Men and women, we have a problem, and that problem is academics.
I know, I know, many of you are thinking “Wait…he says academics is a problem? But our GPA’s are higher than the all-male/all-female averages. We can’t possibly have a problem!” Yes, they are. But how did your GPA’s get that high? Is it because your study hall/study table academic plan is top-notch and ahead of its time? (Hint: it’s not.) Nope. I’ve seen this at my university and several others; I’ve figured out fraternity/sorority grades, and it’s not pretty.
You see, we engage in grade inflation. How can that be…we don’t control the grading of our professors, there’s no curving in the fraternity/sorority system? Oh, but there is. What do we do whenever we look at a potential new member? We check out his/her grades. Now, I’ll give you a bone here: that is what our founders had in mind when they were penning our first rituals. They wanted their organizations to have the highest academic minds in the university. This is fair; fraternities and sororities are supposed to attract the most intellectual collegians. The problem we have is after we have pinned these highly-sought-after new members.
Does your chapter initiate everyone it pins? My guess is no. And much of the time it is because they “don’t make grades”. We have a GPA requirement to wait in line to get in (pledging/associate member process), we have a GPA requirement to get in the door (initiation), and we have a GPA requirement to stay in the building (retain good member standing)! Why don’t your new members “make grades”? I would posit that it is not entirely their fault; much of the blame can also lie on the chapter. How much time do you make them spend on activities versus academics? Even more so, you teach them how to be a good Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc. but do you ever teach them how to be a good student? Not very frequently, so at the end of this new member process, you have students with poor GPA’s. What do you do? Well, it’s obvious you can’t initiate them; they would drag down the integrity and academic standing of the chapter. So, let’s hold them over, or cut them altogether. That will keep our grades high and our membership elite. Nevermind the fact that fraternities and sororities are also supposed to help further education. We skipped that portion in our rituals and creeds. Looking at just a few, I see in Beta Theta Pi – “devotion to the cultivation of intellect”, not the acceptance of men who already have intellect; there is still a learning process. In Delta Chi – “assist in the acquisition of a sound education”, note the assistance and acquisition; it’s not already there. We fail in our mission by cutting those men and women who don’t make the grade. And what happens to them? We throw them back out into the university pond, to struggle for themselves, when we as fraternities and sororities should be assisting them!
So, now, we have initiated these men and women who make the cut for us. We’re sure they won’t embarrass us. Oops, they will, and they do. So, do we help them? Sometimes we do. I’ve seen two different paths a fraternity or sorority can take in this area. The first is to offering tutoring, academic assistance, those glorious study halls/tables (they don’t work!). I love it when I see an organization that does this because they are continuing their founding tradition of helping others achieve academic excellence. It’s one thing to achieve in high school; it’s a totally different can of worms to achieve in college. The second option is the one about which I’m more concerned. We cut them. Well, we don’t cut them; because we allow them to keep their pin, and maybe even keep paying dues to us. But, we remove them from our roster, because heaven forbid we allow people to see that we have a poor student that we’re helping in our membership.
Summing it all up, we’ve got two formulas for academic success in fraternities and sororities:
1) Sign high GPA’s + initiate(high GPA’s – low GPA’s) + retain as members (high GPA’s – low GPA’s) = high chapter GPA!
2) Sign high GPA’s + initiate(all GPA’s + extra assistance to strugglers) + retain as members (all GPA’s + extra assistance to strugglers) = medium/high chapter GPA + living your values!
A pretty brief, simplistic series of formulas, but mimics what chapters can choose to do on a yearly basis. My encouragement to you, stop looking to keep your reputation, but improve your reputation, through aid, not cutting; through brotherly/sisterly care, not isolation.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Word Confusion, Pt. 1
In the world of fraternities and sororities, we have lots of terms for lots of different things. Some of them are very plain and specific, and you know exactly what we’re talking about. Others, well…that’s a little more complicated. We use two different words for the same thing when they both mean different things, or we use words that are demeaning when it is just as easy to be constructive with them, or we just plain use the wrong word. Well, let’s talk about some of these words, and why we use what we use…and why we shouldn’t use some of the other words.
First up – Greek…or…fraternity/sorority:
Saying Greek is so easy. “I’m Greek; are you?” It’s a one-syllable word; it flows off the tongue readily. So, what’s the big deal about it? Well, technically, unless you were born in Greece, or can trace your ancestry back to Homer or some other Grecian individual, you are not Greek. You are, however, in a Greek-letter society. Or, maybe you’re not; if you’re a member of Triangle or Acacia or Farmhouse fraternity, you don’t have a Greek letter associated with your name. These are defined as Greek social organizations, but they don’t have a Greek letter associated with their names, while they do have Greek symbols and words associated with their ritual and other organizational aspects. So, where did all this “Greek talk” come from?
To look at this, we have to go way back, all the way back to the founding of the first Greek-letter organization (aka, fraternity). It was the year 1776, and the fraternity was Phi Kappa Theta. They were the first, so they obviously had to have some big reason for picking Greek letters…right? Hmmm, actually, not so much. The primary reason for our fraternities choosing Greek letters for their names was because they wanted secret names. Ok, fine, but why Greek? Why Greek – because university students in the 1700’s and 1800’s studied for three areas – clergy, law, and medical. And, as part of their studies, they learned Greek. So, of course, they would pick a language they were quite familiar with. So, since the first group started by using Greek letters, naturally all other organizations that sprang out of this desire to form secret societies emulated the original, and thus, we had Greek-letter organizations, instead of just secret societies.
Ok, so, what’s the big deal about all this? You may think that I’m just complaining about a technicality. Well, first off, if you are in a fraternity or sorority, that’s what you should say. Think about both the connotations and the denotations. Looking solely at the definitions, being Greek means that you are of Grecian descent. In contrast, by definition, being in a fraternity or sorority means that you are a member of a Greek-letter organization, that has specific purposes.
What does the statement “I’m Greek” say about you? What is our society’s mental image of the typical Greek? I’ll give you a hint, it involves specific clothes, paddles, wearing robes/hoods, and secret (and creepy) initiation rites. It’s a negative image. Now, what about fraternity or sorority? We see a fraternity as first an organization (I am Greek…or I am in a fraternity – in one, you are claiming an identity; in the other, you are claiming membership in a group). Fraternity brings to mind brotherhood (since that’s what the name means). It conjures up images of leadership, good things. So, would you rather be thought of as a Greek or as a member of a fraternity or sorority?
By saying that you are Greek, you make that your identity; it is a statement of individuality. You aren’t claiming a sense of belonging to an organization, you are merely identifying with a culture (and one that has some pretty bad stereotypes). When you say you are in a fraternity or sorority, you actually claim membership in your chapter. It is no longer about you or what you are, it is about what you are a part of…and that’s what a fraternity or sorority is: it is something that is bigger than the one person.
Let’s look at what we are saying, how we identify ourselves. Maybe we can help change the perception of people, and cast our fraternity alliances in a good light. It’s just changing one phrase in your vocabulary.
Fraternally,
MDD
First up – Greek…or…fraternity/sorority:
Saying Greek is so easy. “I’m Greek; are you?” It’s a one-syllable word; it flows off the tongue readily. So, what’s the big deal about it? Well, technically, unless you were born in Greece, or can trace your ancestry back to Homer or some other Grecian individual, you are not Greek. You are, however, in a Greek-letter society. Or, maybe you’re not; if you’re a member of Triangle or Acacia or Farmhouse fraternity, you don’t have a Greek letter associated with your name. These are defined as Greek social organizations, but they don’t have a Greek letter associated with their names, while they do have Greek symbols and words associated with their ritual and other organizational aspects. So, where did all this “Greek talk” come from?
To look at this, we have to go way back, all the way back to the founding of the first Greek-letter organization (aka, fraternity). It was the year 1776, and the fraternity was Phi Kappa Theta. They were the first, so they obviously had to have some big reason for picking Greek letters…right? Hmmm, actually, not so much. The primary reason for our fraternities choosing Greek letters for their names was because they wanted secret names. Ok, fine, but why Greek? Why Greek – because university students in the 1700’s and 1800’s studied for three areas – clergy, law, and medical. And, as part of their studies, they learned Greek. So, of course, they would pick a language they were quite familiar with. So, since the first group started by using Greek letters, naturally all other organizations that sprang out of this desire to form secret societies emulated the original, and thus, we had Greek-letter organizations, instead of just secret societies.
Ok, so, what’s the big deal about all this? You may think that I’m just complaining about a technicality. Well, first off, if you are in a fraternity or sorority, that’s what you should say. Think about both the connotations and the denotations. Looking solely at the definitions, being Greek means that you are of Grecian descent. In contrast, by definition, being in a fraternity or sorority means that you are a member of a Greek-letter organization, that has specific purposes.
What does the statement “I’m Greek” say about you? What is our society’s mental image of the typical Greek? I’ll give you a hint, it involves specific clothes, paddles, wearing robes/hoods, and secret (and creepy) initiation rites. It’s a negative image. Now, what about fraternity or sorority? We see a fraternity as first an organization (I am Greek…or I am in a fraternity – in one, you are claiming an identity; in the other, you are claiming membership in a group). Fraternity brings to mind brotherhood (since that’s what the name means). It conjures up images of leadership, good things. So, would you rather be thought of as a Greek or as a member of a fraternity or sorority?
By saying that you are Greek, you make that your identity; it is a statement of individuality. You aren’t claiming a sense of belonging to an organization, you are merely identifying with a culture (and one that has some pretty bad stereotypes). When you say you are in a fraternity or sorority, you actually claim membership in your chapter. It is no longer about you or what you are, it is about what you are a part of…and that’s what a fraternity or sorority is: it is something that is bigger than the one person.
Let’s look at what we are saying, how we identify ourselves. Maybe we can help change the perception of people, and cast our fraternity alliances in a good light. It’s just changing one phrase in your vocabulary.
Fraternally,
MDD
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Welcome
Hi, and welcome to my new blog. The internet has seen numerous blogs springing up to discuss the fraternity system, and I hope to add my voice to the discussion. A little background on me. I am a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, working on my masters in Adult and Higher Education. I work with Student Life, as the Fraternity/Sorority Student Life graduate assistant, so I see the problems of the Greek system firsthand. In my undergrad, I was also at the University of Oklahoma. I served in my fraternity as pledge educator, vice president, and president, and also spent two years on the Interfraternity Council. My eyes were truly opened to the promise of the fraternity system during the summer of my senior year, when I attended UIFI. Although I already knew that the Greek system was not just a huge party, UIFI helped me to solidify my views of the Greek system as one of the nation's premiere leadership and service development systems.
In posts to come, I hope to discuss issues in the Greek system from a unique perspective, including things that I have seen in my own experience and read. The next posting will introduce the name of this blog.
Fraternally - MDD
In posts to come, I hope to discuss issues in the Greek system from a unique perspective, including things that I have seen in my own experience and read. The next posting will introduce the name of this blog.
Fraternally - MDD
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