Recently Marshall University’s Office of Student Affairs completed its review of incidents that reportedly occurred on the night of August 22, 2015 at fraternity parties on frat row located on 5th Avenue.

The review found that two citations were issued to fraternity houses by the Huntington Police Department. It has been discovered that both citations were for violating the city’s noise ordinance.

According to the press release sent out by the Office of Student Affairs, there were mainly students at the parties. “We did see photographs from the parties and talked to the Huntington Police Department and were able to confirm that hundreds of students at the parties did spread across 5th Avenue, blocking the street and had to be dispersed by law enforcement officers,” according to the release.

Contradictory to some other news stories, the report lists nothing of police being in riot formation.

Carla Lapelle, the interim dean of Student Affairs, was pleased with the findings of the report. “No arrests were made and it’s our understanding that the majority of the students were cooperative,” Lapelle said.

During the review, Student Affairs staff members interviewed the presidents of the University’s frats and determined that none of them would be singled out for any particular sanction.

The review concluded that as a result of this incident and the findings from the report, all frat chapters are to complete a risk management/party hosting training course. Until this training course is completed, they cannot host social events.

If a frat does not cover the guidelines covered in the training there will be a three-step disciplinary system for that chapter.

The first violation will result in probation for a semester. The second violation in a calendar year will result in suspension for a semester. Lastly, the third violation in a calendar year will result in loss of chapter status with the university.

This past week, Marshall’s Interfraternity Council, made up of representatives from each frat chapter, passed a policy that will prohibit all the groups from having alcohol at any event during the week before classes. In addition, any recruitment events during the second and third week of school must be alcohol-free.

Many members have been upset with the news coverage and some report that some stories were “blown out of proportion”. Some members had called the events “disheartening” and attributed some of the events to non-Greek students.

Many Greek Life members are just eager to get back to normal now that the review is over.

“I’m pleased our fraternities have stepped up to the plate on this issue and have chosen to be campus leaders,” Lapelle said. “Our Greek organizations do a lot of good at Marshall and in our community, so their example of meeting the challenges they were faced with related to this incident will serve as a good example.”

Riley Mahoney can be contacted at [email protected].