U Maryland hires live-in "snoops"
 

Greek officials hire eight more SARFs
Student assistant residential fellows may eventually replace house directors

By Zach Coon
May 11, 2005


Some people call them Greek RAs. Some call them narcotic officers. To the university, though, they’re SARFs — graduate students who live in fraternity and sorority houses to provide chapters with advice and keep things in order.

Most fraternities and all sororities have house directors, who live with chapters, are accountable to their housing corporations and deal mostly with housing concerns. But the university is hiring SARFs — student assistant residential fellows — to live with chapters and give them anything from advice on housing issues to programming suggestions and policy infractions. Heidi Biffl, housing coordinator for the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said she’d like SARFs to eventually replace house directors in fraternity and sorority houses.

The office is hiring eight SARFs to move into houses by August 1, and it began the SARF program two years ago in Pi Kappa Alpha and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternities. Sigma Phi Epsilon President and junior physiology and neurobiology major Jon Hodax said his chapter has grown quite attached to Tiki Ayiku, its SARF.

“All of the brothers really love her,” he said. “[SARFs are] more knowledgeable and more prepared to help you out ... they’re very hands-on, they’re very willing to be involved.”

Junior economics major Drew Gendreau, president of Alpha Sigma Phi, said he has become more optimistic about having a SARF after learning more about the role they would play in the house and talking to members of fraternities who have them. But he said some people have expressed reservations.

“We’re still a little in the dark,” Gendreau said. “I think our chapter members have a general feeling that this person was going to be basically a police officer for the Greek Life office.”

Former Student Government Association President Aaron Kraus, a member of Alpha Sigma Phi who lives at the chapter house, said he didn’t know whether a SARF’s ultimate loyalty would lie with the fraternity or the university.

“Two guys are sitting on the couch talking about whatever, and they’re both 19, and they’re both having a beer. Does the SARF report that to the Office of Greek Life?” he asked. “That’s where the administration hasn’t been very clear.”

SARFs would address each incident differently, said Bob Nichols, assistant director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. He emphasized that the role of SARFs is to work with members to improve the way each chapter functions but said that he’d like to see SARFs handle policy violations within the chapter first.

“My hope would be that if it’s the first time ... they’re just going to talk to that person and build a relationship, talk about a reason behind things,” he said. “We want to deal with the letter and spirit of the law.”

SARF sounds like some sort of kinky sex that only nerds who have risen to the highest level of the nerd pantheon can have.

Was this the deal where the school was charging the fraternities extra for having this school employee living there, or was that someplace else?

It is not the place of anyone who is not an XYZ to provide "programming suggestions" to XYZ. That's absolutely ridiculous. I would not be OK with this.

Hey...thanks for spilling the secret.

Now we have to rename it!

Which leads me to comment on another case where a thread which is built around what could basically be considered a positive to neutral article and putting an extremely negatively prejudiced topic on the thread.

Why is that necessary? Most of us here are capable of reading about something and making up our own minds.

You got to be real freaky deaky to come up with that one, 33girl. Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!

A.D.I.D.A.S
Who knows what this means???

WOW, this is really a damn joke, right but true!:(

So, I just wonder how this will affect ROTC, Jock Dorms ETC?

What do they call all of those things, acronimes to profess, who in the hell knows?

Sound like Politcal GobblyGook with a Oh This is what the F it is.:p

I would agree with this one.

We have something similar at UPS. Greek Housing Coordinators. They are paid my the University and they live in the houses, BUT they are members of that respective house. I'm not sure what exactly their entire job is but I know they deal a lot with problem with the physical house (things broken, etc). We have a different chapter member that is the House Manager and deals with other things (yes, it often confused me when I was on the HCB).

I need to add though that at UPS the University owns the houses so they are responsible for the upkeep.

That is no different that me (being a Greek advisor) providing programming suggestions to the chapters I advise (or no different that Greekchatters giving suggestions to other Greekchatters). They need my help...I advise them. If a SigEp comes to me and says "We have to do a Risk Mgmt program for our chapter" then I could suggest "How about doing a program on fire safety?"

Eastern Illinois U. has the same type of position in their Greek housing.

PsychTau

Actually, yes, it's a great deal of difference.

You were hired specifically for your knowledge of Greek life. You probably have a degree in student affairs in higher ed. If someone asks you a question you can't answer, you defer to their national HQ or NIC/NPC.

I see no evidence that these SARFs will do any of those things. They just seem like the garden variety grad assistant - and that's another thing, these people are still students - except they stick them in Greek houses.

I think what CC means is - for example, our membership program is called Advantage and you have to do certain things to earn the required "Advantage points." If they asked one of these SARFs "will doing a car wash count for Advantage points?" they would not know, unless they were a sister. I would not want a nonsister saying "yes, you can use that" and have the chapter think that was the same as an advisor who was a member. Many groups have very specific things they need to complete and they need to go to members first, not a random grad student.

Then I guess we're thinking of this differently. Some of these grad students may be working on their Master's in Higher Ed...some may want to be Greek Advisors (or Res Life Coordinators) someday. I can see where this would be valuable experience for them. I can't see how someone who is working on a Master's in Physics would want this to be their assistantship (it would have little benefit for them in their job market). That should play into the selection process. I'm also reading this article (which really doesn't give us all the detailed info...but anyway...) with Eastern Illinois in mind (an AST sister there is working on her Masters and lives in as a Housing Director for 2 fraternities) and thinking that these students would be smart enough to know what questions they can and cannot answer. I'm also thinking that the chapter members would be able to figure that out as well (i.e. the SARF could answer questions about university policy, and maybe FIPG policy if they learned it, but it would be obvious that they wouldn't know org-specific questions).
I guess it all depends on how the program is set up and managed. Could be a great thing...could be a disaster. Guess we'll see...

PsychTau

Exactly. I would have no problem with a MEMBER living in-house and serving in that capacity. A random non-member, no way. Being a Greek advisor gives some credibility to suggestions- being a student who is NOT a member does not.

In my org, we have plenty of area officers, advisors, etc. who I would ask, "We need to do a risk management program; what should we do?" I would not necessarily ask the Greek advisor and I surely would not ask another student who is not a member of my org.

Our house mother certainly wasn't an initiated Delt. But we went to her with all kinds of problems and she advised us on many things -- both personally and as a chapter.

The difference, of course, is that we hired her -- not the university. All the same, to say that in order to guide a chapter, someone has to be a member of that particular organization flies in the face of years of Greek tradition.

While I don't think that the Resident Supervisor has to be a member of the GLO that he/she is supervising, I do think that the GLO should have control over who that person is. I think it's fine for Universities/Colleges to require a Resident Supervisor, but I think the hiring/firing and performance evaluations should be up to the GLO. I also wouldn't want some random grad student telling our chapters how they are to be run. That is the job of the alumnae and the exec boards. If the University owns the housing, then I would think they would get more control. This could be a great thing, but it could also spell disaster. We have an extensive set of developed programs that we prefer our chapters use and would rather be the ones recommending which programs would most benefit our members.

A housemother is an adult, not a student, and is employed by your organization. To me, it's totally different.