Greek life at the University of Missouri is about to get more watered down than PBR in an old red Solo cup.
In an attempt to combat sexual assault on campus, the university could potentially ban women from entering frat houses at night.
The proposed rule, which is part of a document that leaked online last week, would prohibit female guests from entering fraternities on campus from the hours of 10 pm to 3 am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Other rules on the list include ending out-of-town formals, not allowing hard alcohol in frat houses and subjecting Greek life members to mandatory drug tests.
The MU Fraternity Alumni Consortium, an unofficial fraternity alumni group aimed at enhancing the growth of the fraternity system and advising the MU administration, is behind the proposed list, which is part of the agenda for the Chancellor’s Summit on Sexual Assault & Student Safety in Fraternity Houses.
The invite-only summit is set to take place on the Mizzou campus later this month.
Consortium spokesman Ted Hellman told the Columbia Daily Tribune the list is not a final draft, and some of the proposed bans have either been cut or are still under debate.
Once the list is finalized, the consortium will present its proposal to the University of Missouri administration.
The leaked proposal raised a debate about how far the administration’s policies should go in an attempt to fight sexual assault.
In a press release, the MU Panhellenic Association, an umbrella association representing the sororities on campus, said it wasn’t opposed to certain parts of the proposal, like banning hard liquor in frat houses, but found a lot of the other policies “ineffective and uneducated.”
The Interfraternity Council Executive Board at Mizzou, which itself has been working on drafting more effective substance abuse policies in an attempt to combat assault, also opposed the proposal.
It believes there needs to be more coordination between the MU administration and student leaders in order to put policies for a safer Greek life in place.
Colleen Coble, executive director of Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, told the Columbia Daily Tribune she felt the consortium’s proposal was a good first to step to avoiding instances of sexual assault.
Coble said,
The proposals all do address what research has found to be risk factors of sexual assault of college women. They are not the cause, but they can certainly be contributing factors to those who are looking for advantages.
A Twitter account called @StopLoftin started with the intention of raising awareness about Mizzou Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin and his attendance at the summit.
An accompanying #OccupyTheSummit hashtag started to trend on MU campus.
