MORGANTOWN — Sigma Chi, one of the five fraternities that dissociated from WVU to form an Independent Fraternity Council and was banned by the university for 10 years, issued its formal response to WVU on Thursday.
The response comes in the form of a public letter by Sigma Chi’s 70th Grand Consul (International President) W. Thomas Geddings, Jr. Sigma provided a copy to The Dominion Post.
Asked if WVU would care to comment, WVU spokeswoman April Kaull said they have nothing additional to say beyond what they’ve already published.
The essence of the 1,400-word letter — here is a link: http://sigmachi.org/Sigma-Chi-Responds-To-WVU — is that WVU exercised bad faith in its “arbitrary and capricious” Reaching the Summit Greek Life review process and in Sigma Chi’s efforts to reach an accord regarding the local chapter’s move to dissociate.
Excerpts from the opening and closing paragraphs sum up the viewpoint. It opens: “The phrase, ‘Let’s agree to disagree without being disagreeable’ comes to mind in this particular moment. I am dismayed at WVU President Gordon Gee’s decision to publicly besmirch the fraternal organizations that decided to end their affiliation with the university over the past several weeks. One of Sigma Chi’s core tenets is that of courtesy and, as such, we have no interest in engaging in the same mudslinging tactics that President Gee has chosen.”
It closes: “Make no mistake about it: We have every desire to establish a mutually beneficial partnership with WVU at such time that it makes sense to do so. We truly hope that President Gee will cease his aggressive, damaging, misleading and defamatory rhetoric so that we can begin the process of repairing this once-productive partnership.
“In the meantime, Sigma Chi will hold its men to the highest of standards and will continue to expect them to hold themselves out with deep respect and admiration for the timeless principles of our fraternity.”
In the body of the letter, Geddings outlines the history of the local Mu Mu Chapter’s 2016 suspension over serious policy violations. “A thorough review of the chapter was conducted, and Sigma Chi at the time was seriously considering closing the chapter entirely.”
But WVU persuaded them to keep it open to provide Greek community leadership. The “irresponsible members” were removed and Sigma Chi and Mu Mu pursued an improvement plan praised by WVY for its success. The chapter was on the verge of returning to good stand.
“Then, on Feb. 14, 2018, the university launched its ‘Reaching the Summit’ plan,” he Geddings writes.
“The Reaching the Summit plan was well-intentioned but poorly executed. Rather than including students and community partners in the process of creating the much-needed culture change that would bring about the mutually desired end of a renewed focus to fostering a healthy, safe and impactful fraternity experience in Morgantown, it ended up as an unnecessarily paternalistic, arbitrary and capricious approach.”
Mu Mu was suspended again for the 2016 incident, Geddings writes. “Double jeopardy at its finest.”
But Sigma Chi complied and re-applied for good standing status. It is now listed as “disassociated subject to ongoing conduct-related sanctions,” he write.
“A partnership requires two parties to be equally interested in achieving a desired objective.” Mu Mu felt there was little support from WVU and on Aug. 12 decided to dissociate.
Sigma Chi, other fraternities, WVU and the North-American Interfraternity Conference entered into talks, with no results, he writes.
“To our dismay, our efforts to establish a conciliatory conclusion ultimately led nowhere and we were placed in the unenviable position of deciding whether we would support either our chapter or a tone-deaf administration. We are now determined to support our chapter with an even more enhanced investment in ensuring they have the highest quality fraternity experience.”
After the announcement, Geddings writes, Gee and Dean of Students Corey Farris alleged that Sigma Chi dissociated because it’s not interested in health and safety measures.
“Shame on them for disparaging the character of their students and for attacking our organization. Sigma Chi has long been a leader in the arena of health and safety; and much longer than WVU has been failing to address the same problems.” He goes on to list seven examples, such as being one of the first fraternities to attack the hazing culture.
“All the while, we have developed a robust character and leadership development framework that invests in our young members on a per-capita basis more than most institutions of higher education.
“In the end, he writes, “our decision is based on the fundamental construct that respecting students’ rights and establishing a healthy and safe fraternity experience are not mutually exclusive ends. Our students do not leave behind their rights and privileges at the gates of the institutions in which they enroll, and we believe it is patently and disappointingly unfair to ask them to do so.”
