Fraternity and Sorority Life is no longer under a social moratorium after Nick Wright, the director of FSL, and the Greek council decided to have each chapter participate in a Green Dot Bystander Intervention training offered by the Women’s Center on Marshall University’s campus.

After receiving a video where improper consumption of alcohol was happening at a Greek event, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life administrators decided to place the Greek community on a social moratorium.

The moratorium has since been lifted, but the community is expected to attend a training to better understand how to help in situations where potentially poor decisions are being made while consuming alcohol.

Claire Snyder, the program coordinator for the Women’s Center, talked about how Green Dot’s name comes from looking at campus maps that may have different red dots placed on them to display where a sexual assault or physical assault has occurred and wanting to avoid adding more red dots.

“Green Dot’s goal is for every time there is a potential incident of violence and a bystander steps in and intervenes in some way to prevent that from happening, it would turn a red dot into a green dot because nothing bad happened there,” Snyder said.

Each fraternity and sorority is now required to have at least 80 percent of its members attend a Bystander Intervention training. This course addresses different ways to safely consume alcohol, the definition of consent and different ways to assist people who may need help during events where alcohol may be involved.

The first course offered took place March 13, where those who organized the event had to close the doors because too many people were trying to attend. The women in charge said they prefer to have roughly 50 attendees per course in order to answer any questions people may have. The first course consisted of roughly 130 students.

Wright said that each fraternity and sorority has until the end of the semester to meet the 80 percent quota. The Greek organizations which fail to meet the standards by the end of the year will be placed back on social moratorium until they can meet the standards in the fall.

James Prentice, the president of Alpha Sigma Phi, pitched the idea of the bystander intervention course to the Greek council, because he said he thought it was a good idea for not just Greek Life but everyone to understand how to intervene in potentially questionable situations. He said he believes the training could benefit the community as a whole.

“This is a proactive step to better our community,” Prentice said. “It’s an eye-opening experience that can teach people how to pick up on little things that can keep everyone safe.”

Sarah Ingram can be contacted at [email protected].