Greek Life members discussed making changes and improvements geared toward building healthier, more unified organizations at a Greek meeting Tuesday night. Rushton Johnson, dean of Student Life, announced that he was taking over the responsibilities of Greek Life adviser, a position that has been vacant since Tom Stephens’ departure in 2007. Johnson hopes to strengthen the University’s Greek Life organizations by focusing on their weakest points outlined in the 2007 Franklin Square Greek Assessment Report.
The assessment evaluated Greek Life on the following components: interpersonal relationship development; leadership development; strengthening of social IQ, citizenship and service learning; the advancement of academic interest and campus support of the Greek community.
The report included suggested improvements to Greek Week, such as the removal of Song Fest due to the “unhealthy competition” it produces, which hinders the development of interpersonal relationships, according to the Franklin Square Assessment.
“In Greek Week you do want competition – we need friendly competition,” Phi Mu adviser Claire Bourgeois said. “But there also needs to be activities that are unity activities too, and last year they did start doing that. So we just need to continue with those.”
The current Greek Council, which the Franklin Square Assessment called “weak and ineffectual,” will be given more responsibility and authority, as it will be the primary body of governance for the Greek community. To prepare students for such leadership roles, Johnson plans to implement training activities for new members and officers.
In addition to making improvements suggested by the Franklin Square Assessment, Greek organizations must meet standards of organization, membership, management, scholarship and social issues set by both the University and their national and international organizations. This includes meeting the minimum membership number.
“We’re going to have to work as a community to look at how we’re going to attract non-Greek students to our organizations,” Johnson said. “I’m very interested in helping organizations with smaller membership numbers who are struggling to recruit members.”
Student athletes will be a group of interest in increasing these numbers, Johnson said.
“Student athletes are an untapped source of membership for our organization, understanding they have huge time commitments,” Johnson said. “I’ve been on campuses where student athletes have been a part of Greek organizations and it’s worked. It’s just our challenge to convince athletics it can be done.”
Greek Life will attempt to work with Nicholls athletes, their schedules and their coaches to make it easier for these students to join the Greek community, Johnson said.
Greek organizations will be accountable for meeting academic standards, including a minimum grade point average. Organizations must maintain a 2.3 GPA in order to remain active. However, effective fall 2011, the acceptable GPA will increase to 2.5.
The standards brought by the Franklin Square Assessment, as well as those set by the University and individual organizations, will ultimately determine the future of Greek organizations on campus. Although the documents aim to strengthen the Greek community, these standards could lead to administrative action or even raise questions as to whether or not certain Greek chapters should continue to exist, Johnson said.
“I will be using those standards as my guiding force in bringing out positive changes in the Greek community,” Johnson said. “Organizations, you are now being given a semester’s notice that by fall 2009, we’re really going to be looking at how you measure up.
