University Panhel Help
 

Hi everyone! This is my first post on Greekchat, and while I've been an avid reader for around a year, I've recently come upon an issue with my university's Panhellenic that I hope someone will be able to help me with.

I'm a junior at my university, which is a medium-sized urban school with a healthy greek life. We have 10 Panhellenic chapters, and even though one recently closed due to their HQ pulling their charter, we've just decided to reestablish a chapter on campus! I've been involved with my university's Panhel in several ways, and applied to the Executive Board to try and help even more. Unfortunately, I wasn't selected for any position, and while that was disappointing, I eventually got over it.

The real problem stems from who they did select for the E-Board. I obviously love my Panhel sisters, and think that they are all wonderful women, but one of their selections directly violates our Panhellenic Bylaws. I tried to ask the university's Panhellenic Advisor about it, hoping to get some clarification, but was essentially stonewalled. Basically, our bylaws state that the President of Panhellenic and the Vice President of Recruitment cannot be members of the same sorority, and these two women are in the same chapter.

My question is, does anyone know if this violates a national Panhellenic bylaw, or just my university's? Or is there any way I can find out this information? And if it is a national rule, any advice as to what my next move should be? It might sound petty, but my concern stems from a genuine place, as this would not be the first issue my university's Panhellenic has had with following National Panhellenic bylaws. I'm not whining and saying "oh, no fair that I wasn't picked!" but rather I am becoming extremely frustrated with the lack of transparency in my university's Greek Life. Any advice would be much appreciated!

QFP

It is not an NPC requirement. If it states that in your bylaws, then your next course of action should be to contact your NPC Area Adviser. NPC in Indianapolis can give you the name and contact or one of your group's regional or area officers should be able to.

These issues would be alleviated if you changed to a rotation system instead of one where members are arbitrarily selected for positions....just sayin.

^There's been mention of rotations before. What happens when a chapter doesn't have a member who's able to hold the Panhell position? Either one not qualified or if the chapter needs her in their own leadership spots more?

If a chapter has enough members to function, they have enough members to put someone in a Panhel position. Ideally the same person should be Panhel delegate their whole time in the chapter and there should be a junior delegate for when they graduate. National Panhel delegates usually stay delegates - it's not a new person every biennium office.

In that case, and I have seen it happen, they just go to the next group in line.

^That makes sense. When I was in school we didn't even spare girls for Rho Chi spots, so sacrificing leaders to Panhel, and meaning they would have to disaffiliate during rush too, wouldn't have sat well.

My alma mater has three chapters with 12-25 members, and each chapter has one exec and one delegate. The three execs serve as neutral counselors. It's done on a rotational basis- there is no skipping your position. A member serves or it goes to the NPC advisor. Pretty straightforward!

Keep in mind that some chapters might not have enough women to fill their own boards if a large number of women don't meet the gpa requirement to hold office.

We actually have that issue come up more than you would think- we work with our advisor in that situation to come up with a solution for the time being.

thanks for all the feedback and advice! I will certainly look into reaching out to our Area Advisor.

In regards to the rotation system, I think that would be a great resolution for my school! With 10 (soon to be 11) chapters with over 160 women each, there are plenty of women who would be receptive to having a spot. This would certainly appease the other 9 chapters on campus, seeing as the chapter of the current president has held presidency for the past 3 years! (so we've been under an XYZ presidency since I've come to campus).

Once again, thanks for all the positive vibes and great advice!