WSU’s new “Student Belonging and Success Initiative” centers on smaller, university-supported communities and helping students better experience the breadth of the offerings on campus, university officials said Wednesday in a news release. The initiative also aims to increase the retention rate of first-year students, said Provost and Executive Vice President Chris Riley-Tillman, who noted the percentage of students who leave before they start their second year is in the high teens.

“This is really focusing on that first year from the student-life perspective and really making sure that if one thing stops working … you have broader connections throughout the university instead of just one thing,” Riley-Tillman said Wednesday.

Part of the initiative includes deferring fraternity and sorority recruitment, which typically begins before or at the start of the school year. The change in recruitment rules will take effect in fall 2027, according to the university.

“The goal is to preserve the friendships, leadership opportunities, service and lifelong connections that make fraternity and sorority life meaningful,” WSU officials wrote in the news release. “This shift provides students more time to be a Coug first, settle into college, focus on academics and make friends.”

The university also plans to implement stronger standards related to recognition and accountability for existing sororities and fraternities. Since fall 2024, WSU has investigated at least 17 incidents at Greek life chapters involving hazing, drug and alcohol offenses, or other code-of-conduct violations, according to the university’s transparency report.

The state Supreme Court ruled in July that WSU is obligated to protect students from harm foreseeably caused by fraternity hazing. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the parents of Sam Martinez, a 19-year-old WSU freshman who died in 2019 after consuming most of a half-gallon bottle of alcohol during a pledging event at a WSU fraternity.