UCF has officially announced they will halt all Greek activities including socials, new member education and initiation activities in order to work with fraternities and sororities on comprehensively addressing alcohol and hazing issues according to the UCF Fraternity and Sorority Life webpage which can be found here: http://FSL.sdes.ucf.edu/.
All fraternities and sororities at UCF are prohibited from holding socials, new member education, or initiation activities. However, they will be allowed to hold normally scheduled chapter meetings. UCF is hoping to have this ban lifted by the end of spring semester for most chapters.
Maribeth Ehasz, vice president of Student Development and Enrollment Services sent out an e-mail to fraternity and sorority presidents on Wednesday afternoon saying, “Chapter activities will resume when we are satisfied that our Greek culture reflects the values of the UCF Creed and, more importantly, that we can ensure compliance with laws and university regulations governing hazing and alcohol.”
Philanthropy events held by chapters must be specifically approved by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life.Students living in the Greek houses on campus will still be allowed to stay there as long as they remain financially current and follow the rules of the University.
This ban comes a day after hundreds of UCF Greek students attended Delta Delta Delta’s annual D-HOP event, which raised thousands of dollars for the St.Jude’s hospital fund. Due to UCF banning all philanthropic activities unless approved by OFSL, these events will no longer be able to happen until further notice.
Students reacted to the suspension very quickly, a Facebook event called “UCF Greek Life Sit In Protest” had 400 attending within hours of the event being made. The creator of the event, a Greek student at UCF wrote, “This is still in its infancy. As previously stated, this is just a place holder for what COULD potentially become a united Greek event. Presidents need to get in contact and come to an understanding, but until that time, hopefully this can serve as an arena for concerned members to voice opinions and ideas, and channel their feelings and thoughts into productive and proactive actions, rather than rash, irresponsible outbursts that will only continue to hurt the Greek community.”
Video of Greek students raising money for St.Jude’s Hospital fund the day before UCF suspended Greek Life:
