Greek vs. University Administration

I'm a member of Phi Delta Theta at the University of South Dakota. Our University has just passed a resolution that will require every fraternity on the campus to basically change the way all operations are conducted. We control our accounts currently through OMEGA FINANCIAL, with this new resolution we will be forced to go through the University. Every time we want to take money out of our account, we must go to the admin. building, fill out a form, and they will send us a check in "a couple days". We will also be forced to have a House Mother, a 2.5 in order to activate a new member, and numerous other requirements. If you want to view the complete listing..the website is www.usd.edu/student-life/orgs/greek/execsum.htm. First I would like to hear opinions on this, and second I want to know if the University can legally do something like this with giving the chapters absolutely no say in it. Thank you for all of you responses.

[33girl]

Hmmm. I've heard of some Greek systems that allow members to pay dues thru their tuition, but that is something they wanted to do.

Are you all with Omega Financial? I mean, doesn't everyone just have their own bank account or whatever? Or separate foundations? I would check with your nationals on the $$$ part. As far as the house mother thing is concerned, if the houses are on campus, you might have to go along with it.

[SilverTurtle]

Bad University.

First, I'm NO legal expert.. i don't even do my own taxes.

Second- is there "bad blood" between the school/administration + Greeks? Have there been any "incidents" on campus lately to encourage these steps?

Based soley on what you posted, here's my take:

It sounds to me like the administration wants control over you guys, not only financially, but in what you do as well. I mean, what if you're purchasing something + the school decides you don't need it or shouldn't have it (of course, alchohol jumps to mind, but it could literally be anything).. will they then be able to not give you the money? As a chapter, that would be my biggest concern.

My chapter went through a bank, locally (and still does). Will your chapter's accounts be able to draw interest, like in a bank? (Did they do this in the 1st place? I'm not familiar w/ Omega Financial). It is (barely) concievable to me that the school is doing this to help out, but I would be very surprised if that was the case. If you're currently drawing interest on accounts + you won't be able to do that through the university accounts, I would be concerned-- you'll be losing money. Also, I just plain wouldn't trust my school, or any, with my chapter's funds. What kind of accountability will the school have to you (the chapters)?

If you go through nationals for your financial stuff in any way (like all through the same bank, or you have any kinds of joint accounts), I imagine they will have to have some kind of say. I hope that all of your national GLO's have already contacted your headquarters. If you have local chapters on campus, they might consider getting together + seeking legal council.

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As far as the house mothers: that's just weird. It sounds to me like they want to baby-sit you. And of course you (as a chapter) will have to pay for this expense, or at least I would guess that. Being that we didn't have houses at all on my campus, I can't really comment much else on this. Again, it sounds like they want control.

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As for the GPA.. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Most nationals (if not all) require a 2.5 anyways. I know that was the minumum at my school for both nationals + locals.. but my chapter's requirements were higher. I can see where they are coming from on this one.. you're in college + grades should be first. Although I would give you that, if this is a new idea, they should give you a semester or 2 to work up to it.

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My biggest advice would be, as I already said, consult w/ your nationals and get some kind of legal advice. I think the school's controlling you financially can really hurt you in the future. Something about that just seems "funny" to me, and I really don't like it. And I'm not even a student there.

Good luck.. keep us posted.

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SilverTurtle@greekchat.com
Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter

[This message has been edited by SilverTurtle (edited May 01, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by SilverTurtle (edited May 01, 2000).]

[SilverTurtle]

OK
I just read that list you posted.


Most of it sounds very positive to me, and like things that you should be doing in the 1st place (fire inspections, clean-up, etc.) I still don't know why you need house-mothers, but that page said you can get details if you want.

I still think that the financial stuff could be a hinderance to the chapter, but I don't really know the details. It was more than vague on that list, and I'm sure that was intentional.

As already posted, I am leary about all finances being handled through the unviersity.

At my university, student organizations "had" the option of having a foundation account. Having an account was slightly benefitial but most orgs found it to be slow, and painful, especially for reimbursing memebers. Most organizations only had a foundation account because they were required if the org recieve university funds, or for catering and other campus services. All the orgs that i was invovled with also had accounts with local banks for everything else.

One Question is the requirment to send all money through the university for all organizations or is this only being applied to the Greek community? If its only to the greek community, you might have a case to prevent university interferance.

best of luck
artimis

[James]

This is a more useful link in that you can see more of the task force's recomendations with explanations. http://www.usd.edu/student-life/orgs.../taskforce.htm

Omega Financial, for those that are unaware, are a financial service and collection agency. Members are billed by the company and the money deposited in the Groups account (minus their fee for service) and if a member does not pay, Omega will go after them like a collection agency, possibly damaging their credit.

In this case the school might work better for you. Members with cash flow problems might opt to take some damaged credit, but if you are paying through the cashiers office the stakes are different. The Cashier would put a hold on your account that wouldn't allow you to register or graduate. The same hold they would put on if you were delinquent with school bills. Its actualy beneficial to your group because they become the bad guy.

Personally we just collect our dues here and deposit them into a local account. But for the people that always seem to be the latest in paying . . . a recourse like that would be nice.

The dry housing seems a bit much, but a lot of the other recomendations are actually quite benign, and some are even helpful.
It seems they are willing to invest resources into you as well as expecting your cooperation. I am sure many of the points are negotiable if you go in with a united front and a strong position.

[LXAAlum]

If you don't have members who are paying, and they leave after the school year without getting current, that is as much the chapter's fault as well as the individual for allowing that situation to go on that long without resolution. If you put someone on a payment plan arrangement, as a chapter/executive committee, you need to be willing to immediately suspend a member as soon as a payment window is missed, without exception.

One idea we used at a chapter around here was to lock the members door at night, and they had to sleep in the chapter room, or at another location outside the house. After 30 days of this, we then cleaned out the room and suspended the member of all rights and priveleges until payment was made.

Some people think that is such a hard line to take on a "brother" (or sister) - but, the reality of the situation is reversed - what kind of "brother" will not be current, and force the chapter to carry his delinquency on their backs. Plus, don't members almost always take an oath/commitment to pay their bills on time?

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Don't be your brother's keeper; rather, be your brother's Brother.

It has absolutely nothing to with them not just leaving and paying and its not a chapter problem. It has to do with members that can't afford to pay, or they can't afford to pay for school and have to leave. If they are delinquent they do lose their privelages. There are people that can't afford it and won't pay even once their privelages are gone. Omega will go after these people and make sure that we get our money. There are also alumni that still owe money and they will go after them to. It's a simple fact that no matter what the chapter does there will be members that don't pay their debts, those debts will be lost if we go to the university.

They may help in collecting current members bills, but we have members that leave every year without paying off their house bills. If these members aren't going to graduate anyways what difference is it going to make if the school puts a hold on their registration or graduation. They offer nothing like a collection service as Omega Financial does, only help in collecting our current residents. As for helping our chapter out the plan will not, it will bring us down. We are far above anyone else on this campus and this can do nothing but hurt us. We don't have any of the problems that this task force is trying to fix.

Hello, I am from Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and was writing in response to your knowing of Omega Financial. I was wondering if you could give me the number to contact, and is it possible if you could tell me a little bit about them. Thank you

patrick everett
pateverett_99@yahoo.com

[anonymous]

I am a registered member but choose not to use my name at this time.

This is a classic case of the university stepping in to rule with an iron fist. Has the chapter/Greek community behaved recently in a way that warrants this action??

Here's why this situation sucks so badly: if you do not comply, the univ. has every right to cancel your status as a recognized official univ. organization. In turn, most national councils of IFC chapters will not recognize a chapter whose university won't recognize them, i.e. you have to be in good standing with the school to be in good standing with your brothers.

I seriously recommend finding an attorney, preferably an alum of your own chapter, and discussing your options. good luck....

At my university here in california, our IFC is going through the same thing. IFC supports all of theses dessions, but the individual houses don't. Our actual physical houses aren't on campus, so they can't control those, but a good point was brought up. If the houses can not match the standards put on them by either IFC or administartion, maybe there is somehting wrong with the chapter internally. building up to these standards will only improve things. If campus is trying to inforce rules that are against what your nationals say, you can go through nationals and fight it, but no lawyer can help if you don't have national backing (unless of course your civil rights are abused). Pretty soon the whole greek system is going to be changing, becoming more organized and structured. I know half of us don't want it that way, but we need to move with the times, not in the 70's.