New to the site - looking to start a local and need help!

[xxstardust]

To be totally honest with you, I'm not 100% sure. 99% of the Meet the Greeks event was planned by Kuumba (our African-American student association) long before I even knew there were other people interested in GLOs on campus, and we kind of jumped on with the IFC/NPC groups now that we're working together. The only one I know for sure is that Zeta Phi Beta is a graduate chapter in our area, which one of the girls working with us has ties with (and hopes to join someday should we not succeed in getting Greek life at our school). The others I think may also be grad chapters or from colleges near by. Oh, and we have TKE coming from the school just down the road from us.

[xxstardust]

Of course, the powers that be heard me complaining and like to make me look silly ... after all that complaining, Eurica (the third musketeer in this) saw one of our Deans at a meeting and stopped to invite her in person, in addition to the email, to the Meet the Greeks event. And one thing led to another - apparently the response/getting in touch got communication lines crosses and we're MEETING WITH HER TOMORROW!!! At 6pm!!

I'm SO NERVOUS. What will she say?!?! I know they were impressed and positive when we met, but I'm still terrified! The butterflies in my stomach are huge!!

I have to stay positive. This will be a GOOD meeting and we are going to push this through. We are going to move forward and bring Greek life to my university. PLEASE keep us in your thoughts tomorrow, say a few words to what ever you believe in, and wish us luck!!!

[ADPiTigergurl]

Hope everyting goes great and im sure it will

[xxstardust]

I'm honestly crushed right now.

We met with the Dean, who told us again how impressed she was with the presentation and that she really appreciated all the effort we'd put into it, and she had felt it was a solid enough idea to pass along to the next level, the university president. Then she told us that when she had done so, he had replied within a few hours and said that there was no way he would even suggest a meeting to the Board of Trustees because it “just wouldn't work here, our students don't want it." (really? 10% of the student body expressing an interest counts for nothing?! argh!)

I would never like to hear no as an answer, but what I'm really most hurt by and disappointed about is that the answer was no without any thought, and without even giving us the chance to be heard and to voice our opinion. It just seems so hypocritical, when all we talk about here (especially in the last couple of weeks, since we've had so much negative student activity on campus!) is how we need to be a student driven university, and students need to take charge and work with the administration to make the campus and the community of the campus what we want it to be, that they'd be so close minded as to refuse to even listen to what we have to say. If, having heard how Greek life has changed since they were in school in the 70s and 80s and seeing the passion behind the (substantially sized!) group of students who wants this, they still thought it wasn't a good idea and weren't willing to allow it -- well, I certainly wouldn't be happy, but I would understand it and learn to accept it. This on the other hand - I can't accept it. I won't accept it, frankly.

We expressed to the Dean how disappointed we were in the negative attitude and refusal to even consider the information and interest available before giving a blanket response of no (seriously, every time I think of it, I get the mental image of the president and board of trustees with their fingers stuffed in their ears going “nah nah nah don’t want hear this nah nah nah”). And she seemed to agree with us that it wasn’t the best way to respond. She told us that she would be willing to bring it up with him again and discuss with him our reaction to refusal. She can’t make any promises that it will help, or that he will agree to at least hear us out, but she’s willing to go to bat for us to bring it up again, which we really appreciate – especially since she came into the presentation having had a negative experience with a sorority in her own undergrad experience! So for someone who saw Greek life as a negative thing before our presentation to come out of it, perhaps not still loving it but willing to see that it can be positive and could potentially be positive for our students really does give me hope that we could, with work, get anyone who is actually willing to listen to our presentation and see our compilation of research materials to see things that way also. If only they’d give us the chance to speak! And if the President refuses to listen, we’re going to go to his open hour (he periodically has an open hour, in which students can come and get a 10-minute timeslot to discuss any issue they want with him) and sitting until he’ll give us at least 5 minutes to discuss the issue with him. Ignoring us will not make us go away – we’ll be polite and respectful to the utmost, but we deserve it in return and to ignore the voice of 10% of your university’s undergraduate population is unacceptable.

I’m just really bummed out. It makes me feel as if all this discussion of student activities being run by student initiatives and student desires, and about the administration working with and listening to the voices of the students, is just something we print in the brochures to bring in prospective students.
Nonetheless, we are continuing with our Meet the Greeks because above and beyond everything else, it’s an event to educate the students here, many of whom have little to no firsthand experience with Greek life, about what fraternities and sororities are REALLY about (hint: it’s not about solo cups and hazing, guys). Apparently, though, word about the event got around to other schools and people have been calling the Student Life office asking why they weren’t invited to come recruit!! AH! That’s a hot mess, apparently several of them were out and out rude to the Dean’s secretary, and the groups invited were ones someone on campus had a personal connection to, or was a group suggested to us by a group we had a personal connection to. It’s a wreck but we’re taking care of it, and we’re hoping the event is still a success – even though we’re going into it with heavy hearts.

We'll keep fighting until they either tell us yes, or are able to hear us out and give us a real reason why the answer is no, other than a refusal to entertain the idea of anything new. I've always been an obstinate child, my mom tells me - it'll pay off now.

[Psi U MC Vito]

XXstardust, I have two things to suggest. first off, maybe you should run a petition to show that a noticeable percentage of the population wants greek life to exist. And second maybe trying to get in touch with NIC and a local NPC aand seeing if they are willing ot pitch the case for you guysd to the administration.

[Gusteau]

I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment. I ignored this thread originally because I thought it would be a train wreck based on the title, and then read the whole thing in the last two days once I saw what it was really about. From one incredibly obstinate child to another, good luck!

[OPhiAGinger]

You need to speak to the university president directly rather than through one of his employees. You have no idea how your case was presented.

Call his administrative assistant and ask for a 20 minute meeting with the president. Keep calling until you get your appointment. ("Just checking to see if anything opened up today on his calendar for the rest of the week.") Be courteous, be articulate, and be professional. But be persistent. Call every day, and drop by between classes. What do you have to lose? And always remember, YOU ARE ONE OF HIS CONSTITUENTS!! If not for the student body, he wouldn't have a job!

[xxstardust]

Hey guys Sorry I've been non-existent and haven't replied in a while .. between finals, end of the semester and insanity and getting sick AGAIN I haven't had a lot of free time lately.

Psi U - we do have a petition that was submitted when we gave a presentation. It had about 165 students on it, which is roughly 10% of our undergraduate population. Getting in touch with local groups is definitely a good idea - we have a lot of friends in an NIC at a school nearby and we were also offer a lot of help and support from people we met at our Meet the Greeks - which was AWESOME, by the way. We had almost 100 students show up, which is impressive for the Monday before Thanksgiving break! I met SO many people who were a lot of fun and thought what we were doing was awesome. I even met a woman who's a theo student at my school who was just initiated into a grad chapter!

We've been pursuing a meeting with the president and have summarily gotten ignored thus far. However, we have a rep from the student government who's interested in sponsoring us for the SGA and trying to get the SGA to support our proposal (which should be interesting, since our SGA has a ... fragile reputation on campus as it is), and come the New Year we will be continuing to call, stop in, etc and request a meeting. It's just not good manners to harrass anyone over the holidays and I don't want to give a negative impression to anyone, but I will be right back up here smiling and refusing to take no for an answer come January 2!

Our school newspaper did a piece on the issue - and understandably, the campus is pretty divided on this issue. Surprisingly, though, the people who seem most against the idea are either on the cusp of graduating or are alumni who no longer attend the school at all. I think people are just very resistant to change, which disheartens me. I heard a girl at an academic department part say to her friends something along the lines of "Did you see the paper? I hate Greeks, I came here because they don't have them! All they do is drink .. don't we have enough a*ssholes here already?" Made ironic by the beer in her hand (yes, we have alcohol at department events, lol), of course, and so closeminded in my eyes. I've never understood that viewpoint of going somewhere because of what they don't have. I chose my school for what it DOES have - small classes, amazing professors and a good reputation & graduate program. Why would you choose for what they don't have? No one forces you to participate in anything you don't want to, and in our campus climate there is no one group that dominates the social scene at all. I truly couldn't see Greek life somehow completely altering the campus atmospere and pushing out every uninterested student.

Of course, there are also a lot of people here who think we should get rid of athletics entirely as well .. so for all we're "liberal" we're kind of closed off to new ideas that don't mesh with our own.

Sorry for the rant .. but again, I'm not giving up at all. I'm going to keep working on this until we are at least given the courtesy of a hearing. We pay tuition, we're told to pursue the activities and communities we want to see on campus, and then are told no when we attempt it? Sorry, that's not acceptable to me, and until I get a more logical and well-reasoned answer you're going to continue to get phone call and personal visits from me! Hopefully the SGA will be willing to work with us (and I'm optimistic - while they may not all be interested personally, in general they've always been very receptive to supporting the need for administration to listen to student proposals).

[xomanadaxo]

Originally Posted by xxstardust

I'm not giving up at all. I'm going to keep working on this until we are at least given the courtesy of a hearing. We pay tuition, we're told to pursue the activities and communities we want to see on campus, and then are told no when we attempt it? Sorry, that's not acceptable to me, and until I get a more logical and well-reasoned answer you're going to continue to get phone call and personal visits from me! Hopefully the SGA will be willing to work with us (and I'm optimistic - while they may not all be interested personally, in general they've always been very receptive to supporting the need for administration to listen to student proposals).

I've been following your story and have to say, I really admire how hard you've worked. That last paragraph of your post gave me goosebumps...you already seem to have the kind of commitment and determination that helped our founding Greek mothers (and fathers ) get GLOs started in the first place. Dedication to your letters (letters you don't even have yet!!) is part of what makes being part of a GLO so special. I know fighting the way you have been can be frustrating at times, but it sounds like your attitude and commitment to your cause have earned respect from quite a few people. Don't give up...If (the optimist in me wants to say "when," but I'd hate to jinx it !) you succeed, the result will be that much more satisfying because you'll know you fought for it. Keep up the hard work and the good spirits...best of luck!

[xxstardust]

Thank you, Manda It really made me smile to see that people don't think I'm nuts or fighting a lost cause.

I got the best Christmas gift EVER!!! We're getting a meeting with the President!! The Dean got in touch with us yesterday night and told us that the President is "quite willing" to meet with us! He's out of the office until mid-January, so we're going to schedule a meeting for the end of January. The spring semester started the last week of January, so hopefully we'll squeeze in right before it starts and we all deal with the hectic first few weeks of classes. She also told us that when they discussed it further that no formal proposal of the idea has ever been presented to the Board of Trustees, just that some of them had expressed to the President on a personal level that they were not interested in it. Which is encouraging, to me - it means that we have the ability to come in and demonstrate on a clean slate, as far as proposals go, and really dispel some of the misconceptions and instigate a constructive conversation about how to build a strong community on campus and how it can be a positive thing.

I'm so excited!! And really flattered - the Dean made a comment in the email that, regardless of the outcome of this project, she's "grateful to have us as students" and that we "express wonderfully the kind of students we want" - such amazing praise from her!

Oh, I'm so happy. We just want the chance to speak - to be given the opportunity to at least represent our idea before it's shot down. I'm glad the President was willing to change his mind and speak with us!

[RaggedyAnn]

That's wonderful! Congratulations and good luck.

[xomanadaxo]

That made my night!! Congrats and good luck!!

[xxstardust]

Hi guys! Just got home from my vacation (first ever trip to Orlando! woohoo!! I saw princesses, hehe ) to find out that we officially have a date and time for a meeting with our president! 1pm on January 26th, the 2nd day of classes. We have an hour time slot, which is plenty of time for discussion and questions.

I'm so nervous! It's kind of surreal to think that we're actually meeting with the president of the university about Greek life but totally amazing at the same time.

So I'll be spending all week re-reading my big ole binder of research while I pack up to go back to school so I know everything perfectly.

[OPhiAGinger]

I suspect that all of us feel the same, like we are your big sister or favorite aunt, cheering you on. I know I'm just so proud of you that I could burst!

I know you'll knock any preconceptions right out of that president's head when you meet with him next week, just like you did with the dean. Until then, rein in your student government friend so there are no distractions to the positive message you bring to the table.

[xxstardust]

Awh ... OphiA, you literally brought tears to my eyes. You guys have no idea how much your support and help means to me, and to the girls working with me on this - knowing that you're all behind us really does help us keep going even when things looks bad!

Our meeting is in an hour and a half!! Eeep! I'm SO NERVOUS! One of the Deans will also be coming to the meeting - he had an emergency judicial meeting the day of our first presentation, so it's nice that he'll be able to see the information first-hand now. One of the other Deans (who praised us so highly) was planning to come as well, but her flight home from Florida got delayed so she won't be back until tomorrow. I would have loved her support in the meeting, but I know we are still going to blow them away with our professionalism.

I'll be back tonight or tomorrow to keep everyone posted!