[Firehouse]

The recent wave of 'evaluation systems' you're talking about are based on the "Delaware Five Star Program". It was instigated at UD several years ago. Across the country, some of the intent is good, and some is malicious. There are usually lots of rules and participation or behavior 'targets'. The chapters are either praised or punished depending on how they compare to the administration's vision of what the GLOs should be, and there's the problem. Our national fraternities and sororites belong to us, and not to some random administrators. I do, fully, understand and appreciate any administration's desire to keep the peace, and to not tolerate idiots. But...these are college kids, and universities now more than ever seem to suffer from a complete lack of any sense of humor.
If you want to see the 'evaluation system' taken to its absurdity, search out the LSU greek life website to read the excrutiatingly detailed report/evaluation forms of each group, and how they've written their various required "logs".
Fact is, if the Tri-Delts or Lambda Chis want to devote every waking moment of their lives to community service, then God bless 'em. But conversely, if they don't want to do that, then
they have every right not to.
Here's what happened a year or so ago at Florida State, as I was
told the story. A mid-level administrator cooked up her own
plan, called "Expectations For Excellence" and imposed it on the
Greeks. Each fraternity president was brought in individually and
presented with the plan as if it was a done deal. He was asked
to comment, but he was the only greek in the room and it was an
intimidating atmosphere. The woman then presented her plan to
the VP for Student Affairs as if it had the support of the
fraternities. It did not, and the 20 or so presidents met on their
own, and asked the IFC President to register a protest. The objection wasn't that FSU wants the Greeks to behave and do good things, but that someone else's vision was being imposed on them against their will. People don't like that kind of thing.
What happened then was that alumni from the most powerful fraternities, including lawers, a judge, and some local power-brokers, took the VPStudent Affairs to dinner and explained in a straightforward way that this was a civil rights violation. You cannot punish groups of students because they do not perform required community service, or hit a specific grade point target, or if their privately-owned house isn't quite clean enough for the sensibilities of the mid-level administrator. Her knock-off of the "5 Star Program" (much of the wording was lifted in its entirety) placed great emphasis on punishment. The Lambda Chi advisor made a very eloquent point that the chapters belonged to the national fraternities, and not to the whims of some greek-affairs coordinator.
Bottom line: right after that, the administrator left FSU suddenly, and there is no '5 Star System' here. Yes, we have to watch our behavior, but our organizations belong to us, not to people who want our scalp to decorate their resume. Under Federal law, as it applies to public institutions, know that you do not have to put up with this sort of harrassment.