Senior Apathy?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by denimeans

I'm one of the seniors that checked out. I went temp alum for my last semester, and most girls do the same. For me it was 3 reasons:
1. Our chapter has a fairly high attrition rate. Out of my pledge class of 27, only 5 of us were left. Total is 90, and we stay at total, butwe do so by constantly recruiting. We have about 30 drops every year, resulting in a very young chapter that I can't relate to.
3. It's a problem across the board at my school. I was just talking about this with my other order of omega members. One of the other side effects is that since the chapters we would social with, every one goes TA or stops participating, there's really no reason to go to socials becuase then you just hang out with a bunch of freshmen. What's left of sorority membership? Meetings. Ugh.

But don't you see the problem here? It's a never ending circle. If no seniors ever stay active and the chapter is mainly freshmen and sophomores, then at some point a group of upperclassmen has to take the bull by the horns and say they are going to stay active their last 2 years or the cycle will never break. That goes for the whole school.

[denitta]

Originally Posted by DoctorD

Several GLOs have developed Senior specific programming as a way to increase senior retention, to honor our seniors, to help them transition to alumnae opportunities, etc.

Alpha Gamma Delta is formally implementing Senior specific programming next fall.

Doctor D -- is there anything you can share with me as to some ideas for Senior specific programming that has been implemented by your organization?

Thanks so much in advance!

[AGDee]

I'm not DoctorD but I am her sorority sister. One piece of the program is that seniors can opt out of certain chapter events and attend some alumnae club/chapter events instead. This part is to transition them into being involved as an alumna! I'm really excited about that part of it because I think it will put more emphasis on lifelong membership. DoctorD knows more about the programming aspect.

[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.

[norcal aephi]

I always like the idea of seniors having to bring in a new member to replace them. This can be followed up by them having a certain relationship outside of the big-lil, but a legacy sister...
Additionally, seniors who bring in a legacy sister get a dues break (they ARE bringing in the dues from the new member!)!
This not only helps to keep seniors in connection during their senior year, but also as alumnae they may be more interested in knowing how their legacy sister ends up!

[crazyqt13]

This is all good advice. I'm having a similar problem with my chapter, and as 33girl said about 9 months ago- seniors who are in their fourth year are the ones who are 'checking out' as opposed to ones who are in their second or even third.

It's frustrating for us because we have a new eboard and we're all soph and jrs, and when we plan events, we have a hard time getting the seniors to show up (dry, or otherwise, doesn't really make a difference) . Any suggestions for this?

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

My chapter changed from school year elections to calendar year elections when I was a collegiate member. I joined in Spring 2004, and we had elections in April for an exec board for Fall 2004, and then elections in February for the 2005 calendar year. Since then, we've held elections in November for the next calendar year.

I think that when elections are held can have an effect on whether seniors stay active, but I also think that many other things can be factors, as well.

My chapter also recently changed from school year to calendar year. I think that which system is best sometimes depends on your chapter and campus. For example: The calendar year clearly worked better for my chapter. We are a small chapter, at a small Greek-life campus, we don’t have a house, and we have deferred recruitment but no formal system.

Therefore... after elections in November, there are still plenty of committee positions available, or seniors can choose to run for New Member Director, as that turns over every semester. They can also take on ‘Greek Week/Pageant’ a year before graduation (Greek Week = fall, Pageant = spring), which is a position that we still keep based on the school year system. Also, since we don’t have a house, there aren’t any conflicts concerning E-Board members living there. The only problem is deferred recruitment... while we don’t have formal recruitment, we usually have larger new member classes in the spring, and more events. But the girls make an effort in October and November to really get things together as a chapter so that the incoming Recruitment Director will be ahead of the game.

On the other hand, for a chapter that only has E-board members living in, with formal recruitment in the fall, with a larger chapter and few semester-long positions, for example, this might not work as well.

In addition, I think that senior apathy can happen for many other reasons... slowing easing out of school, preparing for graduation/real world, tired and burnt out after 4 years, wanting to party it up the last semester, last-minute internships, taking on an extra job to start paying rent, closer friends in the sorority graduated the year before... the list goes on. For me personally, I wanted to be as involved as possible for as long as possible. But for two of my sisters, each one had served as President for 2 terms, and they just needed a break. They went into alumnae status early, and finished/is finishing an extra semester without being involved much at all. Meanwhile, another sister who is graduating this spring just took on New Member Director and VP, even though she works two jobs on top of school. So it all depends.

I’m sure that you’ll find trends among some specific chapters, but in my experience, I’ve seen different people taking many different routes for many different reasons.