Panhellenic Education Infractions

1. Panhellenic Education Infractions

2. What is an Infraction? An infraction is a violation of: • NPC Unanimous Agreements • College Panhellenic Constitution and/or Bylaws • Membership recruitment rules/guidelines • Panhellenic Code of Ethics • College Panhellenic Standing Rules

3. Who can File an Infraction? • Panhellenic Advisor or Fraternity/Sorority Advisor • Recruitment Counselors • Chapter Presidents, on behalf of their chapter • Potential New Members

4. Resolving Infractions … • Before filing a Violation Report, the reporting party and the accused party should meet to try to resolve the issue without using the Panhellenic Judicial process. • If a Violation Report is filed, the involved parties will meet for Mediation (see next slide for more on mediation). • If Mediation is unsuccessful, a hearing will be held by the Collegiate Panhellenic Judicial Board. • Decisions made by the Panhellenic Judicial Board may be appealed by any of the involved parties to the NPC College Panhellenics Judicial Appeals Chairman.

5. More about Mediation … The mediator must be an impartial party with no stake in the outcome. • He/she can not be an undergraduate student. • The Panhellenic Advisor may serve as the mediator, though it is not suggested. Tip … A good resource for finding an impartial mediator is your campus’ counseling center or graduate level counseling department.

6. Appropriate Penalties … Each College Panhellenic shall strive to achieve a fair and reasonable resolution for infractions. Penalties should be assessed to fit the nature and degree of the offense. • Monetary fines should only be used for measurable offenses, such as increments of time that event invitation lists are late or events start or end late. • Should focus on education of members, such as organizing an educational program for the Panhellenic community.

7. Inappropriate Penalties … Penalties can not: • Prevent chapters from recruiting or participating in inter-fraternal or national fraternity/sorority celebrations. • Affect chapter Total or Quota. • Affect the time of new member acceptance or initiation. • Revoke the voting rights of a chapter in Panhellenic Council meetings. • Exceed one calendar year from the date of final decision.

8. Is it an Infraction? Examples of legitimate infractions: • Hosting a recruitment event with a male organization. • Making disparaging remarks about another sorority in order to influence a PNM’s decision. • A chapter not paying dues to the Panhellenic Council in a timely manner. • Hazing – in addition to being illegal in most states and against all fraternity and sorority National policies, hazing is also a violation of most College Panhellenic Constitutions.

9. Examples of situations that may be a mistake or misunderstanding and should be discussed with the other party before filing a Violation Report: • A few PNMs leaving a preference party with sorority-provided name tags. • Hearing through the grapevine that members of another sorority invited PNMs to a fraternity party after a Formal Recruitment event. Remember … if you didn’t personally see it happen then you don’t know what really happened! Talk about it first!!

10. Want More Information? All information except the examples of infractions and possible infractions was taken directly from the NPC Manual of Information. Please reference your MOI for more information on any of these or other Panhellenic issues, or contact your chapter’s Collegiate Panhellenic Assistant. Examples of infractions are from actual Violation Reports and Notice of Infraction forms filed by collegiate women.