New rules for DKE
The Fraternity and Sorority Standards Review Board made about 25 recommendations and directives for Delta Kappa Epsilon, including:
- Creation of additional leadership positions, including positions of vice president for education, vice president for risk management and vice president for judicial/standards.
- Requirement that alumni and/or faculty advisors be present at all chapter events during the recruitment period (regardless of whether such events are called recruitment events).
- Creation of a local alumni advisory board whose members will be available to regularly attend fraternity meetings.
- Creation and implementation of a social and risk management policy for chapter events where alcohol is present, addressing purchase or other procurement of alcohol, service to minors or intoxicated persons, enforcement, member accountability and crisis response.
In a tersely worded letter Tuesday, the Fraternity and Sorority Standards Review Board placed almost 25 new directives on Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity intended to return them to the basic expectations of a Greek organization on campus.
The outlined goals reach far beyond the normal expectations for fraternities and come on top of prior sanctions from the Greek Judicial Board and internal reforms by DKE. The standards board was reviewing the fraternity on a request from the judicial board.
The standards board’s recommendations include forming a local alumni advisory board and having alumni or faculty advisers at recruitment events. Combined with judicial board sanctions, DKE must create and fill six new vice president positions in the fraternity.
An internal review of the chapter by DKE International has also been recommended.
“We have our work cut out for us,” said Patrick Fleming, president of DKE and an editorial board member of The Daily Tar Heel.
The new directives and recommendations were spelled out in a six-page letter by the standards review board, made up of UNC administrators, faculty members and two Greek students. The letter cites “a multitude of incidents, reports, and violations over a two-year period,” as justification for the extensive reach of the guidelines.
The letter says the board “discussed extensively” whether to remove DKE’s recognition, ultimately deciding not to despite the fraternity’s poor track record.
“Efforts do not appear to have produced sustained, positive change in your chapter nor, minimally, consistent adherence to applicable University and (Interfraternity Council) policies,” the letter said.
The student-run Greek Judicial Board reviewed DKE’s status in September, following alcohol and other violations during parties in August and September. Its decision placed DKE on a year of social probation, cut their pledge period for new members in half and recommended UNC’s standards board review the fraternity’s recognition with the University.
DKE followed up the decision with their own sanctions, including donating their social budget toward building the Courtland Benjamin Smith memorial house through Habitat for Humanity.
The house will be named for the former DKE president who was shot to death by Archdale police in August. An investigation into the DKE house party he was at earlier that evening was the inciting incident for the fraternity’s current scrutiny and sanctions.
Since August, the fraternity has faced a series of mounting expectations it is still working to address.
“A number of things in that document we’ve already started on,” Fleming said of the standards board’s letter.
He named the fraternity’s re-structured leadership, substance abuse program and new Code of Conduct as examples.
But that doesn’t make the more than 1,400 words of directives any less daunting. The board’s letter includes three dates from February to September set for the Board to review DKE’s progress.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
