Babson Greek Life - fall recruitment cancelled, program analyzed
 

One of my friends who was a Chi Omega at Babson posted on Facebook that recruitment has been cancelled for 2013, and this letter was sent to the current Greek students:

http://i5.minus.com/ixDWpT8VbdHFM.png

Wow...I wonder what these "significant issues" are that would make the school stop all recruitment and new member education but still allow other events like socials. My Kappa friend there is probably really upset about this. If I was closer with her I would ask her what's up but as it is I'd just come off as a total creeper :P

The issues in question have very little to do with the sororities. Recruitment has not been cancelled. It has been deferred.

I question why someone currently in the greek system would post that letter on facebook.

She's not currently enrolled. She graduated already. And I'm not sure why posting it is so terrible. It basically says that they're creating a "Greek Life Task Force" and not holding recruitment in the fall. This is the same information they'd probably provide in any article about an investigation into Greek life at any school with risk management issues (which I would assume is the problem).

My friend also claims that this has nothing to do with the sororities. She told me one fraternity lost their charter recently, and two others lost their housing, although she's not sure why.

Alright, then I find it more strange that someone who isn't a current student would post the letter on facebook.

Either way, I won't agree that the situation has nothing to do with any of the sororities - I still with my original statement of "very little to do with the sororities". I believe it is mostly centered around a new college president who is likely concerned about the last year and a few concerns within the greek community. I hope for the sake of the women I advise, and the other chapters (which are all consistently at or above total and rarely do not meet quota) that the president and the task force will see the data of the leadership that these greek women are involved in both in their chapters and in other campus sports and organizations, the huge philanthropic events that they all have and support each others chapters at, and at how much higher the greek women GPA is compared to the all female average and the all student average. Hopefully this will all be settled soon and these women can successfully recruit and continue to grow their chapters in the fall.

Why in the hell would they include non-affiliated students as part of a greek life task force? Follow up: What sort of busy body non-affiliated individual would want to serve on a greek life task force?

It might be valuable to have some other student leaders who would weigh in on perceptions of the greek system?

Maybe in terms of including them as potential members in a focus group which might yield some useful information, but doubtful. This is as offensive to me as it might be if my alma mater were to create an NPHC task force and allow non NPHC folks to staff the task force and make recommendations to the college regarding groups they're not members of, nor privy to the operations of.

I know full well that while I say that, I really don't know anything about Babson, so who am I to say how they should run their business.... nevertheless, I find this offensive.

When we say "task force," I'm not picturing a group where folks are simply weighing in on things and throwing in their uninformed/mostly worthless two cents, I'm picturing a committee which is going to adopt some meaty proposals, otherwise they wouldn't be shutting greek life down for a semester.

I pulled up the #s on Greek Life at Babson. It's a small campus in the 3,300 undergraduate range. 15% of men are Greek, 25% of women are Greek. I can see how those numbers might produce friction.

The memo is just to vague to see where the student life director is coming from, but if this is one of those hippy dippy Greek Life is antithetical to inclusiveness and diversity sorts of arguments, I'll not be very impressed with this move.

As an advisor on this campus, I can say that this greek system is vastly different from any I have ever seen before. There are 3 sororities and now 3 fraternities I believe (with one having lost its charter this past semester for risk management issues). The sororities are run in a very business-like manner. As a business school, the students are ALL business majors of some form - and they use the opportunities within the chapters to apply business and management skills from their courses to boost their resumes, etc. The sororities are VERY supportive of each other and volunteer for each others philanthropies and events. This is a very isolated campus. There is a very high number of international students. Most women in the chapter I advise have said that their sisters are their family. For many sisters, the sorority provides a support network while they are continents away from their homes.

I'm mostly disappointed at the timing. The sororities have already planned their fall recruitment, made purchases, and have put in countless hours. The risk management issue occurred at the end of the fall semester I believe, at the latest it was the very beginning of the spring semester. There was no indication that any further investigations were going to be happening throughout the semester. This was then announced this past week as students are preparing for finals.

I'm disappointed.