Required Study Hours?

mandie515 · #1 01-14-2003, 04:32 PM

Ok, i put the angry face because I'm a little irked on this subject....Is anyone involved with an organization that forces you to study as a group so many hours per week? Our new scholarship director is trying to fix it so that we have to study so many hours a week on campus or we are fined. I am in a chapter at a commuter campus, and some of my sisters live up to 2 hours away. I myself am 30 minutes away. We don't have an official house because we don't have dorms and for us to come to campus from great distances to study when we can study at home is insane. You can't talk with her because in her mind (her 3.8 gpa-mind) she believes that everyone should want to study all the time and that people that are on, or facing, academic probation should really want to study with the group. Besides the factor i mentioned already, there are a couple more main points.
1) People on academic probation can't vote, have lil sis's, or take part in some social events.
2)people on probation, have to go before our honor board and basically get lectured, 3 semesters on probation and your membership is up for review
3)Some people have to work to support themselves and with meetings, classes, and other already required events, adding at least (she's talking at least) 2 hours of required study time will take just that much more food off their table and gas out of their cars.
4)The people that are on probation are the people as described in #3, so it's kind of a situation where go to work to make money to pay your fines for missing your study time.

Has anyone had to deal with this before? Have you worked a way to make it happen? Any ideas? This has got me so steamed up that I actually was late to my first geology class of the semester because i was arguing...no, no, "discussing" this with her.
Thanks for your help!
-Mandie

docetboy · #2 01-14-2003, 04:35 PM

I like the idea of mandatory study hours on campus, however, leave it up to each brother/sister to decide when to study. If they are heavily encouraged to study on campus, especially with someone else in the house, the grades can't do much but improve. If not studying on campus, let the person go with someone else somewhere off campus (their home, etc.) and then sign something saying they studied together.

Utilize the people in the house, especially ones with the same major, and study together. Only good things can come out of it.

33girl · #3 01-14-2003, 04:54 PM

Your first priority is to get an education. If much of the chapter is on probation, which is what it sounds like, that priority is being overlooked.

On a commuter campus you shouldn't be forced to come to the campus just to study - however, if you are not meeting grade requirements, you shouldn't have all the priveleges of those who are making grades.

MoxieGrrl · #4 01-14-2003, 05:28 PM

Try and see if you can make your study hours coinside with other chapter activities....that way, you are already on campus. It sounds difficult to impliment this plan on a commuter campus.

Otherwise, good luck. To me, it sounds like your scholarship chair has a good plan. The job situation sounds sticky; as far as club/activity meetings go, they might have to be sacrificed. If you have a certain number of activities you have to be in b/c of your GLO, then explain to your scholarship and activities chair that you just cannot give 100% to both.

chideltjen · #5 01-14-2003, 06:06 PM

Do you HAVE to meet on campus? Is there a way that some of you all can get together at someone's apartment/house/local coffee shop/bookstore and study together? Personally I am not all for mandatory study hours because in our house, it turned into social hours and I was out 2 hours to actually study.

I was academic chair for a semester and came up with some ideas. However our chapter just had a very unacademic semester when i was chair so grades weren't as high. Things I tried were giving an award to the sister that had the highest GPA last semester and then give lil "smartie" awards thruout the semester for girls who studied a lot that week or didn't cut classes. I had everyone maintain a goal for the house. GIrls under a 2.0 had to get above a 2.0 next term; 2.0-2.5 had to raise the GPA .3; 2.5-3.0: .2; 3.0 and up .1. Those who met the goal at the end of the semester got rewarded.

But I will tell you some great advice I think someone already mentioned above: We are all here for the same reason, or at least we should be: to learn, and someday graduate. If those aren't the goals of the house, then something needs to be reevaluated to an extreme, and i think your academic chair is on the right track.

nyrdrms · #6 01-14-2003, 06:32 PM

We have some sisters who love to study in the library because that's the only place they feel they can get anything done, but we have others who find it almost impossible to study there. Our study hours are done in two different ways to accomodate everyone. Our scholarship chair has a folder in the library at the circulation desk for sisters to log the hours that they are in the library. And for those sisters who prefer to study somewhere else, there is another type of sheet where they log the date, time, place, and subject that they studied. In addition to this, the hours required by each sister vary depending on their GPA...you are rewarded for keeping your grades up by not having as many "required" study hours for the sorority.

FuzzieAlum · #7 01-14-2003, 06:40 PM

Study hours for folks on ac pro are very common. And there's a reason it's called probation - it wouldn't be probation if you had all the rights and privileges of a sister in good standing. The sorority's stand is, education is first. They don't demand a 4.0, after all, usually more like a 2.5, which ought to be achievable with work for most college students. Some of these rules are set at the national level, so there's not much your chapter can do to change them (unless you're local).

However, how they are enforced is a different matter. If everyone lived in a house, mandatory studying at the house would be one thing. On a commuter campus, that simply isn't practical. I know if it were me, I'd forget a book I needed or something, and I'd much rather be at home with everything I needed, without other people to distract me. If I'm writing a paper, and I don't have a laptop, what good will being away from my Mac do me? And fines - I'm not much of a believer in them. It seems to me that perhaps a better system should be in place, one more suited to your chapter's particular needs.

So I agree that your academic chair's heart is in the right place, I think a different system of carrots and sticks would be better for your chapter. After all, a system that angers people and doesn't produce results isn't a good one, no matter how nobly conceived. Perhaps a better system should be devised by the chapter as a whole.

Pi Kapp 142 · #8 01-14-2003, 07:25 PM

I think that mandatory study hours should only be used if someone is already on AP. I personally like to study in the library, but what about the 4.0 guys who cannot stand to be there? Messing with people's study habits is bad, unless they obviously do not have good habits to begin with. School comes first and if an individual cannot handle that, then they should lose privledges unitl they figure out how to make it come first.

Little E · #9 01-14-2003, 07:31 PM

We have mandatory study hours for everyone and no one gets anything done. I like the idea of a study log in the lib or for the sister to take. Maybe your house should focus on rewards and points board. Girls like rewards. I can not study with my sisters, i fool around and distract everyone, i need to be in a lib. with a more academic setting than our living room/dinning room.
Good Luck I don't think I helped a ton, but you'll get through it! Focus on rewards!

Tau Love

Glitter650 · #10 01-14-2003, 07:37 PM

WOW YOU SOUND EXACTLY LIKE MY CHAPTER !! speaking as Scholarship chair at a commuter campus I can tell you I had the EXACT same reaction when we tried to do study hours. Personally I think study hours are GREAT !!!! and *most* chapters have them in some form but... I can understand about the whole commuter campus as well becasue I used to commute an hour to get to school...so my suggestion is to suggest to your scholarship chair that not everyone has to be together for study time... but have a book in the library that way people can sign in when their schedule permits, or have everyone write out a schedule that says when they will be studying and have a buddy system where your buddy has your schedule and will call and say "are you studying?" that way someone is holding you accountable but you don't have to drive to campus if you don't already have to be there.

dakareng · #11 02-04-2003, 09:33 PM

Study hours can be well done, or done poorly. The person who said it was bad to mess with people's study habits hit the nail on the head.... I would hope that by the time you get to college, you either know how you best study, or you know enough to seek help (and the role of the chapter's scholarship chair is to help you find that help). Too often, chapters are requiring members to come to the house and sit in the dining room for a prescribed number of hours and calling that an effective study program. Is it? I don't think so... the lighting is inadequate, the atmosphere is too distracting (let's face it, get 30+ in a room and there is more talking than studying) and sometimes does not allow for the use of computers (not enough room) or other class materials. I study best with music (vivaldi and mozart were my faves) but some people need silence. The chapters with the best grades recognize this... they reward members for studying but the hours are self-reported, and done on an honor system. Yes, members on Schol Prob need help, need to be monitered (and part of the help with time management is to restrict social privileges... sorry, but I agree with that part) but they don't need to be made to sit in the chapter suite with someone watching them study. Make it a competition, not a punishment...

And yes, I went to a commuter university. Some adjustments need to be made so that you are not making members stay on campus late in the evening or drive excessively. As an undergrad, our study hours were at the library where we had a sign in book. You didn't actually have to sit in the library to study... you had to sign the book and write down your hours (and if you weren't on campus that day, you could write down two days worth). I trusted my chapter members and privately set up programs with the members who were struggling.

Silverblue · #12 02-09-2003, 12:20 AM

I was a commuter in college, and I was a junior when I pledged. I already had a very good GPA (graduated magna cum laude), so when I was a pledge, I spoke to our vice president of mental advancement, who was in charge of study hours. I explained to her that if I had to drive to campus for a study session, I'd be losing a total of an hour of study time just driving. If you have already demonstrated that you have good grades, maybe you can use this argument, too. But if you're on academic probation, you might benefit from having structured study time. Maybe you can have a speaker in to give a presentation on how to study effectively. After you've proven you know how to study and have the grades to back it up, I'd push for an honor system, too.

Kevin · #13 02-10-2003, 12:31 AM

Study hours can be tough for an academic chair to handle. I have to give it up to anyone that is successful in that role because I wouldn't personally touch it with a 10 foot pole. Really though, if your GPA is bad and hasn't improved it may be time to accept that someone who has a 3.8 knows something about what it takes to get decent grades. On the other hand this individual should sit down with each person to determine what is best for them. There is (or should be) within any organization the means to work within the system to an end that at least attempts to accomodate everyone. Good luck with this one and if you find the magic bullet that solves this one, let me know!

pinkyphimu · #14 02-18-2003, 01:52 PM

well, i never had mandatory study hours in college and i am sooo glad that i didn't bc i worked 40 hours per week and i would have never made it!! perhaps you can propose to the scholarship chair that no events be held on a certain night every week. let's say, wednesday is study night and no chapter events could be planned for that night. the other proposal would be to review the chapter members schedules and find pockets of time that a few sisters are on campus and do not have classes. post those times and people can meet in the library. another suggestion i would propose is setting up tutors. for the people on academic probation, it would probably be helpful to have a sister help them out. what about study buddies? where people are paired based on schedules or majors or location and get together when they can each week for 2 hours or something.

i really do not see why a chapter should have mandatory study hours unless the chapter has a large number of people on academic probation. i like to study late at night. i hated studying in the library. i liked having the tv on. i would have been a nightmare if my chapter had this...lol.

sirboomLXA · #15 03-30-2003, 06:35 PM

When you joined your sorority you should have known part of your obligations were to maintain grades. I am unaware of the average GPA of your chapter but I am sure your 3.8 GPA sister is aware of your distance and your fellow sister's distances from school. She must feel this is necessary. What you need to do is talk to your president and other officers. Call yourself to your executive committee or something. What you can't do is talk behind her back, it gets you nowhere.