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I have no idea how or why I put this in the riskmanagement hazeing section. I blame midterms and cathedral awards beign due on the same day!
NEWS
Greek adviser resigns from position
By J. ELIZABETH STROHM & ANASTASIA STERANKO
Staff Report
March 04, 2004
After only six months in her position, Fraternity and Sorority Life Coordinator Anita Triggs has resigned.
"I wasn't expecting a resignation because there haven't been any forewarnings that this was going to occur," said Lindsay Woods, the president of Pitt's Panhellenic Association.
"It's really odd," said Steve Mihlfried, the Interfraternity Council president, commenting on the unexpected nature of Triggs' resignation.
"I was surprised that this happened this quickly, and it makes me think that there was something more to it," he added.
Although Tuesday was Triggs' last day in the office, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Birney Harrigan would not say when Triggs gave notice of her resignation.
"She was not asked to resign," Harrigan explained. "[Triggs' reasons for resigning] are personal matters that I can't discuss," she said, declining to comment.
While the Office of Student Affairs will not appoint an interim Greek adviser, Harrigan will take "direct responsibility for leadership of Greek affairs."
"I haven't been as immediately involved with the student organizations as the fraternity and sorority coordinator has been, obviously," Harrigan said. "But I expect to get to know them as I work closely with them in the months ahead."
Ron Coursey, president of Pitt's National Pan-Hellenic Council, said that he does not see the absence of a Greek adviser as a major setback to Greek life.
"I think that, for the most part, the three councils are pretty much self-governing," he said, describing the strength of Pitt's three Greek councils.
Without an adviser, however, the leaders of the Greek councils will have "no direct voice to the University," he added. While an adviser can act as a facilitator between students and university officials, he said students frequently must go through a number of people to be heard.
Harrigan also declined to comment on Triggs' ability to communicate with student leaders and members of the Greek community, explaining the students would be in a better position to respond.
"For her to dive in with only one year of experience, I think that was a little much," Mihlfried said. "I think that communication between Anita and IFC was established, but it could have been better."
The leaders of the other Greek councils echoed Mihlfried's response.
"We had some struggles with her as an administrator," Woods added.
Coursey spoke well of Triggs' treatment of the Greek community, but agreed that she might have been able to better improve communications between the councils and the administration.
"I think she was fair, as far as facilitating between us and the University," Coursey said. "I do feel like there were times when the communication could have been better."
He added that, on the whole, he felt Triggs had done a good job.
Harrigan added that she had received "no direct complaints from students" regarding Triggs.
"The fact that Anita was selected for the position speaks to the expectation that she would be an asset in respect to what we were trying to do with the Greek community," Harrigan said.
Harrigan said that Pitt would initiate a national search for a new adviser immediately, and that she was working on forming a list of desired qualities for the candidates.
"What sets Pitt apart from other institutions . . . is that we have to be cognizant that we're an urban institution," Harrigan said.
Before being hired by Pitt, Triggs served as assistant director of fraternity and sorority life at Penn State. When Triggs began working at Pitt on July 1, 2003, the University had been without a Greek adviser for 10 months, after former Greek adviser Sharon Malazich resigned in October 2002 to take a position outside the University.
"Changes are ongoing," Harrigan said, addressing the turnover rate of Greek advisers and other administrators in Student Affairs.
"The students took part in the development of criteria for selecting candidates for the position," Harrigan said, addressing her statement after former Malazich resigned, that the selection process would involve "significant student input" and would "have them involved completely," according to an October 2002 report in The Pitt News.
"They also screened the applications and provided input," Harrigan added. "I'm going to have them interview the candidates [this time]."
Greek leaders also professed interest in being involved in the application process.
"Hopefully, they will take our recommendations seriously," Mihlfried said.
"Timing is very, very important for recruiting," Harrigan explained. "This is the recruiting period for candidates."
Recruiting a replacement for Malazich was more difficult, Harrigan said, because Malazich resigned in October -- an undesirable time of year for finding adviser candidates, according to Harrigan.
"Even the candidates that we had invited, they had offers from other positions before we got to them," Harrigan said.
As a result, the candidates whose applications were reviewed by Greek leaders were not viable candidates when Student Affairs was ready to hire someone, Harrigan explained.
"Anita emerged later in the process," Harrigan said. "She was not in the pool of candidates that the students [reviewed]."
"The challenge here at Pitt is managing change, because there are higher expectations for everyone," Harrigan said.
When Malazich resigned, Pitt launched a careful look at the Greek system. The University's findings were compiled in the Greek report, a comprehensive set of recommendations compiled by Deborah Furka, who was at the time director of public safety. Furka has since moved to the position of director of residence life. Though administrators did not originally intend to make the report public, they presented a summary of the Greek report in February 2003 and announced plans to implement suggested changes.
"The fraternity and sorority life coordinator has been leading the implementation effort," Harrigan said, adding that she will assume responsibilities for making changes, in accordance with the report recommendations, until the appointment of a permanent adviser.
The greatest change to have come about because of the Greek report concerns the way in which Pitt deals with complaints filed by Greeks, Harrigan said. While the Greek community still deals with minor problems, major issues now go to the judicial board, instead of to Harrigan, as they used to.
"One of the reasons that we did [the Greek report] was to see how we can make the Greek system exemplary," Harrigan said. "It was good, but we want it to be exemplary."
"And that required change," Harrigan added, "both in the Greek advising staff -- and that was Anita, as fraternity and sorority life coordinator -- and in the Greek system."
"Right now we are working on standards of excellence," Harrigan said of upcoming changes. "The students are very committed," she added. "They want to excel -- it's just a matter of my helping them to do that well."
The continuing changes in the Office of Student Affairs do not translate into intentional, regular changes of personnel, Harrigan said.
"It's not a matter of getting a fresh perspective," she said. "It's what we call in student affairs 'meeting challenges with excellence.'"
Asked to elaborate, Harrigan said the phrase means "being able to embrace challenges with opportunities."
"I'm not saying that these challenges led Anita to resign," Harrigan added. "I'm saying that managing change is part of the position. It's consistent with the modus operandi of student affairs, as it exists."
"The challenges are what we are asking the Greeks to do," she explained.
Pitt plans to run ads for a new Greek adviser as soon as possible.
"The transition has begun," Harrigan said.
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