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i'm a Greek advisor too and in Texas. If you want to talk more, send me a pm. most of the fraternities at my campus initiate same semester. sometimes they will hold someone over if there is a problem (he didn't attend many functions, had personal problems, financial problems, etc). It seems the NALFO chapters are more likely to hold over an entire class, whereas the NIC are more likely to hold over just a few guys, unless there are other problems in the chapter or with the nm educator that would otherwise cause them to not be able to inititate.
if there are many problems with first semester freshmen not making grades, maybe the chapters should decide to not take in many or any freshmen, but i believe that should be left up to the individual chapters. i'm not a big fan of long nm periods (especially if it extends over a break) for most of the reasons already stated. some campuses will not allow mid-semester grade checks and some faculty will just not give them out.
i agree with a lot of what Dee said. I would also like to add this....how many people here or in your chapters have had a bad semester with grades? one semester does not make a bad person. i have been a chapter advisor and it is frustrating to get grades and see people doing poorly. i also remember that grades do not make the person. we have had members who are wonderful in all aspects, but struggle with grades. many of them had learning diabilisities and were working with the counseling center or their doctors to make improvements. there were members who were just lazy or liked to party too much, and they were removed from the chapter. it is sad and we often would have liked to not wasted our time. with freshmen it is also difficult to tell what their personality may be once away from home. i know of one girl who was just the sweetest thing and from a small town and probably never did anything "bad" in her life. she came to college, cut her really long blond hair, dyed it, got a couple tattoos and piercings and started wearing really short (nasty, really) clothes. started drinking and doing drugs. who would've known that would happen? she seemed so nice and sweet during recruitment.
it does take some time, but it's not something that is easy to tell when you meet a person....you can't judge a person's ability to study on high school gpa and college gpa is a little better. you should look at the entire person and what qualities they can bring your chapter. grades are something that can be worked on, lack of values cannot (or can be really difficult).
grades, studying and academic achievement should be stressed at all times, not just the nm period.
sorry about the length....i guess i got carried away!
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