After several fraternities and sororities violated University conduct policies last year, the Office of Student Activities, or OSA, took action to increase communication between administrators and Greek organization leaders and to improve training for these students. Given this year’s lack of incidents, these efforts seem to have paid off.

That no fraternities are on alcohol suspension or housing probation, seems to indicate that improvements have been made in how such conduct issues are managed, especially in comparison to the last two years, during which several Greek organizations faced hearings for alleged incidents of sexual assault and hazing.

While last year there were seven Judicial Affairs hearings with Greek groups, this year there have only been two heard by the Organizational Conduct Board, or OCB, which processes violations of University policy committed by student groups.

Both cases involved incidents that occurred last year and there are no pending cases.

Two events last year had a major impact on the Greek community: a Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge being sent to the hospital, and Delta Delta Delta pledges participating in a binge-drinking game with members of the Stanford football team. TriDelt is on alcohol suspension until June.

Both of these cases involved allegations of hazing and consumption of alcohol by minors. The latter incident also involved allegations of sexual assault.

Nanci Howe, associate dean of students and director of student activities, and Joey Greenwell, fraternity advisor and assistant director of student activities, stressed that the 2002-2003 academic year was an “anomaly” and that the lack of major disciplinary action this year is not unusual.

“In recent memory, this year is more similar to past years,” Howe said. “There were an unfortunate set of circumstances all coming that same year. It was not indicative.”

Even so, OSA took note of the incidents and moved to remedy the situation by requiring more individual meetings with Greek chapter leaders and a reevaluation of training sessions for these students.

Although there have been minor incidents this year, the chapters handled them very well internally said Morris Graves, associate dean of students.

“They didn’t intend to violate University policy and they made a good-faith effort to correct their actions,” he said. “There were no egregious incidents that threatened the health and safety of the Stanford community.”

Fraternities are also making a greater effort to follow University guidelines in planning parties and events, student chapter officers said.

“Given the alcohol probations of the past years, I think most Greek organizations are being more cautious with open social functions,” said senior Graham Gilmer, former president of Sigma Chi. “Fraternities have realized that there are several sensitive periods throughout the year — i.e. New Student Orientation and Admit Weekend — during which they absolutely must adhere to University policy or face serious consequences.”

Former Kappa Sigma president Michael Albanese, a senior, attributed the absence of alcohol sanctions on campus to concerted efforts made by fraternities to improve party security and ensure legal alcohol consumption.

“The use of third-party security is on the increase for most Greek houses,” Albanese said. “This year we are taking extra measures to make sure that no [underage drinking] violations take place at all. These measures include using hired security as ID checkers and bartenders.”

Dean of Students Greg Boardman lauded the leadership of Greek organizations that contributed to improved conduct on campus.

“It is my opinion that factors which may be impacting a drop in the number of OCB cases this year include more actively engaged student organization leaders taking responsibility for the education of their members and holding their members accountable for their individual actions.” He said. “There has been increased dialogue and a renewed commitment on everyone’s part to address health and safety issues.”

Due to the recent deaths of fraternity pledges at California State University-Chico and the University of Colorado, many Stanford fraternities are facing pressure from their national organizations to be careful.

“From our fraternity’s national office we are getting a clear anti-hazing and pro-risk-management message that is always keeping this issue in the front of our mind,” Gilmer said.

The decline in conduct violations might also be attributed to heightened awareness of University rules. For instance, the text of the University hazing policy was included in this year’s Course Bulletin.

TriDelt’s alcohol suspension case will be reviewed next quarter by Boardman, who could potentially shorten the suspension period.

This could be the first year that no fraternity or sorority is placed on housing probation since the disciplinary measure’s inception three years ago.

“We have had only minor housing issues this year,” Howe said. “This is a new review process. So as people begin to understand the new standards, there is positive improvement in meeting the wide range of expectations.”

It remains uncertain whether the lack of major infractions of University policy will be sustained with one quarter left to go.

“In the spring, Greek organizations bring in new members that don’t understand what it means to be Greek at Stanford and may have different expectations,” Greenwell said, adding that he was confident that the current state of affairs will persist.

However, Gilmer said he is not as optimistic.

“Truthfully, I think this is a lucky year and the entire community should be thankful that no life-safety issues have come up at fraternities or sororities,” he said. “Nationally, it has been a miserable year and I am glad our Greek community has been more responsible than many of the chapters around the country.”

Graves said he was less concerned about Greek organizations than the approximately 87 percent of student groups on campus that are not as closely supervised — especially club sports teams and house management groups. He said he predicts that the majority of future OCB cases will involve these groups.

“These are social organizations that don’t come into the OSA except to register,” Graves said. “The Greek community is showing marvelous results but I am cautious about what the future holds with regard to non-Greek organizations.”