Senior Apathy?

[RaggedyAnn]

Originally Posted by Faith4Keep

I think my chapter does a relatively good job of keeping seniors involved, although I've noticed the most involved seniors come from the oldest pledge class (right now, '04) since they have been around the longest. Seniors that come from younger pledge classes (right now, those graduating from PC 05 or 06) seem to have less of an attachment to the chapter and therefore care less.

Some things I've seen work in my chapter and other chapters:

Give seniors incentives- we let seniors grab their food 15 mins before anyone else at chapter dinner since the line is always enormous. They also get to leave recruitment workshops early, etc.
Have half semester positions- in a fraternity I know of, in addition to the calendar-year positions, they have additional half-year positions, typically running Greek Week/Homecoming, planning a formal/semi-formal... it's a really great way for seniors to give their last 'horrah'.

This is simply by my chapter's nature, but we have several committees that comprise of one (or two) people from each academic class, meaning we need seniors to be involved. By their senior year, members can see how important it is to be on these committees and will fight to be on them.

These are excellent ideas! I especially like the half year positions.

[AGDee]

Some of our chapters are piloting a program called The Delta Program which is geared toward increasing senior retention. None of the chapters that I oversee are part of the pilot but I'm anxious to hear how it went, what it included and whether it was successful. I believe it does have some focus on the "great job hunt" and meeting the seniors' needs in a chapter. I have no statistical basis for this, but my gut instinct is that seniors who stay involved are more likely to be alums who stay involved.

[AGDLynn]

I'd like to hear more about that. But attending alumnae events...what if there isn't an active chapter/club intown?

I guess I'll be learning soon!

[DoctorD]

Seniors meet at the beginning of the year to do a program about what kind of legacy they would like to leave the chapter... how do they want to be remembered. From there they decide what they would like to do - separate programming from the rest of the chapter [Alpha Gamma Delta has meetings set up so that some meetings are regular business meetings and others are designated solely for programming]. They are given suggestions to choose from, but they are not limited to those choices. For example, if they want to work on interview skills during one meeting, then that can be a focus - they can do mock interviews or the like. Suggestions are all programs that help transition from college to alumnae life. Since seniors decide as a group what they want to do, hopefully that improves buy in/attendance.

And yes - if there are alumnae chapters/clubs nearby, seniors have the option of attending functions that those groups hold instead of chapter meetings.

Hope that helps.