Duquesne doesn't have many wealthy alumni. Wealthy Catholics in Pittsburgh don't give to Duquesne (Notre Dame, yes). Alumni won't care

Secondly, Duquesne students are notoriously apathetic. To be honest, non-Greeks won't care if fraternities and sororities disappear on campus. Neither will be most of the university community.

RedRover:

I am heading off to my elementary school so I have just a minute to respond to your remark. I don't know anything about the monies in Pittsburgh as I am from upstate New York, but I have always wondered if the vast majority of students at Duquesne like/dislike the Greeks. I always got along fine with those who were not in any greek organization but there seems to be a serious undercurrent of hatred towards greeks and spurred on by the administration of the school.

If it is apathy, then the national organizations of each of the fraternities and sororities might be the way to go as opposed to the alumni.

HI ALL:

I didn't particularly like my own response this morning...too early for my bleary eyes and head to think correctly. Apathy and inability to change things usually comes from a feeling of helplessness. When you hear people say that only the vatican can remove Fr. H or change things at Duquesne that is pretty heavy for a bunch of kids.

The best thing to do is for people who are reading these threads to start talking...at the local Starbucks, coffee shops, when they are talking to their friends who went to Duquesne, at dinners, in the lunch room of their offices and busineeses, etc.

Then, STOP giving money to Duquesne.

Twenty-five years ago, during the controversial tenure of Fr. Nesti as university president, the Spiritan provincial at the time, Fr. Norman, threatened to disband the university Board of Directors as well as dissolve the university corporation to demonstrate his support for Fr. Nesti. This was despite the fact that Fr. Nesti the confidence of the Duquesne community (faculty, alumni, etc). When push comes to shove, I would bet on the priest.

RedRover:

What ever happened to Fr. Nesti? I have never heard his name mentioned. People when I was at Duquesne mentioned Dr. Murray and Fr. McAnulty but I have never heard of Fr. Nesti.

Did this Fr. Norman actually disband the Board of Directors?

DU Greek Life
 

Hi! I wanted to put in my 2 cents.

What DUGrad is saying is true. Housing is a mess. I've never seen it this bad. Majority of men already didn't have "wings"--dorm housing and now it has hit the women!

5 groups of 7 don't have full wings. Will this last?

What can we do? I know our advisor is upset--she has been trying to solve this problem for longer than anyone.

I wonder what the other groups are doing--I mean Greek Life & Panhel aren't helping.....maybe we can share what is going on?

Did anyone posting to this group put a lot of money in their wing??

I have to be careful that my chapter is not targeted by DU but yes, our chapter spent considerable money this past year to fix their wing.

Sorry--I didn't want you to be targeted....I just heard rumors...you know how that place is....sometimes you can't really confirm them.

I wonder why panhel isn't helping to solve these issues...especially the GLO...I know we have a newbie in the office....but don't you think these are campus-wide problems.

I mean going from 7 groups with full housing to 5 without...and the guys? Only 1 has full housing!!!

It is a problem I think everyone needs to work together to solve.

What do you think?

Fr. Donald Nest was the university president between Fr. Mac and Dr. Murray. Needless to say, his tenure was short lived was very tumultous. I am not sure where he is after he voluntarily left the university presidency. There were various reports about his whereabouts.

Fr. Norman never disbanded the board of directors or the university corporation, but as provincial superior of the Spiritan congregation he had the right to do so.

Let me ask you all a question. I was told that there is a greek alumni board. Where have they been? Are they puppets for Fr. H? The women in my chapter believe that is the case.

Along another line: The collegiates told me that all they do is raise money, money, money for every pet project either DU wants or someone else wants. Can any other group confirm this?

Check out the Greek DU website--it talks about the Greek Alumni board. Not sure if it is a puppet organizaton--they threw a nice event in November--several of my sisters went. All groups have reps on the board. My suggestion is find out whose yours are.....

Yes, all groups are asked to do an incredible amount of service & fundraising for different causes--it gets a little insane!

I have asked my sisters to contact our adviser team and alumni and ask for help. That is the only way our chapter at DU is going to see change. My sisters are tired of raising money for things. They don't mind doing good works they are just tired of doing it every day practically.

One or two of my collegiate sisters went to the greek alumni dinner but it was not by choice. All the sororities and fraternities were told to send repesentatives of their chapters from the undergraduate level.

Most of that dinner was about raising funds....

HI ALL:

One of my sisters emailed yesterday and the alum have decided to contact our national offices for support. Maybe this is the only way for Duquesne to listen.

Agreed!
 

I think I'll contact our alum/advisor group & do the same. This may be the only way to work on these problems.

Not sure what our nationals can do though.....

I've spent a lot of time reading all of your chats, and I thought I'd chime in with a few corrections, updates, and truth about what you're discussing.

I'm the President of the Greek Alumni Council so I certainly have the information available to me. I live in Pittsburgh; I'm on campus at least once a week; and I'm President of the Alumni Board of Trustees for my Fraternity's chapter.

There are many misstatements and misrepresentations in your postings, DUGrad.

Duquesne is NOT trying to close Greek Life at Duquesne. There have NOT been a lot of chapters closed.

First - the state of the chapters:

All of the "closed" chapters you spoke of were locals. Each of the locals has been replaced by an IFC National. Anyone who knows Greek Life on a National basis today will tell you that locals represent a major liability to ALL chapters on every campus.

Locals don't buy insurance; they don't have traveling leadership consultants; they don't have anti-hazing programming; they don't have national leaders to hold them accountable to higher standards of Greek Life.

Nationals HAVE to replace locals. When a local Fraternity causes an anti-Greek incident to hit the news (ie hazing or drinking), how many people sitting at home say to themselves, "oh, that must have been a local." No one. No one cares about the difference between locals and nationals. They only say, oh, there's those stupid sororities again.

The chapters currently at Duquesne represent the best the IFC and PHC has to offer. The day of the locals is over, and Duquesne has done an excellent job keeping strong chapters at Duquesne.

Second, the housing:

DUGrad, you're completely double-speaking yourself, and many of you agreed. You first said that Duquesne was "killing" your chapters by taking away your wings, but then went on to say that every place from Brottier to South Side is cheaper to live. Well, if the Towers wing isn't important to your chapter, how is the University killing it by taking it away??

It's not fair to independents who are paying the exact same money for a space in Towers that during pledging, ritual, and other Fraternity/Sorority meetings that they have to stay in their rooms or off the wing. They also have to live on a wing with coats of arms on the walls, doors, and in the kitchens.

So why is it that INDEPENDENTS are willing to spend money to live in Towers but your own sisters are not?? Where's the sisterhood?

Here's a suggestion - The sisters who don't choose to live in Towers have to pay a Parlor fee to help offset the costs of those who do. It will help the sisters keep the wing and still be allowed to live where they want.

Third: Duquesne's policy on funding wing improvements has not changed. It has been the same for years. Duquesne pays half, and the chapter pays half. DU will pay up to $1000 a year in this program. That's a lot of coin for even the full wings. Nothing has changed.

Fourth: Red Rover: To say that the University doesn't have wealthy Greek Alumni is completely off-base. The university has a ton of wealthy alumni. Did you notice how every new building, department chair, skywalk, planter, and water fountain has someone's name on it? Those aren't poor alumni.

The University knows that the Greek Alumni are the most well-organized and most-generous group of alumni. That is true for ANY campus. The Alumni Office is VERY committed to keeping Greek Life alive at Duquesne.

My question is: Are YOU? What have you done to help your chapters? In the amount of time you've spent complaining on this board, you could have corresponded with your sisters and brothers about how to create better Associate Member programming, organized an alumni event for your chapter, or planned a brotherhood/sisterhood retreat to talk about ways to be better recruiters.

And Red Rover, you questioned whether the Alumni would "care." Look at the Board of Directors of the University and see who is Greek DU Alum. Have you? Do you know who Anthony Carfang is? How about Jim O'Day? These are powerful, wealthy people who care deeply about the success of the Greek system. Even if you believe Father Hogan wants to destroy Greek Life, go back to one of your earlier points about his bosses being the Board of Directors - guess what - they're Greek, too. And someone else said that the Spiritans are Fr. Hogan's other bosses. Guess what - you're right - and they're Greek too. How many priests who live at Duquesne are Faculty Advisors or Spiritual Advisors? Almost every chapter has a relationship with one priest; some have multiples.

DU Grad: I'm going to question your authenticity. To not know that Fr. Hogan is the Executive Vice President of Student Life is absurd. At one point, you said, the "Dean of Students" might be a priest.

Are you kidding? You were there for four years, have "received a ton" of emails from your sisters questioning DU committment to the Greek system, and you're not sure of the position of the person ultimately responsible for the system? Come on. Quit playing "woe is me" and start working for your chapter.

I'll close with this: I sat on the Selection Committee to pick the new Director of Greek Life after Ron Shidemantle left for Virginia Tech. I can promise you - the University only wanted the BEST for the Greek System. They told us to pick the best available person to take the Greek System to the next level. The committee reviewed some of the finest Greek leaders in the NATION. We were not asked to pick someone who would be a puppet to the administration - were asked to pick the BEST. The person we chose IS GREEK, worked for her chapter as a leadership consultant, worked in Greek Life, has a master's in Higher Ed, and is DEDICATED to seeing the Greek System survive and flourish at Duquesne.

I think you should set up a time to meet with us if you're concerned about the system. I think what you'll find is drastically different than what you wrote about.

Fraternally,
Craig