Over the past few years, LSU has implemented information pages on their website in an effort to be more transparent with students and parents.
On the LSU Greek life page, students can find community scorecards for every Greek organization on campus. The scorecards show information about each chapter, including GPA average, chapter status and violation records.
Following the 2017 death of Max Gruver, an LSU student who died from fraternity hazing on LSU’s campus, the former LSU President F. King Alexander created the President’s Task Force on Greek Life, according to the LSU website.
After looking at what areas LSU needed to address, an action plan was created to improve safety within Greek organizations and offer more transparency about chapter records and behavior. Greek scorecards were added to LSU’s website as part of this effort.
Specifically, the action plan states that they would implement “an easy-to-access web portal with scorecards reporting on the behavioral record and current standing of each Greek chapter on campus.”
“Including the violation history was a decision made in the process of our new website design. It’s important to be transparent with the community, potential members and the parents [and] supporters of current and future members,” said Shawnna Eberhard-Smith, the Greek Life director at LSU.
Through the action plan, each Greek chapter is required to have a scorecard that shows their seven-year violation record. Any probation outcome letters or suspension letters are also visible under the violation record tab. Other information, including philanthropy funds raised and service hours for the year, are updated annually for every chapter.
Eberhard-Smith says that no Greek organizations had any objections to the information being made visible on LSU’s website. Each chapter provides some of the information on the scorecards, while the Greek Life office is in charge of collecting and verifying the information and updating the website.
“The scorecards help potential members learn more about [the] chapter that they may be joining. It assists in them making a more informed decision,” Eberhard-Smith said. “We continue to be as transparent as possible.”
Along with the Greek scorecards, LSU has recently created a more direct way to view information regarding crime on their website.
As part of the Louisiana Board of Regents’ Power-Based Violence Act, all Louisiana institutions are required to have a button on their website showing campus crime statistics. Similar to other Louisiana schools, LSU created their “Campus Crime Stats” button in April 2022 featured at the top of their website.
“We’ve always had this information available, but you kind of had to know where to look,” Title IX Coordinator Joshua Jones said.
Through the Campus Crime Stats button, students can view Title IX reports and resources as well as see updates on LSU’s Title IX Progress Report.
Jones describes the creation of the webpage as “a team effort” which involved collaboration from the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX, the LSU Police Department and the Office of Communications and University Relations.
With campus crime information more readily accessible, Jones hopes that students and parents will become more aware of safety on campus.
“The goal of all of this is that folks… understand safety here at LSU… It’s really about informing students and their parents of what goes on at LSU,” Jones said. “It’s just something that we all need to be aware of so that we as a community can look out for one another and create a safer community.”
Jones says that making this information available will be useful to incoming freshmen and students considering attending LSU.
“Especially with incoming students… safety is not at the forefront of their mind. And so [the question is] how do we get that more at the forefront?” Jones said. “This is a more transparent way to have that conversation and communicate with parents and students.”
The Office of Civil Rights and Title IX has future plans for greater transparency, including the possibility of adding an annual report to the Campus Crime Stats page and focusing on increased social media efforts.
Jones says that students have previously expressed wanting a path to easily get information and interact with the Title IX Office. While the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX previously posted information on LSU’s main Twitter account, they decided there was too much information being shared through the account for there to be a focus on Title IX information.
To resolve this, the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX recently launched their own Twitter account to communicate information to campus faster and more efficiently. They are also working on a social media campaign to increase their following.
For other crime information, the LSU Police website has a daily crime log along with an annual security and fire report available to the public, which is also accessible through the Campus Crime Stats page. According to LSU spokesperson Ernie Ballard, these pages are required under the Jeanne Clery Act and the data goes as far back as 2012.
Ballard has found that there has been a positive reaction to these new webpages.
“The feedback we’ve gotten with the Greek Life scorecard has been positive and is a way for parents and students to know more about chapters before looking at them as options to join,” Ballard said. “Having things like the scorecard and the daily crime log and annual security reports also let students and parents compare LSU to other universities they may be considering.”
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon House sits empty on Wednesday, Aug. 24th, 2022, on Dalrymple Drive in Baton Rouge, La.
