New to the site - looking to start a local and need help!

[Psi U MC Vito]

BTW, keep updating, because I know I for one and interested in this.

[AZ-AlphaXi]

good luck .. all that preperation and practice leads to you making your own luck!!

please let us know how it goes ... as the old saying goes .. practice makes perfect

[xxstardust]

It's so nice to know you guys are reading and interested in what we're trying to do

So our presentation date is set! We are presenting 10/26 at 10am ... ahhh I'm nervous! But not really ... I know that we are so well researched, and in the two weeks we have left will become so well rehearsed, that we are truly giving it our very best shot with everything we have.

Today was interesting in a lot of ways. For one, I had a long conversation with one of my anthropology professors today about what we're doing, trying to gauge the faculty response. His comment was typical of what we've heard from several faculty members and administrators - he's a little skeptical of Greek life in general, and has some reservations about having it at my school, but he also said that since we're obviously well researched and are also obviously good representatives for the positives Greek life can bring, he's willing to be open minded and hear and see what we're about and what we think Greek life can do to enhance our school. He's also very much in support of giving us a probationary period so we can prove ourselves to be above the stereotypes - which is really the best thing that can happen from all this. If they're just willing to give us a chance to prove the stereotypes and misconceptions wrong, I know we can show them that Greek life can really be a success.

Talking with my professor was also really helpful in terms of really getting a better handle on what the concerns of the faculty might be, and just talking out my viewpoints with someone really helped to strength them in my own mind. I think I did a decent job at least making him start to think about it and open his mind a little bit

Also today - I went to a grad school reception (I'm planning to stay at my school a 5th year in an MAT program) and met a very nice girl from a school not too far from us .... and she happens to be the PR chair of her university's Panhellenic Council! She was so sweet and seemed SO excited to hear that we're trying to bring Greek life to her school! I mentioned to her the Meet the Greeks program we're having and how we can't have NPC groups come for their specific groups but we can have Greek women come and speak about being Greek in general and about the benefits. I used the Rho Chi analogy and she told me she's a Rho Chi at her school, and would talk to the Panhellenic president about having the Rho Chis come to our Meet the Greeks! Which would be SO AWESOME! I'll double check with the NPC extension chair to make sure that's okay, but from our previous exchange I think it should be okay to do that.

Finally, I finished our powerpoint presentation. If anyone wants to give it a look-over and tell me what you think, I'd really appreciate it!

[Sunflowers]

I know your big presentation is coming up, so well wishes are coming from my direction! Good luck, and I hope everything goes well for you guys!

[xxstardust]

Awh, thank you so much Sunflowers! I really appreciate it .... our presentation is in less then a week and I'm starting to get some SERIOUS butterflies in my stomach!
I know I shouldn't be nervous. We've worked very hard to be as prepared as possible, and I KNOW we know everything in our presentation backwards and forwards. The Deans are very open-minded and really do have the students' interests at heart ... so why won't my heart stop pounding about a mile a minute every time I think about our presentation!

We brought research binders to each of the Deans this Monday, so that they have a week prior to the presentation to go through the info we've accumulated, familiarize themselves with some of the terminology and basics of GLOs, and come up with questions and concerns in advance. I think they were SHOCKED (and hopefully impressed) by how much research we've done. They knew they were getting some background info, but I think they were expected a manila folder's worth or so. We have 1 1/2 inch binders literally full to the brim with information and research, academic journals and studies, and an interested students list 26(!!!) pages long.

I'm so proud of all the work we've done so far, and I can only hope and pray that the Deans see that, see the dedication and desire of the students here, and that we don't stall out now.

Also, today Sarah and myself, along with our staff advisor, are going to meet with a woman who works with the NPC who lives just a town or two over, and who works in the same town as my university! The NPC Extension chair passed her name on to me and said she'd be an excellent resource, and she said she'd be happy to meet with us and help us navigate this journey and help in any way she can. Which is really exciting! We've done a lot of research, but she obviously has years of experience and knowledge with all the rules and procedures, and can help us make sure that we don't mess anything up when (I refuse to jinx things by saying if ..) we get approved.

Thank you for keeping us and our project in your thoughts, guys. I really, really appreciate it- it means so much to know that I have the support of other Greeks out there. It might sound silly and sappy but it's still nice to know.

I'll update you guys after our meeting today!

[TPAGirlie]

I have been dying to hear how your presentation went

[xxstardust]

Eeep, sorry I disappeared post-presentation! Between my roommate situation and all that drama (I couldn't stay in my own room for over a week, but it's resolved, I have my own room now and next term my friend who's working on this with me will be my roommate yay!!) and getting my butt kicked by papers, I couldn't get on here for a while.

Our presentation went really, really well! We were clear and well-spoken, and the two deans who came (the third had a surprise meeting and couldn't make it ) seemed really impressed with how much work we had done and how much we knew about Greek life, and especially how focused we were on creating a system which is far removed from the stereotypes. Our adviser (who couldn't stop telling us how proud he was of us ) told us after the deans left that praise from one Dean in particular, who told us we should be 'commended for all our hard work and dedication', is very hard to come by .. which is a good sign!

The Deans, of course, can't make a yes or no decision on something like this .. it'll likely have to go to the Board of Trustees at some point. As of right now we're just waiting to hear back from them exactly what they thought and how we need to proceed from here. We sent them a thank you letter Monday to follow up and kind of try to nudge them into telling us what our next step is, but Halloween was a freaking TRAIN WRECK here (10 cars got windows/mirrors broken, someone decided it would be funny to set off 6 fire extinguishers in a complex ... really funny right? I don't know how this kind of stuff happens in my tiny little school!) so the Deans have a lot on their plates to deal with right now.

I wish we could just get some kind of feedback! I'm DYING to know what they thought and if we have any kind of hope or chance here. I am not a patient soul by any means and when I have to wait I worry and play the worst-case-scenario game. I'm just anxious to think that I may miss my chance to be a part of something like this, after working so hard. I certainly feel greek after working on this so much...

Oh, a funny side note - my dad was listening to my mom and I talk about this when the boyfriend and I came home for dinner on Sunday. He goes "So, if the school says yes you guys want to have classes on Greek culture and stuff? That's great!" I thought I was going to pee my pants laughing!! My dad's Greek, so I'm part Greek and my dad's always talking about how I should learn more about the culture and the history (which I do know quite a bit about, lol!) ... not *quite* what we're going for Dad!

[Sunflowers]

Congratulations are in order so far! I am enjoying hearing about your progress thus far. I hope everything goes well for everyone involved, and I hope you keep us posted as to everything that goes on with the activities associated with your endeavor.

[xxstardust]

Thanks, Sunflowers, I really appreciate it.

It's been almost a month since our presentation and have to to get any kind of response from the Deans, which is really disheartening. We sent them an email to thank them again about a week ago and mentioned that we're hoping to hear from them their opinions and how we should proceed next, and haven't gotten any kind of response to that either. It's just really disappointing and it sort of feels like we're being brushed aside, you know? Which is especially aggravating considering that all the administration at my school has been talking about in the past couple of weeks is the need to create more student-driven programming and build campus unity, to provide alternatives to doing shots in someone's dorm room at 7pm (yes, that IS the most popular weekend activity here, because there is little to no campus programming on the weekends).

Even if you don't think Greek life is the right answer to the problem of a lack of student programming and student participation on campus, to a lack of university traditions and pride in one's school and one's activities (which to me, it sounds like a very reasonable answer!), it's irritating to get no response. It makes me feel like the idea that they want to hear student opinions and work with the students to create student activities is just something they print in the brochures to entice prospective students to write out a $52,000 tuition check each year. Am I just a piggy bank?

Part of the reason I chose my school was because they claimed, administration and faculty both, to be dedicated to working with students and to be a "student run university" - which, while obviously exaggerated for emphasis, one would hope to be at least somewhat factual in the realm of student organizations and on-campus activities and programming. Is it that difficult to listen to a student interest group and at least give them some kind of response, especially when they comprise roughly 10% of the undergraduate population? That's a big number!

I'm sorry for the long rant .. I'm just getting so discouraged. And I'm really trying not to, but it's hard (especially when I'm stressed about my actual academics at this point in the semester, too!). I know you guys are always so supportive of this project of ours that I can rant here and no one minds.

Our Meet the Greeks fair is this Monday the 21st at 8pm, and we have 5 sororities, 10 fraternities, and a representative from the NPC coming to speak. It should be an awesome event and I'm REALLY hoping it helps our case to the Deans .. or at least gets them to acknowledge us.

[Psi U MC Vito]

Out of curiosity, where are the Fraternity and Sorority members coming from?

[xxstardust]

To be totally honest with you, I'm not 100% sure. 99% of the Meet the Greeks event was planned by Kuumba (our African-American student association) long before I even knew there were other people interested in GLOs on campus, and we kind of jumped on with the IFC/NPC groups now that we're working together. The only one I know for sure is that Zeta Phi Beta is a graduate chapter in our area, which one of the girls working with us has ties with (and hopes to join someday should we not succeed in getting Greek life at our school). The others I think may also be grad chapters or from colleges near by. Oh, and we have TKE coming from the school just down the road from us.

[xxstardust]

Of course, the powers that be heard me complaining and like to make me look silly ... after all that complaining, Eurica (the third musketeer in this) saw one of our Deans at a meeting and stopped to invite her in person, in addition to the email, to the Meet the Greeks event. And one thing led to another - apparently the response/getting in touch got communication lines crosses and we're MEETING WITH HER TOMORROW!!! At 6pm!!

I'm SO NERVOUS. What will she say?!?! I know they were impressed and positive when we met, but I'm still terrified! The butterflies in my stomach are huge!!

I have to stay positive. This will be a GOOD meeting and we are going to push this through. We are going to move forward and bring Greek life to my university. PLEASE keep us in your thoughts tomorrow, say a few words to what ever you believe in, and wish us luck!!!

[ADPiTigergurl]

Hope everyting goes great and im sure it will

[xxstardust]

I'm honestly crushed right now.

We met with the Dean, who told us again how impressed she was with the presentation and that she really appreciated all the effort we'd put into it, and she had felt it was a solid enough idea to pass along to the next level, the university president. Then she told us that when she had done so, he had replied within a few hours and said that there was no way he would even suggest a meeting to the Board of Trustees because it “just wouldn't work here, our students don't want it." (really? 10% of the student body expressing an interest counts for nothing?! argh!)

I would never like to hear no as an answer, but what I'm really most hurt by and disappointed about is that the answer was no without any thought, and without even giving us the chance to be heard and to voice our opinion. It just seems so hypocritical, when all we talk about here (especially in the last couple of weeks, since we've had so much negative student activity on campus!) is how we need to be a student driven university, and students need to take charge and work with the administration to make the campus and the community of the campus what we want it to be, that they'd be so close minded as to refuse to even listen to what we have to say. If, having heard how Greek life has changed since they were in school in the 70s and 80s and seeing the passion behind the (substantially sized!) group of students who wants this, they still thought it wasn't a good idea and weren't willing to allow it -- well, I certainly wouldn't be happy, but I would understand it and learn to accept it. This on the other hand - I can't accept it. I won't accept it, frankly.

We expressed to the Dean how disappointed we were in the negative attitude and refusal to even consider the information and interest available before giving a blanket response of no (seriously, every time I think of it, I get the mental image of the president and board of trustees with their fingers stuffed in their ears going “nah nah nah don’t want hear this nah nah nah”). And she seemed to agree with us that it wasn’t the best way to respond. She told us that she would be willing to bring it up with him again and discuss with him our reaction to refusal. She can’t make any promises that it will help, or that he will agree to at least hear us out, but she’s willing to go to bat for us to bring it up again, which we really appreciate – especially since she came into the presentation having had a negative experience with a sorority in her own undergrad experience! So for someone who saw Greek life as a negative thing before our presentation to come out of it, perhaps not still loving it but willing to see that it can be positive and could potentially be positive for our students really does give me hope that we could, with work, get anyone who is actually willing to listen to our presentation and see our compilation of research materials to see things that way also. If only they’d give us the chance to speak! And if the President refuses to listen, we’re going to go to his open hour (he periodically has an open hour, in which students can come and get a 10-minute timeslot to discuss any issue they want with him) and sitting until he’ll give us at least 5 minutes to discuss the issue with him. Ignoring us will not make us go away – we’ll be polite and respectful to the utmost, but we deserve it in return and to ignore the voice of 10% of your university’s undergraduate population is unacceptable.

I’m just really bummed out. It makes me feel as if all this discussion of student activities being run by student initiatives and student desires, and about the administration working with and listening to the voices of the students, is just something we print in the brochures to bring in prospective students.
Nonetheless, we are continuing with our Meet the Greeks because above and beyond everything else, it’s an event to educate the students here, many of whom have little to no firsthand experience with Greek life, about what fraternities and sororities are REALLY about (hint: it’s not about solo cups and hazing, guys). Apparently, though, word about the event got around to other schools and people have been calling the Student Life office asking why they weren’t invited to come recruit!! AH! That’s a hot mess, apparently several of them were out and out rude to the Dean’s secretary, and the groups invited were ones someone on campus had a personal connection to, or was a group suggested to us by a group we had a personal connection to. It’s a wreck but we’re taking care of it, and we’re hoping the event is still a success – even though we’re going into it with heavy hearts.

We'll keep fighting until they either tell us yes, or are able to hear us out and give us a real reason why the answer is no, other than a refusal to entertain the idea of anything new. I've always been an obstinate child, my mom tells me - it'll pay off now.

[Psi U MC Vito]

XXstardust, I have two things to suggest. first off, maybe you should run a petition to show that a noticeable percentage of the population wants greek life to exist. And second maybe trying to get in touch with NIC and a local NPC aand seeing if they are willing ot pitch the case for you guysd to the administration.