non traditional schedule
 

This article from USA today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/educati...terstitialskip

talks about enrolling a number of students on a Spring-Summer (with fall semester off) at the University of Florida in order to ease crowding and better utilize facilities. If this happens ... how would that impact greek life?

I would suppose that most students interested in greek life wouldn't be interested in the Spring-Summer schedule .. but shouldn't we be open to alternatives?

Since you're specifically referring to Greek life, I will take an NPHC-ish spin on it.

For those of us that have flexible intake, or an intake schedule that isn't nationally standardized, it wouldn't really matter.

For Alpha, the latest which intake can occur nationally is generally June 15. I suspect that special permission could be granted on a case-by-case basis.

Could end up being similar to our Kettering Chapters, where we have an "A" group and a "B" group that function as separate chapters, since the school is divided into Summer/Winter and Spring/Fall groups. Some modifications would be required, however, since you'd have everyone there one semester (trimester?).

There are a lot of public schools busting at the seams (think ASU with 60,000 students!) I think that could probably benefit from changing to a year round format- something that certainly appeals to all the students that start out at traditional campuses but finish their undergrad work with schools like Univ of Phoenix or Chapman (which I think is called Brandman or something like that now) The one class a month format makes it a lot easier to work, do internships and have time for interests outside of class. And what a waste it is to have university facilities sitting idle when there are students that want to take classes and instructors that want to teach!

A big pro for the Greek system of a year round system would be the continuity of keeping your housing facilities open and generating income all year round. Just because the house is empty over summer break doesn't mean you don't have to keep paying for security, gardeners, property taxes and utilities etc. But just like universities we Greeks are kinda slow to accept change and adapt!

Questions I have ... would you need to hold formal recruitment twice a year (Spring and Fall) to accomodate the Spring-Summer people?

Would the chapter houses be open all year around? If so, when would maintanence and renovations, which are usually done over the summer, be done?

Wouldn't it just be spring then? Since the article said that everyone would still be going to school in the spring.

Generally speaking, it shouldn't be an issue with respect to IFC rush. As it is now, many schools have both a fall and a spring IFC rush. As well as a summer rush. However, those rushed in the summer normally pledge in the fall.

The only major change might be the spring rush could become bigger than the fall rush and summer rushes. This is based on the overlap of students being on campus in the spring – i.e. fall-spring being one “school year” and spring-summer being another “school year”.

I would suspect a spring-summer “school year” might also influence the nature of summer rush for some chapters as well. I could see a summer rush for current students as well as a more traditional summer rush (series of parties what have you) for those that are enrolled for the fall.

I can see some benefits, but also a lot of logistical issues, so that's what I'll focus on here.

Total and multiple recruitments - membership numbers would be changing more significantly than it might already between Fall and Spring semesters (December graduates, transfers, etc.). When is total determined?

Housing - if you have a house, especially with a live-in requirement, how do you handle members who aren't on the typical Fall & Spring track? You either have empty rooms or not enough room for people.

Budgets - Dues/fees - parlor fees, event scheduling, retreats - are all based on a presumed constancy of the number of members for that year. If a decent sized contingency of members aren't on campus for an entire semester, you'll have to have different fee plans.

Scheduling - If some members are Spring & Summer only, when do you do the once-a-year events like retreats or formals? What about participation in Fall campus events, and you suddenly have only half the number of members you had before?

Maintaining "status quo" during the summer. Many bylaws/constitutions require the presence of the executive officers during meetings, quorum, and other "must haves" to operate business meetings. How do you operate as an organization when you might have a smaller population? Do standard operating procedures go on hiatus? What about behavioral and "standards" expectations? Who is "policing" operations?

I honestly think that there would not be change unless there is a paradigm shift on a large scale not only at a particular university, but across the country. You have not only your I/Nationals to answer to, but also the NPC. I just don't see it yet.

My question is, who on earth would want to go to school in Florida at the peak of summer? Seriously???

Formal recruitment and anything else like that (Greek week, formals etc) could be in the spring. If there isn't a chapter quorum, you can't do business. I don't know why this would change.

But I honestly doubt that traditional students will want any part of this, as many of them have summer jobs that you can only do in the summer.

Along with this I was under the impression that many schools offer classes in the summer, yes it's not the full catalog but the option is there for most people to take advantage of.

On the line of sorority operations how would electing officers work?

Ricks College/BYU-Idaho
 

The best example of this is probably what happened at Ricks College. Ricks College was a two year school run by the Latter Day Saint Church, part of their Education System, like BYU and BYU-Hawaii.

Since they capped the size of BYU and BYU-Hawaii specializes in those of Pacific descent, the place where they expanded was at Ricks College. They changed it to a four year school, changed the name to BYU-Idaho and instituted a 3 semester system with two on and one off. Almost all students do either Fall (Sep-Dec)-Winter(Jan-Apr), Fall-Summer(May-Aug) or Winter-Summer. There are a *few* students who can go all three semesters straight. The completely got rid of intercollegiate sports (which they had had a fairly good program) and both the intercollegiate sports and most of the student clubs became administration run. Note that Ricks didn't have any Fraternities or Sororities.

Randy