Be You, Be Greek
In fall 2007 around 700 new college co-eds joined one of 11 sororities and 30 fraternities adding to the over 3,000 undergraduates already in the Greek community. The university’s Greek system started in 1913 to foster academic excellence, leadership ability, philanthropic services and contribute to the Manhattan and campus communities.
To help maintain these standards, the Greek Affairs office created the Social Responsibility Policy. “The SRP outlined how the Greek community managed social events,” Scott Jones, director of Greek Affairs, said, “and was implemented to help with risk management.”
In the past year the policy was reviewed and updated to fit the current state of the Greek community. To help with the revisions, Greek Affairs sent surveys to all the Greek houses to see what they thought of the current policy and what changes they think should be made. Once the surveys were returned the rules were re-written and sent back to each house where members voted on each change.
Jones said he knew some of the rules may not seem convenient for some of the chapters but wanted them to live up to national standards.
“The rules have to be real, they have to be meaningful, and they have to have a level of accountability,” he said. “That means keeping up with what K-State expects from them. As long as students exercise some type of leadership Dr. (Pat) Bosco and President (Jon) Wefald will let students lead themselves. It’s a very unique thing, this campus is.”
One of the changes looked at was the addition of sober monitors to help maintain the rules, Kyle Crow, Interfraternity Council risk manager, said.
“They will check students ID’s, supervise the functions and make sure the SRP is followed,” said Crow, Beta Theta Pi and junior in biology. “They will also make sure no random guests attended functions.”
To make sure each new and current members of the Greek community were informed with the SRP, Greek Affairs held events management training and new member training at the beginning of each semester.
“We have our presidents, social chairs and risk managers there and we teach them how to run a safe and model social event that may have alcohol at it,” Jones said. “Then we answer questions. It is a required event each semester and if you don’t attend that event, until your chapter has sufficient attendance at a make-up event you can’t register a social event.”
While the changes were being made Jones said he was still very impressed with the Greek community as a whole.
“There are so many cool things happening and our students continue to lead in so many different ways,” he said. “We take academics seriously; we have 54 straight semesters of where the Greek GPA has been above the comparative non-greek GPA. That’s 27 straight years. It’s almost at the point where it is monotony, but its fantastic monotony.”
Jones also said he wanted to make sure the experience Greek Affairs and the University was creating for the students added value to their college experience and challenges them to think at higher levels. He also said he thought the community would be up for the challenge and was excited to see what old and new members were capable of.
“Some of the best, articulate, energetic students are in our community, and difficult issues bring out the best in students,” he said. “I am confident that our challenge is an opportunity. It is an opportunity for us to move past a point where we have been stuck for a little bit, and when we successfully address these issues, then we can get to the next plateau after that, and its going to be something new and exciting. K-State Greeks will continue to lead the country in being innovated and committed and dedicated in trying to do the right thing.”
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-Alex Yocum
Contributing Writer