No Love, No Honor — Our Meetings And What Comes Next

Last week, the Miami University College Democrats executive board met with representatives from Miami Panhellenic to discuss the recent incidences of racism within sororities at Miami. The intent of the meeting was to clarify questions we had about the role of Panhellenic, what it can/can’t do to discipline individuals in sororities, and what its plans were to prevent these incidents in the future. We then held a follow-up meeting with the general body and members from the public to discuss what we learned and what we can do to help stop racism on our campus.

Direct questions regarding specific incidents to the Miami sororities and their national chapters. @Miamipanhellenic can answers questions regarding recruitment and sorority life at Miami via their email or Instagram DMs.

In our meeting with Panhellenic, we brainstormed ideas to improve the recruitment process at Miami. One of our ideas was to include racial bias testing for all recruiters. Another idea brought up was for individual sororities to be required to disclose all race incidents to its PNMs (potential new members) and to add the history of racism in Greek Life to the educational
programming. Racism has been ingrained in Greek life for its entire existence, and we believe PNMs should be aware of both recent and historical racism in order to make informed choices.

Once back on campus, Panhellenic will meet with representatives from all the sororities on campus to propose, discuss and vote on new Panhellenic bylaws that could incorporate disciplinary rules and other ideas to hopefully reduce racism in Greek life and improve how racial incidents are dealt with in the future.

Another idea we discussed was finding ways for Greek life to join forces with non-Greek cultural organizations to help provide educational opportunities for members as well as connect two, traditionally separate, social spheres at Miami. This could potentially look like promoting event graphics/flyers on the Panhellenic/Sorority Instagram pages or emails or collaborating on community service projects.

In the Wednesday No Love No Honor meeting hosted by the College Democrats, we brainstormed more ideas for Greek life recruitment. We discussed the idea of racial bias testing offered, specifically the one created by Harvard University, and its potential benefits. We further discussed the differences between explicit and implicit bias and how the tests may not accurately identify between them and how that could affect their overall usefulness.

Representatives from Black Lives Matter Oxford and the Miami University Associated Student Government offered insight into their current initiatives to promote anti-racism on campus. College Democrats are hoping to work with both this coming semester. Specifically, attending protests hosted by BLM and collaborating on ways to make new first-year students feel welcome on campus. Some of these ideas were to create a resource list for POC first-years with information that could make their first few months easier, a kickball game, and a scavenger hunt-type activity during Mega Fair. Ultimately, our fall plans will be determined by Covid-19 regulations and safety concerns.

While College Democrats were organizing Progressive Week in the Spring, we gathered a list of cultural organizations on campus that we hope to utilize in collaborations in the future. We hope to keep a database of resources, organizations, and people that we could work with for future events.

In the upcoming weeks, we plan on developing a social media campaign to put pressure on the Miami administration. Our social media graphics will compare Miami’s statements and responses with the statements and responses from other Universities to demonstrate Miami’s blatant inaction regarding racism on its campus.

Our meeting was almost two hours long and there was a lot discussed, but this is a general summary. If you have any questions or more ideas, please reach out to one of our executive board.

In Solidarity,

Miami University College Democrats

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Caroline Roethlisberger, President: roethlcn@miamioh.edu

Clare DiCuccio, Vice-President: dicuccce@miamioh.edu

Amanda Zust, Secretary: zustae@miamioh.edu

Ian Chenkus, Treasurer: chenkuit@miamioh.edu

Omar Elghazawi, Communications: elghazoa@miamioh.edu

Nav Chima, Events: chimank@miamioh.edu

Zoe Blake, Membership: blakezl@miamioh.edu