Campus Reform reported that confusion over the student housing system led the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity to meet punishment.
The University student housing policies say that “students are welcome to decorate for the holidays” but have to ask for approval and present a full decoration project to campus accommodation operations and the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life.
“Housing Operations will determine what the buildings have the capacity to do. If there is an issue with the exterior decorations provided, Housing Operations has the right to deny the request,” the policy says. “Exterior holiday decorations must not be installed or removed by students. Violators of this policy will face disciplinary action.”
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Davis Van Inwegen, a fraternity member and house improvement chairman, told Campus Reform that the procedure the fraternity abided by did not include restrictions on decorating.
It wasn’t until the fraternity received a December 3 email from Josh Gamse, the Assistant Director of Sorority and Fraternity Life, that they were aware they were following an outdated version of the University housing policy.
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"I just did the same google [sic] search and I see it too, but it is not the correct version," Gamse told Van Inwegen in that Dec. 3 exchange. "I have reached out to IT to see if there is anything we can do about the outdated version on Google."
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Gamse told the fraternity that an incident report would be presented to the Office of Student Conduct because this was the fraternity’s second housing policy violation. The first was the establishment of inflatable polar bears on the house’s patio after Thanksgiving, Van Inwegen told Campus Reform.
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Leading an online search, Campus Reform discovered that the link to the policy did not contain the new restriction in the version updated July 31.
Presenting to Gamse that the fraternity had used "Emory housing policy 2021-2022" Google search, Van Inwegen included a screenshot of what he and other ATO members believed was the correct set of regulations.
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“There are no lights, decorations hung on light fixtures, or any other conceivable violation under rule 1.21 and 1.21.1 that we know of,” he said in the email, “[we] are totally confused as to what rules we violated.”
Van Inwegen told Gamse that his fraternity followed policy “to a T given the available information.”
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Van Inwegen told Campus Reform that he has seen some houses “with Christmas decorations that were there one day and gone the next.”
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