The Campus-Recognized Sorority and Fraternity Transparency Act, or Assembly Bill 524 passed Sept. 13, 2022, requiring all California institutions with fraternity and sorority chapters to publish and distribute an annual transparency report.
Assembly Bill 620 currently requests California public postsecondary education to publish policies on harassment, intimidation and bullying in the rules of student conduct.
The new report includes specified information about each chapter, according to Assembly Bill 524.
This includes the number of active and new members, the average GPA of each member, the number of community service hours completed and the total amount of money fundraised.
The bill also requests the report to include the location, date and time of all sanctioned events and any additional information the institution requires.
Paul Ayuso, mechanical engineering junior and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity president, said the new bill doesn’t seem far off from what San José State is already requiring.
“Whenever we have new members trying to apply, we basically ask them to submit a form,” Ayuso said. “The form contains information like GPA, year, time left and all that sort of stuff. So we usually have a good idea as to who's joining us and academically, they're able to be part of the organization.”
Any sorority or fraternity that does not comply with these requirements would be suspended from campus recognition, according to the bill.
The bill would also require the report to be posted on each campus’ Greek Life website homepage for a minimum of 10 years, and sent through a campus-wide email to all enrolled students by Oct. 1 annually.
He said he doesn’t see this bill causing any particular harm.
“One of the main reasons why I think it was being supported was in cases of sexual assault or sexual harassment, those fraternities are being held accountable,” Ayuso said. “That information is being made public, to all students so that way they know what they're getting themselves into.”
Lauren Kann, liberal studies junior and Kappa Delta sorority president, said the bill ensures accountability because of the pressure from the public eye.
Kann said the form was tricky for her to fill out because she wasn’t aware of it beforehand.
Katelyn Gambarin, political science and philosophy senior and Alpha Xi Delta member, said she has a positive opinion about the bill.
“A lot of fraternities in San Diego State, for example, have been suspended because of different incidents that involve alcohol, hazing, all of that,” Gambarin said. “I think having a report that shows what incidents certain fraternities or sororities have been involved with can help people decide if that's an organization they want to associate themselves with. And I know we have something like that on our Student Conduct page.”
Kann said she thinks sororities are held to a higher standard than fraternities, especially during recruitment.
She said many sororities are not allowed to hold events or parties unless affiliated with a fraternity.
“I feel like we're watched more closely with dry rush, which is basically Substance-Free recruiting,” Kann said. “There's not a lot of consequences for the guys who associate with us. We're not allowed to be associated with fraternity men, but they feel totally fine coming up to us at our tables, [...] and we can get in trouble for that,”
Kann said her sorority is extremely cautious of following rules to ensure Kappa Delta avoids any issues with its broader national organization, but also said fraternities might walk a finer line.
“It's also because we focus a lot on not hazing and not doing anything that could get us in trouble,” Kann said. “We try really hard to follow the rules, but I think that sometimes the guys have a harder time because there's more things that they can get caught for.”
Ayuso said accumulating funds can be difficult, and can deter some people from joining.
“It can put a lot more pressure on members to try and accrue more money, or it can give subconscious bias to some people,” Ayuso said.
Ayuso also said fraternities may have to postpone doing certain events because they just don’t have the money for it.
Gambarin said it can be important to show students how effective Greek Life fundraising is.
“A lot of people don't usually realize that it's to raise money for an organization. And I think the way we do it can be really helpful, just kind of creating competition because people always love to get competitive,” Gambarin said.
She also said raising money for a cause is a great way to get close with your fraternity brothers or sorority sisters as well.
Kann said accountability is always a positive thing and posting the average of each chapter’s overall GPA holds everyone academically accountable.
Kann also said she doesn’t think it really affects anyone personally, and ensures they are staying competitive with their GPAs and focusing on academics.
“We're here to be students first,” Kann said.
