Every Thursday night, the weekend of parties and socials begin for the residents of Greek Row, though campus fraternities are required to notify the University Police Department days before any events.
Greek life has been a part of campus life since fraternities and sororities first landed on the campus in 1898. There are now seven fraternities co-existing on South 11th Street.
Several fraternities host parties throughout the semester, and Delta Sigma Phi fraternity held a “St. Fratty’s” party this past weekend.
Its social chair Noah Panlilio said they “takes risk management very seriously,” and staying in good standing with the school is crucial in maintaining its status as a recognized organization on campus, which had been an issue in years past.
Delta Sigma Phi was put on social probation and educational sanctions in April 2017 until completion of sanctions for violations of “Alcohol Policy, Damage to Property, & Risk Management of Events.” The issue has since been resolved.
A fraternity has a minimum of five business days to register its party through the Greek life council. The four-page packet submitted to the council must state the names and rosters of other organizations that attend, the location of the party, security details and a list of “sober bros.”
Within a couple days, the fraternity is notified of an approval from the council and is sent a QR code that party guests use to check-in at the event through the
SAMMY app.
UPD is then notified by the Greek life council that an event is happening, so that the officers are aware in case any noise complaints or calls come from that area.
If any complaints do happen, UPD will give the house one warning, and anything beyond that, it will shut down the party.
Rene Santillan, the Theta Chi social chair, said he appreciated the recognition and structure SJSU gives Greek life. He said the system has kept their house, along with other houses, from playing into the negative stigma associated with
college fraternities.
“I feel safer going to a Greek party than a house party, because I know nothing will happen to me at another [fraternity] house,” said Santillan. “There’s a level of respect that we share within each other.”
Greek members are held to a standard so they are able to reap the benefits of having a jam-packed social schedule every weekend, and there are consequences if they do not meet those standards.
The SJSU’s Recognized Student Organizations website provides an organization conduct page that shows all issues regarding a certain fraternity or sorority’s violations of the Greek life guidelines.
Multiple fraternities are listed with recent issues regarding social probation, which is issued to the fraternity if a house “did not [follow] social
event expectations.”
Punishments on the list ranges from social probation for a period of time to “cease-and-desist” orders.
According to Santillan, it is an open case where the university decides to not recognize a student organization any longer.
The minimum grade point average for every organization member is 2.6 and any member who falls below it is put on social probation.
For many fraternity houses, those members who do not meet their due payments or academic standards will be relegated to being a “sober bro” for the night of a social event, meaning that they must be sober for the duration of the event.
At the end of the night, these brothers go through a Breathalyzer test. If they fail, there are majorconsequences ranging from a large fine to expulsion from the fraternity.
Sororities are not allowed to host parties on their property, so many of the attendees at the fraternity parties are women.
“[Fraternities] are really safe with it because of the liability on their end, because at the end of the day, they’re fully responsible for what happens,” said Alpha Omicron Pi sorority’s social chair, Briena Brown.
Brown said she is in close contact with all the organizations’ social chairs to organize mixers and large-scale events.
Alpha Omicron Pi has also been put on probation a number of times, with the most recent incident in spring 2017 for recruitment violations. This issue has since been resolved.
“I think by [SJSU] recognizing us, it’s really putting power into what our organization actually stands for,” said Brown. “The people in this organization are able to expand and really become better men or better woman, and go out on campus to represent their houses."
