By Curt Speaker ’82
Risk Management and Harm Reduction are extremely important topics with today’s Greek community, and Zeta Zeta is no exception. Given the recent fatality of a pledge at Beta Theta Pi, we must do everything in our power to conduct ourselves in a safe and responsible manner.
I have been working recently with Colman Slain, the High Iota (Risk Manager) on risk management issues and reviewing the Harm Reduction portion of the CORE report. Colman has worked very diligently on this and has done an excellent job. e wHeDuring the recent ELC visit, he received an Exceptional Rating for his office and program.
For those unfamiliar with the terms, risk is probability X consequence. How likely is it that something bad will occur, and if it does, how bad will it be? We generally want to focus our efforts on the less likely scenarios with extremely bad outcomes, and worry less about the minor things that happen all the time.
Harm reduction has 4 elements:
- Identify what activities and behaviors put us at risk of harm.
- Educate the brotherhood on what these items are and why they are risky.
- Develop a strategy to control these activities and behaviors.
- Get buy-in from the brotherhood on agreeing to and following the control strategies.
The chapter has been much better on getting Event Planning Forms (EPFs) in to the International Fraternity in a timely manner. By doing this, IHQ will extend their insurance to cover the event in case something goes wrong. I arranged for the local fire chief to come in and talk before a chapter meeting about fire safety. I worked with Colman to provide updated evacuation maps for the 2nd and 3rd floors.
Taken together, all of these things are making Lambda Chi Alpha at Penn State a safer place for our undergraduate chapter. I look forward to continuing the process.