With the release of controversial documentaries and trending topics such as #BamaRush, Greek life has seen many ebbs and flows over the years. For instance, some colleges have witnessed their Greek student populations plummet by nearly 42%. For John Carroll, as of January 2024, this looked like the closure of JCU’s chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
The Ohio Upsilon division of SigEp at John Carroll first started on campus in 2001 when the school’s Greek life system saw a major shift from local organizations to more nationally affiliated fraternities and sororities. According to Mary Ann Hanicak, John Carroll’s Manager of Student Life Programs, this system was subject to heavy hazing and needed to evolve with the turn of the century.
“I got here in 1999 in Residence Life and I saw this all local Greek community,” Hanicak told The Carroll News. “It was like stepping into the 1960s. The local groups are full of wonderful students, don’t get me wrong, but they talked about hazing like it was just a normal activity you would do on a Saturday with your group….It was a lawsuit waiting to happen. It was a risk management nightmare.”
As John Carroll cracked down on hazing in this new system, many local fraternities lost their footing on campus; Hanicak said that, for those who continued to haze, they were “gone.” While other organizations floundered, SigEp remained strong under these guidelines. However, their first sign of weakness came six years later during the 2008 housing crisis. This fracture was seen again in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, their number of brothers mimicking the economy and the state of higher education in general.
“Since 2007, [along with the] increasing decline in our enrollment… we’ve also seen a decline in the number of students, which means a decline in the numbers of our memberships for all of our organizations,” Hanicak established. “For SigEp, the pandemic was also really hard on them. They lost a lot of members and then they graduated more members and they just couldn’t do it anymore.”
According to Dominic Sanabria ‘24, the vice president of programming for Sigma Phi Epsilon, other issues included the organization’s “outstanding debt” that was present in the chapter before he even committed to John Carroll.
“It became out of hand and was something that was out of our control,” he said. “We simply could not completely delete five plus years of financial issues ourselves.”
For Sanabria, SigEp is still “a part” of him and his experience in the fraternity was crucial in shaping who he is today. From learning how to tie a necktie to networking with large groups of people, his chapter gave him what he can only describe as a family.
“Despite all the rumors that were spread about us and the scrutiny, I will identify myself with SigEp forever,” Sanabria said. “To anyone who truly knows me or any of my brothers, they know that we are a great group of men. To those who believed any rumors without getting to know us, well that’s on them.”
With the surrender of Sigma Phi Epsilon’s charter, one must wonder what fraternity life is going to be at Carroll with one remaining organization at the helm. Especially with what Sanabria described as “much less of a presence of fraternity men at John Carroll,” what is next for Greek life at the university?
“I hope with everything in me that Greek life increases,” he said. “Greek life is not just a party club, it isn’t ‘paying for friends;’ it is something that can change someone’s life for the better, it is a family.”
As SigEp dissolves, the final fraternity remaining for now is Beta Theta Pi. However, President Nicholas Brunetti ‘26 has hopes for the future of Greek life including the hinted return of Delta Tau Delta in fall of 2024, a chapter that previously disbanded in 2023.
“Recently, all FSL presidents convened for a meeting and brought a shared vision that being unity among chapters,” Brunetti told The Carroll News. “An initiative within FSL is to promote a large open campus event in the fall which will promote our chapters and bring community within Greek life. Though the dissolution of SigEp has been a setback within the FSL community, it serves as a reflection that Greek life needs unity and collaboration on campus. With a shared commitment to unity and engagement within the campus community, the future of FSL appears to be optimistic.”
Whether fraternity life reemerges at John Carroll is still up in the air. However, it is still certain that the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon have left their mark on campus and will continue to thrive together as brothers, regardless of the official seal on their bond.
