Greek life debate resumes as town hall draws vocal crowds

By Addison Doornhaag | Sept. 15, 2026

Discussions over whether to bring fraternities and sororities to Maryville College resumed this month, as the Campus Life Exploratory Committee held several town hall sessions to start the semester. One was held on Sept. 3 at 12:30 p.m.

Turnout was sparse, but the students who did attend made their opposition clear, pushing back forcefully against the idea of adding Greek life to a campus that has gone without it for more than two decades.

The Board of Directors banned fraternities and sororities in 2002. Any move to bring them back would require the board to vote to overturn that resolution — a step that has not yet been taken, according to Dr. Ben Stubbs, a member of the Campus Life Exploratory Committee helping lead the review and the College’s vice president and dean of students. 

Stubbs said the committee was formed to look for new ways to strengthen campus life, and that Greek life is a direction under consideration. He said the College and its student body have changed significantly since 2002, prompting the committee to revisit the question.

Survey data collected last spring were presented at the town hall sessions and highlighted a campus split that leaned unsupportive on the issue. Of roughly 303 students surveyed, only 20% said they were supportive of Greek life, with another 12% generally supportive. Nearly half, 49%, said they were unsupportive, and 14% more were generally unsupportive.

Support also varied sharply by class year. Among freshmen, 41% said they were supportive, compared with 27% of sophomores, 27% of juniors and just 19% of seniors — a trend showing support eroding the longer students are on campus.

The survey also linked student sentiment to overall satisfaction with social life. Students who were the most satisfied with their social lives on campus, categorized as “promoters,” were also the most opposed to Greek life, with 89% unsupportive. By contrast, students dissatisfied with their social lives, or “detractors,” were far more open to the idea, with 49% supportive.

Faculty and staff were also divided, though less negatively than students. Overall, 36% of the 140 faculty and staff surveyed said they were supportive, while 41% were unsupportive. Staff leaned more favorably, at 46% supportive, compared with faculty, only 23% of whom said they were supportive and 55% of whom were unsupportive.

Both students and faculty and staff who responded to the survey agreed on what safeguards any Greek organizations should be required to follow, if approved. Large majorities of both groups favored mandatory education and prevention programming, service-hour requirements and a reflection of the College’s commitment to inclusivity. Minimum GPA requirements and recruitment restrictions also drew majority support, while a ban on Greek housing on campus split respondents more evenly.

Much of the opposition voiced at the town hall centered on what several students called “the Maryville College Way” — though the phrase itself carries different meanings depending on who is using it.

The committee’s own presentation includes a slide titled “The Maryville Way,” which frames the phrase as a set of screening criteria rather than a values statement. According to the slide, the College intends to “build a community in the image of Maryville College” by selecting fraternities and sororities based on their alignment with campus culture, creating standards and accreditation that prioritize inclusivity, developing programs that reinforce those values, and writing policies designed to limit the risks commonly associated with Greek life. In that framing, the Maryville Way is not an argument against Greek life — it is a filter meant to admit only the organizations that fit it.

Stubbs’ description of the College’s identity in his interview lines up closely with that filtering approach. He argued that the type of student drawn to Maryville — one who “values the kind of experience and academic programs” the College offers — would continue to enroll whether or not Greek life exists. In other words, Stubbs treats the Maryville Way as compatible with Greek life, so long as the right guardrails are in place.

Rayna Welsch (‘28), a student who attended the Sept. 3 town hall, said she remains firmly against bringing Greek life to campus, arguing it runs counter to that identity. Welsch’s version of the Maryville Way is harder to reconcile with either the slide or Stubbs’ comments, because she does not see it as a set of standards Greek organizations could meet — she sees it as something structurally incompatible with the presence of fraternities and sororities at all.

Her Maryville College Way is “rooted in service, academics, community, and genuine connection,” built on the idea that students can belong “without the social divisions, financial barriers, and exclusivity that Greek life can sometimes bring.” 

Where the committee’s slide proposes accreditation standards to prioritize inclusivity, Welsch argues the exclusivity is inherent to how Greek organizations recruit and operate, meaning no amount of policy language can fully erase it. She has also said that energy spent building accreditation standards for a new system would be better spent reinforcing organizations, such as honor societies, that she believes already embody the Maryville Way without needing new oversight.

“The Maryville College Way has always felt different to me,” Welsch said. “It is rooted in service, academics, community, and genuine connection. Those values do not need Greek letters to thrive.”

Welsch also questioned whether the administration is genuinely weighing student opposition, pointing to the survey’s roughly 49% unsupportive figure as evidence the process is not as open as officials claim. “If 70% of students say no and the conversation continues as if that feedback is not enough, it becomes hard to believe that student opinion is truly driving the process,” she said.

She also raised doubts about whether any safeguards the College puts in place could prevent incidents like those recently reported at other universities. “I don’t think the administration has the ability to guarantee that Greek life would be free from issues like sexual assault, drugging, or hazing,” Welsch said. “They can create policies, rules, and reporting systems, but they cannot control every situation that happens behind closed doors.”

On concerns about student safety, Stubbs acknowledged the risks are real but said the College’s existing four-year live-on requirement, along with planned education, prevention and accountability measures, would be part of any program the College ultimately approves.

Stubbs, for his part, said he understands why the comparison to honor societies keeps coming up, but argued Greek life would fill a different role on campus than existing organizations do. He said fraternities and sororities are open to any student regardless of major, unlike many honor societies that require a specific field of study, and that they tend to recruit members earlier in their college careers, when other options are often more limited. He also pointed to the national infrastructure that comes with most fraternities and sororities, including alumni networks and leadership development programs, as something few current organizations on campus can offer at the same scale.

Stubbs pushed back on the idea that the process is being steered toward a predetermined outcome. He said the committee includes members with a range of views on the issue and is working to hear from as much of the campus community as possible before making any recommendation.

“No decision has been made,” Stubbs said, “and any recommendations from the committee will be informed by data and input from students, faculty and staff.”

Stubbs said the committee will spend the rest of the semester gathering additional input, including another student survey planned for the coming weeks for those who could not attend a town hall session. All comments and survey responses will be compiled into a report to President Dr. Bryan Coker, who will then decide, in consultation with Stubbs, whether to bring a recommendation to the Board of Directors.