At UNC-Chapel Hill, officials are considering changes to the way fraternities and sororities recruit new members.
A trustee committee started work Wednesday analyzing the way Greek organizations conduct recruitment and pledging.

At least one trustee would like recruitment pushed back from fall to spring so that new students can get acclimated to college life before making the decision to join a fraternity or sorority.

Others favor changes to the current, 8-week pledge period, which some say is too long.

This introspection is the second recent administrative initiative undertaken to follow the death late last summer of Delta Kappa Epsilon president Courtland Smith, who was shot dead by an Archdale police officer after an encounter along Interstate 85. The shooting, which was later deemed justifiable, came hours after Smith left a fraternity party.

Last month, trustees reviewed a report recommending that alumni play more of an advisory role for fraternities.

Read tomorrow's N&O for more on this story.

Construction on a Habitat for Humanity house to be built in the memory of a UNC-Chapel Hill fraternity president shot dead last year will get underway Saturday.

The parents of Courtland Smith will be present for a groundbreaking ceremony for the house on Gracie Circle, which will be the eventual new home for two UNC employees and their six children.

Smith was shot dead by an Archdale police officer in August following a showdown on the side of the highway. The shooting was later ruled justified, with Randolph County District Attorney Garland Yates finding that Smith had advanced on the police in a threatening manner and had told a 911 operator he had a gun.

The shooting jolted the UNC community, where Smith was held in high regard. Smith's fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, took on the Habitat for Humanity project as a way to create something positive out of Smith's death.

“We see this project as an important opportunity for the DKE House to contribute meaningfully to the community and give the chapter, parents, and alumni a constructive way to cope with the enormous loss we suffered after Courtland’s death last August," said Davis Willingham, the incoming DKE president, in a press release. "His big heart and vibrant personality touched us and we feel this is a significant effort to honor his life, selfless nature, and affinity for service.  Building the house will benefit the Wei family and ensure Courtland’s legacy as an exemplary leader.”

The home will house Lion and Zar Ree Wei, two UNC housekeepers, and their six children.
 UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp will join Smith's parents, Pharr and Susan Smith of Houston, TX, at the groundbreaking.

The house will be built under the guidance of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County.
  More than $60,000 of the $75,000 necessary for construction has already been raised. 

Bank of America alone contributed $25,000 and the fraternity hopes to raise more than the needed $75,000.  The 16-weekend construction effort itself begins January 30.

_{Photo credit: Daily Tar Heel}

The fatal shooting of a UNC Chapel Hill fraternity president was justified, Randolph County District Attorney Garland Yates said today.

In a news release, Yates said the Archdale police officer who shot and killed Courtland Smith in the early hours of Aug. 23 did so because he believed he faced "an imminent use of deadly force."

Police pulled Smith over on Interstate 85 in Archdale because he had called 911 saying he wanted to kill himself. He told the 911 operator he was drunk and had a gun.

"It is clear from all the evidence that Officer J.P. Flinchum reasonably believed that he and Officer Jones were in imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury when [Flinchum] shot Courtland Smith," Yates said in the release.

Yates said that Smith acted aggressively towards the two officers, leading them to assume he had a weapon behind his back.

"Mr. Smith aggressively advanced on the officers, forcing them to retreat to the rear of their patrol cars twice," Yates said. "He ignored officers' repeated and clear orders to stop advancing on them and to show his hands."

Smith was a junior studying biology. He was president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, where he was partying before driving to Archdale. The fraternity has been sanctioned for the party because alcohol was present.

Writing on his blog, UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp espouses the virtues of fraternity and sorority life at Carolina.

Though he wasn't in a fraternity while a student at Carolina, Thorp writes that he owes much to the Greek system. His father was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, and that's where he met Thorp's mother.

The Greek system has taken some knocks lately, particularly related to the strange death of DKE President Courtland Smith, who was shot dead earlier this year by Archdale police after driving and acting erratically on the interstate. Police thought he had a gun.

Here's what Thorp writes about Smith:

We may never fully understand why Courtland died. We do know that there’s no indication that Courtland had been using anything other than alcohol the night he died. That was consistent with what our Student Affairs folks told us about Courtland – that he was a good kid who was working with them to improve Greek life and make his fraternity a safer place.

The UNC Chapel Hill fraternity that hosted a party the night its president was shot to death by police in Archdale has been sanctioned.

The university’s Greek Judicial Board placed the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity on one year of social probation — which means it can’t hold mixers or cocktail parties — and shortened its pledge period from eight to four weeks.

DKE ran afoul of the judicial board in part for violating policies prohibiting having alcohol present at recruiting events.

The fraternity's president, Courtland Smith, 21, had attended the Aug. 22 party before leaving around 12:30 a.m. He was shot by an Archdale police officer after being stopped on Interstate 85 just before 5 a.m. He had dialed 911 as he drove west at a high speed. He told a dispatcher that he was trying to kill himself, that he had been drinking and that he had a 9 mm handgun.

After Smith’s death, UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp ordered the investigation into the fraternity party.
 

Chancellor Holden Thorp has asked staff to investigate whether any university or fraternity policies were violated at a party the night Delta Kappa Epsilon President Courtland Benjamin Smith was shot by police.

According to a post on Thorp’s blog, Chapel Hill police contacted the university Aug. 23, the day after the party. Jenny Levering from the university’s Greek Affairs office accompanied the police to the DKE house.

“It was obvious that there had been a party there, with alcohol,” Thorp wrote. “I know that doesn’t necessarily sound unusual. But in light of the tragedy, we felt that we needed to try to determine whether any University or fraternity policies were violated. So I asked Student Affairs to look into this."

Minutes before he was shot dead by an Archdale police officer, UNC Chapel Hill student Courtland Smith told an emergency dispatcher he had a gun.

"I mean, I'm trying to kill myself on I-40," Smith told the dispatcher, according to a recording of the 911 call released Wednesday.

Jay Price reports.

Over two hundred students, staff and friends attend a 45 minute memorial service for UNC junior and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity president ... more