Wofford Lease-Still a Long Way to Go!

Christian Goerner & William Ziegler On Wednesday, representatives of the fraternities and sororities (students, alumni, attorneys, and national office executives) met with with President Samhat, Dean Bigger, Dean Hammett, Ms. Jefferson, Mr. Deeter, and the college attorney. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the leases that have been a cause of concern in our community for the past several weeks. The outcome of the meeting was cautiously optimistic thanks to some of the college administrations, but at the same time, some of the college administrators demonstrated that their disconnect with the Greek community still remains. President Samhat opened the meeting with an introduction intended to calm the stakeholders and to show that he understands Greek Life. He first claimed full responsibility for the poor timing of the original lease release. If he could have gone back, he would have made sure that the lease was provided to the correct people with a reasonable amount of time to review. He then defensively stated that unlike many seem to think (his words, not ours), he is a firm supporter of Greek Life. He went on to discuss the raise in the rent price which he said was firm at $5000 a year. He said the rent price is a reasonable amount to cover the operating costs not subsidized by the college, about which he has received complaints about from non-Greek students and their parents because it isn’t fair to support an organization of which not all are included. However, he didn’t mention any non-athlete students or their parents calling the college to complain about the costs of many other subsidized organizations on campus including athletics and student clubs, of which not all are included. The students in those clubs and on the sports teams do not have to pay towards the cost of the facilities they use outside of the tuition. Instead, part of the recent tuition increase will be used to subsidize the new basketball arena’s operating costs. Greeks paying rent is in itself unfair especially after each organization just fundraised $465,000 for each house. Let’s be clear; we aren’t asking for the rent to be removed or for a tuition increase. We understand that we must invest in our new homes each semester. Instead, we maintain that a rent $2000 per year is more than fair since more than 50% of Wofford’s Student body is Greek. Subsidizing the remaining operating costs seems completely reasonable for houses that are intended to be a social hub and much more for not only members of Greek Life, but for all Wofford students, as Dean Bigger mentioned later in the meeting. President Samhat continued by implying that the students were exaggerating the situation and he made remarks implying that some students are purposefully spreading false information. He then went on to state that he truly cares about Greek Life, after all his children were in sororities. Instead of reassuring and calming the Greek representatives, President Samhat demonstrated that he still does not understand that this issue is more than just the proposed leases. The issue is how the College administration has made numerous changes to our Greek community without taking broad student input into account. Examples of this include moving Fall Rush to Spring Rush, tearing down the old row before the new one was built, and the ultimate design of the new row. He and the rest of the administration claim to have put together panels to research these transitions, but each panel only included a few greek students. How can a few members speak on behalf of the entire Greek Life and their leadership? Further, he seems to not realize that Wofford is generational and every generation is dedicated to making sure the next generation has the best Wofford experience possible, of which Greek Life has been an integral part for decades. President Samhat left soon after he finished his remarks and did not stay for the rest of the meeting. Wofford’s lawyer then displayed a revised version of the original lease on the projector and Dean Hammett handed out copies of the new version of the lease, a version which had been neither previously released nor even mentioned in communications. This action again blindsided Greek organizations by not giving the appropriate parties sufficient time to review the new lease with counsel and national organization representatives. Wait a minute, didn’t President Samhat say that he regretted the poor timing of the original lease and that he would fix it if he could? Dean Bigger then stood up and confessed to being at fault for the lack of time to review the revised lease. Multiple lawyers and alumni rapidly flipped through the lease trying to determine which necessary changes were made and which still needed to be discussed, while concurrently pointing out that being blindsided a second time is unacceptable, to which the administration only responded that it was the change in time of the meeting that caused the lease to not be released beforehand. After reviewing the new lease, Greek life stakeholders recognized that it was a much needed step in the right direction, but there were still still several significant changes that needed to be made. First, the lease still lacks necessary mechanisms of due process for all disciplinary procedures, fines, and defaults on the lease. Currently, fines and other disciplinary action can be levied on Greek Life members and organizations at the Village without any kind of hearing before their peers at the college. No other student or student group is subjected to sanctions of the levels in the lease and they are always entitled to a Judicial hearing, so why are Greek students being denied this privilege? On top of this, the fines are still astronomical, continuing to range from $250-$500. The administration promised that warnings would be given before they are levied, but the Greek Organizations deserve for that to be stated in the lease. Also, the fines are not earmarked for any particular use, so the discretion of the College must once again be blindly trusted. Further, the policy regarding Drug and Alcohol Violations still states that the college can declare a Greek organization in default of the lease if even one alcohol violation occurs at the house, whether or not the student be part of the organization, be a guest of a member, or be a trespasser. Let's be honest; as stated in previous articles, an Alcohol/Drug Violation is bound to occur in any one or all of the houses. As such, the college administration should not have the right to declare a Greek Organization in default of their lease for a first or even second offense, and especially without due process. In the student handbook, the right to due process is guaranteed to all Wofford students, which Greek members foremost are. Why are we and the organizations we comprise being treated differently? In line with the lack of due process, the college did not remove or adequately modify clauses that grant the administration right of entry and temporary closure. We recognize that both of these clauses are needed, but the clauses are too ambiguous and leave too much discretion to the college. First, under the right to entry clause it states reasonable notice will be given except when an emergency exists, but no definition of reasonable notice is provided. Administrators even added an additional sentence in the section that allows any Student Affairs personnel to enter the premises if they have “a reasonable belief that a violation of College policy may be taking place.” Such as? Can we get a list of examples of possible reasons here? Without examples to set minimum requirements for “reasonable belief,” this sentence is extremely ambiguous and seems to purposefully avoid the language of “probable cause,” which has a specific legal threshold that must be met before entry. Further, the temporary closure clause still lacks a maximum time period for closure (unless the Board of Trustees, Wofford Judicial commission, IFC/ Panhellenic, National organization, or legal entity outside of the college demands a longer closure), as well as lacks an ability to appeal a temporary closure through due process. Even with the above provisions remaining, the college has taken much needed steps to show the Greek organizations that they have heard us and our willing to work with us. In the revised lease, each Greek organization has been given the right of first refusal on the house each year, which means that each Greek organization will always have the first chance to renew the lease each year. We are glad that the college agrees that we should be allowed first priority to lease our houses for which we raised $465,000 over other student organizations. This section is a great step in the right direction, but the college needs to go farther. The houses need to be leased to fraternity/sorority national or alumni housing corporations on multi-year leases, 50 - 99 years, that can be edited through mutual agreement in future years. The leases, whether single or multi-year, also need to include a percentage cap on any increases in rent from year to year. In addition, if an organization is suspended for a period of time, alumni should be allowed to continue leasing houses and paying the yearly rent through the housing corporation until the chapter is able to reorganize and return to campus. Including these provisions in the leases would truly show the Greek organization members (students and generous, invested alumni) that the college is truly serious about supporting the longevity of Greek life on the Wofford campus. At the alumni’s request in the meeting, the college promised to release financial and planning documents for the Greek village that include a financial breakdown, donation totals for each fraternity, how the donations were allocated within the project, and other relevant information. Dean Bigger also stated she would release emails demonstrating that all Greek Organizations were informed months ago that the rent would rise significantly (“a minimum of $4000 per year”). We are still waiting for this information. Because of President Samhat’s comments, we call for several items as well. First, we call for him to publicly point out specific student statements that are false. Next, we call on him to release all records of the Greek Life Task force including minutes, members(with contact information), and the complete final report of the taskforce. Lastly, we call for him to host an open forum for all Greeks with Board of Trustees invited, Alumni invited, and faculty invited. All of these would go a long way to show that he is not disconnected from the student body. The college has made beneficial changes to the lease in addition to the right of refusal, including lowering insurance liabilities, removing clauses that prohibited insurance policies having exclusionary clauses for losses caused by alcohol or hazing, making the fines discretionary versus mandatory, removing the Greek life mission entirely, and providing provisions for the alcohol and drug policy so that sororities can open their houses. We appreciate that the college has listened to us thus far, and we need them to listen us again when we say that we need them to go farther and implement the changes we stated above, that were also stated in the meeting. At that time, the college agreed to consider them and we are holding them accountable. We are optimistic that many of the changes listed above and stated in the meeting will be considered and implemented, but we are not naive in our thinking. We know that the journey to an equitable lease may be long, but we will continue to push for a lease that is fair to the organizations for which we care deeply and for which we will do our best to guarantee a bright future in our new homes.