of the future. As just two examples, one project worked to understand code switching (switching back and forth between two languages in conversation) and then another explored if bilingual speed and accuracy depended on whether words were concrete (an object) or more abstract.

I had no idea that language science could be so diverse and so fascinating. Now, if only I had known at the age of 4 that I could have staved off memory loss today if I could actively speak more than one language!

You can learn more about CLS at http://cls.psu.edu/research.

I look forward to that next brown bag — keep the invitations coming.

The week of Sept. 12-18 was Action Week for Penn State’s Green Dot program as a part of Stand for State, Penn State’s bystander intervention program. A “green dot” represents a choice a person makes to keep someone safe or to say “we do not tolerate violence in our campus community.” The Action Week goal was to generate as many green dots as possible. As of Sunday night (Sept. 18), Penn State’s green dot count was 11,584. That’s an impressive record of individuals who have made a choice to intervene to keep others safe.

I had the great pleasure of sitting with a number of students involved in the program for a Sunday brunch and then listened to a speech by Dr. Dorothy Edwards, the creator of the Green Dot Program. I was impressed on several counts. I sat at a table of students who were about to lead the training in our bystander prevention program. Each had spent four days in training, just so they could help train other students. Nearly 100 students had signed on to the training after listening to Dr. Edwards at University Park. Many more were listening and undergoing training on Penn State campuses across the Commonwealth. I was truly impressed by the number of students giving up their time on a Sunday afternoon to help keep others safe.

I also was impressed by the message of Dr. Edwards. In the past we have focused on telling male students not to be a perpetrator of sexual assault or violence. And, equally, we have focused on telling female students how to not be a victim. Dr. Edwards questioned whether the barrage of “don’ts” has been very effective. This approach also has missed important parts of our community – notably LGBTQ students. Her objective was to turn the issue around 180 degrees and have the vast majority of students who will never be involved in an assault to become a part of the solution – through bystander intervention. Her objective was to empower students to be able to look out for each other.

A student at the brunch said it best – if we have enough students involved – enough people making the choice to keep someone safe or let people know we don’t tolerate violence in our campus, then you change the culture of an entire community. That is why I am so proud of 11,584 green dots, so proud of the student trainers, and so proud of the students who were spending two hours in bystander intervention training on their Sunday afternoon.

For more information on Stand for State, bystander intervention, visit: https://www.livethegreendot.com/

This week, President Barron is turning over his blog to Nick Jones, Penn State’s executive vice president and provost. With the recent announcement of a commitment to a 3 percent increase in stipends for graduate assistants at Penn State, Jones revisits a presentation he gave to the Penn State Board of Trustees in January 2015. In this blog, Provost Jones expands on the significance of studying at a research university and the value of graduate students who are part of Penn State’s teaching, research and outreach enterprise.

With a research expenditure budget of over $800 million for the last fiscal year, Penn State is one of the top 20 research universities in the U.S. I reported this, along with many highlights and successes of research and graduate education at the University, to the Board of Trustees in January 2015. With the news of the commitment to a 3 percent stipend increase, I am pleased to see the progress the University is making as part of its continued support of graduate education. Graduate education is a pillar of Penn State’s research enterprise.

Researchers at Penn State are working to solve serious societal problems, and graduate students are an important part of that innovation and discovery. Training Ph.D. students is a core function of any research university. Top-caliber research universities like Penn State equip graduate students to address complex problems, and those students go on to make important research discoveries, become industry leaders and join the professorate at other research institutions.

When one considers the number of research doctorates conferred each year, Penn State consistently ranks in the top 15 of institutions nationally. According to the most recent release of the Survey of Earned Doctorates by the National Science Foundation (December 2014), Penn State places 12th overall in the number of Ph.D. recipients, 6th in the physical sciences, 9th in education, 13th in engineering, and 15th in both life sciences and social sciences. Beyond simply the number of degrees reported, as just one example, Penn State’s Smeal College of Business Ph.D. program enjoyed a 100 percent placement rate this year, with all 11 Smeal graduates finding employment at research institutions.

Even with these successes, research universities also face serious challenges, including a shortage of research funding that is a threat to the research pipeline. This, combined with increasing costs of doing research, limits the support available to graduate students. Nonetheless, under the leadership of Jean Vasilatos-Younken, dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education, one of the core goals of the Graduate School’s current strategic plan is to increase graduate student support. We are working to ensure that all graduate assistants receive at least a living wage for the region of the University Park campus where most assistantships are held, and the 3 percent stipend increase is an important step toward meeting that goal. In addition, we also are working to extend multi-year offers of support so that students are confident they will have support for the entire time they are working toward their degree. Achieving these goals will allow Penn State to continue to recruit the very best students to our graduate programs.

Despite these challenges, our graduate programs attract applicants from all over the world. Across all of our Ph.D. programs, admission is offered to only 19 percent of applicants – a very high degree of selectivity. This past spring semester, we had more than 15,000 enrolled graduate students, and currently we have approximately 70 students who have been awarded National Science Foundation Fellowships, which are highly competitive and prestigious at a national level. But graduate education is more than rankings, numbers and statistics. The other part of the equation is ensuring that our graduate programs are of the highest quality—including the courses our graduate students take, the mentoring they receive from faculty, and the research and scholarship opportunities they are afforded. We also are focused on increasing the diversity of our graduate school population, especially with respect to underrepresented students enrolled in Ph.D. programs.

The Graduate School continually assesses its progress by tracking student-centered metrics including time to degree, the percentage of students in each program that finish their degrees, and placements after finishing a degree program. Additionally, the Graduate School is working to formalize learning assessments to measure how well students are meeting learning objectives. But a high-quality graduate education is not solely focused on the disciplinary degree – it also encompasses the overall training vital to solving problems and analyzing situations, which is why Penn State is facilitating interdisciplinary graduate education. Dual-title, concurrent and options within graduate degrees provide considerable value-added scholarship to broaden students’ employment and career opportunities.

Earlier this spring I spoke at the inaugural Graduate Student Awards Luncheon, and I was reminded of the important role graduate students play in teaching and supporting undergraduate students. I presented Charlene Van Buiten, a Ph.D. candidate in food science, and nine other graduate assistants with the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award. The undergraduate students that nominated Van Buiten for the award said she is a “hard-working instructor who is willing to provide extra help and support.” According to Van Buiten, “I’ve really enjoyed my opportunities to work closely with undergraduates, who continually inspire and challenge me to become a better instructor.”

Given their critical role in advancing the teaching, research and learning enterprise of the University, graduate students are major contributors to our research and education mission. We appreciate their commitment and dedication to the success of the University and to the advancement of society through discovery. President Barron, Dean Vasilatos-Younken and I, and indeed many members of the administration, were all graduate students ourselves once and we fully appreciate this vital role that our graduate students play.

Thanks to President Barron, for providing me the opportunity to highlight this important facet of university life.

Nick Jones
Executive Vice President and Provost