Fraternity leadership

[Anonymous]

What would you do if your previously quiet, reserved, and introverted (but generally well liked in high school) college kid, came home and said they’d been elected president of their fraternity? It’s a national fraternity, lots of well known alumni.

We are worried about liability etc. But kid is very proud and has come out of shell in college - but this seems so unusual for us. Kid said there’s a lot of networking benefits. Just worried about minimizing risk and liability?
Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

It’s a fair to think to be concerned about, you really need to look closely at school and state. For example, Tufts went after a fraternity President for furnishing alcohol to under 21 students.

https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2000/09/administration-charges-tufts-fraternity-president-with-serving-alcohol-to-minors

Here’s a more general article on liability and insurance.

https://www.npr.org/2014/02/25/281994720/the-business-of-frats-shifting-liability-for-trauma-and-injury

[Anonymous]

I think you are right to be concerned, but I also don’t know that there’s anything you can do other than encourage him to be a responsible, thoughtful leader who will ensure his house isn’t doing anything dangerous.

[Anonymous]

You could see what type of insurance the fraternity has for chapter presidents and then consider supplementing with an umbrella policy.

[Anonymous]

My son has expressed interest in fraternity leadership and I sent him the countless articles showing WHO gets arrested when the fraternity gets in trouble. I think the downside is way more than any upside.

Sounds like this is a done deal for you though.

[Anonymous]

My son has expressed interest in fraternity leadership and I sent him the countless articles showing WHO gets arrested when the fraternity gets in trouble. I think the downside is way more than any upside.

Sounds like this is a done deal for you though.

[Anonymous]

Son should reach out to national leadership to determine his liability.

[Anonymous]

He should also take stock of what activities the fraternity is doing that could get them into trouble and use his leadership abilities to minimize those issues. Hopefully they didn't elect him because they thought he would be a pushover.

[Anonymous]

Talk to an actuary.

[Anonymous]

I think it's not a bad thing at all, provided the fraternity has a good reputation in general. But it would be reasonable for him to have liability insurance for this, and for him to really think through and get comfortable with how he would handle various bad scenarios.

[Anonymous]

My DD was president of her national sorority (she's graduated now). OP didn't say if the kid is a son or daughter and IMO there are differences. I was worried about liability, but she was covered under the national policy. It was a lot of work, she learned a lot, but it is a thankless job. She's glad she did it, but was glad when it was over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD was president of her national sorority (she's graduated now). OP didn't say if the kid is a son or daughter and IMO there are differences. I was worried about liability, but she was covered under the national policy. It was a lot of work, she learned a lot, but it is a thankless job. She's glad she did it, but was glad when it was over.

Frat = male
Sorority = female

[Anonymous]

Thankless job. Lots of liability.

[Anonymous]

As someone who had this job (although in a local, not a national), and who also could be fairly described as “quiet, reserved, and introverted,” here’s my take on it. First, fraternity president is not a good job, it is thankless, stressful, and can be challenging. Second, the fraternity president is not really the leader of the house, in the sense of the natural hierarchy young men tend to form in that environment. The most important part of the job is really administration-facing and as a point of contact for issues that arise with other houses; it’s part White House Press Secretary, part complaint line, part admin bs. (Animal House captures the spiritual truth of this role to some extent.). That said, there is no question that if this is his role, it’s a sign that he’s respected and trusted by the guys, recognized as responsible and someone people can bring problems to. If this were my son, I’d be proud, that kind of respect from his peers means something.

The liability concerns are real but manageable. My suspicion is that the large national organizations have relatively robust safeguards against excesses in the pledging process these days; back in my era, in a local fraternity, it was much more of the Wild West and I had a great deal of anxiety that someone was going to go rogue and do something stupid and dangerous, but blessedly that never happened. But being the president means the challenges fall to you, and I had a number of crazy experiences, mediating disputes between drunken brothers to de-escalate violence, dealing with unwelcome guests at the house, dealing with a few challenging disciplinary situations. I might make sure i had a good umbrella policy that covered him, if possible and just in case, but that’s probably excessively fussy risk management.

Bottom line, while it’s a thankless and crappy job, for me it was a very valuable learning experience and one I look back on fondly. He’ll be fine; it’s not the 70s or 80s anymore, almost certainly nothing crazy is going to happen.

[Anonymous]

There is some bad advice and lack of understanding about what the National liability policies do. If you are found to have violated the National policies (for example on checking ID or providing alcohol to minors), then the liability carrier will deny coverage and exposes the officers to personal liability.

For example: https://www.kgns.tv/2023/08/21/hazed-excused-some-national-fraternities-shift-financial-responsibility-hazing-deaths-through-self-created-insurance-system/

https://abovethelaw.com/2013/04/beware-greek-organizations-bearing-insurance-coverage/