A petition to allow transfer students to participate in greek life during their first semester at Syracuse University has garnered more than 350 signatures since it was launched early last week.

The petition, which is being circulated by the Student Association’s Student Life Committee, calls for the university to change the rule that requires students to earn 12 SU credits before rushing a sorority or fraternity.

Since the online petition was launched on Change.org Thursday afternoon, it has received almost 150 signatures. The Student Life Committee has also been gathering signatures through written petitions since Monday. In total, the petition had more than 350 signatures as of 8 p.m. on Sunday, said Aysha Seedat, chair of the Student Life Committee.

The Student Life Committee will likely continue gathering signatures until Friday before presenting the petition to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, Seedat said.

“We’re just trying to get as much support as possible. The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs — they don’t make these rules based on how they think. They’re doing it because they think that’s what benefits the student population,” Seedat said. “They’re sensible people and as long as we show them ‘Hey, the student population is against this rule’ then they’ll actually probably take that into account.”

Before starting the petition, Seedat met with Eddie Banks-Crosson, director of FASA, to get his thoughts on changing the rule. He told Seedat that the one-semester rule is in place because the university wants students to know about all the opportunities on campus before getting involved in greek life, Seedat said.

FASA declined to comment on the petition.

Students in the greek community have largely supported the petition, Seedat said. When she presented the petition in one of her classes last week, every person in greek life wanted to sign it, she said.

Carrie Abbott, director of first-year and transfer programs, said she had not heard about the petition but that she supports the one-semester rule.

“I can tell you that I’ve been very familiar with that policy,” she said. “I think it’s really important for students to transition to the university before they take on such an extensive commitment.”

The petition is part of a larger effort by the Student Life Committee to improve the experience of transfer students at SU. In order to better understand the issues transfer students face, the committee has been meeting with administrators and has also conducted a survey of transfer students living in Skyhalls.

“One of my committee members is actually a transfer student. He lives in Skyhall and he said ‘All of us are invisible there. You have to get us out of here,’” Seedat said.

Any transfer student that requests housing is automatically placed in the Skyhall dorms on South Campus, Seedat said, so she met with Lisa Chestney, assistant director of FYTP to see if this could be changed. Chestney told her that transfer students are all put in the same building in order to foster a sense of community and shared experience. Since there is no other place to put all transfer students together, this policy is not likely to change, Chestney told her.

Discouraged, Seedat and her committee began brainstorming other ways to help ease the transition process for transfer students. As part of this process, the Student Life Committee decided to conduct a survey of transfer students in Skyhall. The committee members went door to door and eventually gathered responses from 82 transfer students.

The committee got the following data:
• Forty-eight percent of transfer students surveyed felt disconnected or very disconnected on campus.
• Fifty-two percent of respondents said living in Skyhalls has negatively affected their campus involvement.
• Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed said the current one-semester rule did not help with their transition to campus.
• Forty-eight percent indicated that they would rush during their first semester on campus if they could.

Committee members plan to knock on more doors in Skyhalls and have launched an online survey as well, Seedat said.

Abbott, the director of FYTP, said she had not seen the committee’s survey results. FYTP has conducted a survey of transfer students as well and got similar feedback, she said.

Issues such as housing and course availability are much more pressing concerns for transfer students and Abbott said she would like to see those topics addressed before the greek life policy. But Abbott said she’s happy that people on campus are talking about the issues transfer students face.

“I think it’s important that we work together as a campus community to help our transfer students feel welcomed and acclimated to campus,” she said. “So I’m glad the discussion is happening.”

Published on March 31, 2014 at 1:21 am

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta