On-site adult directors will be required at all UI frats

Cody Kiroff is a jack-of-all-trades mentor in his role as house director for Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the University of Iowa.

Kiroff, a second-year law student, sorted through bids a few months ago when the house needed a new boiler. He helps members with job referrals and gives advice on applying to law school. And he often lends a sympathetic ear when someone breaks up with a girlfriend.

“I think sometimes they want to talk to somebody a little bit older who has a little more life experience,” Kiroff, 23, said. “I try not to really meddle with their lives, but if they need something they know where I am.”

Starting next fall, the UI will require all fraternity and sorority houses to have live-in house directors. The directors are to be on-site mentors when students have questions about life matters, including academics and personal problems, and keep the house in general running order.

The 13 UI sorority houses already have live-in directors, sometimes called “house moms.” Six of the 13 fraternity houses have directors, so seven must add them by fall.

More than 2,000 UI students are Greek system members.

The director must live in the house and cannot be an undergraduate. In the case of the fraternities, house directors often are former members who moved on to graduate school, or young professionals in the community. They live rent-free.

UI officials cite an incident this semester when a fraternity member threatened to harm himself. Chapter members were concerned but unsure of what to do, so the house director stepped in and made the case for calling 911, Kelly Jo Karnes, associate director in the Office of Student Life, said.

“The house director is hopefully that voice of reason, that adult voice who will make those tough calls when it may be difficult for the students,” Karnes said.

House directors also can help with facilities, keeping little fixes from turning into prolonged problems, she said.

Adding house directors for all chapters was recommended by a consultant the UI Greek community hired in 2006. Other consultant recommendations included adding a leadership class for the system and forming an alcohol task force, in an effort to decrease arrest and citation rates in alcohol-related offenses by fraternity and sorority members, Karnes said.

House directors are fairly common in Greek houses around the country, Karnes said, though specific rules vary by campus. The University of Northern Iowa's system is smaller and doesn't require house directors. Iowa State University's large system leaves it up to each chapter, though most have some sort of house director.

The point is not to police students and “kill their fun,” Karnes said.

Kevin Lindenberg, president of Beta Theta Pi at the UI, said the director is a resource to answer questions about classes, professors or house finances.

“He's an older member we can all trust,” Lindenberg, 20, said. “He's really in the loop and wants to see our chapter grow and succeed.”

Members in chapters without house directors have questions about the change, but mostly want to know how it can benefit them and improve the chapter, Mark Rigby, president of the Interfraternity Council, said. Rigby's house, Phi Kappa Psi, doesn't have a director but hired a recent graduate to start next fall.

“I think it can only help,” Rigby, 21, a junior from Marion, said. “I definitely think it can be used as sort of a big brother.”