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Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

GW adds details to sanctions list

Hatchet File Photo
Hatchet File Photo

GW’s sanction website was updated last week for the first time in eight months, bringing to light new details of past conduct offenses within Greek life.

Greek chapters were sanctioned for incidents ranging from serving minors alcohol at unregistered parties to taking members into a dark field, pushing them and yelling at them. Officials said the update is the response to students requesting more detail about sanctions, which they said is necessary to illustrate the range of conduct that occurred last winter.

Last Friday’s update also added three sororities and five fraternities to the list of groups that have faced or are facing sanctions since April 2013. There are 25 Greek-letter organizations on the list which was created to list sanctions for all student organizations.

Ten chapters are cited for hazing violations, the most chapters publicly sanctioned for hazing in recent years. Two chapters are cited for sexual misconduct. The majority of chapters are cited for hosting unregistered parties, according to the document.

‘More information’ about sanctions
Though the update comes three weeks before fall sorority recruitment and fraternity rush, Greek leaders said they did not expect to see recruitment impacted.

“We don’t anticipate any impact on recruitment. Instead, this goes hand­ in hand with our new push for values­-based recruitment and helping students be more informed,” Panhellenic Association President Mollie Bowman and Interfraternity Council President Keaton White said in a joint email.

They said they “don’t have any plans to address this document with current members, other than presidents” and added that no members have asked them questions or voiced concerns about the list.

Bowman and White said that the document is “updated regularly” and that it being released during the first week of class is “purely coincidental.”

“The perceived delay in release of this update was due to it needing review and approval by the Office of General Council. Because this covers judicial violations, there’s a legal component to it and GW’s legal department has to approve any modifications to it,” they said.

Multicultural Greek Council President Victoria Montero declined to comment. One multicultural chapter, Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., was listed for hazing and disorderly conduct because members of the chapter “harassed new members during a ‘pre-pledging’ process.” The chapter is on disciplinary probation until September 2017 and was not able to add new members last year.

Last winter, Greek leaders called on officials to overhaul the sanction process, saying that the actions of a few members could unfairly impact an entire chapter.

In an email, Associate Dean of Students Tim Miller said his office heard students “would like more information about the nature of offenses.” Miller had said in May that he planned to add more detail to the site as early as this fall.

“We believe this will serve as a resource to help students make informed decisions about organizations they are considering joining. As always, our goal is to promote a positive extracurricular experience for all of our students,” he said.

A range of offenses
Two chapters, Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Kappa Psi, were cited for sexual misconduct.

Phi Kappa Psi was also cited for disorderly conduct, hazing, underage drinking, dishonesty and hosting an unregistered social event with alcohol and now faces deferred revocation of chapter status until April 2017.

Last May, new members of Phi Kappa Psi were found with “books of information presented to them by chapter members.” The books “included offensive and derogatory stereotypes and comments” about other Greek chapters, according to the document.

Members of Alpha Delta Pi posted “inappropriate material on social media” about its philanthropy events in April, according to the document. The chapter is on disciplinary probation until Feb. 22.

Two other Greek organizations, Alpha Phi and Sigma Phi Epsilon, were sanctioned for dishonesty. Chapter members “provided false information” to University staff “regarding knowledge and participation” of a co-hosted mixer in April. The document does not indicate with whom the respective chapters hosted a mixer.

None of the presidents of the eight Greek chapters added to the document returned a request for comment.

In December 2013, Sigma Delta Tau’s housing lease agreement was terminated and the chapter is under deferred revocation status until May 2016. It is the fourth organization to be under deferred revocation status in the last year.

“Members of the chapter shouted and shoved the new members. New members were required to lie on the ground and were then left at the park to find their own way home,” the document reads.

Phi Sigma Kappa is on social restriction until Dec. 31 for hosting an unregistered event at its off-campus facility. The chapter received an official warning in February 2014 when chapter members “were on the roof of the chapter facility throwing snowballs at people as they walked by on the street” and hit a GW staff member with one of the snowballs.

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