UB has charged three students for violations of the university's polices against hazing and serving alcohol to a minor following an investigation into last Sunday's Grand Island crash that left an Erie Community College student dead.
Vice President for Student Affairs Dennis Black said the three students will receive Student Wide Judiciary hearings for violating both the university's student conduct rules and Greek organization policies. An SWJ judgment in favor of the university could carry a maximum penalty of suspension under such charges, according to Black.
Black met with the leaders of 26 fraternities, sororities and cultural Greek letter organizations Saturday to reinforce the school's hazing and alcohol policies, at which he announced that all Greek organizations, except Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, would be allowed to resume activities on Monday.
Alpha Sigma Phi will remain suspended pending hearings on both individual charges and the university's investigation in conjunction with the Erie County Sheriff's Office into whether 18-year-old Erie Community College student Travis Hennigar and UB architecture freshman Jeffrey Critelli, 19, were served alcohol at an Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity party last Saturday.
"The theme of the meeting was, [Greek leaders] needed to ask themselves, were they lucky last week, or were they smart?" said Black. "If they were lucky, I asked them to reconsider what they were doing to keep something like this from happening again."
Mike Vaughn, president of UB's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity chapter, said Saturday's meeting gave him and other leaders a chance to voice their concerns regarding how the charges could affect the future of UB's Greek system.
"Most chapters weren't happy (with the suspension). . It kind of placed a blemish on the entire Greek system," said Vaughn. Vaughn said his chapter has discussed possibly bringing representatives from either Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) or Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to address fraternity and sorority members.
"Almost every fraternity or sorority has been guilty of something like this at least once," said Vaughn. "Maybe we can all find a way to do something good about it, start a discussion maybe."
According to Vaughn, his and other Greek chapters would be able to initiate the new members who attended Saturday's meeting. Initiation of new members was put on hold by Wednesday's suspension. Many Greek leaders said this weekend they had not lost any potential members following the suspension.
Corey Zwerling, president of Phi Kappa Theta, said Black emphasized something many in the Greek community feel: "All the good Greeks do is not acknowledged at all."
"We're under a microscope right now, and that's the bottom line," said Zwerling. "The rest of the semester will be very critical."
