NPC Hazing Prevention

[Kevin]

From what I've read here and seen on campus, NPC national organizations are MUCH more present in the daily affairs of their chapters. Part of what this means is less overall hazing, better risk management, etc.

I'm wondering what exactly your national advisors do to keep tabs on their chapters? How do they "breath down your necks" as one lady put it regarding hazing and risk management?

[AGDee]

I think the main key is education. Education of members, new members and all the volunteers who work with them as to what we consider hazing and what is expected. Volunteer advisors, province officers, area officers, etc., must be on board with the anti-hazing campaign. (Some older alum can have the worst hazing attitudes because "we did, why shouldn't they?" can dominate their way of thinking).

Second would be close involvement, meaning, advisors who are involved with the chapter on the Exec board need to keep a close eye on the pulse of the chapter as well as be approachable resources so that if a member feels uncomfortable with an activity, they feel comfortable talking to one of the advisors about it. Travelling consultants who keep an ear open at each house they visit to listen for certain buzz words. The exec council sends their reports to a number of the volunteer services team who READ them and watch for buzz words or discrepancies between different officers reports. Event planning forms sent to volunteers who serve as risk management specialists, who have to approve or deny each event based on our risk management criteria. Submission of each Pre Initiation Week activity with DETAILED descriptions of what will occur at the activity.

Third would be effective programming. This goes hand in hand with number one but goes further than saying "this is what hazing is and why it's wrong". It includes "this is how you can alter your traditions to make them non-hazing activities" and includes brainstorming new activity ideas. Helping them fit activities to our Purpose.

Finally, zero tolerance. Members who haze cannot continue to be members. Most sorority hazing I read or hear about now is conducted by a couple members who circumvent the exec council or officers and do it on a whim. Chapters who haze as a whole, cannot continue to be chapters. The definition of what hazing is has become more and more strict over the years. Hazing has more to do with an attitude that new members are inferior in some way and need to earn their way to equality with the members. We have levels of alert and probation that chapters are placed on to identify the risky attitudes and behaviors with directives that must be met. Changing these attitudes will take time, but it is changing slowly. With the chapters I oversee directly, it is definitely better than it was 10, 15, or 20 years ago.

Historically (and currently), hazing that occurs in sororities tended to be more mental, where hazing in fraternities was more physical. It is actually probably harder to detect and less likely to make the news (because they don't land in the hospital or jail over it). Most of the hazing laws in our country address physical harm and there is less evidence of that in the methods that sororities tend to use to haze. It is going to be more difficult as we see hazing occurring more frequently in the high schools and in more physical ways (thinking of the high school powder puff incident) to keep it out of the colleges/universities.

It may be easier with sororities too, because you can appeal to the "how did you FEEL when this was happening" or "how would you FEEL if someone treated you this way" and women are more accustomed to tuning into their own feelings and discussing them than men are.

Dee

ETA: Having house mothers and dry houses for decades helps too, I think.

[hoosier]

A typical fraternity is lucky to have one active advisor, and the ones with active alumni groups and an on-campus chapter advisor is rare. The ones with a live-in house mother are miniscule.

On the other hand, as A GDee posted, every, yes every, sorority has an alumnae board, probably a local alumnae social group, and a live-in house mother. Plus a district governeress, etc.

We joke that the sorority pres can't go to the potty without approval from some alumna, but it's almost true.

The best chapter I ever visited - TKE at Iowa State - had a faculty/chapter advisor named Spike Kratovil, and he ate with the chapter every Wed. (I think) night, and he asked questions. Another great chapter, at GA Tech, has four long-time advisors on campus - including three who co-sgned a big loan to get the new housing underway.

On a typical spring day, at XYZ fraternity, three guys haul a couch out to the front porch, so they can be comfortable watching the women go by. It never comes inside, and is ruined by the rain the next morning.

At the sorority next door, the girls would never think about putting good furniture on the front porch. If someone did, the alumni committee would find out who did it, and send a bill for the ruined furniture to the girls' parents.

That's basicly the difference, I think - sororities are different and better because they have supervision.

[33girl]

Originally posted by hoosier
On the other hand, as AGDee posted, every, yes every, sorority has an alumnae board, probably a local alumnae social group, and a live-in house mother.

Sorry, but this is absoulutely not true. Alumnae chapters are often geographically based (not chapter based) and only a few national sororities have a chapter association program. They might have a house corporation, but that's different. As for live in housemothers, I can count the number of those we have on our fingers. Housemothers are only in large houses where they would be somewhat equivalent to a resident director in a dorm.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

This is a basic difference between males and females. A guy gets hazed, he wants to prove he is tough, and will do anything he is asked. A girl gets hazed, she is likely to say "screw this" and be an independent who just goes to frat parties.

[AGDee]

Sorry, I assumed that all NPC groups had some sort of advisory board (ours are called advisors who serve on the Executive Council along with specific officers). They are separate from the House Association and they are separate from an alumnae chapter or club. Alumnae Chapters do tend to affiliate with one chapter and are generally held responsible for providing advisors to the chapter. Alumnae Clubs are more geographic in nature, although they can adopt a chapter and help them build morale, etc. All of our chapters have to have certain Advisor positions filled however, which is sometimes where our Alumnae Initiates come from. Chapters that are in rural areas sometimes have to get AIs in order to fill advisor positions. I know we do this in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We are required to have at least a Chapter Advisor and a Finance Advisor and can have as many advisors as we have officers (although it's rare to find that many). Ideally, each Exec Council Officer has an advisor.

Dee

[g41965]

My wife is an ADPI. I know her Dallas Alumnae group is much more active than mine. I think better alumni involvement is 50% , the basic difference between men and women is the other 50%
Just look at the Greek forums by organization on Greek Chat all the sororities have many many more postings.

[GeekyPenguin]

One thing we do, that a lot of fraternities cheat on, is submit our new member program to our PCD (RD, whatever you guys call them, the person in charge of our region of the sorority). She looks it over and makes suggestions and any changes to anything that would possibly be construed as hazing.

I know fraternities on our campus do this too, but the things they say are generic. For example, our plan will say "Third Sunday: Teach the following Gamma Phi Beta songs: X, Y, Z, Q, P, V. Take quiz on history from last week. Discuss NPC alcohol policy. After the official event is over, the girls who live in like to watch Real World and the new members are invited to stay." The guys will say something like "Third Sunday: Brotherhood activity and history test."

We're teaching them the same principle, and saying we're doing the same thing, but the sorority spells out what we're doing. If the guys were as honest and blunt as the females were, they'd be saying "Lineup in the basement, followed by a game of pledge hockey." I think you can assume their HQ wouldn't be happy with that.

[shadokat]

GP--funny thing is that most universities require fraternities and sororities to submit their new member programs, but apparently they don't follow through. I agree with you that we have to submit detailed information, but I also know that 2 groups caught hazing sent reports with what we would "want" to see, and did an entirely different thing.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by shadokat
GP--funny thing is that most universities require fraternities and sororities to submit their new member programs, but apparently they don't follow through. I agree with you that we have to submit detailed information, but I also know that 2 groups caught hazing sent reports with what we would "want" to see, and did an entirely different thing.

My school didn't, but our GAs have always been kind of lacking. I think one of the fastest ways to check is to follow up on the group with alum supervision, which is where the sorority news comes in. Another thing we noticed at our school was that if XY and ABC both said they were having brotherhood events, XY would post pictures of them on their website (the guys watching football or playing broomball or whatever) and ABC wouldn't tell you what they did.

[Tom Earp]

Then, why dont you get on the ball and off your rear and try to work with your School and Other Greeks for the betterment?

Explaining and complaining does nothing does it.

Will it take work, well yes.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
Then, why dont you get on the ball and off your rear and try to work with your School and Other Greeks for the betterment?

Explaining and complaining does nothing does it.

Will it take work, well yes.

Because I don't go there anymore, because I don't care because my chapter and the three other chapters I care about are not having problems, and furthermore because after over 100 years of this behavior, these groups don't want to change.

This thread was discussing differences between NIC and NPC risk management issues. I gave an example! DA!

[Tom Earp]

Thank You, So Noted. DA!

Wasnt sure from some of your posts where you are at or from.

[Kevin]

Originally posted by hoosier
A typical fraternity is lucky to have one active advisor, and the ones with active alumni groups and an on-campus chapter advisor is rare. The ones with a live-in house mother are miniscule.

On the other hand, as A GDee posted, every, yes every, sorority has an alumnae board, probably a local alumnae social group, and a live-in house mother. Plus a district governeress, etc.

We joke that the sorority pres can't go to the potty without approval from some alumna, but it's almost true.

The best chapter I ever visited - TKE at Iowa State - had a faculty/chapter advisor named Spike Kratovil, and he ate with the chapter every Wed. (I think) night, and he asked questions. Another great chapter, at GA Tech, has four long-time advisors on campus - including three who co-sgned a big loan to get the new housing underway.

On a typical spring day, at XYZ fraternity, three guys haul a couch out to the front porch, so they can be comfortable watching the women go by. It never comes inside, and is ruined by the rain the next morning.

At the sorority next door, the girls would never think about putting good furniture on the front porch. If someone did, the alumni committee would find out who did it, and send a bill for the ruined furniture to the girls' parents.

That's basicly the difference, I think - sororities are different and better because they have supervision.

Good comparison -- and so true!

At this moment, outside my old chapter house, there's probably at least one rain soaked couch by the volleyball pit.

[Lady Pi Phi]

Originally posted by 33girl
Sorry, but this is absoulutely not true. Alumnae chapters are often geographically based (not chapter based) and only a few national sororities have a chapter association program. They might have a house corporation, but that's different. As for live in housemothers, I can count the number of those we have on our fingers. Housemothers are only in large houses where they would be somewhat equivalent to a resident director in a dorm.

While this is true, my chapter of Pi Beta Phi has no house therefore no house mother and the closest alum club would be Toronto (although it's not far from Guelph and our Beta chapter in London). We do have quite a presence with our AAC (Alumnae Advisory Council). While our chapters AAC is quite small (I believe it's only 4 members) they are very active. The AAC meets with the executive officers every month, help out during recruitment, and meet with the new members during the new member period. Executive officers are required to report to their AAC counterpart every month. We have a TCG (Travelling Graduate Consultant) visit the chapter every year, as well as a CPP (Collegiate Province President) visit and reports that are sent to the CPP.
So there is quite a presence from alum and HQ that "keep our chapters in check" so to speak.
I'd venture to guess that it's fairly similar with all NPC groups.