What's up people,
I'm not sure how old this post is...but I was glancing over a few of them and let me explain as much as I know from my Upsilon Chapter, Delta Sigma Phi at Franklin and Marshall College chapter's perspective about Greek rerecognition. I was the president of the undergraduate chapter right at the beginning of the process. I feel fairly confident saying that only 10% of the greek organizations on campus wanted re-recognition, and we certainly were not one of them. Our numbers were fine (around 60 including pledges), we were just starting to pay off and catch up on some past debts with our national, and we were currently in good standing with the Lancaster City Police and Fire Department. When the new president of the college, John Fry, came in from the University of Pennsylvania, he wanted to do the same thing he did at U-Penn and improve our rankings. One way was to improve Alumni donations, which declined after de-recognition in 1989 because older Alumni were pissed off at the College (GREEK LIFE AT F&M WAS AND IS A VERY IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE COLLEGE!!!). So re-recognizing the Greeks seemed like a simple way to improve donations, improve the number of students officially joining "clubs and organizations" and at the same time implementing plans to try to improve the GPA of the college.
Sorry this is so long winded...that said...Being a past Delta Sigma Phi president, I agree that rerecognition would greatly improve the reputation, dignity, and service that was once very important to all Greek Organizations, but at the same time the school wanted to and is going to make things much more difficult for all the chapters. The administration is going to rigorously and immediately implement new rules and regulations which these current chapters will not be able to handle (we are used to a particular way of running things...OUR WAY!). The idea of sophomore pledging sucks, it's stupid and serves no purpose but to lower numbers, and the college still has no plan for providing any real financial aid to the houses. Luckily all of the undergraduate chapter houses are owned by the Alumni Housing Boards of each organization, so the school can't come in and bust up parties, inspect, etc...
To make an obscenely long story very short, the President of the college, John Fry, wants to make the Greek system at Franklin and Marshall College a model "liberal arts" Greek System that will serve as an example for all other schools of what a strong system is. It's going to be intense and it's going to suck and it's going to ruin the only good aspect of F and M that made me even want to be student there and be the president of the fraternity and a leader. There is no trial period...the chapters just went from sufficient self-governance and enjoying being greeks to a system that is so bogged down with control and paperwork that they won't have time to even crack open a book or play a game of beirut.
As far as I see it...the current goodtime Greek System at Franklin and Marshall College is being replaced by a Nazi Regime and is totally F-ed!!
check out this link--->
http://www.fandm.edu/greeklife/
Ed Frackelton '04 (yeah, I was just graduated),
Former President
Upsilon Chapter, Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity