Risk Management
Todd Shelton | 6/19/2003 It is important to discuss social responsibilityOne of the most recognized aspects of college life is the freedom connected with being away from home for the first time. Without the structure of high school, parents or a working environment, many students become engrossed in the party atmosphere associated with college life. In reality however, you came to college to receive an education, not to join a fraternity. Kappa Alpha recognizes that fact and seeks to build a well-rounded individual. But, we also recognize and understand that there is a social side to one’s education. For this reason, it is important to discuss social responsibility.
Fraternities have long been associated with high moral ideals and standards. Recently, though, they have also been associated with parties, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual assault and hazing. Since 1980, there has been a large and steady upswing in the number of lawsuits filed against individual members, local chapters and national fraternities. Millions of dollars have been paid out in settlement for claims from incidents that occurred at fraternity houses or fraternity functions. For that reason, Kappa Alpha Order like other national organizations have adopted a set of risk management guidelines to oversee active chapter functions.
Kappa Alpha’s risk management guidelines stem from a set of standards written in 1987 by a group formerly known as the Fraternity Insurance Purchasing Group, now known as the Fraternity Information and Programming Group (FIPG), of which KA was a founding member. There are 47 Greek-letter men’s and women’s fraternities that are FIPG members and have based their risk management policies on the FIPG policy. FIPG provides risk management guidelines and educational resources to help member fraternities and sororities be more effective in their risk management efforts. Kappa Alpha was also a founding member of FRMT, Ltd, which is a Bermuda Reinsurance Company made up of 22 fraternal organizations. FRMT is dedicated to providing cost effective general liability insurance coverage for its member organizations and risk management resources and education to improve the undergraduate experience of its members.
Kappa Alpha Order Risk Management Policy
The Risk Management Policy of Kappa Alpha Order, adopted by the Executive Council pursuant to R16-118, mirrors that of FIPG, Inc., and shall apply to all entities and all levels of fraternity membership. It may be found as Appendix 401 of the Kappa Alpha Laws and includes the following provisions:
Alcohol and Drugs 1. The possession, sale, use and/or consumption of alcoholic beverages while on chapter premises during an official fraternity event, or in any situation sponsored or endorsed by the chapter, or at any event an observer would associate with the fraternity, must be in compliance with any and all applicable laws of the state, province, county, city and institution of higher education.
2. No alcoholic beverages may be purchased through the chapter treasury nor may the purchase of same for members or guests be undertaken or coordinated by any member in the name or on behalf of the chapter. The purchase and/or use of a bulk quantity of such alcoholic beverage, i.e., kegs, is prohibited.
3. No chapter members, collectively or individually, shall purchase for, serve to, or sell alcoholic beverages to any minor (i.e., those under the legal drinking age).
4. The possession, sale and/or use of any illegal drugs or controlled substances at any chapter house, sponsored event or at any event that an observer would associate with the fraternity, is strictly prohibited.
5. No chapter may co-sponsor an event with a distributor of alcohol, charitable organization or tavern (tavern defined as an establishment generating more than half of its annual gross sales from alcohol) where alcohol is given away, sold or otherwise provided to those present.
6. No chapter may co-sponsor or co-finance a function where alcohol is purchased by any of the host chapters, groups or organizations.
7. All rush activities associated with any chapter will be dry rush functions.
8. Open parties, meaning those with unrestricted access by non-members of the fraternity without specific invitation where alcohol is present shall be prohibited. Open parties have been defined as those functions at which the guest to member ratio exceeds three-to-one.
9. No member shall permit, tolerate, encourage or participate in “drinking games.”
10. No alcohol shall be present at any pledge/associate member/novice program or activity of the chapter.
Hazing
No chapter shall conduct hazing activities. Hazing activities are defined as: Any action taken or situation created, intentionally, whether on or off fraternity premises, to produce mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment or ridicule. Such activities may include, but are not limited to, the following: use of alcohol; paddling in any form; creation of excessive fatigue; physical and psychological shocks; quests, treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, road trips or any other such activities carried on outside or inside the confines of the chapter house; wearing of public apparel which is conspicuous and not normally in good taste; engaging in public stunts and buffoonery; morally degrading or humiliating games and activities; and any other activities which are not consistent with fraternal law, ritual or policy or the regulations and policies of the educational institution.
Sexual Abuse
The fraternity shall not tolerate or condone any form of sexually abusive behavior on the part of its members whether physical, mental or emotional. This is to include any actions which are demeaning to women and/or men, including but not limited to, date rape, gang rape or verbal harassment.
Fire, Health and Safety
1. All chapter houses shall, prior to, during and following occupancy, meet all local fire and health codes and standards.
2. All chapters must have posted by common phones emergency numbers for fire, police and ambulance and must have posted evacuation routes from chapter houses, common areas and sleeping rooms posted in said areas and on the back of the door of each sleeping room.
3. All chapters shall comply with engineering recommendations as reported by the insurance company.
4. The possession and/or use of firearms, archery equipment, fireworks or explosive devices of any kind within the confines and premises of the chapter house is expressly forbidden.
Special Events
Special events are defined as any event/function (1) where alcohol will be present, and the guest to member ratio exceeds three-to-one; (2) involving athletic events or competition; or (3) that involves any activity that is deemed to be potentially hazardous by the Alumnus Adviser, the Alumni Advisory Committee, the Province Commander, the Executive Director, or the Order’s insurance broker. Any chapter wishing to host a special event must do the following:
1. Complete a comprehensive, written description of the event and forward it to the Province Commander and the Executive Director for review and approval. This information must be received by the Executive Director at least 30 days prior to the event; and
2. Purchase a $ 1 Million Special Events Insurance Policy, available through the Order’s insurance broker. Application must be made for this policy at least two weeks prior to the event. A Special Events Insurance Policy in a General Liability policy purchased to insure a specific function or activity and usually covers a period of less than seven days. If alcohol is to be present at the event, the policy shall include “host liquor liability” coverage. If the event is an athletic competition, the policy shall include “participant legal liability” coverage. The policy shall name Kappa Alpha Order, Inc., a Virginia Corporation, as an additional insured.
Education
Each active member and member awaiting initiation shall be instructed annually on the Risk Management Policy.
What is Risk Management?
Risk management is just what you think it is - limiting your chapter’s exposure to potential losses and penalties or, simply, managing your risk. The potential losses your chapter or KA could incur are immeasurable. Losses could be as simple as the chapter losing the right to participate in a campus event or there could be a multi-million dollar lawsuit that names the Order, chapter and even individual members. These penalties could come from a minor accident or a major tragedy. Regardless of the penalties, managing the chapter’s risk should always be at the forefront of the chapter’s decision making process.
Why has risk management become so important? Two surveys show why. The first survey, rates the top ten “riskiest businesses to insure.” Fraternities and sororities ranked sixth behind asbestos contractors and hazardous waste dumps. The second survey showed a breakdown of all claims made against fraternities and how alcohol played a role in them. Of 300 claims involving alcohol reported in the survey, 25% were fight related, 21% included sexual assault, 17% included a fall from height, 16% included a slip/fall, 13% were auto related, 7% included hazing, 1% included a burn.
Such statistics serve to illustrate why reasonably priced liability insurance has become hard to obtain and why chapters need to emphasize our risk management guidelines to each member. However, the most compelling reason why a chapter should be concerned with risk management is the safety of its guests and members. Worse than any lawsuit would be the loss or injury of a brother or guest at a chapter function.
Learning to be responsible
As with any person, you looked forward to the freedom afforded to you by coming to school. How you choose to spend your four years in school is up to you. But as a member of Kappa Alpha, you must be considerate of your brothers. Often the actions of an individual member will negatively affect the entire chapter. For that reason, you must be responsible for your actions.
Substance abuse can be an area of immense irresponsibility on the part of a brother or entire chapter and must be individually addressed. Your choice to drink, if you are of legal drinking age, is yours to make, but your actions while drinking are the chapter’s concern. Recall the statistics discussed earlier in this chapter. Almost all of the accidents that occur at chapter houses are alcohol related. This is no coincidence. Certainly, we are our brother’s keeper and the choice to drink is an individual one. However, safeguarding each other is every brother’s responsibility.
Alcohol and other Drugs
Alcohol
In order to better manage one’s choice to drink, it is important to understand the effect alcohol has on the body. No other substance is known to so dramatically alter the physiological chemical reactions in the body as alcohol. It is a toxic sedative that acts as a depressant on the central nervous system. Alcohol has a definite effect on the mind and body. Since it does not have to be digested like food, it goes immediately into the blood stream, beginning the moment it enters the mouth.
The rate at which alcohol is absorbed by the body is greatly affected by personal drinking behavior. Five factors influence drinking behavior: body weight, speed of drinking, presence of food in the stomach, type of beverage and drinking environment.
Body weight
The greater the weight of the body’s muscle mass (not body fat), the lower the blood-alcohol concentration from a given amount of alcohol.
Speed of drinking
The faster an alcoholic beverage is consumed, the higher the blood-alcohol level will be. A person who sips his drinks (assuming the normal half-ounce of alcohol per drink) and consumes only one drink per hour, will not experience the “jolt” experienced by gulping or “chugging” the drink.
Presence of food in the stomach
Eating before and while drinking will retard the absorption rate of alcohol into the blood stream and will allow the body to react more evenly to the alcohol.
Type of beverage
The stronger the alcohol content of the drink, the faster alcohol will be absorbed into the body. Beer and wine are absorbed less rapidly than hard liquors because they contain more non-alcoholic substances.
Drinking environment
One’s environment will affect, to some extent, his or her reaction to alcohol. Someone who is relaxed and sitting down while drinking will experience less of an effect than someone who is standing and drinking. Other factors can be one’s emotions, one’s stress level and one’s expectations.
These five aspects comprise your drinking behavior. By better understanding what contributes to your absorption of alcohol, you can better understand how it affects you. The goal of this chapter is to help you better understand the effects of alcohol and its challenge is to foster more responsible use.
Not surprisingly, there is a great deal of research which indicates that those who use alcohol responsibly experience fewer behavior complications associated with alcohol than those who do not. People who experience problems when they drink may be problem drinkers. If you find yourself being criticized by your friends about your drinking - drinking alone to escape boredom, always celebrating by drinking, the way you act when you drink or regularly drinking to get drunk - you may be one of the millions of young people who have a drinking problem. Here are some responsible ways to use alcohol.
- Using alcohol as an adjunct to an activity rather than as the primary focus.
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Setting a limit to how many drinks you are going to have when you drink and sticking to that limit.
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Respecting a person who chooses not to drink.
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Always provide non-alcoholic beverages and food at your party.
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Drinking at a slow rate and eating food while drinking.
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Caring for friends - don’t let them drink and drive. It may take some work, but it is worth it.
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Showing displeasure with someone who has had too much to drink.
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Not allowing someone to go too far. You have an obligation not to “look the other way’ - otherwise, you are as much a part of the problem as the drinker.
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Confronting problem guests with tact and common sense. Approach aggressive drunks carefully!
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Seeking help if you think you have a drinking problem.
Controlled Substances
Drugs are illegal. Drugs and drug paraphernalia have no place in or around the chapter house. In fact, as an illegal act, possession of drugs is also a major offense under Title 12 of the Kappa Alpha Laws. One of the most potentially dangerous problems a chapter can face is drug use among members. Nothing can rip through a chapter and destroy more lives than drugs. Ranging from a misdemeanor to a felony offense, drugs are never a winning proposition. In recent years, fraternities have had some serious effects from drug use and abuse within their chapters.
Few actions could be further from the ideals of Kappa Alpha than drug abuse. Drug use is an act that denigrates the mind and the body, just the opposite of Kappa Alpha’s mission which is to promote the acquisition of knowledge and the development of character in a young man. If you or anyone in the chapter is using drugs, seek help at your school’s counseling center where trained professionals can help you address the problem.
Hazing and Other Areas of Risk Management
Perhaps one of the most obvious areas of risk management to the new member is hazing. Hazing is perhaps the greatest blight ever to infest the fraternity system. Over the years it has caused hundreds of injuries and deaths. There is nothing positive about hazing, and frankly, there never has been. In fact, as early 1903, KA adopted an anti-hazing position and printed it in the constitution of the Order. Hazing can be loosely defined as any act that causes physical or mental anguish to the recipient (please see Kappa Alpha’s definition of hazing on the next page). Hazing does not and cannot promote unity within the chapter. New member classes are meant to be brought into the organization to be part of the chapter, not to be units unto themselves. It is absurd to think that any action which segregates and demeans one portion of the chapter can make the whole chapter stronger. Often, the only benefit of a hazing activity is the entertainment of the hazers. “Entertaining the actives,” is not the purpose of any part of the new member education program. Membership in the chapter and Kappa Alpha Order does not require any form of servitude to an individual member.
Hazing, like some forms of assault, is about power. Who has it and how they wield it will tell you a lot about a brother. New member activities that center around the “I had to do it, so will they” mentality become degrading and inconsistent with a quality program. There are many benefits to a strong new member education program, and the benefit of any activity, that is included in that program, should be clearly seen by the new member or explained to him. If an active member can’t adequately explain the benefit of a certain activity, then it probably shouldn’t be a part of the new member education program.
Kappa Alpha’s position on hazing helps to clarify your relationship with the active members and their responsibilities to you. The primary responsibility of active members is to prepare you for initiation and to make sure that you become a loyal member of the Order. If the activities of the new member education program do not meet that objective, or do not coincide with KA philosophies, it is every brother’s (initiate or non-initiate) duty and obligation to object.
The following appears in the Kappa Alpha Order Executive Council Regulations (found following the Kappa Alpha Laws in the appendix of The Varlet):
R9-261. Prohibition against hazing
(a) Hazing as that term is used in the Kappa Alpha Laws shall be further defined as any act or omission by any member of the Kappa Alpha Order directed against any other member which with or without intent:
(1) Is likely, with reasonable possibility, to cause bodily harm or danger, offensive physical punishment or disturbing pain;
(2) Is likely to compromise the dignity of a member, cause embarrassment or shame to a member to be the object of malicious amusement or ridicule, or cause any psychological harm or substantial emotional strain; or
(3) Will, unreasonably or unusually impair a member’s academic efforts.
(b) This definition of "hazing" includes any requirement by a member which compels a member to participate in any activity which is illegal, which is known by the compelling person to be contrary to a member's moral or religious beliefs or which is contrary to the rules or regulations of the member's institution of learning.
(c) Consistent with the above definition, the following specific examples of "hazing" are prohibited, but not limited to, the following:
(1) Transporting a member against his will;
(2) Marking or branding of a member;
(3) Preventing a member from attending class;
(4) Forcing a member to eat or drink against his will, and requiring or encouraging a member to participate in any activity which is involved with consumption of prescribed quantities of alcoholic beverages;
(5) Requiring a member to perform personal service or acts of servitude;
(6) Conducting any and all forms of lineups;
(7) Paddling and/or striking in any manner;
(8) Preventing a member from practicing personal hygiene;
(9) Causing a member to be indecently exposed; or
(10) Requiring a member to dress in a manner causing ridicule or humiliation. (d) Furthermore, participation in or condonation by an Active Chapter as a unit, a member of an Active Chapter, or any other member of the Kappa Alpha Order involving any member of the Order in any activity which does not have an independent immediate, positive purpose shall constitute an act of hazing.
(e) Members as herein mentioned shall include all initiated and uninitiated members of the Order. Adopted August 6, 1980.
House and fire safety
To say that risk management only focuses on alcohol and drug use and hazing is incorrect. Risk management is about reducing the chapter’s risk, from any source. (According to the statistics used earlier, 67% of slips and falls were alcohol related. That means that 33% had nothing to do with alcohol. Yet, a slip and fall in a case where alcohol did not play a role is still a serious liability for the chapter.) Risk management is also about safety during normal chapter operations. It includes structural safety, fire safety, protection from theft, burglary, assault and other crimes against chapter members or guests. Ensuring the safety of the brothers and guests of Kappa Alpha Order should also be a primary goal of the chapter’s risk management program.
Guarding your image
Another area, not usually thought of, which could be considered risk management, is the chapter’s public image. Flyers, recruitment materials, t-shirts and party favors reflect a chapter image. Be sure that your materials do not inadvertently offend individuals or groups. Be considerate and protect your image. These groups may then seek retribution from the chapter in one form or another. Using this example, the chapter must manage its risk by watching what it does publicly, in printed material, on websites or in its actions.
A Summary of Risk Management
As stated earlier in this chapter, the goal of this section was to provide an overview of what a chapter’s risk management program should entail. There are many aspects to risk management. But, what is important for you to understand is that your actions have an effect on the chapter and Kappa Alpha as a whole, for good or for bad. Just as a member, who is elected student-body president, will make the chapter look good, a member who breaks a risk management guideline has the potential to injure the entire chapter and indeed the entire Order.
While lawsuits are a concern of the chapter’s, member safety is the primary focus of the chapter’s risk management, followed by Kappa Alpha’s reputation. As a new member of Kappa Alpha Order, it is now your duty to see to it that Kappa Alpha continues to exist and succeed at your school. |
