No Greek Life Next Year?
 

I won't mention any names or anything, but currently at my school, Greek Life may end come next school year. Presently, there are focus groups being held and individuals looking in to each GLO, and assessing what should be of Greek Life. I find this to be horrid that all social GLOs would have to end. Granted, Greek Life isn't great in any way at my school, and the school has never backed us for much of anything. We have a new President of the school too. I was wondering if it would be good for my sorority or the officers of it to meet with him for lunch, or just a meeting where we could discuss things. I understand Greek Life is yucky here but it has the potential to really be something. Unfortunately black marks on all the social GLOs records don't help the situation. I was wondering if any of you out there in GC land have ever had this happen and would appreciate any advice! Or, if you would know of any ways to strengthen Greek Life's image at our school, that would be awesome too. Thanks guys! :confused:

I am rooting for the focus groups!

Don't worry about it too much. There is DEFINATELY Greek life after University recognition. My school, Santa Clara University, pulled recognition of the Greek System in the Spring of '00. Since then, my chapter has nearly tripled in size, and and we have won back-to-back Grand Sage's awards, given to the #1 Sigma Pi chapter in the nation. As long as you have a strong national organization that will support you, and dedicated, hard-working members, there should be no problem with staying in existence at your school.

PM me if you want a more in-depth account of what we went through at SCU.

How does that work? If the university ceases to recognize you, doesn't that make it harder to have events and such?

Other than Imachump who seems to have little or no clue,

Many Schools are getting to the point of dropping Greek Orgs because of:

1. Stupid things that Greeks do on their campus

2. Stupid things that Greks do around the Schools across the country and Canada that is read about in the media.

Remember, they forget about all of the good work that is done by the Greeks as that never reaches the Press and if it does, it is not printed or reported on.

I think it would be more beneficial for all of the Greeks on campus to gather in a group and come up with a way to show solodarity of doing good things, building your membership (More is better).

Not knowing your school or area of the country is very hard to judge the significance of what you are talking about!

We in the middle of the Country accept the Greek concept more so than many areas. well except the South!

Remember, the Greek Orgs. started in the NE and the S. for the most part!

It seems we get more flak from the NE and Calf.

Why is that?

You just can't have them or advertise them on school property. If the entire system really works together (that is the key) and your national supports you, it can work.

I'd check with your HQ to see if University recognition is important to keeping your charter. I know for us (unless High Council deems otherwise) you have your recognition pulled so goes your charter.

If it doesn't matter either way there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to being recognized or not... Weigh them. I think you'll find that if your chapter is not forced dormant you'll still have a great deal to work with. If it's a public university they cannot stop you from wearing letters, advertising events by posting flyers, etc unless they do the same to ALL groups.

Good luck to you.

Since you mentioned my name, I think I should respond to you...

Tom, I understand that you're about 9,000 years old, but DAMN, what is up with your spelling?

In all of the INTERNET, you've got to be the worst speller I've ever seen. I think it's lame when people point out one or two spelling mistakes in a post but geez, my five year old cousin could beat you in a Spelling Bee.

Please Please Please retake an English class or something. I'm really worried about you :(

St Andrews University
 

I am a member of the Kate Kennedy Club, I'm told it is the closet organisation to a Fraternity in Europe.
The club was reinstated in 1926, after a hundred years of being banned.

The University is once again taking issue with us, and last year withdrew even the tacit support it once gave us.

There are no other clubs like us at my Unviersity or in Britain.

We do not have a Frat house, we are not a Fraternity, but we are all male and have some similiar traits to your Greek System.

We select 9 new members from the Freshmen each year, and one of which plays the Lady Katherine herself in our annual pageant, which draws crowds of 20,000. This is the higgest honour in the club, all Kate's have a secret society, a club within the club if you like.

We organise the two largest social events at the Univerity, the Opening and May Ball, with 2000 guests in attendance the May Ball is the largest Student event in Scotland.
There are helicopter rides for Platinum ticket holders, and a fairground.

The University has set up a 'working party' to investigate us, and we are by far and away the most contraversial society at the university.

You can continue without University support, just be stubborn.

I thought if a school does not recognize the individual chapters that exist, that some nationals would pull charters?

HEHEHE, Well your importantance is underwhelming and some times very obnoxious!

But some times we as members do give a little for butchering the Kings English English or for typos !!

While being OLD, I do not have the ability of a Fine Up Standing College Kid as your self! ou know a Fuc!, such as your self!

How far have your self importance has been there and what have you done to been to know what it is really like to be semi important?

So far, I have seen you act like some of the other Nay Asses who browbeat and say negative things! If that is why you are here, then why are you here?

If you have constructive thoughts to put forward then do so!

If not go to a silly boy site!

When you think you are the smartest one on site go for it!

When you get in teh real world, contact me and tell me you know how to work and control people on a daily basis!

Hell you would moare than likely pale if someone comes in to rob you!

You seem as many others who hide on site to show your self importance!

I for one and many other are not impressed!

Take your best shot insignicant one of self importance!:D A boil on the Butt is still a bothersome thing, but can be dealt with!

I assumed our charter would be revoked if Greek Life failed to exist. The members of our Greek Council act as if it is armageddon for all social GLOs here should this happen.

Either way, I was just recently elected President of my sorority and am gonna fight to keep things going. Apparently, and unknowingly, my sorority has been slacking and quite lazy in not going to events. I find myself embarassed to attend my Greek Council meeting when I heard this. That, of course, will change. I don't need further flack from other Greeks because mine doesn't attend anything. I transferred from a school who had a strong Greek Life and am just not used to this kind of situation.

All I can say is maybe you should try to get all the social GLOs on your campus to work together and make a big show of unity, brother and sisterhood, and philanthropy. If the University wants to get rid of greek life because the houses all have black marks, then definetly make a big show of trying to turn things around. I would say definetly meet with the new President of the school - try to make it an cooperative effort. Ask him what he'd like to see more of out of the Greek system, and then come to the meeting prepared with your goals and the goals of the other chapters for where they want to take Greek Life at your school.

On the issue of whether or not your charter gets pulled, i think most nationals take it as a case-by-case thing. If a chapter loses university recognition because of an individual issue, like hazing - most nationals would pull the charter. but if the university refuses to recognize ANY GLO... i think that might be a different story. But I'd worry about that when the time comes -- for now, I'd say just do everything you can to pull all the chapters on your campus together and be unified, and really try to show the University officials that you want to work WITH them, not against them.

Does your campus have a greek advisor? If so, a group of you should consult this person right away on what to do. If you don't have a greek advisor, is there a staff member in the student activities center who tends to be pro-greek (like an alum of a GLO) who the greeks on your campus can rely on as an advocate? If so, contact this person and start building a rapport.

Also, it's not unheard of to invite Univerisity officials over to your chapter house for tea or dinner. So by all means, if you can assemble a group of GLO presidents or even just officers within your own GLO to chat with the people in the administration about what your concerns are, that would be a good idea. Keep in mind that if you all meet, they would most likely bring up the black marks on the GLO social records that you mentioned. A step in the positive direction would be to get the GLOs to simply follow the rules from hereon. It would be unfortunate if a few bad apples ruined it for everyone else.

I'm a little confused about what these focus groups you mentioned are about. I haven't heard of anything like that before. Do you go to a religious college with officals who condemn drinking and stuff like that? I was just curious.

Keep us updated and best of luck ...

QT Pie ~ Well, we do have a Greek Advisor...until next week. She is leaving to be one at another school and as of now, we have none and no other one has been hired. We did find out that they are in the process of finding applicants for the job. Hopefully we will have one come next semester.

With houses, the school won't let us have any, so the best we could do is reserve a room and provide refreshments and such. That is a good idea though, thanks!!! I think it would be best for officers of all the GLOs to meet and have a discussion with the new President. It is helpful that the new President is very friendly and open to things like this.

Unfortunately, this past week there was a bad incident on campus with one of the fraternities. Of course that made the front page of the school newspaper. None of the good things Greeks do ever make the front page.

The focus groups were held for seasoned members and new members. The people holding them asked them questions about Greek Life, what they want out of it, what they have done for it, thoughts on how it could be better, etc. I don't go to a religious college, just a state school that would rather not fund anything...

I would definitely advise meeting with your new President. Tell him/her about your purpose and what you do. We have a new President ourselves this year and almost every organization has sat down with him and talked about their background, their goals, etc. It really helps build relations.

As a matter of fact, you should encourage the other groups to do it as well. Talk to IFC and Panhellenic or whatever governing bodies you have there and encourage their officers to meet with the President at the very least.

Does your school need student volunteers to help out at events such as New Student Orientation, Open House, Make a Difference Day, Homecoming Week, etc? If so make sure that your organization and all the other Greeks are the first ones to volunteer!! At CSUDH if they were to ever ban Greeks they'd lose a lot of their volunteer base since we help the campus at everything. Make the Greeks indispensable to the school while at the same time giving them a positive image of what Greek Life is about.

Good luck

Hey, cut out the "old" remarks--Tom is probably about my dad's age! :mad: :p

I would guess that your Greek system is going to stick around...it would be illegal for the campus to derecognize you if you are a state school since you receive federal funding. (Believe me, if it was legal the PA state schools would probably have done it a while ago.)

It sounds like they want to put an evaluation system in place - the jury is out on the effectiveness of these - but they are often used if there are orgs that are allegedly "underperforming." If they're hiring a new Greek Life advisor, I don't think they're planning on getting rid of Greek Life - no one would take a position knowing it will be obsolete in 6 months.

greeks on campus
 

Hi all!!

I hope your school does not do away with your greek system, but if it does it can still survive. The first three years I attended Texas A&M, '87-'90, NPC sororities were not recognized by the University, but they still had rush and had activites off campus. I never got the story of why the University did not recognize them . But, my senior year, '90-'91, they were recognized. I think the only thing that may happen is that the greeks will not be able to hold functions on campus in the organiztions name.


Sigma Diva
Sigma Gamma Rho

The media and press truly does fail to recognize the good things Greek do. One of our organization's purposes is "Community Service." Most orgs are required to do a certain number of community service functions per year. I believe this type of activity should be one of the primary goal of the Greeks. If more of us focused on serving and networking within our community, our reputations would be held in higher opinion. Think of many other organizations such as the nation's Junior League and other clubs that are regarded in high esteem. Ensure the media covers/is aware of your functions by sending a press release to them each and every time.

I would certainly attempt some type of community/campus service project as soon as possible along with a meeting with the university president. Maybe there could be stipulations for staying (i.e. so many service projects a semester, social probation for those who are unruly, etc.)

Not only is there definitely greek life after University recognition, there can also be expansion after recognition. SCU never expected our greek system to grow, they expected it to wilt and die away, but here I am, initiated into Kappa Alpha Theta which was newly colonized last year and we have 115 members---amazing for a new chapter, esp. one with no University recognition! It's hard, but a good Greek system of support and strong nationals will apparently pull you through it---even our local fraternity came through it just fine.

I would call for an emergency Greek President's meeting. The presidents should then go and contact their HQ about how to proceed. Together, the Panhellenic and IFC, with national support, can go and present a mature and focused case to the administration, advocating the continued recognition of fraternities and sororities on campus, and with the goal to work together with admin to help alleviate the problems currently causing this motion (IE: if alcohol, hazing, etc, are an issue, the Greeks can create an action plan to help educate members and the university community and be more visible on campus with programming for all students-- service projects, trainings, etc.).

Talk to your immediate inter/national director before going forward with anything. The national HQ has the power to help you succeed.