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Panhellenic responds to multiple hospitalizations

Katie Taylor & Emily Hanhart, For The Miami Student

All sorority chapters were placed under a social moratorium Feb. 13 in response to the high volume of individuals requiring medical attention as a result of alcohol consumption.

The incidents involved six new members from five different sororities, and occurred within 48 hours of the Feb. 9 bid day, according to Panhellenic Association President Cait Duckworth. The moratorium was lifted Wednesday night.

"We held an emergency meeting with the presidents, and then the next day we decided to put the entire sorority community on a social indefinite moratorium, meaning that they could not have official registered socials through the [Cliff Alexander Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life]."

Several of the new members were transported to the hospital Monday and Tuesday night, however, Duckworth said no one has suffered lasting physical harm.

"So this is a major concern because five chapters is what? A third, or more than a quarter of our 18 sororities," President of Kappa Kappa Gamma Amanda Potts said.

In lieu of the social moratorium, the Panhellenic Association held mandatory meetings with chapter presidents.

"We suggested to the presidents that they need to provide alternate programming for their members to provide them with other things other than going out," Duckworth said. "That being said, we don't have the authority to prevent anyone from making that decision on their own ..."

The Alexander Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, as well as the Panhellenic Association, made the decision to put the moratorium in place, despite never having done so before.

"I know that other campuses have tried this type of policy before, so we've looked into that and done our research on that level," Duckworth said. "The good news is we haven't had any other incidents."

The Panhellenic Association has held meetings with each of the chapters that had incidents to discuss possible consequences.

"We decided to do this not as a punitive measure for the chapters because there are chapters who did not have problems," Duckworth said. "We decided to do this proactively, until we could complete investigations and decide what we're going to do with the chapters who had incidents."

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According to Duckworth, the chapter meetings are confidential. However, she ensured follow-up will continue to address the issues of conduct.

"What I can be proud of, as the president of Panhellenic, is the way the chapter presidents and the chapter members have stepped up and said that this is not what we stand for, it is not up to our standards as Panhellenic organizations and our Greek community," Duckworth said.