Triggs explains her resignation

Now that she has left Pitt, Anita Triggs says she has a life and can enjoy doing things… Now that she has left Pitt, Anita Triggs says she has a life and can enjoy doing things she was unable to do while employed at Pitt, because of the numerous hours she spent working with the Greek community.

“When you are in a situation that is very stressful and you feel like you’re not valued as an employee, it feels like you have a thousand tons just weighing down on you,” Triggs said. “My last day at Pitt was tough, because I had no idea it was going to end like this, but the minute I walked out the door, a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.”

On March 3, Anita Triggs left from her position as Fraternity and Sorority Life Coordinator, after working at Pitt for six months.

At the time of Triggs’ resignation, Associate Dean of Student Affairs Birney Harrigan explained that Triggs resigned for personal matters and the matter could not be discussed.

“[Harrigan] said I left for personal reasons,” Triggs said. “I would’ve rather [she had] said I left for professional reasons, because it had nothing to do with personal [reasons] — it made it seem like I had a family member die or something.”

Harrigan did not return a call for comment, and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Dean of Students Jack Daniel could not be reached.

Triggs said that several factors contributed to her decision to leave. She felt that there was not appropriate staffing to handle all of the Greek programming, and that there were not sufficient resources to aid the Greek community.

“The compatibility between [me] and the way the current administration operates was a huge conflict,” she added.

Triggs turned in her resignation on Feb. 26, 2004, she said.

“In the letter, I said that I would be willing to stay on until the end of the semester, but it was the decision of the administration to go ahead and have the relationship end,” Triggs explained.

She mentioned that only 5 percent or so of her decision to leave was actually based on conflicts with the students.

“This really had very, very little to do with them,” she said.

With Triggs gone, Harrigan has taken administrative responsibility for the Greek community. Triggs admitted that, earlier in her career, she would have said that someone without Greek experience could not be an effective Greek adviser. She added that, during her employment at Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio, a non-Greek person took over the position as a Greek adviser and was successful.

“I think it really depends on the person, and how much [the Greek adviser is] willing to learn, and how much they are willing to delve into the student experience — and the Greek experience, in particular,” Triggs said.

“I think [Harrigan] will do the best that she can, and that’s about all I can say on that one,” Triggs said, responding to the question of whether Harrigan would be a successful Greek adviser.

When Triggs came to Pitt, she said, she was surprised by the lack of self-governance of the three Greek governance groups, the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Association and National Pan-Hellenic Council. She said she was also surprised that the university did not recognize off-campus fraternity houses.

“The unfortunate [thing] about all of this is that I think if I had the opportunity to meet with more students, like maybe during my interview, or something of that nature, I would have had a better grasp of what was going on,” Triggs said. “And, unfortunately, Dr. Harrigan didn’t give me a significant amount of information about everything that was going on, and I will honestly say that is because she really didn’t know.”

After taking the job, Triggs handled the attempt to enlarge membership in NPHC — the historically black fraternities and sororities.

Triggs, who is a Zeta Phi Beta sister, said she believes that expanding NPHC is “inevitable.”

“I think that the numbers fluctuating as much as they do with NPHC has really been a problem,” Triggs said. “It’s been really difficult for them to be involved in larger Greek community events, because of their size.”

Triggs said the proposed membership requirement of 10 students for each NPHC organization was “great.”

“But I think they should maybe be given a chance to gradually get to that point,” she explained.

Triggs also addressed three judicial decisions concerning fraternities: Tau Kappa Epsilon, Zeta Beta Tau and Delta Sigma Phi.

“I have to be one of the hearing officers in all of the cases; however, the way the judicial process works at Pitt is that, ultimately, Dr. Daniel has the final decision and can override the outcome of hearing officers,” Triggs explained.

In both the TKE and ZBT cases, Triggs said Daniel did not accept the complete recommendations she and the judicial board had made. A hazing complaint against TKE was given to Triggs by Dawn Wilson, the mother of a freshman pledge. After the fraternity president admitted to Triggs to some of the accusations in complaint, their recognition from the University was revoked for a year, and they were put on an additional two-year probation.

“I do not feel that what happened with TKE was what I would have been for,” Triggs said.

Zeta Beta Tau, already on social probation for a year, was given an additional semester of probation for sawing a hole in their custodial supply closet.

But Triggs said she felt the decision regarding Delta Sigma Phi was appropriate. Delta Sigma Phi lost its recognition from the University and its charter from its national organization because of a hazing allegation and for violating social probation.

“[Delta Sigma Phi] had been headed down a pretty negative path for quite some time, and, again, in [this] particular instance, there were so many things besides hazing, also, that were problematic,” Triggs said.

Triggs did not think that giving IFC complete judicial power over all Greek matters would work, either. Currently, IFC’s judicial board is responsible for handling only rush violations. Incidents like hazing go directly to the University’s judicial board.

“Hazing is illegal in Pennsylvania,” Triggs said, explaining that actions breaking the law require the University’s oversight.

She suggested that IFC and the University improve communication with each other, possibly doing something “as simple as giving [an] IFC representative an opportunity to be a part of the hearing process.”

Triggs emphasized the importance of education when dealing with hazing sanctions.

“When we are dealing with hazing situations, part of the sanctioning has to be educational, because nine times out of 10, people that are doing the hazing are not these ridiculous, crazy, insane individuals — they are normal people like you and me,” Triggs said.

Triggs also mentioned that there is a “huge communication issue” between the Greek community and the University that needs to be resolved.

“I don’t think communication [between the Greeks and the University] is good at all [right now],” she said. “I don’t think that the responsibility is solely on the administration, either.”

In reference to hiring a new Greek adviser, Triggs said that the administration must be clear about the expectations of the job and about the things needed in the office, as far as resources and support go. She also suggested that students be surveyed to help the administration understand what students want to get out of the Greek community.

Triggs plans to leave Pittsburgh today, heading back to her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, to take a break from working in higher education.

“I really don’t have any ill feelings toward anybody in this situation,” Triggs said. “I just think I realized that this experience was not what I expected it to be, and that I felt, if I had more information [about] the climate of the University [and] the climate of the Greek community, I would have done things differently.”

— Staff writer Anastasia Steranko contributed to this report.