Suggestions on how to increase GREEK LIFE at our school
 

I'm currently attending the University of Hawaii. Greek Life out here is not what it is in California or any other place for that matter. I'm just wondering if anyone knows anything to just change the culture of the school to become more greek. We have 3 fraternities (Tau Kappa Epsilon, Kappa Sigma, and a local fraternity Kappa Epsilon Theta) and 2 sororities (Beta Beta Gamma, Alpha Gamma Delta).


Personally I am content with the current state of our chapter out here. It's not too big, not too small. Is there sometime that is going on on other campuses to help greek life thrive that might not be happening out here?


Out here we don't have a greek row. Our campus, during freshman orientations, doesn't even have a greek section like I know a lot of schools do.


So I guess my question is how to increase the amount of people who rush. Is it all advertising? Is it just getting out there and communicating?


Please forgive me if I'm asking some pretty obvious questions but I was just recently initiated and I want to be as involved as possible.

Any and all respectful suggestions will be appreciated.

Whoa, bud -- you just initiated. Take some time to enjoy it. I would focus on learning the ins-and-outs of my fraternity before trying to make waves in the Greek system.

Your school may not be able to support the huge, SEC-type chapters. Nothing wrong with that. Just make sure you're representing your fraternity in a positive light, and it should get some interest. Once you've established yourself in your chapter, try getting involved with IFC/whatever council you have. You can use that platform to help set up larger events that can hopefully spark some interest.

I know I'm not going to run a one man show. Lol. Just excited, that's all I guess. Me and some of the brothers were all just talking about RUSH next year and how we could try and change the culture of Greek Life at this school. Nothings going to happen overnight but it's worth a try. :)

Do you have a greek advisor? what is he/she like?

You can't have your cake and eat it too, not to mention it will take the participation of all the GLOs on campus to change things. If you want more people (in general) to go greek you need to advertise, be visible, and have an active IFC and NPC.

A result of increased interest in fraternities is well....more members;) If you enjoy the current size of your "right-sized" chapter, why would you want a sharp increase in membership?

I guess I worded it wrong. I love my chapter and my brothers but I think that with more effort or some extra work we can just improve the Greek System.


I mean not every college started out with huge fraternities or sororities. I just want to do the best I can to increase it.

We don't have a greek advisor. We have a council of leaders for each sorority and fraternity to discuss things like greek week I guess. I don't really know their exact responsibilities but whatever they are doing it could be done better if you ask me.

According to the webpage at U of H, there are 4 fraternities and 6 sororities including two with names that look like they are ethnic greeks for Native Hawaiians (Imiloa Fraternity and Wakaba Kai Sorority)

No. That information is outdated. The school doesn't really seem to care about promoting greek life at all. When I asked about fraternities during my freshman orientation to one of the people leading it they didn't know any fraternities on campus.

There cannot be an active College Panhellenic because there is only one NPC group on campus.

When I was there, there were about 8 each sororities and fraternities, including Imiloa and Wakaba Kai. They were all cultural (i.e., you had to be Japanese to be in Wakaba Kai and Hawaiian to be in Imiloa, etc.) and they all hazed with a vengeance, which is probably one reason they folded. Who wants to pay good money to be hazed? And everyone knew they did it because they hazed openly--in the cafeteria, on the main campus, etc.

Plus it's a commuter campus with lots of kids who have jobs and no time for any extracurriculars. That makes recruitment hard.

That's definitely going to make getting numbers very, very difficult. But see, with the other leaders who organize Greek Week and stuff, if you can hold some more "open" events to non-Greeks so that they can see if they would enjoy being Greek. That'd increase visibility and hopefully interest. Make it worthwhile for these students to not go home every weekend.

We often have concerts with our philanthropies, everyone can attend--sometimes with the purchase of a ticket, sometimes not. Try a Hawaiian BBQ, we host a BBQ in the quad to generate freshmen interest in IFC, and in your case, who doesn't love Hawaiian food!? We have booths set up for each fraternity, with these information cards of our rush events and who we are.

There are very many ways, and the other repliers are on point. Be visible, but be respectable. Interest in IFC will follow. This may take time, Greek life may be more popular only after you graduate, so enjoy the brotherhood you have, although I admire your desire to do better.

SMH.

The last thing he should think of doing is a "Hawaiian" anything.

Stuff like that only works in Texas lol

Or as they probably call it: Food.

I don't know why this made me laugh so hard LOL

You can tell a lot about how strong greek life is going to be on campus without ever seeing greeks.

It's a commuter school? Well subtract all the commuters, two-thirds of the people living in dorms, take 5-10% of what's left and that's probably in the same hemisphere as your totals.

What's the entertainment access? If you're in the middle of nowhere, there's very limited options to go out both locally and in commuting distance, there's not public stuff (river/lake/beach/etc), etc.. and the majority of students are going to hate life. Then, you'll have a massive greek system, cause the motivation and value of being part of it are huge. You're in Hawaii, so I'm pretty sure you're on the other end of that spectrum. Most people probably don't need you to have a good time, either in reality or perception.

What's the housing situation? You said you don't have a greek row, which is fine, most places don't. But I don't know what houses you do have. If they're either none or crap hole little run down places, then that's no motivation to join. If they're nice places with big common areas and lots of rooms that people want to live in (especially if you can have meal service and make it cheaper than campus while getting better quality), then that'd be a draw.

What kind of greek tradition is there? Is it a lot of international students or first generation college students? Do a high percentage of students have parents that were greek? Is a large chunk of the faculty or administration greek? What about alumni support? So, pretty much bad on all that right?

You're also in Hawaii (we got that established right? :) ) which means most nationals aren't going to consider expansion there just because of the cost of doing business. Having a consultant drive a rent car a hundred miles to from a visit at an existing chapter to another school that would potentially bring in another 10k a year is reasonable. Buying tickets to Hawaii while still only getting that same income is just not worth it.

My point is the accepting the things you cannot change part of who you are. Once you've done that then you can understand what you can realistically improve and what you have to do to accomplish that.

So... I like your idea of getting with the University to conduct a session during orientations. Talk to your headquarters about year round recruitment, both on campus an in high schools. You need to not wait around to see what shows up to formal rush. You need to make recruiting automatic and part of your constant culture. That gives you a good chance to do values based stuff which can make your chapter better fast. Marketing is good too.

Strategically though, you need to look at why your members are willing to pay dues. That's probably because they just stumbled into rush and learned to love it in pledgeship. But, if you asked them if they'd be willing to pay their dues amount to get intramurals, the social events you do, etc without a fraternity being part of the equation, most would say no. I'm in the slightest saying your fraternity should be about those things, but you need to make members feel like they're getting their money's worth. When they don't that hurts collections and retention, which screws your finances. But, from the outside, if the perception is the benefits are not worth the costs, then people aren't going to join. You need to work on those perceptions and be able to sell the economies of scale you get by pooling resources that makes things possible no other student can have access to.

That and just learn to rush & retain better. Make the best of what you got and leave it better than you found it. Don't try to turn Hawaii into Ole Miss, or even USC, cause it'll never happen.

YES. This is totally it. Please include the hula girls, fire eaters, you know, all that crap they drag the tourists at the resorts to so they actually feel like they're in Hawaii. On a mostly commuter campus, I'm sure that will go over exceedingly well.

Don't forget your coconut bra!

I like this.

But definitely make sure that you are settled within your GLO before trying to make everything OK across the system.

For starters, the groups hazing the shit outta their pledges need to stop hazing the shit outta their pledges. You think you're gonna get people attracted to you if they constantly see half-naked guys parading across Campus Center carrying a keg? Having to run across Varney Circle just to address an initiated member as Mr. and Ms. So and So? What are the girls doing these days? The Gammies are no longer around, so the carrying of the pumpkins are no more, I imagine.

Just be glad you have a Greek Week. Greeks before you didn't have that opportunity. National groups were pretty independent from the KEOs and other locals.

While they were around, Imiloa Fraternity did not limit membership to Native Hawaiians. Though Wakaba Kai was Japanese in tradition, members did not have to be Japanese to join. As the OP said, that website is about 10 years old and I don't know why they haven't taken that crap off.

What she said. NPC groups are very hesitant to consider a Hawaii colony. AGD had an alum chapter in the islands since the 1930s. The AGD chapter wasn't chartered until 1992. Several NPC groups have good alumnae groups, but getting a new group on campus would be a massive undertaking and too much of a gamble. I've seen NPC interest groups spring up over the years -- I'm assuming members initiated on mainland schools transfer/come home and they want to establish their group in Hawaii. They're basically SOL, IMO.

Local sororities have been around since the 1940s. Every now and then they go dormant, only to come back to life again when alums decide they want to put in the effort to do a semester's rush. BBG was dormant for a while, but they've since restarted the group and have been putting in some solid numbers the last few years. They only rush in the Fall. AGD, being the only NPC on campus, holds informal recruitment both semesters.

I don't think they "folded" because of hazing. I think it's because members no longer really wanted to put in the effort to recruit new members. Some of the existing groups still openly haze despite the Non-Hazing policy set forth by CAPS. Greek organizations are considered Registered Independent Organizations (RIO) by UHM. Basically they're not even recognized by the university. In all publications (including website), groups need to disclose this information.

I also need to note that Sigma Phi Epsilon used to be on campus from the late 80s (I think) to the mid 90s. I'm pretty sure they didn't close because of hazing. I think it was a numbers issue. Kappa Sigma coming to campus a few years ago was a big surprise and I'm glad they're doing well.

For crying out loud....Hawaiian Barbecue (you might be familiar with L&L if you're in Southern California) does not = Hawaiian food. So if you don't know shit about Hawaiian food, I suggest you STFU.

To HawaiiTKE, I've read your other posts. Seriously kid, you need to slow down and learn to play nice because these people will eat you alive and feed your carcass to the wolves. Is it worth making an ass of yourself and potentially having your chapter and other Hawaii Greeks find out? That's up to you. There's no such thing as KEYBOARD COURAGE under a thin veil of anonymity. Greek Life is that small, and it's only a matter of time before you're outed.

That said, ALOHA. And Go Warriors.

I don't see how a newly-initiated member of Fraternity A would have any impact on Fraternity B's practices.

Quite comfortable and entertaining for a supposed newbie.

Either a sock puppet; someone who has been reading GC and finally decided to register; or a true newbie who loves trash talking. Aloha, regardless. :)

You're right. I obviously wasn't implying that he could. Fixing my post now.

;) \m/

Wellllll, perhaps we would be surprised what goes on in some instances. Pillow talking and any derivative thereof.

Thanks for the advice and help everyone.

I was thinking we needed a Hawaiian sock for this thread and here you are.;)

Even someone who's legally blind but wearing really good glasses could see who that one is.

Of course.

I think a lot of it has to do with good public relations. Your IFC should develop a PR plan. First things first: update the Greek Life website. Your chapter should also have an active and regularly updated website.

Next, the Greeks should have a presence at Freshman Orientation. Set up a booth, hand out fliers with dates for fraternity rush and info about the organizations.

Another way to improve your presence is to require your members to get involved on campus. For example, in my chapter, each member had to be involved in at least 2 non-Greek organizations on campus. You could require involvement in one.

Stop the hazing. Period.

Host events that the entire campus is invited to: like a lecture series, intramural sporting event, or sponsor a study break snack table at the library during finals.

Pick one day each week where all Greeks wear letters on campus-- at UCF, for example, we did this on Wednesdays, when IFC and Panhellenic had their meetings.

Put signs up on campus to promote your GLO's name, promote your philanthropy, etc.

When your pledges initiate, put an ad in the school newspaper.

Being that I am an alumna from UH, I thought I would help with some of the questions/concerns brought up by others, as well as from HawaiiTKE. =)

There is virtually No Support from the school when it comes to greek life. Every once in a while, everyone will be surprised at something they allow the organizations to do in terms of advertising, using certain facilities, etc, but it always depends. Example: using the bbq pit behind the dorms for a recruitment event. Since it would be excluded to members and WOMEN pnm's only, they said we could not since it would single out the rest of those living in the dorms. Yet, other groups on campus are allowed to use the pit for their own events.
I think the reason that there is not a lot of support is because many people here in Hawaii, stay in Hawaii for school and don't know what Greek life is REALLY about. They don't understand it and probably think the stereotypes are all true & therefore don't want to support 'that.' Each fraternity and sorority strives to break that stereotype though because each one really wants improvement.

The newspaper on campus charges A LOT to print things. For the size of the Chapters at UH, it costs a little too much whereas it might not be as bad for "normal" Chapters at other schools. Each of the Chapters do try though and continuously look in to that option since everyone reads the paper, Ka Leo.
Facebook has been a means that most of the Chapters are using to reach out to new members as well.

As one person mentioned, the life style itself in Hawaii makes it hard to increase numbers. it is very laid back, 'do my own thing' and just party party party. One thing that my Chapter noticed over the years is that, the girls who were interested in Greek life because they grew up knowing about it, also expected a certain type of Greek environment and expected things to be done in certain ways. When they see that UH is totally different than most of other schools, they lose interest because it isn't the stereotypical Greek life they always hoped for. On the one hand, it isn't such a bad thing that they walk away; each group wants members that are willing to put in the effort to make things better and to be happy being a part of a group of individuals that love their fraternity/sorority regardless of how it is comparable to others.

Each group participates in recruitment in the fall and all but the two locals, also recruit in the spring (the locals have kind of like a year long new member period, fall to end of spring). What is great is that for the first week or two weeks of school, you can find the fraternities and sororities tabling at the Campus Center. You can walk around talk to each one and see the interaction between them as well; talking, laughing, encouraging, etc.
Greek Week is also a big time for all the Greeks because most of the events are done on campus, during normal class hours. Some of the events, get the whole campus involved too; this is not only in the hopes of spreading the word of Greek Life, but trying to increase school unity which is also kind of lacking at UH.


While I mentioned a few things that make it sound like UH Greek life is on track, and in some respects it is, there is still a lot that each group wants to have done. The problem is how to go about it. HOW do you get people INTERESTED, not just getting them knowing about the Greeks.
I think that the size of the Chapters is pretty good for each group but everyone wants them to be bigger. You can't help but want your group to be big and known all over!

And congrats to Alpha Gamma Delta, Delta Sigma Chapter (UH - Manoa) on their Initiation of 9 women this coming Saturday!!

Oh, in regards to what Fridayyyy said about another NPC wanting to colonize.

Delta Zeta has wanted to colonize for quite some time but without support from the school and with current numbers always fluctuating at an extreme amount, it would be a serious risk for them to do so. Therefore, they haven't gone forth.

Hawaii has quite a few strong alumnae groups for NPC Chapters though. The Hawaii Alumnae Panhellenic Association (HAPA) was established and they are a great outlet for keeping involved with not only sorority sisters but women from other sororities as well.