FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Carolyn Welter, Vice President of Public Relations

913-256-9015
cmw3t4@mail.missouri.edu
Parker Briden, IFC Vice President of Public Relations
314-435-3254
pwbb7d@mail.missouri.edu

The University of Missouri Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council Hope to

Influence Administration Policies at the Upcoming Chancellors Summit
COLUMBIA, MO (June 5, 2015) The University of Missouris Panhellenic Association and
Interfraternity Council are optimistic that the upcoming Chancellors Summit on Sexual Assault &
Student Safety in Fraternity Houses will result in more thorough and adequate administrative policies
pertaining to Greek Life.
The summit emerged as a way to discuss the recent proposal on the Safety of Women Students in
Fraternity Houses brought to the administration by the Fraternity Alumni Consortium. The
Executive Boards of both Greek councils appreciate the input from their valued alumni and the
schools administration, however it strongly disagrees with several of the policies proposed by the
Fraternity Alumni Consortium.
The women of the Panhellenic Association Executive Board and the Panhellenic chapter presidents
deemed the very premise of the proposal problematic and found many of the policies to be
ineffective and uneducated. They concluded that a majority of the proposed policies were not in the
best interest of the members of the Panhellenic Association. They drafted a letter and emailed it to
MUs Chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin. The letter addresses the Panhellenic Associations concern with
the proposal as a whole and the specific concerns with some of the policies proposed by the
Fraternity Alumni Consortium. The intent of the letter was to show the need for the administration to
include the women of the Panhellenic Association in discussions surrounding the safety of women
students.
The men of the Interfraternity Council Executive Board also have many serious concerns with the
proposal and believe that further coordination with student leaders is necessary to create effective
policies. The IFC Executive Board has been working throughout the year to draft a new alcohol
policy and education initiative designed to combat sexual misconduct within the Greek community.
This alcohol policy closely mirrors the one outlined by the Alumni Consortium, and they appreciate
their support for those efforts. Their hope is that this summit will provide a platform to discuss their
plans with the administration and the Panhellenic Association stakeholders.
Both councils encourage the Fraternity Consortium and administration to consider the aggressive
work that IFC and PHA are doing to combat sexual misconduct, and work together with the people
who are closest to these issues. The leaders in these two councils are committed to Chancellor
Loftins goal of eliminating sexual misconduct on our campus and will continue to be a leader in
finding effective solutions that move us further towards that goal, while respecting the rights of all
MU students.

The invite-only summit, hosted by University of Missouri Chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin, will take
place on June 20, 2015. The Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council Executive Boards,
chapter presidents, a handful of chapter executive officers, house corporation boards, every executive
director of National Panhellenic Council and North-American Interfraternity Conference and general
stakeholders in the community were all invited.
Details on the new peer education system created by IFC to address sexual misconduct can be found
here: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/mu-fraternity-members-are-teaching-each-otherabout-sexual-assault/article_768d9d80-860a-5878-ab10-6ec54156374f.html.
Attached is the letter sent to Chancellor Loftin, written and signed on behalf of the leaders of the
Panhellenic Association.
For additional information on the Panhellenic Associations position on the proposal, contact PHA
Vice President of Public Relations Carolyn Welter, cmw3t4@mail.missouri.edu or PHA President
Allison Fitts, alftz8@mail.missouri.edu. For additional information on the Interfraternity Councils
position on the proposal, contact IFC Vice President of Public Relations Parker Briden,
pwbb7d@mail.missouri.edu or IFC President Jason Blincow, jtbpp9@mail.missouri.edu.

###
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATIONS: The University of Missouri Panhellenic Association and
Interfraternity Council are two of the three councils within the Office of Greek Life. The Panhellenic
Association is the governing body over the 15 recognized NPC sororities and one affiliate sorority on
our campus. An Executive Board comprised of eight sorority women are elected each year in order to
promote unity within the sororities through weekly delegation, frequent events for the whole PHA
community, hosting Formal Recruitment each year and much more. The Executive Board works to
promote the four Mizzou Panhellenic values, sisterhood, scholarship, leadership and service, which
are the common threads that unite all of our sorority women. You can learn more about the
organization at http://greeklife.missouri.edu/pha/. The MU Interfraternity Council oversees and
represents fraternities on Mizzous campus. Its objectives are to promote the interests of University
of Missouri and member fraternities, promote cooperation between member fraternities and the
University of Missouri, and ensure cooperation between member fraternities, as well as uphold IFCs
values of Brotherhood, Leadership, Scholarship, and Service. More information on the MU
Interfraternity Council can be found at http://greeklife.missouri.edu/ifc/.

Attachments:
Wednesday, April 29th, 2015
Dear Chancellor Loftin,
This letter is to inform you of the concerns the women of the Panhellenic Association (PHA) have about
the recent proposal on the Safety of Women Students in Fraternity Houses brought to UM System
President Tim Wolfe by the MU Fraternity Alumni Consortium. Below we will detail our concerns
with each portion of the proposal; however, we are concerned by the very premise of this proposal. The

goal is to address the safety of women students in fraternity houses, but the proposal was written by men
who are not entrenched in daily campus, fraternity and sorority life. We believe that before any proposal
is passed regarding our members, it is proper to do due diligence and investigate the merits of the
suggestions before enacting them. We are asking you to consult with President Wolfe to ensure that
policies made regarding our members are being created in our members best interest and with the
opinion of student leadership within our community. Below we will discuss our views on the proposal in
regards to our members:

MU Fraternity Alumni Consortiums Proposed Policies

Policy One: Women Students as Guests in Fraternity Houses
We, the women of PHA, do not support this policy. We believe it is the right of individual fraternity
members to have guests over to their place of residence regardless of time of day or the gender of the
guest. By restricting women from certain locations under the guise of safety, this policy lends itself to
the notion that women cannot make choices for themselves about their own safety. Additionally, this
policy might inadvertently give men within fraternity houses the right or feeling of entitlement to treat
women who do not abide by this rule as the men wish. This could lead to an increase in dehumanizing or
making women counterparts inferior to the fraternity men. We do understand that this policy was
suggested as a means to protect women from an unsafe environment. However, if women would be
unsafe during the hours of 10 p.m. through 3 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, we implore
fraternities to remove the members who are currently contributing to an unsafe environment and to recruit
members who will not make an environment unsafe in the future.
Policy Two: Social & Recruitment Events
We, the women of PHA, support this policy. We believe that out-of-town social events and formals create
certain expectations for guests of any gender that attend as a fraternity mans date. By being expected to
share a bed in a hotel with your date, a clear expectation is set. Furthermore, if any type of sexual
violence were to take place on an out-of-town formal, the survivor would have very limited to no options
in getting out of the situation that weekend. In terms of float trips, they are already prohibited per the
University of Missouris Office of Greek Life and Interfraternity Council policy.
Policy Three: Alcohol
We, the women of PHA, support this policy. We believe that women twenty-one-years and older have the
right to choose what alcoholic drinks they consume. Currently, however, the environment within
fraternities does contain hard alcohol and underage drinking. We believe this atmosphere is not good for
anyones health or well-being. By implementing a beer only policy at all fraternity houses, hopefully
the amount of harmful, binge drinking will decrease, along with the physical and mental impairments that
it causes. We, the women of PHA, do offer one addendum, however. We believe that a ban should be
placed on the possession of alcohol in areas of fraternity homes that are not common areas - namely,
bedrooms - during parties and social events. We believe that this ban would protect guests of fraternity
homes from being placed in an unsafe situation unknowingly. Though we support this portion of the
proposal, we want to stress that in regards to safety for women in the realm of sexual violence,
intoxication of either party does not serve as an excuse for a fraternity man to commit a non-consensual
act. In addition, women should not have to be sober in order to guarantee their sexual safety against

fraternity men. While alcohol and sexual assaults are statistically correlated, we want to highlight that
alcohol does not cause sexual assault.
Policy Four: Drugs
We, the women of PHA, do not support this policy. To require our sororities to administer drug testing for
all of our members is absurd and unwarranted. If a fraternity is concerned about drug use among their inhouse members, they may administer drug testing on their own accord. However, to implement it via
orders from the Office of Greek Life is overreaching.

MU Fraternity Alumni Consortiums Proposed Implementation

The Office of Greek Life will issue policies addressing women students as guests in fraternity houses,
social and recruitment events and drug testing.
We, the women of PHA, do not support this. The policies set forth here were not created through
consultation with women students, so we do not deem all of them appropriate to implement. Additionally,
these policies should protect all guests in fraternity houses, regardless of gender. Finally, the
Interfraternity Council should be the governing body to implement any changes in policy, not solely the
Office of Greek Life.
IFC will issue a policy regarding alcohol.
The Interfraternity Council already has a policy regarding alcohol. However, we, the women of PHA,
believe that updating it with some of the suggested policies (and more policies that are created through
dialogues amongst men and women students) would be beneficial.
Fraternity house corporations will include provisions that address women students as guests in
fraternity houses, alcohol and drug testing in their leases and house rules.
Again, we, the women of PHA, cannot endorse this implementation strategy because we do not agree
with all of the policies that the Consortium is suggesting.

MU Fraternity Alumni Consortiums Proposed Education

We will conduct a Sexual Assault Summit for all fraternity and sorority leaders as the first step in
addressing sexual assault in the Greek Community.
We, the women of PHA, agree that education is vital in combating sexual assault all across the University
of Missouri community. However, specific steps need to be taken in order to effectively educate. First,
sorority leaders do not need to be educated via a summit designed to educate men. The education blocks
for men and women surrounding topics of sexual violence look very different. The Panhellenic
Association has been hard at work creating effective education and programming for our members.
Second, we have faith that the current leadership in the Interfraternity Council is working on education
and programming for their members. We believe that their meetings with the RSVP Center and Title IX
Office will prove useful when planning this education, and the student-led factor will be a huge key to
these programs success.

We will educate all freshmen and transfer students about sexual assault at the beginning of their first
semester on campus.
Again, we, the women of PHA, agree that education is vital and should happen early and often. We
implore the Consortium to let the Interfraternity Council continue with their planning efforts for a
comprehensive New Member Education for Fall 2015.

MU Fraternity Alumni Consortiums Proposed Monitoring & Enforcement

We, the women of PHA, disagree with this entire section on the principle that the Consortiums proposal
should not be enforced. Despite the fact that we agree with some parts of the proposal, fundamentally we
believe that it is an invalid document because it was created without consulting current fraternity
members or the women it claims to create safety for. Moving forward, we believe that the Panhellenic
Association and the Interfraternity Council, along with individual chapters, should continue to be the
people working on combating sexual violence and working toward the safety of everyone in our
community.

Chancellor Loftin, we, the women of PHA, urge you, President Wolfe and other University of Missouri
administration members not to implement the proposal brought forth by the MU Fraternity Alumni
Consortium. The manner in which it was created is insufficient and many of the items suggested do not
pertain to protecting women and all guests in fraternity houses. We welcome any discussion and discourse
with our community about its safety needs.