I think the difference is that chapters that are 'good' as compared to other chapters in their organization aren't always 'good' when they are compared to the other GLOs on their campus. A chapter could have a high campus GPA that's say over the all greek average but it might not win them an award from Convention for scholastics. There are different scales & terms used for both.

Good point. If a chapter meets or exceeds their GLO's requirements etc., then the university should not be allowed to classify the chapter as *poor*. Unless there are very specific university violations that also apply to *all* students and they can be specifically linked to the chapter. i.e. every member is flunking out. As such, perhaps input from the IHQ should be used as part of the criteria as well.

I think its hard to take a house GPA of, say 3.0 and call it poor across the board. Perhaps that chapter has a high concentration of members in traditonally harder majors like Engineering, where a 3.0 is stellar.

The Lehigh site gives background info on how they did the evaluation.

The problem I see is that they aren't helpful in getting the "poor" chapters to improve. If the ratings info got out to PNMs, why would anyone want to join a chapter that has the Official Seal of Disapproval?

OTOH, glad to know that the AGD chapter is doing well. In the fall of 1974 when I was Extension Consultant I paid a cold call on the dean of students. He said that Lehigh had a strong fraternity heritage and now that it was coed he was getting letters from alumni saying, "My fraternity meant a lot to me. What can you do to provide a comparable experience for my daughter?" Seemed like fertile ground to me, and it was!

AGDAlum
(not only did the dean receive me, he took introduced me to the dean of women and we had lunch at the faculty club)

I read Alpha Phi's and was of course saddened to see them ranked as a poor chapter, but when I read through why, someone of it was just plain ridiculous.

Alpha Phi's chapter GPA improved from 7th to 2nd, and they were still considered poor. The administration's crap excuse was that while they went up in rankings, the GPA didn't go up all that much. But it was still above the all women's, all sorority, and every other worthless category's ranking.

It just seemed that because they were using their own resources and not the school's, they were being punished for it.

Hopefully all the chapters learn what sunshine the administration wants blown up their collective asses so that they will all get at least silver and gold rankings. It's really sad when bureaucracy undermines everything you do.

I just wonder how many other things are brought into this as opposed to Non Greeks. Charity Events, Greek Life, Etc.?

Woe is Me is Leighey such a special school that each student should be cookie cut to Their Ideals?:(

Ranking who will be in the Top or bottom is Stupid at the very least. Unless they are totally off of the board, this is the most stupid thing I have ever seen! I dont care what school it is!

Greeks duly have more Items opn their Plates than other students.

Did I miss who the "administration" were who completed this review? Is it on there somewhere? What are their credentials? Greek background? Etc Etc Etc!

The thing that gets me too....this schools Greek GPA's are a lot better than a lot of other campus's....someone is always going to be last on the grade list, right? Too bad bagels didn't buy off my profs! Sorry for the caddiness, but it's the end of the day! :)

I noticed the recomendation of inviting professors and staff to dinner a LOT in those reports. Also, it kept saying that BC fraternity should adopt the policy of XY fraternity because it is a "best practice". I think this is a bit shortsighted...just because it works for one chapter doesn't mean it will in another. And don't homogenize chapters. What I love about my girls is that we opperate differently than others. Lots of people are SHOCKED to hear that we get a discount on our dues if we make 3.5 or above. It's a great incentive, and it shows because our chapter average was above a 3.6!, But at the same time, doing this in another chapter might not do crap to help the GPA.

WOW! :eek: All I can say is that that DEFINATELY would have made me study more!!!! :)

This is a really good idea. Can you explain how much of a discount?

PM me if you want so we don't hijack the thread. I may just bring this to our exec board.

That's what a lot of us said! 90 percent of the chapter is on the Dean's List, and something like 80 percent are presidential scholars. Considering our dues are only 50 USD a quarter though...the 10 dollar discount may not seem like a lot, but man does it come in handy! The incentive is really good too, being a small chapter, EVERY grade counts. When one girl tanks, we all tank, because it just counts so much.

Basically, when it comes time to pay dues, you turn in a printout of your grades from last quarter to the treasurer's mailbox, along with your check. It's something like a 10 percent or 20 percent discount. With our dues being so cheap, it may not seem like a big deal to get 10 bucks here or there, but trust me, it counts. If we have a temporary increase in the dues (if say..we are in desperate need of a new stove) voted and approved, the percentage off stays the same.

ETA (again) : No discount for summer dues though, since they are already discounted for being..well..summer dues.

Yes. To me, that means: ASSKISSERY WILL GET YOU A BETTER RANKING. It's stupid. WTF does inviting professors and staff to dinner have to do with besides kissing ass? I'd rather be rated "poor" if it meant not giving in to crap like that.

Found out good info tonight!!
 

I had a scheduled meeting with an FHQ staff member tonight and brought up this topic. Here's a summary of what she said....

Right now, all NPC (sorry, we didn't discuss IFC) orgs are facing accreditation programs like this all over the country. The reason they are causing problems is much like what we have found with LeHigh, the universities are requiring their own standards and pushing them onto NPC org's. Thus, NPC's are having to defend their stance and negotiate with the university's...almost in a fashion to hold onto their identities and self-governing.

She said there is an NPC agreement that states no university can require an NPC to raise a GPA, but does the NPC governing body have teeth when their membership is dependant upon universities? She is reviewing a document now from an eastern college that also impacts how the school thinks a new member program should run, telling the NPC's what they should put in them and that they can last no more than 6 weeks per the college requirement. If the NPC's do not follow these mandates, they can/will unrecognize the chapter. How in the world can a college govern an NPC's new member program???? I'm personally impressed that have the balls (pardon) to think they can institute this kind of mandate!!!!

Personally, I believe an accreditation program on campuses can be a benefit, BUT where do you draw the line and who's standards do you follow? I know my org has an internal accreditation that is difficult to achieve a perfect or near perfect score, but it is an honor to get it and something each chapter is measured by. I assume other groups has this in place too.

Anyway, this is the basics of our conversation, but she did say there is quite a lot of noise in the NPC community about it.

Re: Found out good info tonight!!
 

Did she mean overall (i.e. for all of A Xi D) or for that university? What I had always been told is that if there are two rules, you have to go with the stricter of the two - i.e. the school doesn't mind drinking in the dorm but the sorority does so you can't. The sorority says min average to pledge is 2.0 but the school says 2.5 so you use 2.5.

I think in this case it's not so much that they are asking the groups to raise their requirements across the board, rather that they are being capricious and arbitrary (tm Cosmo Kramer) in their praise and recommendations in this area.

Re: Found out good info tonight!!
 

You are right....there is a large trend toward universities having/creating their own accreditation processes for their organizations. Part of this stems from the "Call for Values Congruence"...basically university Presidents didn't see GLOs living up to their stated standards and expectations, and called us (collectively) on it. Let's be honest...it's not hard to see why these accreditation programs are happening...our host institutions need to see proof that we are an asset for the institution in a concrete, measurable way. I'm not sure that GLOs were providing that proof.

Where we are shooting ourselves in the foot is by taking the stance that university administrators should "butt out" and not have any input on how we run our chapters. Granted, they shouldn't be making rules up for us...but don't you think that if they really understood what went on in our chapters, they wouldn't have to come up with all of these standards and expectations? What if they knew what our chapter accreditation programs were? What if they could see all of that information...what if we got their input on these programs? I'd bet that they would use those programs instead of creating redundant ones. However, administrators should also be looking at the GLO's accreditation standards when creating their own campus program as well.

Guys...I'm telling you....as a Greek advisor (the dreaded "campus administrator!!") and as a National volunteer for her own sorority....we've got to stop this "US vs THEM" thought process. Yes, there are some universities out there that aren't willing to work with the Greeks. But the LARGE majority of universities want to have a good working relationship with their Greek students and the National counterparts. The more we keep them at arms length, the more they are going to push.

The actions of our past members are what has gotten us into this situation....now it's up to our actions to get us out. My suggestion: If your campus is talking about implementing an accreditation/standards program, smile and say "Great idea! We already do this for our National Organization. Why don't we have a representative from each chapter come together and bring their National accreditation programs and use those as a basis for the campus program?"

I'd love for my students to reevaluate and improve their program criteria each year. As much as they talk about it during the school year, they never give me any suggestions or input on it. Who else is going to come up with this criteria if they don't???:confused: It's up to me to review/revise over the summer, when students are away...then they complain about it during the school year. No action...just lip service. To me, that's disappointing.

PsychTau