Greek problems at Duquesne University

[OtisAllan]

I feel that Greek Life as a whole is facing many problems right now, and that recruitment is certainly one of them.

From 1972 until 1992, total undergraduate fraternity membership in the United States increased steadily. However, after 20 consecutive years of growth, total membership has dropped steadily. Fraternities stand at a crossroads. Is it busines as usual or has the time come to jump-start the recruitment process? Passive IFC and chapter recruitment efforts must be transformed into active, direct practices. Friendship, the principal benefit of joining a Greek organization, has not gone out of style and is still very much in demand on every campus, but our market demands a more personalized and individualized conversation about the benefits of our organizations.

This was taken directly from the NIC's website....

In addition....


On April 12th, 2006, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Dean of Student’s office, with support of the administration, presented a plan to Greek alumni termed ‘New Initiatives.’ This plan called for sweeping changes in the Greek system at RPI including, but not limited to, alcohol, chapter management, and recruitment.

Current Situation
Greek recruitment at RPI has suffered from several issues lately. The following issues have been suggested for evaluation and possible action by RPI. These issues can affect recruitment numbers, or have other undesirable side effects, such as negative community relations.

• Greek recruitment numbers have been lower than in past years.
• Lack of constraints on rush and new member education could be affecting academic performance.
• Certain members of the Greek community practice unethical methods of recruitment, such as employing alcohol.
• The Greek recruitment process is ‘out of touch’ with today’s Rensselaer student.
• Decreasing cooperation between Greek chapters.

This initiatve came up under a google search, and honestly, this sounds as though it is PROBABLY a common theme among most campuses, or at least among the extensive contacts that I have with people involved in Greek Life across the country.

I hate to refer to specific schools, but I read that IFC recruitment at Cornell University, which is considered to have one of the top Greek Systems is down 13 percent.

I would love to do a case study on this but obviously time does not allow. I am sorry to disappoint anyone......It has been a trend though, that Greek Life was at an all time high in terms of chapters during the 90's, and now many national fraternities have drastically decreased their number of active chapters over the past decade or so.

In terms of a Longitudinal study, I feel that it would be revealled that recruitment is not good, if anyone would take the time to do one, or if one was done, that it would actually be able to be found on the internet. Honestly, I would not want numbers posted about my school reflected in a negative way publically. BUT, as fellow greeks we should all be able to talk about these issues openly, and I do feel that recruitment is one of them.( of course despite the fact that non- greeks can read this)

I mentioned literature on the Millennial Generation. Students are becoming faster paced, less focused on alcohol ( yes according to the generational theory it is true), better relationships with parents, ( parents usually dont support greek life because they know what it was like when they were in shool), more tech savvy ( which means they read all the bad press that Greeks receive) they are more involved with extra cirricular activities regardless of Greek Involvment, and thus Greek Involvement is less of a necessity for them.

With all of this being said it paints the picture that it is tougher now than ever to recruit. However, if recruitment is focused on some of the things that the Millennial students embrace( which are all things Greeks do well but just may not report on as well) such as, relationships with parents and facutly, high levels of service and academics, professional networking, leadership skills, etc., recruitment does have hope for the future. However, this needs to be instilled accross the board to our undergraduates, as I suspect most of them still use parties/alcohol etc as the major of not single recruitment tool.

Look at the ABC show Greek. It portrays Greek Life in a horrible way, and more than likely it is high school aged teenagers watching the show above all else. What do you think this will do to recruitment efforts for the next generation of incoming freshman classes?

Trust me, recruitment is an issue. Sure there are always success stories, and sure we are all still here, but I feel there are enough underlying problems to pose a major threat to the future of all of our organizations.

But what does all this say for Greek Life at Duquesne as that is the primary issue we are to be discussing?.....It is not solely a problem of Duquesne University that its Greek System is facing issues, as many others are across the country, and now more than ever should be a time for everyone assocaited with Greek Life at Duquesne and elsewhere to truly evaluate the messages that our organizations are sending, and how we can deal with the messages that others outside of Greek Life are sending about us, because that is really what it is about, and we are the only ones that can change it.