Wow, it has been really enlightening to me to read the responses posted here. Does anyone feel positive about their Greek Advisor? I did a self-evaluation (since I am an advisor) and here are the results:
1. A little bigger, but I don't know if I would call it significant.
2. Well, we've pretty much broken even. We lost one chapter for hazing ( I think you've all read that story by now!) but have gained one colony.
Our Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs and the Director of Student Activities (my boss) have said no to further expansion. I do not agree
3. I can answer yes to this one! Our councils have improved a lot. When I first came here they did nothing, but now they are having programs, well attended meetings, roundtables and more.
4. I would like to think I have had some impact. I work a lot with individual chapters, and we have seen some significant improvement with several of these groups. I have also tried to seek out the students I thought that showed a lot of leadership potential and encouraged them to run for offices in the chapters and the councils.
5. I really try to push attendance at these conferences. We usually send students to MGCA and the Gateway Greek Conference every year. I promote the hell out of the Indiana Greek Leadership Conference since Purdue is only a few hours away, but haven't gotten takers yet. We sent our first delegate to UIFI last year, and he loved it (I'm an alum of UIFI), and I really push chapters to take more than the minimum to their own GLO conferences.
6. Yes, honestly some more effective than others.
I would like to bring more speakers and recognized
"experts", but the $$$ is a BIG factor.
7. I am totally about this. I am not directly responsible for punishment (our Dean of Students handles this), but I have not forwarded on several minor things, where I am convinced from talking with the chapter that they have learned what they did wrong. Nothing major, but little mistakes that everybody makes. I try to avoid the whole
"Our Greek Advisor is out to get us!" thing. I'm here because I benefitted greatly from my fraternity experience and because I believe and want to help others have that experience. For me this isn't just a temporary stopping point on the way to something else.
I am going to give these questions to my students and ask them for their feedback on my performance.
If I had to grade myself I would probably say C+ ~ B-. I can and will try to do better!
Sorry for being so long winded, but there are a few perspectives that I want to throw in regarding Greek Advsiors:
1. On too many campuses they are considered entry-level jobs, and most people who fill them will only stay 1-3 years in the position (and often the profession) before moving on. I know from the conferences I have attended, after only
3 1/2 years as an advsior I am rapidly becoming one of the more "senior" persons in the profession. Professionally there is very limited opportunity to move up in Greek Life and so most Greek Advisors aspire to other types of positions that offer advancement and more $$$.
2. On a lot of campuses Greek Life receives no state funding at all. My salary is the only thing covered with no money budgeted for speakers, resources, etc. To give you an example, on my campus, the Leadership Development Program/Community Service person has a budget of about $25,000, in addition to salary. Greek Life is given $0.
3. Higher ups in the administration call a lot of the shots that Greek Advisors are often stuck having to enforce. A good example on our campus is the expansion one. My bosses are adamant against bringing more IFC/Panhellenic chapters onto our campus until the existing organizations are where they want them to be. I have argued against this, but in the long run, they call the shots, so no expansion despite GLOs that are interested.
Don't get me wrong, there are some pretty crappy Greek Advisors out there. However, I also know some really great ones too who struggle with a system that doesn't really value our positions. There are a lot of factors out there and it doesn't always center on just one person.
Sorry for the extremely long post. I will be quiet now.
