Greek rating systems

[33girl]

Since this topic might be coming up at Pitt...

Does your campus use any sort of rating or evaluation system for the GLOs? What does it entail? Positives, negatives, results, repercussions?

[PSK480]

Sheila,
I don't know if you knew about this but Clarion did away with the accredidation system a year or so ago I think. I'm pretty sure I was told that it went when Diana and Dr. P. left Greek Life. I never understood how it worked, os you may be able to shed some light on it for some of us.

[33girl]

We never had it when I was there. I don't think it came about till the mid-90's. However, if Frick and Frack were the ones who thought it up, I'm sure it sucked.

[shadokat]

Bloomsburg had/has a system called Laurel Points, where you get points for doing community service. But I don't think it ranks groups in other ways. There's always the GPA ratings.

[JerzeeBoy26]

our school has a code which is not known to greeks. its known as the administration's "not gonna be around too much longer" list. rumor has it that kappa sig, phi delt and fiji are high on this list

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by JerzeeBoy26
our school has a code which is not known to greeks. its known as the administration's "not gonna be around too much longer" list.

You mean like double-secret probation?

[KillarneyRose]

Originally posted by MysticCat81
You mean like double-secret probation?

ROFL!!! I was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it!

[JerzeeBoy26]

pretty much. they dont tell anyone but the ifc risk manager who cant let it out or he will be disciplined by the school. I would imagine they put the troubled chapters on notice but I am not sure. a house got kicked out last year and none of the guys reall saw it coming...

[SnowLady]

I'm not sure if this qualifies to what you're talking about - but The Ohio State University has developed a Greek Life Task Force policy. Each March chapters must fill out their Report and each April the chapters fill out their Plan.

The Plan includes: Recruitment, Philanthropy (75% chapter particpation in one activity), Financial, Diversity Education, Adviser Retention, Risk Management Program and another that I'm not remembering off the top of my head.

Each chapter is then "graded" on their submission and anyone not complying is disciplined. We're completing the second full year of implementation.

Honestly, it's not a whole lot different than what our HQ's require us to do. So, it's not anything extra we have to do.

[KappaKittyCat]

My school is a residential university (everybody has to live on campus), so the Greeks and any other student groups that want to live in university-owned houses. The houses come on three-year contracts. To qualify for a house, a group has to have:

• Enough members to keep the house at 90% occupancy;
• A leadership structure and system for change of power;
• At least four generations of successful power changes;
• A recruitment plan;
• Faculty and/or alumni support;
• Campus/community involvement;
• Philanthropy;
• Risk Management Program.

Currently all the groups that want houses have them. The sororities don't have to have house moms because the houses are university-owned. As long as they behave themselves, it's all good. There's also the Greek GPA ranking, which comes out every term. Generally at this school, groups will get in trouble with the university (for grades or whatever) before they'll get in trouble with their HQ. The system is new, but it seems to be working pretty well, because the groups rush like crazy to keep their houses full.

[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.

[archangel689]

Well right now our university has a program set up called be our guest, where greek orgs have to take out 4 members of the university faculty for dinner every semester or they get fined.

There is also grade point requirements set by the IFC for staying active in greek life on campus.

Are you suggesting that these are unconstitutional?
-T

[JerzeeBoy26]

We had a situation similar to FSU's last year. I go to a private school but the administration is very pro-greek. Last year we got a new Greek advisor who wanted us to fill out all these surveys and then they wanted to do an in depth "inspection" of all of the fraternities. All of the IFC presidents got together and decided to not give their chapters the surveys and pretend like nothing happend. The Greek advisor flipped out and started threating the houses. Being a new guy on the block, he didnt realize what he was getting into. His complaint reached all the way up to the Board of Trustees and he took the time to send all the fraternities a "ill get you now" type of letter. All 22 chapter prez's called up their alumni boards for support. Sadly for our Greek advisor, the Board is entirely Greek but for 2 members. He was gone two weeks later.

Our problem is the secretive "ranking" system the school keeps on us. I'm not even sure how they do it.

[Firehouse]

I can't tell if you attend a public university. If you do, then yes, they cannot require you (and FINE?! you) for not feeding the Faculty for free. I do think the concept of entertaining Faculty is a terrific idea, and I will suggest it to my chapter. But, you can't make voluntary groups do that under threat of fines and punishment. As far as the GPA, as long as the IFC is a voluntary organization - like a trade association for fraternities - then I suppose the IFC can set what standards they want. In your own chapter you can require a minimum GPA. The problem comes in those cases where the IFC is in fact an arm of the administration, and they use the IFC to enforce their own random rules ("Oh, it wasn't us that made them do it! It is their own rule. The IFC decided it themselves!"). Always remember, a lot of people worked very hard to get that Freedom of Association bill passed through Congress in 1996 (1998?). Your GLO has a right to exist on campus.
Don't confuse the difference between good IDEAS, and FORCED BEHAVIOR. Community service is a good idea. It benefits our souls. But REQUIRED community service isn't service at all; it's servitude.

[Betarulz!]

They just instituted a program here (set up by the IFC President) called the NU Greek Certification system. A bunch of different areas are picked out and the houses that fulfill requirements in those areas get a certification that will be public knowledge (ie given to Rushees...currently things like GPA aren't given out by Greek Affairs at UNL, so every house can lie if they want.)

An example of one of the requirements for a certification: For Social certification you have to provide evidence that your house put on a dry social event...