NIU’s chief judicial officer described the last two years on Greek Row as some of the worst he had seen in his 25 years at the position.

Charges and witness reports that described instances ranging from sexual and physical assault, battery and dangerous levels of intoxication to criminal mischief have resulted in 11 of NIU’s fraternities being placed on deferred suspension.

A deferred suspension is described in the NIU Student Code of Conduct as “the deferral of a sanction for a definite or indefinite period.” Essentially, a judicial action is taken, but put on hold. But in the event of another violation, the original sanctions can be imposed.

Larry Bolles, director of NIU’s Judicial Office, said if the downward trend continues, a campus without Greek organizations could be a realistic future. Bolles did say, however, that he has seen vast improvements this semester.

“Everybody did what they wanted to do,” Bolles said of years past. “People don’t change easy. It’s like trying to change a culture, and that’s what you have on Greek Row – drinking, partying; they’re doing what Greeks do. It’s like a battleship: Battleships don’t turn like a little boat. A battleship is a big thing that turns slow.”

Eight fraternities were placed on suspension last fall for violations of NIU policy ranging from physical and sexual assault to more minor alcohol-related offenses.

Bolles described many fraternities as “train wrecks” that could have ended in derailed chapters, but the university began implementing rigorous policies and judicial action in attempts to prevent it from happening.

Brian Hemphill, NIU vice president for Student Affairs, did not feel the situation on Greek Row was quite as grim, and emphasized the community’s positive aspects.

“We believe this area was safe last fall, and is even safer now,” said Hemphill, who was unavailable for a personal interview and answered questions by e-mail.

Lt. Jim Kayes of the DeKalb Police Department said he wasn’t aware of the exact statistics but that generally, college students are less likely to be the victim of a crime than non-college students of the same age.

Kayes also pointed out that many individuals living in the Greek Row area are not members of Greek organizations.

While Kayes said Greek Row was “probably about as safe as any other place in town,” he did hold reservations about the area.

“If I had a kid in college, I would rather have them living west of Annie Glidden than in the Greek Row area,” he said.

In years past, NIU’s Judicial Office dealt with individual students who committed offenses within Greek organizations, but it was the office then known as NIU Programming and Activities that placed sanctions on the organizations themselves.

In May 2006, Hemphill assigned judicial oversight to Bolles’ office instead of Programming and Activities. From the time Hemphill took his position in 2004 until the time of the switch, two Greek organizations were given “some sort of disciplinary sanction,” Hemphill said.

Under the oversight of Programming and Activities, Hemphill said handling of Greek-related judicial problems was “essentially the same.” Since Bolles took over last spring, nine Greek-letter organizations have had sanctions placed against them.

“They felt like they were being bombarded, and they went everywhere complaining to everyone about what was happening,” Bolles said of the Greek organizations under judicial sanctions. “Finally, somebody came to me and said, ‘Dr. Bolles, why are you doing this?'”

“I said, ‘I’m treating you like everyone else. For the first time in your life, you all are starting to feel like the average student feels on this campus: You smoke dope, you fight, you beat up somebody, you sexually assault somebody – you’re starting to feel exactly what [any other offender] felt.’ They assume that their chapter is here for life just because they have a house and they pay rent.”

Bertrand Simpson, director of admissions and financial aid for NIU’s college of law, will be sworn in as DeKalb’s 1st Ward alderman on May 15. Simpson said he campaigned heavily on Greek Row, which makes up a substantial portion of the 1st Ward.

Simpson said some of the residents of Greek Row he had spoken to were concerned with getting tickets for open alcohol containers, but others were worried the Greeks themselves weren’t concerned with the upkeep of their own property.

Simpson said he doesn’t feel being “heavy-handed” with Greek-letter organizations is necessarily the answer, but that community meetings and involvement may be.

Even though there has been an increase in judicial action on Greek Row, Simpson said he felt the number of violations in recent years has been no different than in the past.

“I don’t think it’s been any different,” Simpson said. “I myself, from the outside, haven’t noticed an upswing in these occurrences. A new group comes into the Greek community every year. Some things are bound to repeat themselves because you have new members testing the waters and bounds of Greek life.”

National organizations worried about the future of their NIU chapters petitioned Bolles to find what they could do to turn things around. Bolles said he wanted to have alumni members in their 50s and 60s serve as in-house advisers.

Bolles chose the age range because, in the past, national organizations sent advisers who had graduated five to 10 years ago that still had a degree of camaraderie with fraternity members. What Bolles wanted were successful individuals who could instill discipline.

“I said, ‘I want your time,'” Bolles said. “‘You’re a member of this chapter, and you were made in DeKalb. What I want you to do – I’m going to show you all the dirt – I want you to go there, and within the next 90 days, I want you to show me some significant differences in that chapter, because if you can’t make a difference – I tried, it hasn’t worked.'”

With their NIU chapters in jeopardy of Bolles “putting a lock on the door,” all 11 organizations with deferred suspensions sent individuals to frequently keep tabs on their fraternities.

These individuals, who ranged from lawyers to successful businessmen, pushed their fraternities to do more community service than was required. However, in filtering out so-called “troublemakers” from the fraternities, the advisers often slashed fraternity enrollments by more than half, Bolles said.

“They walked people out of the houses and met with people and said, ‘That’s not what we want,'” Bolles said. “If they didn’t change, they were out.”

Many of the fraternities on deferred suspension will be off probation at the end of this semester, Bolles said. He hopes for a “complete turnaround” within two years.

“They haven’t turned the corner 100 percent yet,” he said, “but the direction they’re moving in is very impressive to me because I’ve been watching this for a long time.”

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