Fraternities that continue to allow students who do not meet university requirements to pledge to their organizations may face sanctions and fines, said university officials who have vowed to crack down on the practice of underground pledging.

But that’s not stopping several fraternities from continuing to employ the practice during pledge season.

A student must have a minimum GPA of 2.5 and have completed at least 12 credits in order to join a fraternity, according to university rules. If a student does not meet these requirements, Greek organizations will sometimes allow these individuals to join “underground.” This practice, university officials said, was particularly rampant in 2009, and has since abated somewhat.

“It had reached a place where it was common enough that chapters could justify doing it as, ‘Well, lots of other people are doing it so it must not be that big of a deal,'” said Matt Supple, director of the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life. “So, the [Interfraternity Council] worked with our staff to make sure that chapters understood that it really is a big deal and we really are going to clamp down on it.”

Traditionally, if a fraternity is found to have pledged underground members the university will fine them about $250 per violation and place a social moratorium on the organization — two weeks per underground pledge. Several fraternities that were punished in 2009 claim to no longer engage in the process. Some members said the crime isn’t worth the time.

“Our new member class has a 3.4 cumulative GPA. They are required to tell us their GPA and amount of credits at our recruitment events in order to receive a bid, and then after the bid is signed, they must submit a transcript verifying that information,” said sophomore letters and sciences major Jimmy Gray, president of Phi Gamma Delta. “It is not worth it to get in trouble.”

Two years ago, university officials and the IFC teamed up to offer chapters an opportunity to come forward and admit that they had taken underground members. If organizations chose to out themselves, the penalties would be cut to a $100 fine and one week of social moratorium per violation.

Supple said 10 chapters admitted to taking underground members in the past.

Interfraternity Council President Brian Toll, who is a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, said those efforts proved successful.

“Chapter presidents and other chapter leaderships voluntarily came forward with the information because they wanted to start to play by the rules and get a fresh start with the executive board and the whole IFC community at that time,” Toll said, adding that underground pledging was such a big problem that even fraternities that were IFC members came forward.

Toll said since then, the problem has seemingly decreased.

“I think it has gone down significantly because of the strides that the executive board and the IFC made,” Toll said.

But several members of Greek organizations said their fraternities still engage in the process.

“I’m not sure if I would say that most fraternities still have underground pledging, but I’m positive it is still going on,” said a senior whose fraternity was suspended by the university. “With the high amounts of fraternities at Maryland vying for a small batch of potential new members, things get competitive and you have to truly consider taking unconventional methods in order to survive.”

But, he added, some students said underground pledging is not solely an issue for smaller fraternities who are trying to “survive.”

“Big fraternities think they are too big to be caught and take underground pledges as well,” he said.

Some fraternity members said determining if potential members meet university requirements does not seem to be a priority.

“Personally, when we recruit we don’t really ask [if students meet the requirements],” said a senior marketing major who is the rush chair of his fraternity. “We recruit them and get them interested, then before pledging starts we would kind of find out. But I know that a lot of people don’t follow those rules anyways.”

During last semester’s recruitment, he said six out of his fraternity’s 10 new members did not meet university requirements. He also said his fraternity would still give a bid to someone who did not meet university regulations.

“And I know for a fact that other fraternities would also give them a bid.”

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