UPDATED: Feb. 2, 2011

Failure of the Alpha Chi Omega Lambda chapter members to change behaviors after being put on probation last spring led to the chapter’s closure Friday, according to a letter from A Chi O National Headquarters obtained by The Daily Orange.

The SU chapter was informed Thursday of the decision to revoke the charter and was given the opportunity to respond, which the women did, according to a letter sent to Lambda chapter alumnae from national president Marsha King Grady. It is A Chi O national policy that a vote to revoke a chapter cannot be undone.

All SU members will transition to alumna status and may not present themselves as active members of an A Chi O chapter, according to the letter.

The university was not involved in the decision to revoke the chapter’s charter, said Eddie Banks-Crosson, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs at SU.

‘We were just as surprised as the women were,’ Banks-Crosson said.

The women’s fraternity will not be participating or helping with the spring recruitment process, which began Friday, Banks-Crosson said. The women’s fraternity was included in the spring recruitment handbook, which was given to all participating women.

The A Chi O house will continue to house women until the end of the semester, and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs is working with the university’s housing system to ensure the women who had planned on residing at the A Chi O house on Walnut Avenue will be able to obtain housing through the university should they choose to, Banks-Crosson said.

There are 40 women living in the house, said Kate Sisco, who was the A Chi O president at the time of the chapter’s closure.

She said the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs has been ‘nothing but extremely helpful’ to A Chi O. The changes have been happening quickly, she said. Sisco also said she did not know what current A Chi O campus members would do now that their chapter is closed.

Ideally, the women will be able to come together for leadership and volunteer opportunities in another way, Sisco said, although she said she knows it will be a group outside of SU’s greek system and one not associated with A Chi O.

‘I’m very interested in us staying together,’ Sisco said.

A Chi O has been a part of SU’s campus since 1906. The chapter was ‘deeply saddened’ to announce the closing and said it was not the desired outcome of ongoing struggles with National Headquarters, according to an A Chi O Lambda chapter press release issued Saturday.

The six-member National Council voted unanimously to revoke the chapter’s charter Friday, said Janine Grover, marketing and communications director for A Chi O National Headquarters. There is a chance for the chapter to recolonize at SU but not until after a significant period of time, Grover said.

‘There were behaviors that were unhealthy for the chapter,’ Grover said. Grover could not go into specifics because of the National Headquarters privacy policy.

For the past year, National Headquarters has been working with SU’s chapter, discussing multiple issues the headquarters had with the Lambda chapter, said Grover of National Headquarters.

The Lambda chapter was put on probation last spring for ‘severe risk management violations,’ according to the letter to alumnae. National Headquarters’ staff members made multiple visits to the SU chapter and worked to implement a plan for improvement, including hiring a resident adviser to live in the house.

But the chapter continued to violate the terms of the probation and university policies, according to the letter.

‘Closing a chapter is the hardest decision a National Council has to make, and we would never reach that decision lightly,’ Grady, the national president, said in the letter. ‘At this time, we simply don’t believe we can successfully bring this chapter back to health given the risk management policy violations involved and the campus culture that does not support a positive Alpha Chi Omega experience.’

The chapter was listed as inactive on the national website as of Monday evening. A Tumblr website, Save the Lambdas, began posting appeals to National Headquarters on Friday evening from Lambda alumnae and others nationally associated with A Chi O. The site is run by ‘sisters, family and friends of all past, present and future Syracuse University Alpha Chi Omega Lambda Chapter members,’ according to the site.

Pam Brink-Mulligan, a 1989 SU graduate who pledged A Chi O her sophomore year, has been following the website and said she has written to National Headquarters but has yet to hear a response. Brink-Mulligan is the president of the Central New Jersey SU alumni club and said the A Chi O house has always been a home to her.

‘I just can’t fathom Alpha Chi not being on that campus,’ Brink-Mulligan said.

Mulligan last visited the A Chi O house this past October and said the women were just as she remembered: hard workers who cared about each other. She was aware the house had been on probation for about a year but said it was a shock to hear it would be closing.

‘I cried most of the weekend,’ Mulligan said. ‘It’s really like a death in the family.’

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

 

 

Published on January 31, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride