The rising number of reported alcohol-related incidents culminated in a discussion with Greek students, faculty and alumni Monday at the Greek Life Call to Action meeting.

The purpose of the discussion was to identify the core issues within the Greek community and to work with students to resolve these issues, according to Director of Greek Life Kristin Torrey.

Dean of Students Mark Bandas prefaced his opening remarks by identifying excessive consumption of alcohol as a core issue that directly attributed to the rising number of chapters on probation this past academic year.

"Only two IFC chapters have not been on probation this past academic year due to risk-management issues," Bandas said. "Unethical and illegal practices relating to alcohol abuse have plagued the Greek community."

In an effort to encourage further discussion within the Greek community, Bandas said he did not have the answer to these problems and instead asked students for their thoughts.

"From our end, let me express my concern for those freshmen who will take eight shots before they even go to a party ... and then we as a fraternity are the ones getting punished because of this one kid," said junior Alex Alm, president of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

"My question to you then is why do students feel like they need to drink eight shots before going to your fraternity party?" Director of Student Conduct Daniel Swinton asked in response.

In discussion of what role the Greek community plays in perpetuating the rampant binge-drinking fad, Greek students and several administrators offered up viable solutions while some alumni deflected the blame off of the Greeks and onto the administration.

"The issue is a question of proportionality. Let's take the monkey off of the fraternities' backs and put it on the administration," said one Greek alumnus.

The question of blame however did not interest some Greek members who chose to speak out.

"We shouldn't be talking so much about punishment, the point of this meeting is getting back to why it happened," said junior Kyle Elder, president of Sigma Chi fraternity.

"Instead of talking so much about the Greeks or freshmen as the problem, we need to talk about the symptoms of the fundamental problem. Binge drinking is a problem with upperclassmen. It's not about the rules, it's the rage culture, and we are showing the underclassmen what the model looks like," said junior Jesse DeOms, president of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and chair of Delta Force.

In an attempt to curb binge drinking through the advent of upperclassmen serving as positive role models to underclassmen, Torrey said discussion linking Greek Life to the VUcept leadership program is already underway; however, some students expressed concern that this would be insufficient.

"You have to remember there are only 90 VUceptors and thousands of Greek members, so we need to figure out other ways to better orient the freshmen into the Greek system," said sophomore Alexandria Lovelace, a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and co-selections chair for VUcept.

Given the popular belief that drinking is an integral part of both fraternity recruitment and membership, IFC fraternity presidents recently approved many tenets of a proposal submitted by the Delta Force, a task force comprised of 10 IFC men to address these recent issues.

While the administration stands by the Delta Force's proposed changes in principle, the actual success of the Delta Force's proposals once put into practice is still to be determined.

"I think we are all underestimating how these proposals are going to affect us. The fact that we are already changing and improving our image seems to be understated," Elder said. "All we ask is that we at least get a shot to see what we can do with these proposals before more rules are in place. Give us a chance."