You have to fight for your right to philanthropy.
The Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council are planning to form a Philanthropy Advisory Board in response to a semester's worth of unfavorable events, said Gary Ballinger, Greek Life coordinator.
"We are finding out that there hasn't really been prior planning or rules and regulations set for these events," Ballinger said.
The Philanthropy Advisory Board, which will take effect next semester, will schedule and approve every philanthropic event held by a recognized greek organization, Ballinger said.
Ballinger said scheduling conflicts this semester have resulted in several philanthropy events occurring during the same time or weekend, and an established board will prevent those problems next year.
"The students are a little over programmed and it's overwhelming with the onslaught of events back to back," said Ballinger, who added another purpose for the board will be to approve the appropriateness of events and to set "reasonable guidelines."
In the past, chapters have hosted events that have not been "in the best of taste," said Panhellenic President Erin Cohen and IFC president Michael Katzman in an April 20 Wildcat letter to the editor. "We commit ourselves to working to curb this problem of indecent and immoral philanthropies."
In response to the unfavorable events, Cohen and Katzman promised to ensure tastefulness of future events.
Cohen, a psychology junior, said under the new board, each chapter will be required to submit a detailed outline of the philanthropy's series of events, which must be approved beforehand in order to hold the event.
"The advisory board will have the final say in whatever events may occur and also help to promote, program and screen for appropriateness," the letter stated.
While Cohen said she is confident organizers of recent events are aware of the impropriety, she also said she believes greek presidents and philanthropy chairs have not done enough to speak up about unacceptable events.
"Too much control has been given to chapters and there is not enough strong leadership," Cohen said. "Presidents or philanthropy chairs are not speaking up when they know something is inappropriate or wrong."
In addition to regulating philanthropy events, the councils also want to maximize the amount of money raised for philanthropies, and prevent each chapter from writing checks to each other for their events, Cohen said.
Cohen said too often, an organization will host an event and charge another organization to participate.
"For each event, the houses are just swapping checks, we want to maximize the money coming in," Cohen said.
Tim Vega, philanthropy chair for Kappa Sigma, said he thinks having a board to approve events is a good idea to ensure that chapters don't confuse a philanthropy event with a party.
"A lot of times it's hard to get people to volunteer, so sometimes houses have incentives to participate," said Vega, a marketing sophomore. "It's a good idea to have an advisory board to make sure those incentives aren't parties."
Rebecca Gerrick, Alpha Epsilon Phi's philanthropy chair, said she also understands why the council would want to approve philanthropy events beforehand.
"But on the other hand, many philanthropies haven't been a problem, and they have raised a lot of money," said Gerrick, a psychology sophomore.