Scholarship Ideas??
 

Anyone have good ideas on how to raise you fraternity or sorority's scholarship?? Ideas weve tossed around are:
a) offering a set of letters to the guy with the highest gpa and most improved gpa each semester
b) steak-chicken-burgers-beans dinner with four scholarship teams
c) increased sober duties for guys below all-men's average

As former Scholarship Chair in my chapter here are a few things that were done to bring us up from 7th out of 8 to 2nd in grades in one year's time.......


For those on probation:
Loss of extra activities: not allowed to play intramurals, not allowed to attend social functions (Theta and Fraternity sponsored), inability to participate in events that take a lot of practices/time such as Greek Sing, AOPi LIp Sync, etc., loss of offices, etc. Repeat offenders had harsher penalities and ran the risk of termination of membership.

For the chapter as a whole:
Weekly awards were given to those who made A's and B's on their assignments/exams and were recognized for doing so.
Proctored mandatory study hours based on GPA (semesterly not overall averages).
Scholarship Workshop (a few hours one weekend with our Scholarship Advisor--topics included goals, conflict with teachers, study tips, etc.)
Nicer awards are also given by our member development committee each year.
We also had Best big sis/lil sis gpa, Best freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior gpa (done semesterly), and most improved.

Also, the probationary terms were strictly enforced as well, so people who were not on probation knew consequences of being on probation and that it was not a joke. Enforcement is key.

I took the intramurals comment to mean that if the chapter was participating in intramurals, the person on probation couldn't participate. But I could be wrong.

And we also have a rule where you can't attend social functions, you can't vote, and you can't hold a position.

And... we have programs to reward sisters.

One thing we do: at each business meeting, the scholarship chair (or VP) passes around an envelope, and anyone who missed a class that week puts a dollar in (one dollar per class missed w/o a legitimate excuse for skipping). She also asks if anyone received an A's for the week for either a major paper, test, or quiz. She records the A's and the person with the most at the end of the semester gets all of the money from the missed classes.

This may cost a little, but what about bringing in an instructor to teach a one-time "study skills" class?

Honestly, in my my experience, the difference in many situations with people who didn't do well in school, was a lack of study skills. Many high schools don't teach kids HOW to study. Ideas such as memory tricks (mneumonic devices), drawing out the visuals of algebraic word problems, rewriting class notes when studying for exams, etc.

Giving your members the tools to study better is an investment in both your chapter and your members. You can make it mandatory for everyone, or mandatory for those at or below a certain GPA, and optional but suggested for the whole chapter.