Under a change made this month to the bylaws of the University of Wisconsin Greek Judicial Board, the board can now vote to send complaints they feel are especially egregious directly to the Committee on Student Organizations.
The change allows the Judicial Board to bypass hearings on certain cases if supported by a two-thirds vote, and gives responsibility for complaints to the CSO, which governs student organizations on campus.
The CSO, unlike the Greek Judicial Board, has the power to forward cases to the Offices of the Dean of Students.
“If it’s an egregious case that involves dangerous behavior against the health or safety of people, those lower courts aren’t set up to deal with cases where people could die,” CSO advisor Kip Cox said. “Some of the stuff can be pretty serious that’s out there, and [the bylaw change] puts it in the hands of people who are better set up to get to the truth of what really happened.”
According to Barb Kautz, coordinator of Greek Life and Involvement, the bylaw change was passed on April 1 at the Presidents’ Congress, a monthly meeting among Greek chapter presidents.
Kautz said the change was proposed by Marshall Snow, chief justice of the Greek Judicial Board, at the March 11 Presidents’ Congress.
While Kautz said the change has been under consideration for quite some time, an anonymous source familiar with the Greek Judicial Board said Snow proposed the change at the March meeting as a direct result of allegations of rape at the Sigma Chi chapter house.
“He proposed that change in direct response to the printing of the Sigma Chi incident because he didn’t think the Judicial Board could deal with it, and because he personally didn’t want to deal with it, he wrote that bylaw change,” the source said.
The source went on to say if the victim does not file a complaint by the end of this academic year, it is unlikely the Sigma Chi allegations will ever appear before the Greek Judicial Board.
The source added cases the Judicial Board would potentially forward to the CSO are rare, and added most would involve matters serious enough to be grounds to kick a chapter off campus.
The only recent case the board has heard that would now qualify as serious enough for forwarding was the case of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, which lost its status as a student organization in 2006, according to the source.
“With a case that is serious enough for the Judicial Board to be forwarding on to the CSO, that’s a question of being kicked off campus. I would be shocked if a case was ever forwarded that it was not a distinct possibility that that chapter be kicked off as a result,” the source said.
The bylaw change was one of three proposed at the March Presidents’ Congress. Another bylaw passed will change the makeup of appellate boards within the Greek judicial system.
Snow declined to comment on the bylaw changes.
