USC keeping a close eye on fraternity rush this fall

After last fall’s rush debacle, University of South Carolina fraternity members know school officials are watching their behavior as they try to recruit new members over the next two weeks.

“Going into this year, I think — piggybacking off of last year — everyone is on their toes,” USC Fraternity Council president Joe Stuhrenberg said. “No one wants to get in trouble.”

USC is keeping a wary eye on fraternity recruitment this fall, a year after reports of alcohol violations led the school’s Fraternity Council to suspend rush for more than a dozen chapters. The heightened scrutiny comes amid a national debate about the role Greek organizations play in higher education.

“When you wake up and see things that happen around the country and around the state every week – especially in the fall, especially during rush season – and you realize there could be a significant injury or death on our campus, you’ve got to say, ‘It’s not a joking matter.’” USC president Harris Pastides said. “We are extremely serious about seeing how the fall and this year go, and if it goes well, it’s going to be great.

“If not, I think we’ll take more significant action.”

Pastides said USC officials have discussed changing rush, the roughly two-week period in which fraternities meet and recruit potential new members, to eliminate “the more nefarious things that might happen off-campus or on a Saturday night.”

One option is barring freshman from rushing during their first semester on campus, Pastides said. Another is offering bids to potential recruits earlier in the fall, which Stuhrenberg supports.

“It’s a pure numbers thing,” Stuhrenburg said. “The fewer number of days you have in the rush season, the less time there is for potential incidents.”

USC-fraternity talks about changing rush have not yet gained steam, Pastides said, though another rush season like last fall’s could change that.

Last fall, the USC Fraternity Council suspended rush for 13 chapters after accusations the fraternities served alcohol in front of new members. All 13 eventually were allowed to issue bids to new members.

After the suspensions, Pastides said the state’s flagship university needed to look at possible alternatives to rush.

This summer, school officials floated the idea of ending pledging, the months-long, sometimes abusive induction period for new members.

How USC moves forward hinges on talks with Greek leaders as well as their chapters’ conduct this year, Pastides has said.

Jackson Scrivani, the Fraternity Council’s vice president of recruitment, said he stressed the importance of not repeating last year’s mistakes at a gathering of fraternity recruitment chairmen last week.

“We try to communicate the message that you don’t need to recruit guys with alcohol,” he said.

That has worked so far for Delta Upsilon, a small fraternity that has not been found guilty of misconduct violations since at least 2011, according to USC records.

Johnny Steverson, Delta Upsilon’s 20-year-old president, said the chapter recruits new members with cookouts, pickup football games and poker nights – not boisterous off-campus parties.

“We really want to get to know the guys more so than trying to just impress the guys,” Steverson said. “We’re able to expose and show potential new members what our organization is about, what we do, what we stand for.

None of the presidents of USC’s largest fraternities responded to emailed requests for comment. But Pastides said school officials have communicated they will be watching fraternities closely this fall.

“It’s not a threat. It’s a fact,” Pastides said. “The board has asked us, and parents have asked us to, yes, let them have a good time, practice the traditions of their fraternal organizations, but don’t do things that jeopardize health and safety.

“We’ve been telling them that, and we’ve been getting good responses. Again, the proof will be in the pudding.”

This story was originally published August 22, 2016 at 5:57 PM with the headline "USC keeping a close eye on fraternity rush this fall."