Over the past week, the Geneseo administration has declined to promptly or properly inform the student body about incidents involving Greek life on two separate occasions. To prevent the spread of potentially harmful rumors, the college administration should be transparent and quicker to inform students.
For example, Phi Kappa Pi, commonly referred to as Clio, was placed on an interim suspension pending investigation, according to Interim Coordinator for Fraternal Life and Off-Campus Services Bethany Hettinger. Rather than send an email out to the campus community, news was spread on-campus through word-of-mouth. The informal spread of information spawned rumors that could damage Clio’s reputation or otherwise misinform students about the organization.
These rumors, which range from harmless to detrimental, could easily have been avoided if administration simply made a statement explaining that the college had temporarily suspended the sorority with a broad reason as to why. While the rest of campus is not necessarily entitled to all of the situation’s specifics, they do deserve some basic answers.
The intrusion by a stranger at the house of Alpha Kappa Phi, otherwise known as Ago, also demonstrated a failure by administration to effectively keep students in the know. Although an email was sent to Greek presidents the night of the incident, the University Police waited until Monday afternoon—two days later—before reaching out to the rest of the campus.
During this time, multiple different reports started spreading amongst the student body. Some alleged that the intruder was part of a larger group of malcontents, others alleged that he was stalking students. Without proper, prompt information from the college, students could end up constructing the worst case scenarios from rumor.
On the one hand, the campus community does not want to and should not be privy to every piece of private information from Greek organizations. But if students are in danger or if there are serious situations at hand, students deserve to have at least a basic knowledge of the facts.
Instead of waiting and letting gossip dominate the campus, the college administration should promptly inform the community with helpful and relevant information.