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Old 09-03-2019, 01:06 PM
PersistentDST PersistentDST is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 604
Greek Life Growth at a Commuter School

Hi Guys!
It’s been a long time! Glad to see some familiar names! I’m sad I fell off, but I enjoyed posting with you guys, so I decided to come back!

So to give some background about my question:

I started working at an “urban” institution, with a high population of Commuters, a few years back, initially in admissions. Naturally, I asked our student workers about Greek Life when I arrived. I was already familiar with the NPHC chapters, but I did not see much information in regards to NPC or IFC chapters. Recently, one of my favorite Sorors has been hired and she is responsible for campus life and most of the programming on campus, including Greek Life. She’s tapped me (voluntold ) to help her work on ways to help with the growth of Greek Life at this university. She is coming from my alma mater, which has seen a very healthy growth in Greek Life in all the councils during her time there, including the expansion of two NPC Sororities in the past four years. But that campus is more traditional, in a college town, where first year students are required to stay on campus.

We have 4 NPC organizations and 4 IFC organizations. In regards to the NPC, one chapter was chartered (founded?) in the 70’s. The other three were local orgs, until the mid 2010’s, when they became NPC chapters. The chapters are pretty small and there isn’t official housing (although I think they may have some designated floor space in the residence halls). One their website, it says there’s over 100 women in the four organizations. I’m not as knowledgeable about the IFC, but I do know some chapters get a lot of alum support. The NPHC has city-wide chapters (multiple universities represented in one chapter), which poses its own unique issues.

So in closing this novel, we are trying to find ways to combat the stereotype that a mostly commuter, urban campus, means our students will not be as interested in campus life, specifically Greek Life. I’m now working on the retention side of the house and we know how important programming and activities are to keep our students engaged in the University. If you guys have any ideas on ways to get more students informed and interested in Greek Life (or campus life in general!) on a commuter campus, that would be excellent!
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