KnightNews.com is following a major controversy coming out of UCF’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, raising questions regarding whether the UCF Administration is violating the rights of registered student organizations by restricting their events without a Student Conduct Trial.
UPDATE: We caught up with both presidential camps about this Outrage in OFSL.
Gurney/Gonzales spoke out about how student rights need to be better protected, and suggested a lack of a strong leadership from students on IFC standing up to proposed erosions of rights by the UCF administration was a big part of the problem:
IFC President Adam Brock, who is running as Matt McCann’s SGA vice presidential candidate, confirmed that higher administration imposed this policy without any student input. Brock said he opposes the move and expressed his dissatisfaction with his advisers:
Also watch both candidates participate in a town hall at Zeta Tau Alpha lasting about an hour:
KnightNews.com has been monitoring a trend out of OFSL recently to scrutinize events of UCF fraternities and sororities and make it harder to get approval. Just within the last 30 minutes, KnightNews.com received more evidence of this in a mass email sent to the leadership of Greek Community earlier today:
“Fraternity and Sorority Life has been receiving questions regarding socials/events during Greek Week. We want to clarify that the only events that will be approved will be dry socials/events that do not conflict with the scheduled Greek Week events. These events should only include those organizations that are part of your individual Greek Week teams.
“Thursday March 31st is the designated social night, which is when you will be able to have wet socials as this was the day designated by the Greek Week Executive Board.
“Remember that you must turn in a SERF form if you would like to have an event (dry or wet). If you have already turned in a SERF form for a dry event during Greek Week and it was denied, please resubmit your SERF form for that event.
“Please let myself, Laura, or Megan Reid know if you have any questions.”
The email above was sent from Jimmy Kelly, a Graduate Assistant with OFSL. In the past, Greek organizations were allowed to have multiple wet socials throughout Greek Week. Now, the right of every Greek organization to do that has been taken away and reduced to just one night — without a Student Conduct hearing.
This latest edict from the UCF Administration and OSFL staff comes days after another mass email went out promising to “sternly” enforce regulations regarding socials and to discourage having socials on weeknights.
OFSL has outright banned “new member activities” from being allowed at bars, claiming it is a “violation of FIPG and national policies.” That means no more pledge auctions at bars, which had been a popular event among many UCF fraternities before the ban. KnightNews.com is working to find out if a formal hearing where public comment was sought occured before this ban was imposed, as is the case often with the Golden Rule Review Committee and other policy changes at UCF.
OFSL is also requring strict guest lists for social events, and no longer allowing chapters to turn in their entire roster showing the people who may be attending. Now the chapters must submit a specific list with dates, PIDs or birthdays, because the previous “leniency has been abused by chapters.”
OFSL also promised to ensure “that events that pose higher risk such as bar crawls or socials on week nights now have national office approval.”
One KnightNews.com alumni viewer posted this video showing what Greek Week was like in 1990:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJZhdi6prY
The movement to slash rights of Greek organizations comes as OFSL has engaged in an odd policy of secrecy for Greek Week events. KnightNews.com has been asking for weeks to shoot video of the Greek Week events, but UCF has refused to let KnightNews.com know if it will be allowed. Student activity fees often fund these Greek events.
KnightNews.com just received much of this information and will work to seek comment from IFC President Adam Brock and UCF officials to update this major breaking news. Check back for continuing coverage on the controversy involving the rights of UCF fraternities and sororities. We’ll also work to see if these restrictions are going to be imposed on other organizations at UCF after the changes to the Greek Organizations are imposed.
