Welcome to college. Now report to your adult supervisor.

Jake New reports at Inside Higher Ed.

Adult Supervision Required

In August, administrators at the University of Michigan met with representatives from more than 30 national Greek letter organizations and pitched an idea that they hope will improve the behavior of unruly fraternity chapters: bring back live-in advisers.

The all-hands-on-deck meeting, which lasted more than seven hours, was scheduled after a tumultuous year for Michigan’s fraternities.

In January, members of a Michigan fraternity were accused of causing $430,000 in damage to a ski resort. They allegedly broke furniture, urinated on the carpet and damaged 45 rooms in all. That same weekend, two other Michigan fraternities were accused of causing $20,000 in damage to another resort nearby. The chapters were suspended and three fraternity members are facing criminal charges related to the incident.

The university said it will not require all of its fraternities to hire live-in advisers — commonly called house moms, house dads or chapter directors — but officials are pressuring Michigan’s existing chapters to adopt the policy and may mandate it for any new or returning chapters in the future.

At Michigan and elsewhere, house moms were the norm in the 1950s and ’60s, but are now relatively rare. Only one of Michigan’s 28 fraternity chapters has a live-in adviser. The North-American Interfraternity Conference does not keep track of how many fraternities use chapter directors but the practice is thought to have peaked for fraternities in the 1970s. Live-in advisers appear to be more common in sorority houses.

There’s little research on just how effective house moms are, however, and whether they could prevent incidents like what happened at the Michigan resort.

“While we do not have data that shows a direct correlation between the presence of a house director and reduced negative behavior, we do believe that consistent advisory support and mentorship is a key indicator for increased leadership development and chapter success,” William Foran, vice president for university relations at the North-American Interfraternity Conference, said. “House directors can and, in many times, do play a key role in that development.”