Greek Initiatives Update Meeting - Feb 25, 2008

Greek Initiatives Update Meeting - Feb 25, 2008 - "New Directions, New Opportunities" Report

A meeting was held by VP Student Life Eddie Knowles and Dean of Students Mark Smith to update the community on a "New Directions, New Opportunities" report that was drafted in August 2007 and presented and approved by Dr. Jackson in November 2007. Due to some mispercention, miscommunication, and time availability, this was the first opportunity for Student Life Division to have a town meeting with the Fraternity and Sorority undergradaute leadership and chapter advisors to update them on the workings of various groups since the fateful April 2006. Below you will find minutes of the meeting and the information released after the meeting. A protocol for future working relations, documentation, and general meetings will be worked on to keep the future updates to this strategic plan more timely.

VP of Student Life Eddie Knoweles speaks to the group at the meeting held at Rensselaer Society of Engineers chapter house. (Photo by Mark Anderson, 1979/RSE, Focus on Fun Photography)

A view of the group of undergraduate chapter leaders and chapter advisors listening intently to the speeches by the Student Life Division. (Photo by Mark Anderson, 1979/RSE, Focus on Fun Photography)

Documentation Provided after the meeting:

Link to the Rensselaer Plan - the undergirding of all changes associated with the undergraduate student life
The FY09 Student Life Performance Plan - the hard to find, overarching strategic plan with actions items and metrics. It is well worth reading to see where RPI is heading. In this is highlites one action items for Greek life (Strategy 9 of B. Undergraduate Plan) and announces a second phase of student life reorganization (6 reclassifications and 10 new hires)
The School of Engineering magazine article on the REACH program in which all engineering students (and more) will be required to study abroad their junior year.
The February 13, 2008 Polytechnic article about requiring sophomores to live in campus housing - which we have strong assurances that Greek houses are considered part of campus housing.
"New Directions, New Opportunities" - the vision for the initiatives updated in August 2007 (after the draft posted below) and approved by Dr Jackson in November. Most of which was agreed to by the working groups, but some of which was not since feedback comments and discussions were not fully resolved. It is a "working" Alumni Relations and Resources- Goeff Seber, RPI Office of Alumni Relations
Talking points by Mark Smith for the overview of the initiatives update.
February 27, 2008 Cover Letter by Mark Smith announcing the release of the August 20, 2007 initiatives report.
Minutes of the meeting as taken by the IFC Secretary Ben Koche. It is hoped we will soon also have available a recording of the meeting for your listening pleasure.
The February 27, 2008 Polytechnic article about the initiatives meeting

Update on the Greek Life Initiatives - August 2007

DOSO has drafted an update report which includes their view as well as some views of the initiatives teams. It can be read here as "New Directions - New Opportunties." The alcohol policy is having final tweeks and will be published by Sept 1. (UPDATE: The policy was never published by RPI, but a final version from July 2007 is posted here) On February 25th, 2008 DOSO held a town hall meeting to catch people up on things from the last 2 years and continue the process of having collaborative discussions about and work on Greek LIFE at RPI. See the story above.

RPI Greek Initiatives Work - Summer 2006
Since the April 12, 2006 announcement from RPI on their Greek Life Initiatives, the AIGC has helped coordinate four teams dedicated to the three RPI Greek Life Initiative proposals and one for general coordinate and providing of resources and research. Teams included

Alcohol
Recruitment/Rush
House Director
Resources

Much has happened during the spring of 2007. The mandatory live-in house director proposal has been found to be infeasible in the manner presented and will only be used as a sanction to recover from a suspension. The recruitment timing will not change on the calendar, but new events and marketing ideas will be implemented. A new alcohol policy and event management guide is in the final stages of approval. It includes a more formal incorporation into the Student Handbook, follows a Bring-Your-Own (BYO) or catered to serve alcohol to those of legal age, and implements a "Good Samaritan" protocol in case of medical emergency.

A few words about the events surrounding the April 2006 announcement:

This was done with no input from the Alumni nor undergraduate stakeholders of the Relationship Statement.
The presentation they used can be viewed here
The response to this was extensive. Go to www.saverpigreeks.com for some early response and updates.
On April 20, 2006 many alumni received a hardcopy of a letter from VP Student Life Eddie Knowles and Acting VP Institute Andvancemnet Terri Cerveny. This was also posted on the RPI Alumni website.
On April 24, 2006, Jerry Witter posted a response to that open letter. He corrects a few mistatements.
On April 25, 2006, the faculty hold a vote of no confidence on Pres. Shirley Jackson, Ph.D.
On May 3, 2006, a student senate referendum to the entire student body was held and passed overwhelmingly 1585 to 85 (according to DOSO there are only 1078 Greeks) that:
"Whereas students had no means of input on the new disciplinary Greek policies—a violation of the Student Bill of Rights and the Greek Relationship Statement—we, the student body, disapprove of the policies and demand that the administration include student input on all points to shape more appropriate policies that adequately ensure the safety and welfare of students and hold off on enacting any current proposed policies until such times that all involved parties have the chance for review and input.”
On May 8, 2006, an apology letter VP Student Life Eddie Knowles (and co-signed by the RAA, AIGC, and DOSO) was posted and sent electronically to alumni. It retracts the deadlines, but stresses the need for change. It was not sent out as a hardcopy like the first letter (and the one in 2004).

Please get in touch with your chapter house corporation leadership and chapter advisor for specific actions and responses we will be taking. Especially for the alumni understanding and helping to comply with the new alcohol policies and the law of the land.

You can contact Jonathan "Jerry" Witter if you are interested in serving on one of the task force teams to continue to work on new initiatives that address the concerns of all stakeholders in Greek Life at Rensselaer.

Alcohol Team - contact Roger Mike

A preliminary presentation was made 9/11/2006 to Dr. Jackson and her staff as part of an IFC/Panhel Exec meeting. It briefed them on the status of a proposal that entailed BYOB, better self policing, and peer education programs.

A new team has been working since the middle of February on finalizing a new policy guide and programming to help affect cultural changes. The new alcohol policy was implemented in the fall of 2007.

An event management manual has been prepared to help with hosting events under the new alochol policy. Please read the following documents for the specific information

Recruitment/Member Education Team - Contact Shannon Kelly

A draft proposal abstract was made in October. It needs some more work to incorporate pledge/new member education and specific actions to realize improvements. The recommendation is to maintain rush period for freshman during the fall semester and within the same rough timeframe. Improvements to self policing of rush infractions and promotion of Greek Life are needed.

The Institute performed research into retention rates an grade of Greeks and Independents. Bottom line of the report was a statistically significant difference in the men's GPA (due to large sample size) but within the standard deviation of the grades and that Greeks have a much higher retention rate that the independents - especially during the first year. The difference in GPA can be attributed to the higher retention rate and the higher campus activity. It also indicates that a fall rush period for freshman should be maintained.

Mean GPA for Greek is ~0.1 less than non-Greek which is statistically significant by the sample size, but within the standard deviation of ~0.4
Retention of First to Second year students is 97% for Greeks and 90% for non-Greek, with subsequent years attrition of 3% per year for Greeks and 4% per year for non-Greek
Graduation Rates was 91% for Greeks and 79% for non-Greeks
Registrar had percentage Greek at ~30% likely due to counting of suspended chapter members, pre-FYE, and IFC reporting inconsistancies

At the end of Fall 2006 rush, a survey was given to first year students to get a pulse of their impressions of the rush/recruitment process. The raw results and the summary report provide some insight for improvements as well as sucesses.

A new team was formed in January and its first meeting will be March 22 to develop a plan of action to implement ideas that have been promoted and to address retention, academics, and marketing

House Director/Advising Team - contact Roger Grice

A draft presentation made it out of this committee and awaits further discussion with the stakeholders. Essentially they recommend that house directors can not logistically work for all chapters, but can be used as a judicial sanction until viable alumni advising is in place. It calls for beefed up chapter advisor and house corporation relations with the school and undergraduates.

Resource Team - Contact Jerry Witter at jonathan.witter@gmail.com

We have set up a website with documents and presentations by the teams at http://rpi.greekissues.com/Public

As part of the research and work for the other task force teams, some interesting facts or trends were found:

Retention of students through graduation is 91% for Greeks and 79% for non-Greeks.
Retention during freshman year is even more positive at 97% for Greeks and 90% for non-Greeks, meaning a fall freshman rush is important for Greeks and the school.
The spring semester sees a 10% drop in the undergraduate student body due to Dec. graduations and fall attrition.
Sorority raw numbers have been stable, although their percentage is slight lower due to increase women population
Fraternity raw numbers are down, but is not just due to rush practices or fraternity status. The impact of declining number of students the last 5 years for RPI, the accounting practices for member rosters (i.e. counted as non-Greek) for suspended chapters, and FYE are also factors.
A discrepancy in registrar versus DOSO/IFC/Panhel accounting of Greek membership can be as high as 5%, with DOSO reporting lower numbers than the registrar.
Sorority GPA surpassed the all campus and all women's averages last Spring after several semesters of closing the gap
Fraternity GPA has remained at it's 0.1 difference from the all men's average, indicating no worsening trend. This difference is less than one letter grade in one class for the semester and is likely natural since the Greek have higher retention rates.
From the senior surveys, alcohol behaviors were such that medium-heavy use is down, light-medium use is up (natural is medium-heavy is down), and heavy episodic is up slightly. The trends for women appeared to be less able to be correlated but in general had increasing rates.
More than $2M passes through the Greek system each year for room and board, dues, insurance, let alone contractors for home repair