Dear Badger Students and Families,
While the start of this academic year is different than prior years, it still is an exciting time as you prepare to start your first semester at UW-Madison. Our first priority is the health and safety of all of our students. We encourage you to visit UW-Madison’s Smart Restart website for up to date information related to campus operations.
In the years ahead there will be many opportunities (academic, research, public service, internships, recreation, and of course, social) for you to become involved with at UW-Madison. And there are many ways for you to experience the rich social life at UW-Madison. Departments and programs within Student Affairs, University Housing, the Wisconsin Union, Recreation and Wellbeing, and other campus partners offer many opportunities for students to build community, socialize (in a safe and healthy manner), and establish lifelong friendships.
One way many students engage in social interactions is by joining one or more of the 1,000 plus registered student organizations (RSO). Membership in an RSO requires the organization and its student members to follow policies as established by the Committee on Student Organizations (CSO). When RSOs violate policies, the CSO has the responsibility to issue appropriate sanctions.
In rare circumstances, the CSO decides to terminate an RSO. This means that the RSO is no longer officially affiliated with the university and may not partake in the benefits afforded to RSOs.
In certain cases, students choose to continue to operate the group (sometimes with the support of their national office). We believe it is important to inform you and your parents that these organizations have no affiliation with the university.
While even more infrequent, student groups may also choose to disassociate with the institution leaving those groups unregulated by institutional policies.
Currently, we have seven organizations that are no longer recognized or affiliated with the University due to repeated and/or egregious violations of alcohol and /or hazing policies. These organizations may be continuing to operate with no affiliation with the university. This means these organizations do not receive the benefits associated with University recognition. During these difficult times it is even more beneficial to be able to lean on the support of the community and University resources. Given this information, the university does not recommend joining these groups. If these groups have incidents that come to the university’s attention, individual students may be held accountable through our non-academic misconduct process for any violations of university policies or crimes.
These groups are:
- Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity
- Chi Phi Fraternity
- Kappa Sigma Fraternity
- Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity
- Sigma Chi Fraternity
- Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity
- Theta Chi Fraternity
We hope this information is helpful as you begin to craft your academic and social experience at UW-Madison. We encourage you to access up-to-date information on organizations that are terminated, suspended, on probation with restriction or have dis-associated. If you have any questions, please contact me at dean@studentlife.wisc.edu or 608-263-5700.
Sincerely,
Christina Olstad
Dean of Students
She/Her/Hers
Mark C. Guthier
Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
He/Him/His