Greek-letter organizations vying for University-owned townhouses will find out whether or not their organization secured a space by Dec. 7, a University official said this week.
Robert Chernak, senior vice president for Student and Academic Support Services, said the final decision on who gets what townhouse rests with him, although he will receive a recommendation from a committee of Student Activities Center, SASS, and Greek-letter leaders who heard presentations from chapters last week. Chernak added he will wait until he believes the decisions made were fair before notifying chapters.
“I have to be convinced honestly that the process is fair, equitable, and that enough eyes see it that concur,” he said. Losing or gaining a house could have serious effects on chapters, from their ability to attract new members to suddenly being financially responsible for filling a townhouse. Chernak said he would not be making the decision alone.
“That committee makes recommendations to me, but I’m going to tell you right now that I’m not going to make a unilateral decision to either accept or reject that decision without some other folks looking at it. I want a group of knowledgeable professional staff to review the recommendations and really give input to see if it’s reasonable how those recommendations were reached,” Chernak said, referring to senior staff members in SASS, like Dean of Students Linda Donnels, Assistant Vice President for SASS Helen Cannaday-Saulny, and Associate Vice President for SASS Peter Konwerski.
Chapters have been told three criteria will be weighed in their bid for housing. The first and most important are the Greek Excellence awards, which make up 70 percent of a Greek-letter group’s score.
Chapters should have a minimum of a “silver” rating from the Greek Chapter Excellence Program to be considered for housing, according to the housing application. If, however, the list of chapters at “silver” or “gold” are exhausted and housing still is available, chapters with a “bronze” rating may be considered, the application says. Twenty percent of a Greek-letter organization’s score is based on whether or not the Greek-letter group has an adequate plan to make sure they can successfully fill their townhouses to the required capacity – 100 percent during the academic year, and 70 percent during the summer.
Last, a chapter’s judicial records over the past two years, as well as an aggregated record of judicial records of current chapter members make up 10 percent of the selection criteria.
Chernak said as of yet, he has not received any recommendations, and no decision has been made.
“This is a big deal for a lot of people,” Chernak said. “It’s a big deal for the students, the nationals [for each chapter], the alumni. All I can promise is that we’re going to make sure that we exercise the best wisdom we can to figure out a methodology that’s fair and that people think is fair.”
