Well good afternoon everyone and welcome my name is meredith call and i am the director for the office of parent and family services here at uab and i’m so excited that you’re going to join us today for our presentation about fraternity and sorority life at uab i’ve got scotty rainwater from
Our fraternity and sorority life office to share with you all about all the resources opportunities programs and what it actually means to be a part of these very unique communities on uav’s campus i do want everyone to know that this is going to be we want this to be a
Highly interactive and engaging presentation today so as you have questions please feel free to put those questions into the q a box we are doing this both through zoom as well as facebook live so we are monitoring both of those sessions so if you’re joining us again through
Zoom we want you to put your questions in the q a box that you’d find at the bottom of your zoom screen if you’re watching us through facebook live all you have to do is put your questions into our comments section on the facebook live video i do want to mention that
Since this is a live presentation as always we want to make sure that we’re respecting the rights and privacy of our students so please be very careful to not put any type of identifying information regarding your specific student into those questions so don’t please not their name email address things along those lines
Because we just want to make sure that we are maintaining the safety and security of all of our students so again we want to make sure we get your questions answered but to get us even started i want to go ahead and invite scotty on
To start to share with you a little bit about who he is and what his area and area of expertise and all the things that our students are able to do within our fraternity and sorority life community thanks meredith um so like meredith said my name is scotty rainwater
I’m the assistant director of fraternity and sorority life in the office of student involvement and leadership at uab um i have been a part of fraternity and sorority life since i was a college student so 14 years now and i’m very excited to be a part of the uab community
It’s a very strong community a very large community with a lot to offer our students and so i’m going to share my presentation with y’all okay so what we’re going to talk about today is just an introduction to fraternity and sorority life i’m going to share information about our
Governing councils and our chapter chapters what the different options are and how you can join and what students can expect as new members of these organizations fraternity sorority life at uab has five mission pillars these are service scholarship leadership community and prevention all of our chapters are expected to do
Programming and initiatives that support these five mission pillars and they also report on their Initiatives in these five areas every year to our office through what we call the pillars of excellence program here are some quick facts about uab fraternity and sorority life we have full two um two full-time staff members myself and the coordinator for fraternity and sorority life we have 29 recognized chapters on campus
That are a part of four governing councils we have over 1100 members our um fraternity and sorority students tend to have higher gpas than the unaffiliated um or all undergraduate average um these statistics are from spring 2019. in 2018-2019 our fraternities and sororities logged over 24 000 hours of community service
And they donated over 110 000 to their charities safety is something that’s very very important to um fraternity and sorority life and so when i started this past fall fall 2019 i wanted to unify fraternity and sorority life under um a value statement for prevention and so this is what we
Have committed to for all of our students in our community and it’s that we will foster a community of care that emphasizes respect for the human dignity of self and others giving special attention to issues surrounding hazing interpersonal violence alcohol and other drugs discrimination and bias and mental health
The value statement is founded on the concepts of respect respect for yourself and respect for others and so these five different areas um for prevention are all focused under that how can we show respect for another person by ensuring that they do not experience hazing how do we ensure uh respect for ourself
Um by taking care of ourselves and looking after our mental health that’s just a couple of examples of ways that students are expected to kind of live under this value statement for harm reduction in our community next we’ll go through some general membership information um i’ll start by saying that um our
Membership requirements vary by chapter and they also vary by council the um chapters that are under certain councils all have common requirements but then they may also have different requirements based on um what their national organization may expect a good example of this is gpa requirements whereas a minimum requirement for a
Council might be 2.5 an individual chapter may require something higher than that as well as cost for membership this will vary um and also how students will pay some organizations will do dues by semester some will do them for the entire academic year there’s often a higher cost associated
With joining during your first semester than there is for maintaining membership after your first semester um and then classification the number of hours you have to have earned in order to participate in that organization but all of these requirements should be very clearly communicated prior to joining through the recruitment or intake
Process um i’ll talk a little bit about recruitment versus intake once we are talking about the councils because they are two different processes that different organizations will use for bringing new members into their organization so the first council we’re going to talk about is the interfraternity council
There are 10 chapters that are part of ifc um the ifc recruitment registration is actually going to open tomorrow and that link will be available on their social media as well as on the uab fraternity and sorority life website ifc their goals are promoting respect unity leadership and scholarship and providing opportunities for
Brotherhood and personal development so ifc does recruitment it’s a formal recruitment process that happens um prior to and at the beginning of the fall semester where students can register for recruitment and ifc will facilitate interactions between um the men going through recruitment and the chapters ifc also practices what’s called recruitment 365
Meaning that they can take in new members at any time during the year unless otherwise prohibited based on their formal recruitment timeline so right now chapters can’t extend bids or offer membership because we’re going into formal recruitment again that registration will open tomorrow and it will be available on engage
The link will be on their instagram as well as on the fraternity and sorority life website next is the multicultural greek council the multicultural group council is made up of five fraternities and sororities mgc provides a safe space for students to explore their culture and heritage and promotes the awareness of
Multicultural diversity on our campus they do practice intake processes which means that there isn’t a formal recruitment process that you sign up for through the entire council at the beginning of the fall semester they will host what they call mgc kickoff and that’s an opportunity for students who are interested in those organizations
To interact with and meet members of those chapters um and each of the chapters will provide informational and interest sessions for students to attend um once students have attended and participated in those and they decided that they want to pursue membership that is how that process would go um through what is called
Intake so the students once they are they’ve completed that informational they’ve applied they’ve been extended an offer to join that organization that’s when they would become a new member the national panhellenic council also known as nphc or the divine nine um are historically african-american fraternities and sororities
We are very happy to have eight of the nine divine nine organizations represented at uab um i won’t read this entire quote to you but this is on the nphc website and i thought that it really speaks to the purpose of nphc the origins of the organizations and why they are still so
Relevant today so very very proud of our mphc organizations and how strong they are on our campus they have a very very strong commitment to philanthropy and service and they just do a lot of great things on our campus similar to mgc they do intake processes so
You won’t see um mphc you know hosting a recruitment registration like with ifc but they host an event called greek speak and again this is an opportunity for students to get information about the mphc organizations it’s also a required event in order for students to go through an intake process with a
Chapter so students will really need to pay attention to mphc social media and communications that are coming out from fraternity and sorority life to see when those um when the greek speak will be happening and then again very similar to ngc they follow the intake processes where um informationals and interest
Meetings would occur and from that point students can apply for membership and that’s when they’ll be considered um the chapters will consider whether or not to extend a bid to those students who’ve applied i will also add um with both mgc and mphc they will do intake processes on their
Own calendar as approved by their um national or regional leadership um so they may not hold an intake process every semester or even every year some will hold one every other year um but at the greek speak and at mgc kickoff chapters should communicate at that time
If they are intending to do an intake process that semester um and they will hold greek speak and mgc kickoff at the beginning of both the fall and the spring semesters the fourth council is the panhellenic council they are part of the national panhellenic conference which is 26
Member organizations and uab has six panhellenic chapters that are listed here so panhellenic organizations um usually known as sororities but many of them also are referred to as fraternities are women’s organizations that are focused on empowering women and cultivating leaders so they do have a formal recruitment process and
Recruitment registration is now open um the link is on the fraternity and sorority life website as well as their instagram um there is typically a very um there’s typically a registration fee associated with that that is um fifty dollars they have reduced it this year down to ten dollars um because
Of what’s going on with um covet 19 and the requirements for social distancing um their recruitment is going to a virtual format this year and so they’re less cost associated with that and so they were able to lower the registration fee for women to participate in recruitment following formal recruitment some
Chapters will have the opportunity to participate in what’s called continuous open recruitment um the way panhellenic does their membership they have what is called um chapter total and that is the maximum number of women they are allowed to accept into a chapter and any chapter that is
Under that number under total is allowed to continue recruitment after formal recruitment so that will be based on numbers and chapters will communicate following formal recruitment if they are participating in that but i highly encourage anyone who’s interested in joining a panhellenic organization to go through formal recruitment
Okay what to expect as a new member first education returning in sorority life utilizes engage a lot and one of the things that we do on that platform is called the path to affiliation so once you’ve accepted your invitation to join an organization you’ll be enrolled in this path and it
Will have information about the fraternity and sorority community um some prevention education modules including um things about our commitment to prevent hazing just a lot of education that you get from training sorority life and there’s also some um education you’ll get from your organization about their history and how they operate
Um so you’ll you’ll learn a lot as a new member the second thing i want to talk to people about with membership especially that first semester when you becoming a new member is that there’s a time commitment um you’ll have added obligations and responsibilities um this could include meetings and
Bonding activities with your organization um however none of these activities should interfere with your coursework or your sleep schedule so one way to think about it is it’s like joining any other club um it’s it’s another meeting that you would have it’s another um activity that’s offered
To you that you can participate in so thinking about your overall obligations um with your coursework maybe you have to have a part-time job as well maybe you have family commitments those are some things you need to consider when you are considering um if joining a fraternity sorority is right for you
And the third thing that i tell people they should expect is to be respected um at no time in your numerator process should you be made to feel that you have to earn the respect of your peers or that you have to earn your letters that is hazing attitudes
That are not tolerated in our community and we i fully expect people to adhere to that expectation if that’s something they’re experiencing i want them to report it and so i also wanted to just quickly mention what are we doing about hazing so we have a very strong commitment to prevent
Hazing on our campus this includes offering specialized training for our fraternities and sororities so that they can learn address and prevent the attitudes and behaviors that contribute to hazing we have online modules that all farmers have to complete we also have a commitment to prevent hazing form that all the members sign annually
Um saying that they understand what the hazing policy is what those um actions are and what the consequences are if if those things are found to have occurred um and the report for um submitting um anything is completely anonymous and so what i tell students is um if it’s something that you’re questioning
Something you’re unsure about go ahead and report it that way it can be investigated and we can determine if something is wrong and any harm is occurred that we need to mitigate um so that’s just something i like to follow up with i know that’s something a lot of folks
Have concerns about when it comes to fraternities and sororities and it’s something that i’m very strongly against and we work very hard to make sure that we’re a community that doesn’t accept that kind of behavior um so thank you welcome to uab um here’s just a little bit of contact information
Um i’ll also share my personal email um it’s s-c-o-t-t-y-r scotty r uab.edu if anyone wanted to contact me directly if you send this email it will also get to me but you can also email me directly scotty thank you so much for taking the time today to be able to
To share some of these great information about some of the things that our groups and organizations are doing so at this time i do want to open up to our family members again if you have any questions and you’re watching this via zoom all you have to do is type them
Into the q a box in the zoom platform or if you’re watching us live on through facebook then you can just write your questions into the comments section there and we’re able to monitor both of those places i know we you mentioned briefly we were chatting earlier as well about the
A little bit about the recruitment process because it is those are the two recruitment processes that are coming up the soonest or the most immediate ones and how they’re going to be virtual for this upcoming fall are you able to speak to any of that at all for
For family members in that regard sure um speaking about panhellenic um they have a little more um details available right now than ifc does but um panhellenic is um working with the women who are registering for recruitment throughout the summer so we have what’s called recruitment counselors that we call
Paikais and every woman who registers for recruitment is assigned to pi kai they’re reaching out with them and communicating with them over the summer to let them know what’s happening what are some of the things they need to be doing to prepare um and so some of the things that we’re doing virtually
Include that we’re also gonna create some content on engage that will give them information leading up to recruitment and then during recruitment where we would normally be having a lot of face-to-face conversations in person we are just moving that virtually so the very first interaction um that women and chapters will have
With each other will be uh via videos so the chapters are recording videos about themselves that they can share with the women and the women going through recruitment are going to be recording videos of themselves answering questions like we would normally do during rounds of conversations in recruitment
They’re going to be recording those with their pie kai’s and the pie kites will be sharing those with the chapters so there will be no face-to-face interaction with that and it’s also something that’s a little less um i think intimidating um because they’ll have relationships with their podcast already
Um it’s something that they can you know if they’re recording and they say something that they don’t like or there’s something wrong with the video or whatever then they can just start over um so so that’s one of the things that we’re doing for the virtual format
And then the rest of recruitment will be done via zoom um with um the women interacting with the affiliated women in zoom meetings and breaking out to have one-on-one conversations that way and it was a really hard decision for us to to go that route because uh panhellenic recruitment is um
Just a very organized tradition um that’s that’s rooted on these in-person interactions uh but for the safety of the incoming students as well as the safety of our affiliated women it’s just something that we had to do to make sure that we weren’t exposing people um because it’s a lot of people it’s
Hundreds of people that would be interacting to make this happen and it’s just not something we can do and with ifc they’ll be doing um something very similar um their interactions will be through those zoom meetings as well but more information will be coming out for that later in july okay great thank
You so much um kind of along those same lines i know that there are also various parameters that are being placed that our student organizations overall are working with regarding gatherings and social distancing and all of that how is the field area fraternity and sorority life
Taking a look at all of these the interactions that they traditionally would have in a traditional fall semester and trying to shift those for the upcoming semester absolutely so the thing about fraternities and sororities that we are very proud of is that we are values based organizations and so we have these
Values of brotherhood and sisterhood and philanthropy and service and scholarship and um those are all wonderful things um but the thing that most people think about when they think about fraternities and sororities is the social aspect um we are even referred to as social greek letter organizations so what do fraternities and sororities
Look like in a social distancing sort of world and we are already seeing that um there are institutions that have um particularly fraternities that are beginning to host large events where people are attending and then people are being diagnosed with um covet 19 immediately following that um that’s something that you know uab
Being affiliated with a major hospital we are not going to tolerate and so really getting back to our values and what it is that fraternities and sororities exist to do which is to provide a great college experience for our members it should be developmental and it should be something where
Um they are coming out of the process feeling like they’ve learned something about themselves and who they want to be um and so there are definitely ways that we can do that while practicing social distancing each of our organizations will be providing specific guidance to their chapters about what they can and cannot
Do and that will look a little different but as far as what our expectations will be for uab that will be determined by what uab’s guidance is and so so far kind of what we’ve been looking at is um you know gatherings of more than 10 people
Are are going to be prohibited um so that will change it for a lot of our chapters um a lot of our chapters are more than 10 members some of our chapters have almost 100 members um so for them to even have a business meeting in person is not going to be realistic
Um so those are some of the things that we’re having to work through um but the safety of our students is always going to be top priority um so just making sure that we’re doing the best that we can following our guidelines and um still providing the best experience
That we can for their members thank you and i think the last question that i just have for today is regarding as we’re moving forward and we’ve got a little bit of time left in the summer maybe our family members and their students are just starting to kind of look and evaluate
The world of fraternity and sorority life are there certain things that a student should be looking at or evaluating or discussing with their family member now or things that they should be doing in preparation for the fall semester absolutely um as i said we’re values based organizations so
If you’re looking at a uh chapter whether it’s their social media or their website um their values should be very clearly communicated to you um hopefully they haven’t explicitly written that you know we value a member of delta chi which is not at uab
Um but i can tell you that um our values are friendship character justice education so if i’m looking at a chapter of delta chi and i don’t see those four words explicitly written somewhere on there that i’m concerned about that if you do look at their organization and they have their
Values explicitly stated but you’re looking through their social media or you’re looking at um maybe some of their members posts if you um are you know connected with anyone that’s in the organization and maybe they they say they have this value but i can’t really see that value in their pictures
Those are some things that i would be looking at um the other thing that is really important to folks is philanthropy so look at the organization’s philanthropy and see if that’s something that speaks to you again i’ll speak about delta chi our philanthropy is the jimmy v foundation for cancer research um
And so that was something that was important to me uh because i have family members who have passed away from cancer so being able to be a part of an organization that supports that meant something to me um so i would look at their national philanthropies and see
If that’s um if any of them have something that speaks to you directly um and and the last thing i would just say look at is um what it is that you are wanting to get out of your um college experience um one of the things that i’m excited about for uab
And i think is a really good thing about uab is you don’t have to come in and immediately join a fraternity or sorority um to find an amazing community to be a part of um and just because you didn’t join a fraternity or sorority your first year as a student
Doesn’t mean you can’t do it the spring of your first year or your second year or your third year when it feels like it’s the right time for you to do it um so so that would be the last thing that i would say is just if if you’re not sure go through
Recruitment see how it feels and then if you’re not convinced by the end of that that that’s right for you that’s okay because you have four more years that you can see if it is the right time i think that those are all really great tips and suggestions
And not ideas as far as how to look forward and finding that organization because we want to make sure for all for all involved that they are finding the there’s that organization mutual um camaraderie that comes out of that so but scotty i just want to say thank you
To you so much for taking the time today to be able to share with us some of the resources and information about what it looks like on uav’s campus because i know it can vary from institution to institution and then that you’re able to really focus on and share with us the values
Of training and sorority life overall but then also really speaking of the fact that it’s something that all of our families and students should be really looking at when they are starting to figure out the next steps in this process especially for those particular organizations that may go through a recruitment process a
Little earlier than others so i just want to say thank you again for doing this and then i know that there you welcome them to contact you at greeks.uab.edu if you have if they have any questions you’re also family members please feel free to reach out to parent family
Services at any point you can email us at families uab.edu and then if you at any point want to share this information this video with with the other families and our students or anything along those lines it will live on the parent family services facebook page
As well as being placed out on the parent family services website within the next couple of days so there are plenty of opportunities for you to continue to share this information but ultimately scotty thank you so so much for coming out today and sharing all of this information with us today i
Appreciate it very very much thanks for having me meredith i hope that everybody has a wonderful rest of the day and a great uh in short and fabulous happy fourth of july so have a wonderful one everybody
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