Hello everyone and welcome to fraternity and sorority life at georgia tech this webinar is for our summer FASET sessions in 2022 if you are unable to attend FASET in person or attend our info session there feel free to watch this webinar and get a little bit more information
We’ll be going into a little bit greater detail than we’re able to in our time slot at FASET so i want to first introduce our fraternity and sorority life staff to you four out of the five of us are on the webinar today we have three professional staff members that oversee
Um specific councils within fraternity and story life and we have two graduate interns working in our office this summer. dr jamison keller is our director he’s also an assistant dean of students and he works specifically with the interfraternity council that’s 30 fraternities in our community.
My name is mattie smythe i am a coordinator of fraternity and sorority life i specifically work with our collegiate panhellenic council which is nine of our sororities and i also work with greek housing and i’ll let my other colleagues introduce themselves
Hello everyone my name is jennifer attilus-august i am a coordinator for fraternity and sorority life and i advise the national panhellenic council also known as the divine nine which has four sororities and four fraternities as well as the multicultural panhellenic council
Which is mostly an asian interest council with three fraternities and two sororities hey friends my name is emily little and i’m a graduate intern in the office of fraternity and sorority life this summer and so helping work on some projects and getting things ready for you all in the fall
Hey y’all my name is angela cardenas i’m one of the summer interns working in fraternity and sorority life similar to emily just working on some summer projects and helping this team get ready for the fall. so to kick us off we’re just going to go over
One of our most important aspects of what it means to be greek here at georgia tech and that is academics i think it is really important to point out that our greek wide gpa here at georgia tech is higher than the overall undergrad gpa i think that is a huge accomplishment worth
Celebrating and noting for our students who are part of the greek life community and i think this is probably largely in part due to the systems that are in place within chapters and just greek life in general that help support members through study hours
And major mentors and tutoring and providing the space for students to really thrive as students because we know that our georgia tech students here really value their academics and so that is not something that’s overseen within our community and we really think that it’s a great
Accomplishment that our students work hard while also holding a role within greek life and then we have campus involvement which i think is also important to note. i think often students might feel like if you join greek life you can only do greek life but
That’s not the case here at georgia tech our students that are involved in greek life also over 87% of them are involved with other campus organizations and that could mean that they hold leadership roles within those organizations um and also
Build community outside of greek life so they’re connected in other aspects of our campus community which could be really important for the way that they grow as a as a leader here at georgia tech and so we just want to make sure our students know that being a greek student here at georgia
Tech doesn’t mean you’re only a greek student you’re you’re also a full person in other aspects another aspect that’s really important in the fraternity and sorority community here at georgia tech is service and the impact that we can have on the community what that looks like
Globally nationally and specific to the atlanta community. last year our community fundraised and donated over $400,000 in philanthropic contributions so that’s monetary donations and fundraising to a charity and then we also contributed over 62, 000 hours of service in the
Last year um so most of our organizations have a specific charity or philanthropy that they spend a lot of their time fundraising and doing service for specifically so as you’re kind of considering going through the recruitment or intake process something that we would really encourage you to do
Is to look at what these philanthropies and service organizations are for each of our organizations and kind of look and see what ones might be things that you’re really passionate about already knowing that if you become a member of that organization
You’re probably going to spend a good amount of your time working towards that clause another huge aspect that’s something that’s shared amongst all our councils is valuable connections i know for the most part most of us once we graduate from georgia tech
Something that’s important to us is we’ll be looking to find a job that’s something that might not be the first thing you think about when you think about fraternity and sorority life but it’s something that can have a big impact on what that looks like for you after college as well
So while you’re still in college while you’re in your undergraduate career there’s opportunities for that within your organization if you’re a member of a greek chapter organization there’s mentorship opportunities something angela mentioned earlier is academic mentors something that also exists in a lot of our organizations is a big little partnership
Essentially what that means is you’ll be paired with someone who’s older than you in the organization who has kind of walked some of the paths that you’ll be walking who can kind of pour into you and be intentional about helping you and guide you over the course of your four years
While you’re in college and kind of prep you for what that looks like after the fact something that’s also a huge deal with the alumni network that being a member of a sorority or fraternity offers you when you join a fraternity or sorority obviously
You are gaining friends and sisters or brothers in your chapter at your college but you’re also becoming brothers or sisters with everyone who has ever been a member of your organization at different schools across the country that’s something to think about when you
Think about networking and you’re looking to go to a job that’s something that um even if they’re not necessarily in the same chapter as you when you walk into an interview and you realize that you both share the commonality that you were greek in undergrad that’s something that is a connection
To start off without even having to think about anything else so definitely something to consider and there’s also aspects for you to continue to be involved in your organization after the fact there’s graduate chapters and alumni involvement so it doesn’t necessarily have to end right when
You graduate college there’s opportunities for you to continue that throughout the course of your life and also just aspects of job opportunities and things that your specific organization can help connect you to both while you’re in college and after the fact
So we just gave you a bunch of information about what makes all 52 of our chapters similar um and and of course they’re all working for great academics they’ll have an impact on the community valuable connections and campus involvement but now we want to kind of give you an understanding
Of how our community is sort of broken down into different councils so i’ve said the word council before what i mean by that is sort of an umbrella organization that oversees a certain number of different chapters a chapter is a specific fraternity or sorority
So we’ve got four councils and again those are kind of the governing bodies the umbrella organizations and those are cpc the collegiate panhellenic council ifc interfraternity council mpc multicultural panhellenic council and nphc the national panhellenic council the reason it’s important that you know the differences between our councils is because depending on which
Fraternity or sorority you’re interested in joining you need to know what council they’re a part of so you know which recruitment or intake process that you want to participate in
So if you say to us i want to be in a sorority do you want to be in a cpc sorority and go through cpc recruitment or do you want to be in an mpc sorority and go through their intake process or do
You want to be in an nphc sorority and go through their intake process so it’s important that you understand the differences and the nuances between these councils so you know um how best to join an organization that you’re interested in so this is kind of an overview of how many chapters we’ve got
In each of our councils and their logos and i want to also draw your attention to the part on the slide here that says how to join so if you go to our website greek.gatech.edu and you click how to join there’s a menu um that you can can kind of see
More specifically uh that recruitment intake processes and a little bit more about each council and which chapters fall into those councils on our website so now we’re going to give you sort of an overview of the recruitment process or the intake process for each of these councils so first we’ll talk about cpc
So like i said cpc stands for the collegiate panhellenic council the the way that you would join a cpc sorority most commonly students will go through primary recruitment in august there are going to be some small opportunities in the spring but it’s not guaranteed
The way that most students join a cpc sorority is through primary recruitment in august and this is going to kick off during a welcome week so when you come to campus in the fall you’ll move in and there’ll be a week full of activities for you to do before classes actually start
So the wednesday of welcome week that’s august 17th we will start cpc recruitment so registration is required to go through this process you’ll have to register and pay a forty dollar fee the forty dollars goes towards some of the logistical costs like venue rentals and the
Software system that we use to put on recruitment um and that’s non-refundable if you do sign up the the link to sign up is on the screen and it’s highlighted there for you um the the the sign up process is pretty uh short it shouldn’t take you too long some people have
Questions about whether or not they need to have a letter of recommendation or um you know they need to have somebody they know that is in a sorority to do this and that is absolutely not the case at georgia tech letters of recommendation are not required or hardly used actually a couple
Of years ago nationally most of our organizations decided that letters of recommendation would have no impact on the recruitment process at all so please do not stress and feel like you need to get letters of recommendation i recommend you don’t just to make your life a little bit easier
There is also a qr code on the screen if you are interested in meeting one on one with a student who is on the cpc executive board to answer some additional questions about recruitment or just kind of get to know someone please feel free to scan the qr code and sign up for
Just a 10-20 minute one-on-one with a student this summer just a little overview about what the recruitment process will look like it’s going to be about four and a half days long so each each day will be a different round so each round you will sort of narrow down your options
In a mutual selection process so the first round you will attend all eight of our cpc sororities and you’ll get to know them and then each day you’ll kind of choose which ones you would most
Like to go back to the next day and you’ll kind of narrow that process down until the final day when you’ve got one or two sororities left and you’ll have the opportunity to choose from there um you also will be paired with a recruitment counselor which is an upper class student who
Is who has disaffiliated from her sorority for a short time to help you in the recruitment process and be an unbiased mentor for you as you go through the process once you sign up your recruitment counselor will likely reach out to you over the summer via email or text put you in
A group chat with other students going through the recruitment process so that you can have your go-to person right away once you sign up if you have any additional questions about cpc there is a list of frequently asked questions on the cpc website you’ll see it on the screen
Gatechcpc.com there’s a recruitment tab a list of frequently asked questions you may be able to find an answer there and if not you can feel free to contact me as i am the professional staff that oversees this council and i also would encourage you to
Follow their instagram at gtcpc because over the summer they’ll be releasing lots of tips about the recruitment process they’ll be doing different chapter spotlights you can kind of start to see all the different options that you have for a sorority to join there is one additional cpc
Sorority that does not participate in primary recruitment and this sorority is called an it’s an associate chapter of cpc so and what that means is they’re a bit smaller they don’t have a house and they have a special interest so um aoe alpha omega epsilon is actually a stem-based sorority
So if you’re a stem major and interested in a bit different of a sorority experience but still a sorority experience nonetheless um to join aoe you would not you do not need to go through primary recruitment they have their own recruitment process that actually happens the
Second week of classes in the fall so there’s more information about that specific sorority also on the cpc website but if you’re interested in any of the other eight sororities in cpc i would encourage you to register for recruitment there’s no obligation to join if you register
Even if you have at least just a little bit of an interest or just want to meet other students going through the process just to make friends i would encourage you to sign up the next council that we have is ifc that’s the interfraternity council so this council has
Actually 30 fraternities so this is our largest council um those 30 fraternities are all situated under an umbrella like a national umbrella organization called the nic the national interfraternity conference so these organizations are the ones you may see when you drive through our campus and you see some
Of their houses 29 out of 30 of these chapters do have a house in the greek sector i think one of them you can see on the screen here they also have a recruitment process in the fall so their dates
Are august 18th through the 23rd and registration is required however there is no fee to register you can see the link on the screen and i believe the qr code also goes to the registration it’s
Very short it should only take you about five minutes no fee no obligation to join but if you’re interested in joining an ifc fraternity i would encourage you to register once you register that’s kind of how you will receive more information about when and where to go you know different
Orientation processes that they’ll have prior to ifc recruitment so prior to the first day of recruitment there will be some different uh potential new member orientation sessions put on by the ifc executive board and so they’ll kind of give you some tips and tricks on on how to
Go through the process they’ll probably tell you things like we have 30 fraternities and there’s only about five or six days it’s likely impossible for you to attend all 30 of those fraternities it’s really important that over the summer you start to do some research about which
Fraternity you might be interested in joining maybe create a short list so when recruitment comes you kind of know which houses you want to prioritize in attending because it’s going to be really difficult for you to spend a good amount of time at all of the houses
The ifc recruitment process is much less structured than the cpc recruitment process it’s sort of a choose your own adventure you really have the opportunity for a window of time in the evenings throughout the dates provided here to go to the different houses and just chat
With the members and and build relationships that way at any point during the recruitment process you could receive a bid a bid is an invitation to membership so that means that that organization is inviting you to join and you can either accept or decline you also um
Do have the opportunity to receive more than one bid in the ifc recruitment process so you could receive a bid on thursday and then different one on friday from a different organization and another one on saturday so it’s why we always say that it’s important that if you do receive a
Bid early to maybe sit on it for a while and think about if this definitely is the organization you want to join or if maybe you’re still interested in a few others and you want to see if perhaps
You get a bid from another organization too and then decide between what your options are we would hate for you to rush into a decision and then you spend the first six months in a fraternity and then realized oh maybe that other group over there would have been a better fit for me
So we encourage you to do your research all of our chapters are listed on our website look at their national websites to see kind of how they were founded what their values are in their their national philanthropy or charity that they support the different educational
Programs that they provide for their members and then also look at their individual local chapter social media accounts or websites to kind of see what the georgia tech chapter is is about here if you have any additional questions about the ifc recruitment process
You can contact jamison keller our director and his information can be found on our website you can also contact the executive officers of ifc to if you want more of a student perspective the other thing to know is there will be ifc recruitment coaches that you will have an
Opportunity to talk to throughout the process so this is going to be a group of men that are there to help you navigate the process similar to a recruitment counselor for cpc this person will will be able to chat with you if you’re conflicted about which fraternity to join if you maybe have
A bid to two different organizations and you’re unsure these recruitment coaches will be there to help mentor you through the process so make sure you utilize them between those dates so next up we have mpc which is the multicultural panhellenic council within this council there are
Five organizations three fraternities and two sororities now this council is comprised of culture-based organizations and here at georgia tech we happen to just have asian interest organizations now while they are asian interests they are not exclusive um to only
Asian students um they are open to any students who are interested in their organizations they do a lot of philanthropy community service they do focus on academics like all of our chapters here at tech the only difference is that there is a focus on celebrating culture so with mpc
The best way to learn more about them is to attend their recruitment kickoff at the beginning of the fall semester recruitment kickoff is a series of tabling events just to get to know the different organizations to get to know the people in the chapters
You can mingle with them talk to them get to know more about the different chapters here and so thereafter every organization will have their own set of events about four to eight events and you’re free to attend as many as possible just to get to get a feel of what each organization has
To offer and if you get along with the people in the chapter because that’s really important because it does become your family and your friend group and thereafter they do have um a new member education process an application process and then they will do new member
Presentations um so it’s important to follow them at their instagram that’s up on the screen gtmpc because here is where they will be announcing the different events um for their series of recruitment events and recruitment kickoff
To learn more about them and then you see the website there where you can learn more in depth about how mpc recruitment does work i want to encourage you to use some time over the summer to
Visit the instagram just to learn more about the individual chapters learn about how they work on a national level learn about what philanthropy each organization focuses on learn about their values mission and purpose so that you can decide which organization aligns best with you before attending
Recruitment kick off so you kind of have an idea of what what organization seems best fit for you so next we have the nphc the national panhellenic council this is also a culture-based council there are eight here on campus out of the nine that are nationally recognized in this council
For fraternities and for sororities the only nphc organization that we do not have here at tech is iota phi theta and if you are interested in being a member of that specific organization i would encourage you to reach out to their headquarters to express that interest
So it’s on their radar that there are students at tech who are interested in that organization so with national panhellenic council it is very important that you do your research prior to school starting if you’re interested in being in nphc unlike the other councils and
Organizations it’s important that you decide on the one organization that you want to be a part of and once you do figure out which organization you’re most interested in definitely keep that to yourself but show interest by attending their events following them on instagram to keep up with
Them if you have class with someone who is in one of these organizations it’s okay to speak to them um to build a relationship and talk to them prior to um applying to be a part of their organization
So in order to be eligible to apply for one of these organizations you do have to have 12 credit hours from georgia tech and so unfortunately first semester freshmen are not eligible but if you receive 12 credit hours in your first semester here at tech and have the required gpa which is
Usually a 2.5 you are eligible um for intake in the spring and so there isn’t a um an overall nphc intake process or recruitment process for everyone um that is on a chapter by chapter basis
They decide as a chapter when they will or won’t have intake and so that’s why it is important to attend their events to get to know the members so that you’re informed once they do decide to do
Intake so go ahead and follow them on instagram at gt_nphc so you know whenever they’re having events and you can be a part of that also if you’re interested the second week of classes is nphc week
And convocation so what this is is a week full of events hosted by all eight chapters on campus so you can decide which events you want to go to to get to meet the different members and then on that friday is convocation now convocation is special because you get to meet
Everyone at the same time and it’s like a big informational so along with doing your own research during the summer you can get to hear information from the individual members of the chapter so you can further decide on your own which chapter at georgia tech that you are most
Interested in so the qr code right here is an interest form those interest forms do come to me and i do advise nphc and what i will do is send you any information or updates on events
Once you fill out that form so that you can make sure you are in the know and in the loop and involved and you don’t miss out on any potential time to get to know these members so some specific membership responsibilities that are going to be similar to all of our
Organizations regardless of council is going to be some type of weekly chapter meeting that you will have to put on your calendar and attend oftentimes as a new member prior to being initiated you will also have some additional meetings where you will need to learn about the organization and
Their values their history and founding etc etc before you’ll be initiated so oftentimes during that new member education process um the time commitment is a little bit more than what it will be after you’re initiated and you just have that weekly chapter meeting usually about an hour
The other requirement by council that’s similar is a financial requirement but by council it’s going to be very different in terms of cost so in our guide to fraternity and sorority life that will be coming out and published probably mid-july um there’s gonna be sort of a range between uh all
Of our councils that you can look at it’s hard to give you one specific number on a webinar like of what is the cost but typically there’s going to be some type of new member dues that you
Will be required to pay prior to initiation some type of chapter dues that assist with different social events that the chapter will put on or or different um expenses the chapter may have
And if you’re joining a chapter that has a house and you plan to live in it of course you will also be expected to pay rent um the other thing too that comes with houses oftentimes is a meal plan
So some of you might be thinking um i already have a georgia tech meal plan so i don’t need a fraternity and sorority meal plan but what you’ll see happen is if you join an organization with the house and a meal plan they will want to get to know you
Over food they will want for you to come and eat lunch and dinner with their brothers or sisters so that you can integrate yourself into the chapter fully and so they will ask that you opt in to their meal plan and so what we have is something called the greek 100
This is a georgia tech meal plan that is actually much smaller than the required first year meal plan that many of you may probably have and this allows for you to lower your meal plan to accommodate for the additional meals that you’re going to have at a fraternity or sorority house
So more information will come about that if you do actually end up joining a chapter with a house you will get a ton of information from our office about deadlines to switch to that meal plan you cannot switch to that meal plan prior to joining it’s only after we confirm that you
Have joined a fraternity or sorority and have signed on to their meal plan do we allow you to make that switch so we’ll send you a form um and and we’ll take care of that for you in the fall
And or spring if you decide to join in the spring the other requirement that’s going to be similar for most of our organizations across councils is some type of service hour requirement or perhaps if you join an organization that doesn’t do as much service but does more
Philanthropy and fundraising dollars for a charity you may be required to fundraise a certain amount of money or work a certain number of charity events many of our chapters though will just have a service hour requirement where they will pick a local nonprofit in the atlanta
Community to actually integrate themselves into atlanta better and get to know the community and you will be required to do that number of hours as well throughout the semester or year so make sure when you’re deciding on whether or not you want to join a fraternity or sorority
That you think about the fact that there is a time commitment of course all of our students that are in fraternity and sorority life are also students and they also do well in their academics
And so they’re able to balance it but it is something that you’re going to have to work on um and we are happy to chat with you more about that and there’s also going to be plenty
Of older members in your organization that can help you kind of figure out that balance for you so another opportunity that our office provides for our students who are in greek life are educational programs and so our goal with this is to make sure that we’re creating space and
Opportunities to be connected with you all throughout your journey here at georgia tech as a greek life student and so all new members will be required to go through our new member education and this will happen in the first three weeks of membership
In the semester that you decide to join a chapter and then another opportunity we have is our greek officer summit and this is an opportunity for our leaders within the greek life community to attend a leadership conference to learn how to create a vision for their community
And then we also have a greek emerging leaders program which is an eight-week cohort-based experience basically a cohort is a group of students at georgia tech that you will be with throughout those eight weeks and this helps to give newly initiated members the tools to
Learn how to make their experience as a greek life student at tech the best that it could be we also have a program called greek leaders advancing which is typically for our students who are sophomores or juniors and may be thinking of or considering becoming a leader in their
Greek life chapter and then it allows them to learn how to perhaps engage in that and then also bring positive change into their chapter and then we also have a graduating member series which is a program for our seniors as they navigate the realities of entering the real world and what that
Means for them and so our hope with that program is to create the space and conversation for our students at georgia tech to ask questions and um explore what it’ll look like to be an
Alumni of georgia tech and also be a greek life um alumni and what that looks like for them post grad now with being young adults newly young adults and maybe being away from home for the first time you’re faced with making your own decisions and making responsible decisions um so it’s
Not exclusive and mutual to greek life in itself but just with coming to college and deciding to be a part of greek life there are alcohol and risk management opportunities so i will say that the national organizations all of them across all four councils have their own rules and regulations when
It comes to alcohol and substances all of the houses that we have on campus for our collegiate panhellenic council are alcohol-free houses and for our fraternities that have houses on campus some are alcohol free a lot more of them are hard alcohol-free and that is something that is
Enforced by the national organizations um at the at another level the institute itself has policies so georgia tech we have our own set of policies regarding alcohol and risk management um and this is for anyone who has a house or even doesn’t have a house on campus so we work very closely
With OSI which is the office of student integrity and they have their own processes on how to keep greek students accountable when it comes to alcohol or any acts of risk management so it’s definitely something to keep in mind when you’re coming to college whether you decide to make
Greek life your home or not there are definitely risks and consequences to the decisions that you now are faced with making as a young adult who is now living on your own on a college campus so like jennifer mentioned we work really closely with the office of student integrity so starting
In about 2018 georgia tech started making public actually all violations for student organizations um against the student code of conduct so i would really encourage you to take a look at this website parents and families may also want to take a look at this website because this is a listing
Of every organization student organization greek or not that has has violated the code of conduct many of them will be for alcohol violations some of them may be for hazing violations and we’ll get to that slide in a second but this is going to be a really good way for you to do
Your research about which organizations you may want to be a part of and maybe see their history in terms of the decisions that that organization has made in the past so regarding hazing we do want to make sure that you understand that hazing is against the law
In georgia recently in july of 2021 the georgia legislature passed a new hazing act called the max gruver act it’s actually named after max gruver who was a student at lsu but originally from georgia in the atlanta era area actually who died of hazing during a fraternity new member process
And so we want to make sure that we educate you on what hazing is and that we make sure that you can identify if that is happening you know how to report it because like we said it is against
The law so the new max gruver act um changed slightly the definition of hazing to that um so that it’s regardless of a victim’s willingness to participate or not so that’s important to remember regardless of whether you want to participate in an activity that may be
Dangerous or humiliating or you may be pressured to do even if you’re willing to do that it still could be considered hazing and a person who commits hazing is actually going to be guilty of a misdemeanor a higher aggregate of nature and could result in a $5,000 fine or up to a
Year in jail it’s a pretty serious offense you’re not going to want that on your record and we take hazing very seriously at georgia tech so like i said you will see some organizations that have now been closed or been suspended for hazing on our campus on that website that was on
The previous screen if you ever feel like you’re experiencing hazing we want you to report it to us there’s a number of ways you can do that you can make anonymous reports on our website if you go to greek.gatech.edu there’s going to be several buttons on several different pages where you can
Anonymously report hazing you can also feel free to always call our office if you’re you know a parent or a family member and you’re concerned you’re not sure if something seems like hazing or not give us a call and chat with one of our professional staff members send us an email and
We’re happy to talk with you about what’s going on to make sure that all of our students are safe and something that mattie mentioned a little bit earlier is our guide to fraternity and sorority life and the guide pictured here is the guide from
2021 so that’s currently up on the website and by the time you’re watching this the new updated version for 2022 might be posted that will also be mailed out
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