Delaware Plan
 

On another thread, the "Delaware Plan" was mentioned. I hadn't heard of it so I did a Google Search and came up with this 1998 article from The Christian Science Monitor.

Fraternities Come Clean

I was curious if anyone knew anything more current about the Delaware Plan and if any other colleges have implemented this program.

Thanks.

Just did a quick search and found this at the University of Delaware site.

Five Star Chapter Evaluation Program

Still curious if other colleges have implemented this and what, if any, are y'all's reactions to the program.

Edited to add this outline from the UD site.

It doesn't seem to give chapters a way to get out of the hole. If you're not allowed to take any new members, how can you hope to improve? If you're not allowed to do anything but meetings and community service, why would you join that group over one who can do that plus have fun? :confused:

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems nearly impossible to overcome a challenge of low membership, a bad academic semester or the like.

I can tell you that the "Delaware Plan" and its derivatives have spread to other campuses. The Plan itself was found to be legally unenforcable (this was denied on another thread, and I don't have access right now to the papers I need to prove it). Just because it's legally unenforcable doesn't mean the school doesn't use it; undergrads can be intimidated into anything.
At my campus, administrators attempted to install the thing - their document was called something else but included entire sections ver batim from the Plan. There was a quiet dinner meeting between administrators and lawyers representing several fraternities, including a local judge who said that he would consider it a civil rights case if it came into his court, and the thing was dropped immediately. Please don't take any of this as suggesting that our administrators are anti-Greek. They're not. The basics of the Delaware Plan include layers and layers of sorority-esque rules and regulations with rewards and penalties for each area based on a point system. It's the sort of thing that sororities love and fraternities hate. It was aimed at making fraternities more like sororities. The objection voiced by the attorneys included freedom of association and the fact that other campus groups were not affected. Also, there was this from one lawyer: "All these things may be noble, but each fraternity has the right to be lazy if they want to be. No one should be penalized for electing not to do community service."

My first thought as I read the list was that it seemed they would have a really hard time enforcing it. I do hope there's more to it than this because it seems to put an incident like hazing (i.e. could cause a chapter to lose recruitment privileges) on the same level as not doing enough community service.

We have a similar program for Gamma Phi, but the purpose it to recognize those chapters that excel. It's not used to punish at all.

Seems like the only value in this would be a way to get rid of a chapter that is a constant risk management problem. In a probation situation like that, members are going to leave and the leadership will either have to step up or will just crumble. And with no membership intake, it will be chapter suicide, unless by some miracle every chapter member IS in it for "the right reasons" and they don't cancel their memberships.

All they do is remove recognition? So what??

-Rudey

They're not allowed legally to remove recognition. Some nationals will not maintain an unrecognized chapter. recognition allows certain privileges on some campuses like intramurals, homecoming, sorority socials, etc.

What is so bad about it? The plan in general seems VERY hard to maintain and enforce. Is it such a bad idea to ask that chapters do good in order to continue existing on a campus? What fun would any GLO be without the ability to be active on campus? If you don't play by the rules, why be a member of a greek organization? Other organizations exist on campus. Start your own. Just hang out with friends at a house you rent off campus. Greek Organizations exist because they are seen as something better. Who hasn't heard the % of Senators/Representatives/Presidents/CEO's/Supreme Court Justices... are greek. Or how the All Greek GPA is higher than the All Undergrad GPA on campus? Or how many hours of community service are done by Greeks? Or how much money is donated to philanthropic orgs by Greeks? Why would anyone want to distance themselves from these bragging rights when they are asked to uphold their end?

Being active and being recognized are not synonymous.

There are campuses where fraternities that are unrecognized by the administration of the school are the most popular or prestigious with the students. Especially if the admin derecognizes fraternities for really small offenses. It's kinda like the Judd Nelson character in Breakfast Club being about a kajillion times cooler than Emilio Estevez, even though Emilio is the teachers' favorite.

If there are things on your campus that you have to be recognized to participate in, and not being in it and/or who wins it is a huge deal - like Homecoming for example - derecognition can be the kiss of death. But at many schools with less traditional systems, it isn't that way. If your campus in general thinks riding on a float with toilet paper (tm Boon) is kinda cheesy, they're not going to condemn you to social outcastness cause you're not allowed to do it.

Here's your answer (and by the way, your Phi Mu chapter here is magnificent). Start by asking yourself who your Phi Mu chapter belongs to. It belongs to your undergraduates, to your alumni and to your national sorority. It does not belong to the university, and yet mid-level college administrators routinely atempt to place their own stamp, their own arbitrary rules and their own "face" on your organization.
You are correct when you say that we should do good works - not because we get points or publicity, but because it's right for us to help the less fortunate. We should strive for high scholarship because it beneifts us as individuals. If achievement in those areas give us bragging rights, then they are ours to enjoy. But YOU and your sisters have made those decisions yourself. If the Phi Mus stress community service and scholarship and the Tri-Delts stress their social life - homecoming, partying with the ATOs, etc - that is the business of the Tri-delta ans the Phi Mus.
The problem with programs like The Delaware Plan is the same as the problem with hazing. Most of fraternity hazing is fun and both the brothers and pledges enjoy it...because we're guys and we're nuts. The reason we cannot haze is because there is always that 5% of the brotherhood who never get the word. They're idiots and they take things too far and someone dies and the whole organization goes down. So we cannot allow hazing.
It's the same with this Plan business. It's fine to say we should all try to achieve lofty goals. But there is always that percentage of self-impressed, mid-level administrators who carry it too far. Tey want to punish and punish and punish if the chapters don't meet their standards - not the chapters' standards but the standards the administrators impose in the name of "evaluation". It's not some greek life nimrod's business how many community service hours I do. If they want to give us a trophy of excellene, great. But you're not allowed to punish us for not participating.
If greeklife types really wanted to help chapters, they'd concentrate their efforts on helpng them apply fr their own national awards. But that doesn't feed their desire to control, to punish, and to strut about puffed up with their own self-importance. The truth is, hardly any undergrads are impressed with these Delaware Plan people, but they go along to get along.

That was well put Firehouse.

Don't you have to be on campus to exist as an organization. Without the university, there is no university organization (as a Greek Organization is). It is composed of students.
My campus has lost 5 fraternities of 12 in the last 2 years (3 hazing and 2 numbers). One fraternity president was not enrolled in school last semester.
Sororities are excellent and continue to grow and excell. They are also the only ones who carry the system-do all community service, philanthropy, make the grades, and get involved on campus.
We are considering something that would not punish so much as encourage the boys to hold their own.
Yes, sometimes it can be taken too far. I struggle trying to find the balance everyday. When the fire marshall considers condemning fraternity houses and the city is threatening to change zoning to disallow the existence of the fraternity houses, they call the university to "fix" it. Yes, if the university does not recognize fraternities they still have a brotherhood. BUT student organizations are made up of students and students need a campus. How can the 2 be separated?

Thanks for the compliment to my sorority Firehouse. I wouldn't expect any less.

They can operate underground. They just can't hold meetings in university buildings, advertise on uni property or participate in uni-sponsored events. They hold rush events through word of mouth, rather than overtly advertising them.

Like I said, it depends on how much of your fraternity life takes place on the actual campus. If no one has on-campus houses, it makes it much easier for undergrounds to exist and operate like other fraternities do. They just have a house off campus like everyone else. If the land is zoned for it, the landlords don't give a crap if the uni recognizes you or not.

Some schools have made rules that students cannot participate in non-university sponsored fraternities, but if challenged it would not hold up in court.