Lehigh U. Ranks Greeks

exlurker · #1 08-02-2005, 05:12 PM

Lehigh (in Pennsylvania) has issued its first set of rankings of the fraternities and sororities on campus. The rankings, from "gold" (high) to "silver," "bronze,' and "poor" (low), are based on criteria for campus accreditation of chapters by Lehigh.

The rankings are on Lehigh's web site, and you can click on each chapter's name to view a report on how the chapter meets each of the criteria. Recommendations for improvement are included as appropriate.

http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Eindost/gree...editation.html

One fraternity -- Phi Kappa Theta -- and two sororities -- Alpha Chi Omega and Alpha Gamma Delta -- were ranked "gold."

Eight fraternities and two sororities, unfortunately, were ranked as "poor."

Several Pennsylvania media outlets ran short articles about the rankings on August 2.

For instance, an ABC station in Philadelphia has this on its web site:
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/080...igh_frats.html

WCUgirl · #2 08-02-2005, 05:14 PM

Not to detract from the article, but WOW they have a lot of fraternities for only having nine sororities.

#3 08-02-2005, 05:21 PM

I think this kind of stinks. I mean yea, award and recognize the chapters that are doing awesome.........but do you really need someone to tell you your chapter is struggling? Especially the University? Isn't that what international officers do?

33girl · #4 08-02-2005, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AXiD670
Not to detract from the article, but WOW they have a lot of fraternities for only having nine sororities.

That's because they were all male until the early 1970's.

How on earth are you supposed to pull yourself up when there's something right on the school's website calling you a "poor chapter"? What rushee is going to want to join a "poor chapter"?

It also really puzzles me how a sorority whose chapter was closed can rank higher than ones that are still open.

Although, I wonder if this report is really going to be something students take to heart or if it is BS (i.e. the "gold" chapters might be those who are more popular w/ the administration than the students). I have no idea who's where in the social order at Lehigh, so please don't anyone take what I say personally.

WCUgirl · #5 08-02-2005, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 33girl
That's because they were all male until the early 1970's.

Thanks for the clue in.

FSUZeta · #6 08-02-2005, 05:38 PM

for curiousity sake, i read the accomplishments of one of the gold chapters and one of the "poor" chapters. while i don't think trying to accomplish the recommendations of the administration would be bad, some of the suggestions did make me wonder if the chapter was operating in compliance with their national office and that landed them on the "poor" list. for instance, one recommendation given to the "poor" chapter was to have a better officer transition and suggested using university guidelines. now what if the sorority in question was in full compliance with the standards set by their own national office?and as far as the national officers were concerned, their chapter was fine in that area. the "poor" chapters gpa was above a 3.0, hardly poor on most campuses. i realize that lehigh is a tough school, but gheesh.

don't know if this means a thing, but the "poor" chapter had more members than the "gold" one.

rocketgirl · #7 08-02-2005, 05:51 PM

just to back up what FSUZeta was saying..for one of the poor chapters it was marked down for having a "too low" GPA requirement. if that's the national requirement...how can you mark them down for it. the committee also recommended that this sorority have a annual tea with the faculty to get to know them.

i think this is a good example of why administration sometimes should butt out of greek life.

33girl · #8 08-02-2005, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by FSUZeta
for curiousity sake, i read the accomplishments of one of the gold chapters and one of the "poor" chapters. while i don't think trying to accomplish the recommendations of the administration would be bad, some of the suggestions did make me wonder if the chapter was operating in compliance with their national office and that landed them on the "poor" list. for instance, one recommendation given to the "poor" chapter was to have a better officer transition and suggested using university guidelines. now what if the sorority in question was in full compliance with the standards set by their own national office?and as far as the national officers were concerned, their chapter was fine in that area. the "poor" chapters gpa was above a 3.0, hardly poor on most campuses. i realize that lehigh is a tough school, but gheesh.

don't know if this means a thing, but the "poor" chapter had more members than the "gold" one.

FSUZeta, I thought the same thing.

Also I looked at some of the older newspaper stories on this and apparently the evaluations are based on is a report presented by actives & alums. I had to wonder - what if one group comes in with some really fancy schmancy Powerpoint and the other just writes it out on paper? I mean, it should be what you actually do, it shouldn't have anything to do with how you present it.

hoosier · #9 08-02-2005, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ADPiZXalum
I think this kind of stinks. I mean yea, award and recognize the chapters that are doing awesome.........but do you really need someone to tell you your chapter is struggling? Especially the University? Isn't that what international officers do?

Maybe something new and different will lead to improvement.

Usually the smaller and weaker chapters will be saying "we have a great brotherhood - friends are more important to us than faculty teas and sports trophies." They make up excuses. Maybe an outside opinion - in public - will spur improvements.

Maybe they'll work harder to get more pledges, more programs, and more achievements.

33girl · #10 08-02-2005, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hoosier
Maybe something new and different will lead to improvement.

Usually the smaller and weaker chapters will be saying "we have a great brotherhood - friends are more important to us than faculty teas and sports trophies." They make up excuses. Maybe an outside opinion - in public - will spur improvements.

Maybe they'll work harder to get more pledges, more programs, and more achievements.

but as I pointed out...

the sorority that was closed partly due to low membership scored higher than some of the still-existing chapters with more members. Some of the "poor" fraternities are bigger than the "silver" groups, and one "poor" group was a co-winner of Greek Week. I think in this case, size really doesn't matter.

TSteven · #11 08-02-2005, 06:05 PM

Seems similar to "The Delaware Plan".

Tom Earp · #12 08-02-2005, 06:09 PM

Just Love TX "ONLY" has a 2.895 0r there abouts and were in the Crapper!

Damn, screw Lehigh and thier Big Plan.

Now, they want a 3.0 Min or get green card for deportatin!

TristanDSP · #13 08-02-2005, 06:12 PM

yay Bronze! We're #3! We're #3!

Just kidding...cmon guys, get your shit together.

TSteven · #14 08-02-2005, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 33girl
Also I looked at some of the older newspaper stories on this and apparently the evaluations are based on is a report presented by actives & alums.

Do you know if there is some sort of criteria used to award points or what ever they do? In other words, how does a chapter *know* if they are doing well (or not) and or improving. What specific goals - and not just saying "better GPA" - are set? i.e. 3.0 or better = Gold.

Quote:

Originally posted by 33girl
I had to wonder - what if one group comes in with some really fancy schmancy Powerpoint and the other just writes it out on paper? I mean, it should be what you actually do, it shouldn't have anything to do with how you present it.

Or how well "liked" the chapter is by the administration.

OleMissGlitter · #15 08-02-2005, 06:15 PM

Seems odd be/c I would consider the AOII chapter at Lehigh as one of the top chapters in AOII Land....but who knew they were only silver material this past year!!! I think these "ratings" are only good if the person who filled the form out knew what they were doing. I know at Ole Miss we have Greek Standards, which is a bunch of questions and stuff the chapter fills out. If that person does not know how to fill that stuff out then there is your problem. I don't know, I could be totally wrong. I know at Ole Miss that some fraternities hardly fill out the paperwork and they are in no way, shape, or form bad chapters of their national fraternity.