In what appears to be UCF dancing around the question of whether it picks and chooses what National Panhellenic Conference rules it abides by, UCF didn’t give a clear cut answer as to why it imposes its own rules requiring a certain GPA to rush — in direct violation of NPC rules — while at the same time insisting those same NPC rules require UCF to break the long-running tradition of allowing fraternity members to greet new sorority girls with their sisters from a public sidewalk.
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KnightNews.com asked Clark: “Why UCF isn’t obeying the clearly written Unanimous Agreement regarding not infringing on women’s rights by restricting membership based on GPA, while at the same time insisting UCF must obey the more open to interpretation Unanimous Agreement regarding whether men can gather on the public Greek Park sidewalks after the bids are given?”
In a response sent by Clark’s spokesperson, UCF did not deny it was breaking NPC rules prohibiting women from joining based solely on their GPA. Clark’s spokesperson tried justifying the breach of NPC recruitment rules by pointing not to the vetted UCF regulations or Golden Rule, but instead to a Fraternity and Sorority Life awards packet created by Scott’s office.
“In FSL we have our Standard of Excellence with [sic] is the criteria for being a member of the Greek community at UCF and for ensuring a chapter remaining in good standing,” the email response from Clark’s spokesperson stated. “The standard to join is a 2.5 GPA via FSL policies which is significantly lower than any chapters [sic] national GPA.”
The statement compared the FSL policy to eligibility requirements for UCF athletes and went as far to say, “The university works in harmony with the NPC national office. Chapter [sic] take votes with the guidance of national delegates and the relationship is a partnership.”
But KnightNews.com uncovered the NPC has strict rules about preventing mandatory discrimination against women during recruitment based on GPA — such as how UCF’s Panhellenic Council automatically rejects women from recruitment who don’t have a certain GPA, before the chapter even has a chance to vote on the woman.
The exact rule KnightNews.com found in the NPC Unanimous Agreement states: “A College Panhellenic Council shall take no action that infringes on the sovereignty, rights, or privileges of the individual NPC fraternities.”
NPC goes on to define such prohibited infringements on rights as: “Requiring a scholastic grade point average as a condition for a chapter’s participation in membership recruitment … as a condition for a woman’s participation in the membership recruitment process … [and] as a qualification for pledging or initiation.”
KnightNews.com looked through the entire NPC Unanimous Agreement and could not find any exception to the rules for universities which write a Standard of Excellence packet.
Bid Day Becomes Fight for First Amendment Rights
Because many men at UCF have told KnightNews.com they feel it’s their First Amendment right to show up to Greek Park drive — where many of them actually live in fraternity houses only being temporarily used by the women as a courtesy — we tried to find out if UCF would order its police force to intervene and try and punish the men who are walking down the public sidewalks, in many cases, outside their own fraternity houses.
When UCF confirmed that they would ask UCF police to ask men who showed up to leave, we wanted to know if UCF police would be able to do anything if the men respectfully declined to leave the sidewalk.
So, in an email to Clark, KnightNews.com asked, “If police ask a male UCF student who is simply walking up and down the public sidewalk to leave Saturday afternoon, and he doesn’t, what crime, if any, would police be able to charge him with?”
Nobody at UCF we checked with was able to come up with a crime the students could be charged with in response to that question. Clark’s spokesperson did respond to that question by reiterating that Clark had asked any fraternity man to refrain from attending so the sororities are not in violation.
KnightNews.com investigated whether there would be an internal penalty from the Interfraternity Counsel for walking down Greek Row and learned the IFC voted against punishing members who did that.
We also checked with our legal analyst who believes that even if UCF police came up with a reason to arrest someone walking on the public sidewalk, it most likely wouldn’t stick in court unless they were actually causing a public disturbance. UCF could also open itself up to civil litigation if it wrongfully arrests someone.
Will Women Be Banned from Fraternity Rush in September?
Rumors have also swirled around the UCF Greek community about the changes that are going to happen to fraternity rush and KnightNews.com looked into them.
KnightNews.com told Clark, “We also are being told now that sorority women are going to be banned from attending the men’s rush events in the tents on another public area of campus — and that sororities may not even be able to bake cookies or make banners to support their favorite fraternities during men’s rush.” KnightNews.com asked, “Can you confirm whether the men’s restrictions we heard about are accurate?”
A response sent on Clark’s behalf stated, “To use the word banned is a misrepresentation. The chapter will be abiding by the same type of policy and allowing fraternities to have a true recruitment process to ensure they focus on bringing in the best men possible to their chapters.”
Was Bid Day Battle About NPC Rules — Or Stopping Hurt Feelings?
KnightNews.com also learned from a source within UCF’s Panhellenic group, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from Scott, that the decision to try and ban men from UCF’s traditional Bid Day ceremony came more out of complaints from some women last year who received less attention, or negative attention, from men during last year’s event, than out of UCF’s desire to respect the NPC rule banning men it had previously defied for years.
“We can’t speak to hear-say regarding rumors,” Scott’s spokesperson said, in response.
KnightNews.com also asked Clark if he took advantage of the outlined process to seek clarification from NPC when rules are ambiguous. In our previous story in the investigative series on the Bid Day controversy, we pointed out how it would be easy to interpret Bid Day as ending immediately after the bids were given. UCF said it interprets Bid Day as ending at midnight, but did not answer the question of whether it asked for formal guidance. UCF did indicate Friday afternoon that it had NPC support for how it operates, KnightNews.com was unable to reach NPC by deadline to ask about UCF’s statement and if NPC would authorize its GPA rule to be broken.
KnightNews.com also copied former FSL Director Greg Mason, who now works as UCF Director of Greek Housing, on an email to Clark to ask whether Mason intentionally defied the rule banning men from Bid Day in past years, or if he just shared a different interpretation than Clark.
A response sent on Clark’s behalf didn’t answer that question about why Mason allowed the tradition. Instead, the response to the question about how Mason oversaw UCF sorority recruitment about a decade ago eluded to rules and standards from a time period KnightNews.com wasn’t asking about — the 1960’s.
“The university has changed quite a bit and so have national rules for fraternities and Sororities members. It used to be legal to have keg in Fraternity houses and now it’s not. Things in the fraternity and sorority world have changed to ensure safety for all. Also because national AFA (the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisor) made a judgment call on how we would govern ourselves as Fraternal members. Different times, different circumstances, clearly different UCF Students [sic].”
Mason is the recipient of the prestigious 2004 SEIFC Dr. Tom Shoemaker Advisor of the Year Award for his work at UCF. KnightNews.com is working to find out whether Clark has won any awards for his work at UCF, but is so far unaware of any.
It is still unclear whether sorority girls will be able to make banners or bake cookies to support men during fraternity rush, but KnightNews.com will continue to look into it for updates.
