Butler University is discussing the possibility of bringing a new sorority to campus.

Becky Druetzler, director of Greek life, said increasing women’s recruitment numbers show a need for another sorority.

“We wanted to potentially have something ready this semester,” Druetzler said. “But this is a very long process, and we have to first figure out housing and know when it would be available.”

Butler’s Panhellenic Association created an exploratory team comprised of Panhel officers and delegates whose goal is to evaluate the need for another sorority and  different options.

Panhel delegate and exploratory committee member Tai Vogel said, so far, the committee has mostly been crunching numbers.

“We definitely found that there is a need for another sorority,” Vogel said. “Women’s Greek life has continued to increase over the past few years, and pledge classes are growing by about 10 girls each year.”

This year’s women’s recruitment showed very high numbers of participation, with 52 percent of freshman girls going through recruitment.

Housing is the main issue slowing down the process of adding a new sorority.

The Panhellenic board must vote on the proposal, which will then be given to the Board of Trustees.

“The trustees only meet three times a year,” Druetzler said. “It could be a while before we can move forward with housing.”

Druetzler said parking also needs to be defined for a new sorority house.

Druetzler and Vogel both confirmed a new sorority will not live in the old Tau Kappa Epsilon house.

“The university has a contractual agreement with TKE, similar to what happened when Phi Delt was shut down some years ago,” Druetzler said. “They need to be able to potentially buy the house back, so in the meantime we can’t house a sorority there.”

Druetzler said rumors of specific sororities trying to come to campus are false.

“This is a mutual selection process,” Druetzler said. “First, we will contact the National Panhellenic Conference after our proposal is put to a vote, and then the sororities contact us.”

Druetzler said it is against e NPC rules for a university to contact specific sororities first.

“If we don’t think the interest is great or that we’ve found a good match for our campus, we can always withdraw our offer,” Druetzler said.

Druetzler said the increase in women’s Greek life is becoming somewhat of a national trend.

“A lot of schools are starting to experience sorority upswings,” Druetzler said. “But whenever you decide to expand, it’s important to be very cautious and intentional.”

With the addition of a new sorority shortly after the shutdown of TKE, sororities and fraternities on campus would no longer be equal. Campus would have eight sororities and six fraternities.

“People want to see pairs,” Druetzler said. “But when the girl to guy ratio on campus is already 1.5 to 1, it makes mathematical sense that we would have more sororities than fraternities.”

This semester has not been the same without Tau Kappa Epsilon, but the absence of the song “Dominick the Donkey” is for the better.

I am a big supporter of school traditions and events, but this is one holiday ritual that I am not sad to see go.

Students hearing the Christmas rendition for the first time would think it sounded like any other cheery holiday song.

New students would be led to believe TKE played a variety of Christmas songs throughout the entire season.

But by noon on any day, they would realize the same tune had been blaring from TKE’s speakers all day long.

As night falls and the hum of the song continues, people would realize the next three weeks would be filled with donkey noises.

The constant droning of the same tune makes the day go on longer and longer and does not always put people in a bright, cheery holiday mood.

The pressure of finals week is enough to make some people pull out their hair, especially when forced to hear the same song over and over again while working.

For those who lived around TKE, there was no escaping the song.

Residents of Ross, Residential College and nearby Greek houses could hear the tune creeping through their windows.

“Dominick The Donkey” would drown out the music in my headphones when I walked around on campus.

Other on-campus organizations and groups have attempted to keep the tradition alive by playing “Dominick the Donkey” during this holiday season.

But some school officials have stopped some organizations from playing it.

Although I am glad the song isn’t playing as much as it otherwise would be, other student groups should be allowed to play the song if they feel compelled.

“I heard DG playing it on Friday, and it put some pep in my step, but it would be annoying if I had to live across the street from TKE and have to hear it every day,” junior Nigel Spears said.

Another fraternity or campus organization should start a different holiday tradition that is not forced upon a large percentage of the student body.

This way, Butler students can get in the holiday spirit without bothering their peers.

Published Aug. 29, 2012

After an investigation, an unsuccessful appeal and the removal of three Greek letters, Tau Kappa Epsilon no longer has a place at Butler University.

Anyone not involved knows nothing about why the doors closed, and everyone who is involved isn’t talking—opening the floodgates for nasty rumors and speculation.

Butler officials are in a position to take an opportunity to show how the university takes students’ bad behavior seriously, yet they have shied away from taking a stand.

The speculation—the rumors of hazing, the thought of sexual misconduct  and the possibility of poor academic standing—will be heard over their silence and vague answers.

In the end, it serves in the best interest of everyone in the Butler community to dispel the rumors and reveal why a fraternity that had been here for more than six decades suddenly disappeared from campus.

The community could have greatly benefited from having an open, honest and transparent conversation with administrators. Instead, the Butler community was left with a vague email over the summer and general comments from university officials.

In “TKE chapter shut down” (Aug. 22), President Jim Danko said that the charges against the organization were serious enough that people were at risk.

The TKEs were not acting as they should have and were violating university policy, a communications director with the TKE’s national headquarters said.

Even more troubling is that Danko and Vice President of Student Affairs Levester Johnson were both quick to say that TKE had been under the university’s magnifying glass for quite some time—three to four years.

If people were at risk because of what TKE members were doing, those actions should not have carried on for three to four years.

Despite university policy violations and risky behavior, the only thing any administrators or the national headquarters will reveal is a laundry list of what could have gone wrong with the chapter—anything from academic performance to day-to-day chapter operations to recruitment and hazing.

Those reasons don’t stack up evenly.

Hazing is far riskier behavior than not having enough pledges or maintaining a good grade-point average. They should not be equated.

When administrators removed Phi Delta Theta from campus in fall 2002, rumors flooded across campus and students were coming up with their own versions of the story.

Speculations about drugs and hazing rituals littered the campus and cast a terrible light on the issue.

It wasn’t until the chapter was reinstated six years later that administrators put those rumors to rest.

It wasn’t hazing, they said, and it had nothing to do with drugs—it was because of low recruitment numbers.

Had the university been honest and upfront in the first place, it would have saved them time spent trying to clean up the damage the rumors caused.

Today, administrators find themselves in the same position past administrators were in a decade ago.

And they should do what past administrators did not—squash the rumors and address the issue at hand.

It’s been more than three months since Butler University administrators shut the doors of Tau Kappa Epsilon’s Gamma Psi chapter.
A report came in near the end of the spring semester that led to an investigation of the house. Vice President for Student Affairs Levester Johnson would not disclose what the complaint against the organization was.
Following the investigation, the university and the national organization made the joint decision on May 14 to close the chapter.
Administrators had been keeping a close eye on the fraternity’s actions in recent years, and national headquarters officials said they had stepped in to work to fix the problems within the chapter.
“We’re not in the business of shutting down our chapters,” said Tom McAninch, director of communications and public relations for TKE’s national headquarters. “We want to see everyone succeed.”
A number of risk-management concerns have been documented over the past three or four years.
“Everything is a teaching opportunity to help (the chapter members) understand what they should be doing and why they should be doing it,” McAninch said. “They didn’t take that opportunity to learn from those mistakes, they just continued to make them.”
Though he wasn’t aware of the specific concerns, McAninch said that concerns could have included academic standings, recruitment issues or daily chapter operations.
Soon after the decision was made, TKE president Seth Schmitt filed an appeal.
Schmitt declined to comment for this story.
Greek organizations, as outlined in the student handbook, can receive conduct charges for violating campus policies, state law or their respective council’s constitution and bylaws and are entitled to a hearing.
Most hearings are overseen by the Greek Conduct Review Committee, which includes the dean of student life and the director of Greek life. In this case, since most  had left for the summer, Johnson oversaw the hearing.
Though he said he could only speak in broader terms, Johnson said that closing the chapter was the best decision for everyone involved.
“In the end, it’s what was good for the university, the fraternity and the students,” Johnson said.
University President Jim Danko said that while he played little role in the process, he was aware of the situation. The fraternity’s actions, Danko said, were serious enough that people were at risk.
“You hope that your students do the right thing,” Danko said. “You all are adults and should set the bar. You know what’s wrong and right.”
Students who lived in the house have found housing on or off campus. The future of the property is still up in the air, Danko said. There is a possibility that the university could end up with the house, though it is currently owned by the organization.