With the rise in violations at Main Campus, President Barron has been warning of full shutdowns of Fraternity and Sorority life at Penn State. This warning stems from the recent death of a new member at a fraternity back in early February and the reactions of the fraternities and sororities to this. In a recent blog post, Barron addressed the fact that nine of the campuses 82 fraternities and sororities violated the sanctions put on them following the tragedy at parents weekend in early April. One fraternity violated almost every rule, including the underage drinking rule.

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The University developed strict sanctions following the death of Tim Piazza, a Pledge to the Beta Theta Phi chapter. After the incident there were strict sanctions placed on Fraternities and Sororities mainly focusing on alcohol consumption and safety during events. The University placed a temporary hold on serving alcohol at Greek events. They allowed one social event during parent's weekend that allowed these houses to serve to those 21 and over, but as spot checkers went around campus they realized that these sanctions were being heavily disregarded by many of the organizations.

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Some students are worried about the effect that sanctions on Main Campus will have on Behrend Fraternity and Sorority life. Colin Shakespeare, freshman History major and member of Delta Chi Fraternity is a member of the Interfraternity council here at Behrend. Colin strongly believes that the problems with main campus and their fraternity and sorority life should not affect any other campuses. “They have fraternity and sorority life at way a bigger scale than we do here,” Shakespeare said. “It’s like a completely different culture. I don’t think their actions should affect greek life at Behrend at all.” Eve Schell, junior Psychology major and member of Theta Phi Alpha Fraternity agrees, she said, “The way I look at it is that some organizations ruin things, but they shouldn’t be the voice of all fraternity and sorority life. It’s not the fault of anyone but those involved that these problems happened.”

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Both those outside and inside greek life feel that sanctions on Behrends community are unnecessary. Olivia Wickline, sophomore Communications major said, “I feel like greek life at Behrend is very tame compared to how it is depicted at other campuses; there aren’t many stories about people here going out of line.” Abby Lawton, junior Communications major and member of Theta Phi Alpha Fraternity agreed and said, “I think it really isn’t as bad here as it is in other places, we stick to the rules pretty well and there are not many problems that occur with fraternities and sororities here at Behrend.”

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With this threat of possibly shutting down Fraternities and Sororities, it has some people worried. The students who are in greek life believe that Behrend’s greek life is not as big as it is at main campus. All of these thoughts are up in the air at the moment, so stay tuned for more information.