Ball State Greek Life - Eight Articles

[exlurker]

Wow! The Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005 issue of The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana) has at least eight articles on fraternity and sorority life. Both the "good" and the "bad" are mentioned. The focus is on Ball State, but one article deals with Greek life on other Indiana campuses.

The basic address for the paper is

http://www.thestarpress.com

The articles -- mostly fairly short -- deal with, among other things:

*some of the image, behavior, and financial problems that have recently been seen with some of the NIC fraternities, and efforts to make constructive changes

*Greek contributions to the campus and community

*NPC sororities (which seem to be overall in much better shape than the NIC fraternities) and issues such as grades, housing and image

*the NPHC fraternities and sororities

* Greek life on other Indiana campuses

The newspaper, by the way, is a part of the huge Gannett media chain.

[TxAPhi]

Thanks for posting. It looks like a pretty thorough analysis of fraternity life at Ball State and what they are trying to do to improve. Kudos to the reporter, Gail Koch, whose name I see on most of the articles - she put a lot of work into details and in documenting the positive steps these fraternities are taking to change their public image. IMO, if greeks took it upon themselves to put out press releases about the positive things they do as tenaciously as the media reports on the negative, the public can have a more accurate picture of greek life today -- the good and the bad and what is being done to improve.

[Tom Earp]

ex, thank for the post, helps open a few eyes.



TxAPhi


true that, more giving media information for The positive of Greeks.

What is sad is that We had a ground breaking celebration for our New House and only the local paper showed up. The Un. Paper did not Nothing even on the web site for Un. Paper.

Yes, We do a lot, but unfortunately the bad seems to out weight the good.

[neonsparkles]

I actually thought about posting those articles on here since they were about my school.

That being said, yes there has definitely been a decling in the fraternities on our campus. In good news, we were selected for an alcohol summit (idk if any of you have participated in this) but it was a conference wher we discussed alcohol issues on our campus and leadership styles and many other things. Those of us who participated formed really strong bonds and are working hard to strengthen the greek community as a whole. We have begun to form committees, reevaluate rules and alcohol policies, and plan events that do not focus on drinking and are working to change many traditions and stereotypes that are many of the reasons there has been a decline.

[KDwxgrrl]

Except that they completely ignored Valpo! We have 8 IFC plus 1 colony and 6 NPC, I think that warrents a mention!

[BSUPhiSig'92]

As an alumnus and former chapter adviser, it saddens me to see how dramatically fraternity life has declined and Ball State. It's interesting to see the Star running a series like this now. A decade ago, it would have been hard to get any press at all in the local paper. It's also interesting that the Daily News (campus paper) doesn't really seem to be paying attention.

In my opinion, for all the talk about the "bad old days" of the 80s-90s, despite all the partying, there were a lot of good things about the Greek community at Ball State. We still did a lot of philanthropy and community service, and I can't recall a time since when our chapter was stronger.

In my experience on numerous Ball State committees, advisory boards, etc., I never heard University administrators express concern over declining numbers, closing chapters, etc. A lot of this change has occured with the change in culture that the University brought about in the last decade. When I was a student, the administration was very concerned about losing its reputation as a "suitcase college". I have seen that concern make a 180 into embracing the "suitcase college" . When I have visited over the years, it seems like there are actually fewer things going on on campus on weekends. This isn't to say that the Greeks are without fault, but I don't think the University has been too concerned about stemming the tide either.

A perfect example is the fraternity advisor position with the University. When I started my undergraduate career, the advisor was also the Director of Disability Support Services.
He was an older guy (kind of 'Dad' aged) and a great guy who used to just drop by the houses from time to time for no real reason. Since about 1990, there have been a succession of low-paid fraternity advisors ( I know about the pay, I checked out the position a few years ago), who only stay for 2-3 years. First of all, the position needs to be higher paying to attract EXPERIENCED advisors, who might be willing to stay for more than 2-3 years. Most of the advisors have been just out of graduate school, and honestly, I think they need someone experienced with a track record to help turn things around.

Sigh. I guess I've vented enough. Honestly though, if you went to Ball State a decade ago and saw all of the changes since then, you would understand why so few students bother joining a fraternity at all.

[hoosier]

I liked the articles, and sent an email congratulations to the writer. She replied.

She's a Ball State alumna, but not a GLO member.