The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs should be more transparent in situations where it exonerates a house where a felony took place, like with the fraternity Alpha Chi Rho.

On Mar. 5, Patrick Jackson, 24, a former Syracuse University student, pleaded guilty to felony third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, after being found with more than 1,000 individual doses of cocaine, which has a street value of more than $5,000.

Police found the drugs, along with $5,560 in cash, inside Jackson’s room at the AXP fraternity house in September. The felony complaint after the arrest said the evidence found “clearly indicate the defendant was involved in the distribution of illegal narcotics in and around the Syracuse University campus.”

A little more than a month later, in November, FASA director Eddie Banks-Crosson said AXP would be exonerated, and the chapter would not face sanctions.

The campus is still unaware of the process behind this decision, and students should understand why the fraternity is not being held accountable for Jackson selling cocaine from its house. The reasoning behind the exoneration should be explained, as students have the right to know.

Neither Banks-Crosson nor FASA have provided any further information regarding AXP’s exoneration, which shows a lack of transparency with the greek and SU community regarding a felony that took place in a fraternity house near campus.

When Banks-Crosson spoke with The Daily Orange in November, he provided a vague explanation, saying: “They genuinely were trying to help someone that they thought needed help.” There is no information indicating what kind of help Jackson needed, and in what capacity the brothers of AXP helped him, which displays the lack of transparency from FASA.

Brothers living with Jackson were not charged as accomplices because they were unaware of Jackson’s actions. But the risk of repercussions was still there, and the arrest should serve as a lesson to the entire greek community. Students who live in greek housing should be aware of the actions going on in their own house, or risk sanctions and tarnishing their reputations.

Fraternities and sororities can easily prevent this situation from happening again by taking responsibility for the people living under their roofs. If it does happen again, FASA should be more open with how it makes decisions regarding repercussions.

Published on March 5, 2014 at 11:40 pm