This summer, Amherst College will no longer allow its students to join fraternities or sororities.
According to the Huffington Post, Amherst announced the rule will go into affect July 1 and will ban students from participating in "fraternity-like and sorority-like organizations, either on or off campus."
Amherst stopped recognizing Greek organizations in 1984, but continued to allow them to meet unofficially as long as their activities were held off campus.
"Violations of this decision will be treated consistent with other violations of the Honor Code, which sets forth standards and expectations that apply to all students, faculty and staff," Cullen Murphy, Amherst Board of Trustees chair, wrote to students in an email.
The Board of Trustees took in to account suggestions made in 2013 from the school's Sexual Misconduct Oversight Committee (SMOC) for their decision to ban students from joining Greek groups. The group was formed in 2013 as a response to allegations from Amherst student Angie Epifano, who wrote an op-ed for the Amherst Student in 2012 she experienced depression resulting from being sexually assaulted.
The allegations led to a federal Title IX investigation looking into how Amherst handles reports of sexual assault from its students. As part of the SMOC's recommendations, they said underground fraternities "exist but do not exist" at the same time because the school cannot enforce what they do not recognize.
In a statement accompanying the email to the students, the Board of Trustees said they considered officially recognizing fraternities in order to police them. The statement said keeping things the way they were, "along with its contradictions and consequences, indefinitely. Such a course, in the view of the Board and the Administration, would be counterproductive and unwise."
Several other schools have had to ban certain fraternity chapters on their campus and take other disciplinary actions due to unsavory actions.
