Greek Life Advisor/Chapter friction

[PSK480]

I was wondering if any of you had an ideas or input on the subject of Greek Life Advisors(director) and your Chapter not seeing eye to eye on stuff and butting heads alot.

The Assistant Director of Campus Life(whom also happens to be the incharge of IFC and PANHEL) and my chapter have been butting heads ever since he came to our school. He wants everything done his way and if it isn't he makes life hard for you. We understand he is appointed by the university, but we feel that if IFC is supposed to be the ruling body he should do more advising and less trying to run the show. We have clashed with him on quite a few issues, such as expansion, rush policies, roster/grades, and power of his position. I think the 2 biggest clash we had was that when a group failed their first vote to recieve probationary status(which makes them a colony) he threated to call everyone's nationals and complain. A few chapters got phone calls, ours didn't, and then the next week he got one of the other reps who kisses his ass to move for a standing vote(instead of a secret ballot), so everyone fearing retaliation from the advisor voted yes, except my chapter and sigma chi. Well needless to say he has come down hard on us for some stuff after the vote. The other one was that our candidates(as our nationals now wants them called) GPAs are sometimes a little low(2.25). So, he accused us of either hazing or not taking the right type of guys and hinted that he would be investigating this. As I explained we aren't always known as the smartest guys on campus, and I would rather have a brother with a GPA of 2.25 who I want as a brother, than one with a 3.5 who I couldn't stand as a brother.

Being IFC chair puts me right in the middle, I get to hear it from both sides, even though I'm just the messanger most of the time.

Any advice or help you could give to help remody the situation would be greatly appreciated

[James]

First brush up on your Parliamentary Procedure: No one can force an open vote. No one. ok?

Now lets say your normal procedure was to have open voting. All in favor etc etc.

Now we come to the expansion debate. The motion on the floor is to recognize CRABS. The motion is debated and someone calls the question (the vote is called).

Now is where someone raises their hand or whatever and moves for a secret ballot. If the chair failes to recognize the speaker i.e. ignores him to continue with the vote, the person stands to a point of parliamentary procedure and explains that he has a substantsive motion to propose that must procede the vote.

It needs a second, is not debateable and must have a majority to pass.

What it sounds like happened. Is that the vote was supposed to be by ballot. Like an Election. That procedure is usually set down in your by-laws dealing with this type of business.

So the motion your ass kissing friend used was probably wrong.

It sounds like he would have needed to Move to Suspend the Rules in order to force a Roll Call vote in the face of your normal procedures . . . how odd.

It must have been this way because if the vote was going to be open anyway, why motion for a Roll Call vote (where the members are identified)?

I would be interested to here how it happened. Who is the parliamentarian of the group?

[33girl]

Ziggy,

First off, get into a yoga position, take a deep breath, and repeat several times "It could be worse. It could be Diana and Postlewait." Relax, relate, release. I assume you're talking about the new-new guy and not the KDR alum guy.

Now, everything James said is on the money regarding Parli Procedure. It should have been a secret ballot, not an open vote, and you should be able to vote how you feel without threat. I think he is coming from a big campus and thinking there should be more nationally big fraternities there. I think it would be great if the fraternity in question came back, but only if it's supported and welcomed by the other fraternities. My opinion is that he should feel out the campus a little bit before he goes pushing things that might not be good for the groups that are already there. He is there to advise not dictate, but heaven knows he is not the first one in that position to pull that isht.

Do you mean your pledges' grades are low when you bid them, or after pledging? If it's the former, you might want to point out rush figures from the past couple years...if it's the latter, remind me to tell you about the time 7 of our 10 pledges ended up on academic probation. By the way, they all stayed active the whole time they were in school and the sorority is what MADE them hang in there and not drop out. To accuse you of hazing because the guys' grades go down is ridiculous.

Have you talked to any of the alumni? It might not be a bad idea to get a hold of Flounder (have you ever met him?) since he is a past national officer of some sort. If there's anyone old-school you want me to give a holler to, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[PSK480]

just some info to clear up some of your questions

we don't have a parlimentarian perse. I have been pushing to get one since I became a rep last spring. Parlimentary procedure is covered by the President and Advisor basically. I didn't get an interest in it until I felt we might be getting screwed b/c it didn't seem as though we followed it. Colony and Chapter status are like election they are supposed to be secret ballot. At the time we just voted for it to be a standing vote, the montion passed by one or two votes. I didn't know a whole lot about the constitution and such then(only a rep for a month or so), so I didn't think anything was out of the ordinary.

33girl: This is still the KDR alum who is advisor.

I mean their grades during pledging have been low the last 2 semesters. My semester we got a GPA average of a 2.5. the next was around a 2.0 and this past one was about a 2.0. We're currently working on redoing the way we do study hours.

I've talked to our chapter alumni advisor(weave), I've also talked to mez and a few other alumni.

[33girl]

oHHHH....that puts a different slant on things. I'm PMing you.