In the first story in our investigative series published Tuesday, KnightNews.com broke how UCF is taking action to ban male students from cheering on new members of sororities in the moments immediately after they find out which sorority they join and run to their new houses.
Raw video of the traditional run from 2009:
It’s an alcohol-free tradition that’s been going on at UCF for as long as anyone KnightNews.com has talked to can remember — long before OFSL Assistant Director Scott Clark took over duties of advising the National Panhellenic Conference member sororities at UCF.
UCF has admitted the rule is nothing new, but won’t answer our question about how long UCF knew the rule was on the books. In other words, UCF isn’t saying whether it intentionally defied the rule for so many years, if it somehow didn’t know about the rule before — or if UCF staff who advised sororities prior to Clark simply shared a different interpretation of the rule than whatever Clark believes.
KnightNews.com has learned that there are often questions of interpretation over NPC rules and how to apply them, and the NPC has an established procedure to seek clarification. KnightNews.com is waiting to hear back from UCF regarding whether UCF even asked NPC to confirm the UCF tradition violates the NPC rule.
KnightNews.com uncovered a recent version of the NPC governing documents that show it’s easy to see why a former UCF Greek adviser may have shared a different interpretation and allowed the tradition to continue.
It’s clear that the NPC bans men from participating in Bid Day. But what’s unclear is at what point after the bids are given that “Bid Day” restrictions end. The NPC documents KnightNews.com found define Bid Day as follows: “Each College Panhellenic Council shall establish a Bid Day to conclude the formal membership recruitment period. A Bid Day is the scheduled time when invitations to membership are issued.”
Based on that language, it could be interpreted that immediately following that scheduled “Bid Day” time — when the new members get their bids and the decision is already made regarding what sorority a UCF student will join — the formal recruitment period has concluded, along with all the recruitment restrictions like keeping a Rho Gamma secret and preventing men from interacting with the sororities.
The traditional run, where men watch from the sidewalk, always has come after that “scheduled time when invitations to members are issued” which defines Bid Day. It’s unclear why the secret Rho Gammas’ affiliations could be revealed during the time of the traditional run — suggesting formal recruitment concluded — but UCF still enforce formal recruitment restrictions of not allowing men to interact with the women from the public sidewalk at the same time.
Clark has so far declined KnightNews.com’s request to discuss the situation directly, and has referred questions to a university spokesperson, who is still working to gather more answers to our questions.
As we continue to get new information and answers from UCF, look forward to future stories in our investigative series addressing what UCF police can and can’t do to men who walk down the public sidewalk, along with the answer UCF gives in response to a question we asked about whether UCF is engaging in “selective enforcement” and ignoring a totally separate part of the NPC rules regarding sorority rush it doesn’t like.
If you have a tip about what spawned this situation, or any more information you think we should know, email us at news@knightnews.com. We won’t reveal your name if you share information, unless you are OK with that.
