Oh Oh Oh N N Hello and welcome to another edition of Facebook live um from Texas Christian University my name is Heath Einstein and I have the great privilege of serving TCU as dean of admission um and we are so thrilled to be with you this evening or this morning depending on where
You’re joining us from and I see we have people from all over the place so welcome to dander from right here in Fort Worth and Sally from Rono good to see you Sally I saw you last week on campus it’s awesome to see you here Rodney from my home state of California
We got Monica from Hershey pen pvan Josh from Missouri um Aaron from San Diego we’ve got Lena from Costa Rica so awesome to have everyone with us um we have a really really special program tonight for you um we like to start all of our events with a land
Acknowledgement we’re in a really Sacred Space so TCU respectfully acknowledges all native peoples who have been here since time of Memorial and in particular the witchat and Affiliated tribes uh upon whose ancestral Homeland TCU is located so if you have a chance to check out the monument between Reed Hall and
Jarvis Hall I would highly encourage you to do that the next time you are on campus uh okay if you have been with us before you know that on these Facebook Live Events we are completely unscripted I don’t know what is going to be said tonight I don’t know what I’m going to
Say within the next 30 seconds it just comes out naturally but we have a great topic tonight one of tremendous interest I think um and and I I know that for a fact because we have lot of folks who ask questions on Instagram even before
We started so I know lots of people want to know about Greek life at TCU so go ahead if you haven’t done so already pop in as many questions as you can or as you want we are going to get to as many of them as we are able to over the
Course of the next approximately 57 minutes um we’re going to go around and introduce ourselves um I’ve already done that um and then we’re going to just open it up for questions and we want to know we want to be able to answer anything that you have so I’m going to
Throw it over to my colleague Brooke scogan who’s going to introduce herself and um yeah take it away good evening Brooke hi thanks for having us as Heath said I’m Brooks googan and I have the privilege of serving as the Director of ruring sty life and I am also a TCU
Alumni so I adore this institution and feel very very grateful that I get to work here every day that now TCU pays me to come here which is so cool um and I get to work with the wonderful students you’re about to meet below yeah well speaking of whom why don’t we
Start with Megan hi I am so happy to be here tonight my name is Megan I am currently a senior at TCU last year I had the privilege of serving as the panal lenic president and I am originally from South Lake Texas and I’m currently pursuing a undergraduate bachelor’s degree in political
Science great to have you here Megan Bo how are are you I’m doing great hi everyone my name is Bo pent I’m currently a junior and I’m from Fort Worth Texas and right now I am the inter fraternity council’s chief justice fantastic and we also have Lila
With us whose video is not working but her audio is working so we will capture her opinions via audio and good evening Leila how are you hi I’m doing well my name is oh there you are fantastic um my camera started working so um I’m currently a sophomore uh accounting and
Finance major and I currently serve as the president of Sigma Lambda Alpha Multicultural Latina sority on campus awesome well you know you’ve we’ve already got I I have a question that’s come to my head just by way of the introductions that you all had um so can you describe um what the different
Councils are because we think of Greek life as this sort of Monolithic um activity but really it’s lots of different opportunities for students so who wants to take a a stab at describing the different councils um well I can take a step at it since um I would say that the
Multicultural grp council is very diverse um not only just the people that it brings into its fraternities and sorties but I think what sets us apart as I said is the people that we have in our count so they come from different backgrounds different places and we’re
So uniquely diverse I would say that we bring a lot of culture on campus so you’ll see us having Taco sales or bringing music and dancing and strolling and I think it’s a very passionate community and it brings a lot of culture and pride with it awesome
Awesome the panal lenic council is the largest Council on tcu’s campus so we have around 3500 girls in our Council each year we usually have a little over a thousand girls go through our formal recruitment process in the fall each year and we have 13 chapters on campus
And the main purpose of these chapters is to provide Sisterhood philanthropy and academic support to the members awesome Bo tell us about IFC so for IFC it’s similar to panal lenic I guess it would be the second largest Council on campus I work with six their
Guys and we oversee 13 chapters and they complete anything from philanthropy events to community service days of course during formal recruitment in the fall there’s anywhere from between 600 to 750 freshman um guys who are hoping to join one of the chapters awesome and I’ll hop in because
Two two aren’t represented here we only had so many there they are only had so many room on the screen for faces so our national panalin council is our historically African-American groups and then our independent Greek council is going to have our band or music organizations as well as our Christian
Sorority so those make up the full picture of of who is part of our veran sorority Community perfect well and um Megan you talked about how um panh helenic is the largest of the councils uh but of course there there more councils and that that actually um leads
Into a question that um Ella Grace asked on Instagram and that is what percent of students are in Greek life at TCU um I would say as far as sororities around 50% of women enrolled in TCU are a part of sororities um I’m not sure Bo
Might know the answer better for the men but there are there’s a really large presence of Greek life on our campus and a lot of women do find membership in these groups fantastic um that leads to a question that I have and there we go 54% um and I think it’s
A little bit more for the women a little bit less for the men but it averages out to about that um Caitlyn jro asks and this is a question I would love all of our students to answer what are the advantages to joining Greek life so Bo
Why don’t we start with you what are the advantages I’d say that one of the biggest advantages is from day one the start of your recruitment process with whichever Council you decide to pursue or participate in recruitment under you begin to meet friends um and other you
Know guys or girls that are interested in similar chapters to you and then as you visit different houses and different events you get to meet guys who are from different states different upbringings different backgrounds and that’s a huge benefit as you start your classes at TCU you’ll you wouldn’t believe how many
People you would would already recognize just based on those you meet during your recruitment process and that would be the biggest benefit that I would see absolutely from the start of you know the process Leila what about your perspective um as I said earlier I would
Say that mgc we bring a lot of culture and diversity onto campus so I think um one of the biggest benefits of joining is the connection you make with people um I know for myself I’ve definitely found a community Within GC and know that I can always rely on my sisters or
Other people within the council to help me and it’s always nice having a familiar place in class or on campus and honestly I think it just brings in such a community at TCU and makes you want to stay on campus awesome Megan what do you what do
You think are the advantages um just echoing B and Leila it is really great to see so many familiar faces and just to be able to make friends so quickly especially at the beginning of your college experience which can typically just be scary and overwhelming um but
I’ve also found that postgrad I’m a senior this year so I’m looking for jobs and um sorties are a great way to network because you have a network that expands Beyond just Fort Worth or TCU you have a national network of sisters and it’s a really wonderful way to get
Connected in a lot of different fields that you wouldn’t expect yeah those are all outstanding points um uh we talked about or someone mentioned I think Bo you mentioned the that um even during the recruitment process how you can meet people can you all walk us through what recruitment
Looks like and is that something that happens in the fall semester or the spring semester let’s see Megan maybe why don’t you start this one yes so the panolin council we have formal recruitment in the fall and that takes place the week before classes begin at TCU so this year
I believe it starts on August 10th um and it starts or move in for women who are going through Panic recruitment will be on August 10th and recruitment begins on August 11th and our bid day so the last day of recruitment is the Sunday before school starts and some chapters
Depending on their chapter sizes are eligible for continuous open bidding um or like cob and that happens typically in the spring semester got it um Lila what about um in your Council does it work similarly or is it is it different so our council is a little bit different
Because um our Council actually does both rush in the fall and the spring and how our Rush looks like is um it’s actually a secret process so you’re actually not allowed to tell anyone that you are joining um once you are in the process and you receive a bid is when your process
Technically begins and this is also in respect to the people who have come before us and the Divine n and pH c um so you aren’t allowed to tell anyone you’re in the process and during this process uh you’re bonding with your line sisters which are the girls that are
Joining with you and you basically learn history of the sorority the Greek alphabet um other information important to sority the secret handshake secret codes and at the very end of your process we have something called a prob probate or a new member presentation where the LI sisters and all the girls
The P&M potential new members are presented and they present the information they learn during the process and basically it’s just a accumulation of all the hard work You’ put in over the semester so you our sem our process is actually a semester long Bo how does it work um with IFC is
It is it as structured it’s more or less structured so in the fall and in the spring chapters are welcome to participate in a formal rush in the fall all 13 chapters will do so as you would see at any other school and formal um recruitment starts
On August 18th for the guys this fall and then next spring depending on numbers within each chapter each you know group can decide whether or not to take a spring class and in the spring typically there are fewer potential new members going through the process but we still hope to put them in
The right place and so informal recruitment is also allowed under IFC and that can happen anytime over the summer most commonly I’m a Capa Sigma here on campus and so for us that is usually meeting kids for lunch or dinner whenever they just happen to be in Fort
Worth and it’s a good opportunity to spend some more um concentrated time with an individual fraternity before you get to campus great thank you Leila mentioned the divine nine Brooke can you talk about the about that uh Daryl asks how large is the divine nine presence on campus yeah grateful for that question
So nphc is also known as the divine nine Nationwide because there’s nine organizations that make up mphc anywhere and so at TCU we actually have six chartered to our institution right now we have four that are active and we hope that that number grows so mphc is kind
Of top of mind right now as we look at incoming students and how are we marketing that experience to the students like Lila said their process is not this structured out there process like you see for IFC and panel enic and so how do we make sure we’re telling
Students about these opportunities and facilitating ability for students to meet meet the members of those organizations and talk about what their intake process looks like and that way they can really express interest in the org that most aligns with who they want to be we’ll also do that with mgc so uh
Discretion sort of the name of the game among those two councils in particular and a lot of our mphc groups in fact most of them will not take cannot take first semester first year students they want them to earn some hours at TCU to see let them set
See what their grades are and that is their National policy to not allow that however they can still interact and they certainly have events and ways to get to know let students get to know who’s in the groups well that policy is a really good segue to a question that Cole Kiper
Asked on Instagram and that is how challenging is it for students to balance academics and Greek life so uh Megan I’m going to start with you um either in your personal experience or from what you observed um in in your sorority or other sororities how challenging is it for students to to do
That um I know in my own experience and I think if not all than most other pentalenic chapters on TC’s campus in their new member program they require a certain number of study hours per week um as you are working your way towards initiation when you are still considered
A new member and so they really want to facilitate women that have well-rounded academic lives they they want you to succeed um and so usually they will provide study rooms tutors they’ll connect you to older members that are in the same program or degree
Plan as you to try and help you out with that um and usually there’s a lot of different policies in place to help you succeed um before anything uh would happen that could possibly damage your academic experience at TCU okay thank you so much Bo what about
What about you do you think that um it’s a challenge to balance all that stuff I’d say for the IFC chapters it’s similar to panal lenic there are required study um facilitated hours that the newer members must commit to but on a different note I’d say that kind of
The beauty of college is you got to learn to balance your time between all of your different obligations whether it’s a frity or Sports um clubs you’ll realize once you come to this campus how many different opportunities there are and so whether you’re in Greek life or not the the challenge that everyone
Faces is having to balance all your time and um putting in the hours whenever you need to to study and that’s kind of just the reality of it Leila I saw you nodding along it sounds like you would be in agreement with that yes I totally
Agree I mean one of our pillars is academic so we do require our girls to do 20 hours of studying each week and we have an accountability form for that as well just to track their hours um so would you say because we got we had a question that’s sort of built
On top of this Shandy tally asks can students do both the Honors College and Greek life so I don’t know if any of you are in the John V roach Honors College but whether you are or you’re not I’m sure you know people who are in the
Honors College um and who are involved in Greek letter organizations what’s been your experience there with students having that added um academic Dimension and anyone can jump in yeah so um I would say a lot of our girls are very involved they do come from first generation family so they
Have to keep up the grades for the scholarship and have to complete study hours and get the opportunity to do a 20 hours of community service with us each semester so I know it can be a lot and Honors College is very demanding as well um I’m personally in NLP which um is
Kind of the partner of neie fellows which requires people to be in the Honors College and I know that can be demanding as well but honestly what’s helped me the most is time management having a calendar managing my time doing my assignments ahead of time and looking
At my week ahead of time instead of the night before has really helped me in my college experience to stay on top of things and stay organized especially as president because am in charge of not only myself but other people yeah anyone else want to chime in about balancing the Honors
College I would just say I’m personally not in the Honors College um but I know a lot of women who are in the Honors College and are also in sorties and I would say if anything they’re celebrated by their chapter for academic achievements um and like I was saying
Earlier like your chapter will do everything they can to ensure that you maintain a really strong academic record at TCU because um each chapter also has an average GPA and so it can get a little competitive everyone wants to have the best GPA and so people are
Really striving for the best grades um as well as being you know a fantastic chapter excellent okay um now you all didn’t realize this when you agreed to participate in this Facebook live event but we have a tradition every month and that is we do dad jokes and so I have a
Question and I we’re gonna see who can guess the the right answer okay this a little competition here okay remember this is a dad joke so put your best pun hat on okay here’s the question what did the dad who was scared of elevators do what did the dad who was scared of
Elevators do anybody y’all he took steps to avoid them all right I see you all laughing good job okay let’s move on to our next uh non-ad joke question and that is I’m gonna ask Brooke to respond to this question from Laura and it is if you
Join as a freshman when do you move into the sorority or fraternity calls that’s a really great question so we really um can’t emphasize enough the first year experience and that includes living in our residence Halls designed for our first year students so you cannot live with us until you’re at
Least a seconde student which is great because we have a two-year residency requirement so if you join a group that has a chapter facility you are welcome to live with us your second year and we we try to create as equally a good experience living in a forr sity hall so
Has a unique Advantage here that we own operate manage the facilities so they’re not owned by the Orcs they’re owned by us which means they look like TCU buildings they’re treated like TCU buildings they’re staffed like TCU buildings because they are TCU buildings and so your sophomore year you can leave
With us they only house 35 women on the panal linic side and 25 on the IFC side and you’ve got to think our average chapters for the women are over 300 and the men set at about 150 so it’s a really small segment of our population
But our really I’m really proud of our our village it is beautiful and it is quite the place for Community even if you don’t live in uh students are hanging out down there we’ve got monuments set aside for our mphc our mgc and igc so there’s gathering places so
Our whole Community is represented down there and it’s just really really lovely I remember when those buildings uh opened reopened um gosh Brooke it must be I don’t know six years ago now or something like that and we our our office took a tour of them and we were
Were just blown away and I’m sure that they’re um if I know TCU they’re they’re still in pristine condition so yeah our students are very fortunate um okay I’m gonna ask two well I’ve got two questions I’m gonna ask them one at a time but they’re sort of
The flip side of the same coin so I’m G to start with a question that Heather Howry asked on Instagram ahead of time how um how do to get how do we get to know what fraternities there are and which is the right one for my son and I
Think we could extend this to to the women too like how does someone know which chapter is right for their student so B since it was asked about the sun we’ll start with you definitely so I’d say first and foremost to look at Instagram for any of the ifc’s 13
Chapters each of them at least to the best of my knowledge are always showing off what they’re doing whether it’s raising money or community service events um you know certain recruitment information is always released on there but throughout the school year they highlight the things that their members
Are doing and in addition to that the TCU IFC has its own Instagram where one of my buddies on the council highlights each chapter’s own accomplishments again whether it’s national awards or philanthropy events community service anything like that and in addition you can look online at any of the 13
Chapters individual websites with regard to TCU and from there at hyperlinks to their National Organization so if you’re looking to see you know what fiap what their um Flagship fundraisers throughout the year you can look and see what their communities look like not only at TCU but also on the national scale and
That’s often a good way to better understand what each group stands for what they prioritize and um of course on the social platform what they look like and who they are excellent thank you Lea how would you respond to that question of um how
Would a how would a woman know or or or a young man know U which organization is right for them um yeah definitely adding off what Bo said I think social media is a great tool to get to know like the culture and um kind of the vibe you could say of a
Fraternity and sorority I know that’s how a lot of our girls find us is through Instagram and through the Tik toks we make or the posts that we put up or the community service that we do together and just things like that um you can definitely see the personality
Of a fraternity already shine through Instagram and then getting to meet those people in person just furthers that of what you found on social media um I would definitely recommend stalking the page which kind of sounds funny but it definitely helps before going in knowing like what you’re getting into and
Knowing the girls having familiar faces and making that connection to thank you Megan anything to add is it is it any different for for the panh helenic uh groups students looking at panh helenic organizations yeah I would say it’s really similar to what Bo and Lila were saying um definitely going on
Social media and looking and going on the national website all the national websites publish what their philanthropy is and usually what their core values or if they have a mission statement um and if that resonates with you that’s really special but um also kind of keeping in
The back of your mind that each um chapter at different schools is a little bit different and so just going into the recruitment process with an open mind um because it is a very unique and individual process and so it’s kind of up to you and um how your experience is
In each house so the the flip side of that the second question that I’m G to ask is for actually from Megan Bon which is what are you looking for in a potential member so as you’re going through the recruitment process from the recruiting side what are some of the qualities that
You’re looking for in our young men and women who wants to take a stab at that one Megan why don’t you lead us off um I it’s very hard question to answer um I think tcu’s Greek life Community is um so strong and has such an amazing
Presence because it’s made up of so many different people and personalities and backgrounds and values um and that’s what makes each chapter so special um as far as being able to answer that question I know a lot of chapters at least during the formal recruitment process do have some some sort of
Academic requirement um and so usually like you need to have you do need to have a certain GPA just to participate in the formal recruitment process but some chapters do set that bar a little bit higher and most chapters are looking for a woman who is well-rounded she has
Experience in leadership she has a strong academic presence she has maybe some philanthropy experience um and someone that they could see as a sister or a friend in their organization great Leela you were about to say something I think and then I threw it to Megan so how how do how
Would you respond to that question of what are you’re looking for in a potential member um I think Megan did a great job of uh answering the question for us we do look for you know kind intelligent young women especially in SLA we do require 12 uh credit hours
Before joining the sority so that is a little bit different in mgc um but as far as connecting with with the girls and meeting them we look for uh sisters that we could see being in the sorority and overall just being a senorita which is Spanish for a lady um kind young
Women that’s what we look for and we value you greatly Bo is it just like a guy you want to hang out with or is it is there more to it than that you know it can be you know unfortunately or fortunately the the GU process looks a little bit
Less formal I already mentioned over the summer there are informal events whether it’s getting to meet people over lunch or dinner those are something that can really mean a lot for a potential new member coming into the process my biggest advice whenever I meet kids coming to TCU is always to take
Advantage of every hand you get to shake you know try to put more forward than just your name and where you’re from but try to build a connection with someone who’s older than you so when I was going through rush I tried to find people who
Like to fish or hunt and build those friendships early even if it was just on the basis of similar Hobbies because that gives something you know for the older guys to remember you that makes sense it does make sense um I I have a question that um I’m sure that there are
Some people who are are wondering and that is look we know that there are there are students who come to college knowing for sure they want to join a Greek letter organization and then there are other students who may on the fence can you talk to those students about um
Sort of calming maybe their concerns or fears um and then also maybe if they go through the recruitment process but then don’t end up joining a Greek letter organization what their experiences might look like I know that that doesn’t describe you but surely you have friends who who had that experience they maybe
Went through the recruitment process and then decided ultimately not to join does someone want to respond to that I’m happy to go first great so with regards to the part one for anyone who’s on the fence I’d say that for me personally I’m not best friends with the
Other 140 guys that are in Kappa Sig with me however I’ll use a you know really strong example this past semester we had a you know tragedy occur in our fraternity and lost one of our brothers and no matter whether we knew that individual very well or not very well at
All we knew at least that there were 150 some odd guys that were in the same position that we were to lean towards to talk with and of course on a greater spectrum that brought all 13 chapters together um you know having to respond to the you know issue at hand all
Together in one way and so you know that even if um you’re not best friends with everyone in your chapter you have a ton of other people whether it’s guys or girls that at least have a similar um characteristic or part of their resume to you that you can connect with them
On great thank you anyone else want to respond to those those questions about the people maybe who are on the fence you don’t have to it’s okay um I would say for panic I think going through the recruitment process I know Bo was talking about this earlier um
Just about how you meet so many people just through the process maybe not even in your own organization um but it’s definitely worth a shot it is something that you won’t ever get to experience again in your life it truly is a unique experience panal onic recruitment um and
So I think at least giving it a shot and um making as many new friends as you can and you might just find your forever home awesome go ahead Lea yeah oh sorry yeah I was actually one of those people when I came to TCU I was totally against
Greek life and now I’m the president of [Laughter] authority so I was on the fence just because I didn’t see myself in athority but after making those connections with the girls and meeting with them and honestly coming to college can be very lonely I think finding that Community
Was such a important thing for me and that’s what kind of Drew Me In to sority and fraternity life or Greek life that’s great that’s that’s actually a really important story for people to hear um that you don’t have to be somebody who knew right from the get-go and yet you
Can Ascend to a position of tremendous leadership um that’s outstanding uh and can you all confirm for me that you have friends who are outside the Greek system and and maybe that you’ve engaged with them in other ways on on campus Because I think there’s a perception and and a
Negative perception and ill-informed perception that if you’re involved that’s the only thing you do and you’re not interested in connecting with other people right okay um Kristen asks a question about frog camp and whether that’s a good opportunity to meet people from from sororities so my question is and I
Would extend that to like orientation as well um everyone I know went through orientation because that’s a requirement did you all do frog camp and were and were those um experiences that occurred before recruitment helpful to you as you went through the recruitment process so who would like to begin how about
Lila um yeah I actually did frog Camp I did the overnight stay um at the cabin I think Challenge B and although I not sure that I met any of my current sority sisters there we actually found out later that we were at the same fra crime
Frck Camp um I do think it was a valuable experience in meeting people outside of Greek like as y’all were talking about earlier I definitely made connections that I still have to this day and honestly just made me feel that sense of community more going into CCU
As I said College can be daunting so I think meeting people before school starts can really help during um the first few weeks here excellent Bo what about you did how did frog camper orientation impact you if at all so I was a transfer student
Meaning that I did not go to frog camp at least not in the same light that incoming freshman would however I would always recommend going to it um it’s a good way to meet other people who are in the same boat as you and whether you
Know it or not they could be just as nervous or just as scared as you are and so that’s always a comforting thing it is and I’m glad I didn’t know that you came the transfer route and that’s actually reassuring to prospective transfer students that there’s an Avenue
For them to join a Greek letter organization as well so thank you for that Megan how about you you did you do frog Camp um I did do frog camp but I was I’m the class of 24 so I actually came in the
2020 so we were still in the co era um I actually did not go through a recruitment until um about a month and a half into my freshman year which is very non-traditional for TCU as we normally do it the week before classes start but frog Camp was the only place that we
Could meet people before classes started and it was a fantastic experience um even if you’re not super social or you’re more introverted it’s a great way to just get out on campus and maybe see um pieces and parts of Campus that you haven’t seen if you are doing the Frog
Camp that is here on TC’s campus yeah I think a lot of us are still trying to block out that that semester um broe I have a question for you it it comes from Kim um and that is what are the average Financial dues to join a sorority at
TCU yeah so panalin has I think a range of dues published on their website so I don’t want to go for memory because I don’t trust myself entirely but but what I can tell you is the first semester in most organizations is your most costly there’s some onetime fees you pay um
There are initiation fees your you know your shorty pin all of those things come up in that first semester and then after that it decreases a bit um I will say comparative to other schools our dues are lower so it’s because we own and operate the houses so that is if you’re
Looking at you know if you have friends at other schools at UT or Arkansas saw somewhere where the sority of attorney owns the house if you’re looking at house groups their dues will be a bit more than ours so you’ll see a little difference there um but yeah check out
If you’re speaking to panel specifically since you said sorority tcup pantic docomo and then as students go through recruitment in the third round our chapters all have to disclose all of their financials to the prospective members we know that students are informed consumers perhaps now more than
Ever and so making sure that people know what that Financial commitment will look like for them is really really important and so we we publish those for them they’re able to look at them and ask questions of the women what do these dues go to what does it mean what is
This fee and we we encourage the potential new members to do that and we’ve heard students say I like both of these groups the same but this one I can make financially work and so it can be a deciding factor for them and and so I’m really glad that program exists because
I do think it makes like I said informed consumers and give students a real clear picture on the panal lenic side of what their financial cost will be thank you okay time for another dad joke is everyone prepared not everyone nodded okay that’s all right here we go why did the dad put
Peanut butter in the road why did the dad put peanut butter in the road to go with the traffic jam to go with the traffic jam right but is not into these dad jokes okay that’s all right I can I can live with myself still all right um let’s see we talked
Earlier about uh academic standards um and how uh when you’re going through the recruitment process um you’ll have study hours that you need to maintain um Jessica asks can you speak to GPA Andor other requirements for men to live in a fraternity house uh notice how she’s concerned about men keep maintaining
Their GPA not the women I I I won’t take Umbridge with that but she’s probably right anyway Bo can you talk about standards to remain in the in the house sure so I know that it looks different between the guys and girls and it probably looks different even within
Each chapter for a lot of the I chapters it is strictly based on GPA and as Brooke mentioned it’s 25 guys can fit to live in that house and so out of your 40 members of a pledge class it might just be the top 25 GPA requirements and of
Course if there are certain individuals who might beat that threshold but don’t want to live there that just bumps the ne per the next person up I do know that some of the um other chapters focus a lot on involvement too so if you put more effort into into maybe a
Philanthropy event or if you’re feeling an executive position within your chapter that can also prioritize the process um but really what it comes down to is GPA lot between the IFC chapters you that actually just triggered a thought in my head which is unrelated to to exactly what we’re
Talking about Bo but um about leadership um you all are really important leaders in your organizations how did that happen for each of you how did you how did you um develop the skills needed and the desire to take on those responsibilities uh Leila why don’t we start with
You um for me I think leading has been a learning process um because I am so young I was actually 17 when I came to college um and my 19th birthday just passed which isn’t to say that um I can’t be a good leader because I am so
Young but I think it is a strength um I think Neely leadership program has taught me a lot about leadership we talk a lot about crucial accountability and crucial conversations and what it takes to make a leader I think for me my leading style is with empathy I like to
Make sure that all my girls are heard they feel loved and they feel welcome within our community because we are a smaller community at the moment we have 31 so it is easier to be more personable within my stor um at least so I think for me leading is to make sure that
Everyone feels welcome and I think developing those skills has been crucial from learning from others um learning by example and learning from other experiences within TCU B what about you so for the IFC Council myself and I already mentioned this but myself and six other gentlemen were elected to
Oversee each of the 13 chapters and so my role is to chief justice and I am responsible for maintaining and interpreting the ifc’s Constitution and bylaws so if a fraternity wants to host a rush event or recruitment you know um event during the week they can reference
The Constitution and bylaws and see the process that they must follow in order to do it legally if you will otherwise I’m also responsible for amending the Constitution and if the fraternities of the chapters wish to change something about our operations it would go through
Me and then we would later on vote it um between each of the presidents and so myself and the rest of the council were elected by each of the chapter presidents to be the liaison between them and then um directors or Administration on campus wow we have a
Future Supreme Court Justice in our midst I like it Megan how about yourself um before I served as the panal lenic president I was actually the panal lenic Delegate for my chapter and the panal lenic council is really fantastic at making sure that everything that we
Do as Leaders is relay to Chapters as thoroughly and as quickly as possible so each chapter actually has two um delegates that they send to Council meetings every single week and our exec board will meet with those delegates and we will discuss what different chapters are doing different philanthropy
Opportunities and things like that so I served as the Delegate for my chapter and then I ran for president and was elected through the nominating Committees of our 13 chapters but I think leadership at TCU is not hard to come by our campaign slogan for our uh 150th anniversary is literally lead on
And so TC really celebrates student leaders um and they do everything in their power to help us become leaders and it’s definitely a constant learning process leading your peers is probably one of the most difficult things like as Leila was saying when you’re a leader and you’re the same age you’re younger
Than the people that you’re leading it can be difficult but um we had amazing advisers I had Brooke advising me in my position last year she was very helpful that’s very kind of you to say and that Brooke I’m G to ask you a
Question now and that is um now a lot of the folks who are participating um online right now are students but a lot are also parents you and I are both parents so I want to talk to the parents now who may be concerned over hazing
That’s a big topic on um parent uh Facebook pages and when it comes to fraternity and sorority life can you talk about what tcu’s policy is about hazing sure and it’s a sad truth that it follows for Tran sty life that hazing has kind of become really associated
With us though not unique to us you’ll hear about it in athletic groups and in marching bands and and in various incend different places but it certainly is often attached to our organizations and so we we take it really seriously we talk about it and I think that’s very
Important that we don’t shy away from it we don’t try to hide it you can see on greeks. tcu.edu we’ll have a community standard section and in there it lists every conduct violation that’s come to to our awareness so not probably not everything that has happened but
Anything that’s been reported to us and what the outcomes were whether the organization was found responsible or not and that would include any hazing allegations those are on there the state of Texas mandates that we send out notice two weeks before each long semester starts telling every student on
This campus what organizations if any have been found responsible for hazing over the last six long semesters so three years and we comply with that fully and it also in that list the state the state law about hazing so it’s against the state law of Texas to engage
In hazing and of course it’s against our code of conduct and it is spelled out in our code as well anytime hazing allegations come our way and they do we work hand inand with the TCU Police Department to investigate since it is a crime in our state so they’ll take lead
On any investigation and then they’ll share with us information when appropriate right not to if there’s any real criminal activity that they’re pursuing they’re not going to compromise their investigation but they will share information with us to then allow us to do our part to talk to the organization’s leaders perhaps even some
Of the members to find out maybe it doesn’t reach a criminal threshold but for TCU it’s not in line with our expectations of students sometimes in that it may not quite even reach The Hazing policy threshold but perhaps their behaviors we just we just would rather not see right so one example I
Can give you quickly uh this this past fall A call came in that a group of men were standing outside the basketball arena all dressed in business attire in and of itself not really terrible right nobody’s getting hurt but for us it felt not great and where could it lead and so
It didn’t end up being a hazing case but we ended up speaking with the leaders of the organization and what broke down was communication they had the men showing up way too early for a meeting and then the men didn’t know what to do and so
They just stood there and then once the leaders came they knew they were they were going on essentially a campus tour and talking about different places the has done things and they were ending up at our Chapel for their ritual so we had to get all the pieces of that story and
We we take all of those very seriously if we try not to you know think oh it was nothing in that case it really wasn’t anything but it was a good conversation with the leaders about how important it is to give accurate timelines tell the men what to expect
And explain what what’s going on thank you that’s that’s great that’s super helpful information um okay Ashwin asks approximately how many girls are in each pledge class for panh helenic Megan I don’t know if you know those numbers up the top of your head or maybe just in
A um maybe a range from one chapter to the next so it definitely depends on the year and just how many girls are going through recruitment um this last year I believe we had around 11 to 1200 girls go through our formal recruitment process and our average chapter size was
Around or our average chapter pledge class was around 85 women um a couple years ago there were some chapters that went over 100 women in a pledge class um but typically it will fall between 75 to 100 um we also just got a new chapter we rechartered Capa Delta on our campus
This last year so that will bring the average pledge class size down because we’re splitting the average between 13 chapters instead of 12 but typically somewhere between 70 to 100 women uh thank you for that and actually that leads me directly into a question I
Have for Brooke this is just from my own knowledge I don’t think anyone else ask this but with our enrollment growing a little bit and and growing a lot in recent years but but sort of um marginally and with with intention um how do we go about deciding when to
Bring additional organizations on is and and are we continuing to have those discussion question so we um love our admissions colleagues because they give us enrollment numbers regularly and we have whole spreadsheets so we can predict our model so like y’all are predicting your models we’re predicting ours too to
Figure out especially for the women how many how many we think are going to go through because we have to plan for that so do we order 1,00 whatevers or do we order 1,200 or300 based on our predictive models that we use over over here I don’t think they’re as
Sophisticated as yours but but they get us pretty darn close um and so each year we analyze that right now we don’t have any more chapter facilities and so on the panal linic side that’s pretty crucial we could have a panalin group without a chapter facility but I I just
I don’t know that it would be as great of an experience and it certainly wouldn’t be a similar experience to the 13 groups so um we have been steadily growing but our chapters are healthy they are large I think 307 right now is our our total our
Average size um but they are manageable and they’re doing well but that is something we kind of keep our our eyes on frequently um with our culturally based groups that we’ve seen growth there too as our enrollment has Diversified and grown in those areas too students wanted more experiences that were aligned with
That Multicultural experience and so we’ve been able to grow those councils as well and like I mentioned earlier hopefully our mphc will research and we’ll see some some growth in that Council too so we’re really I think adaptive to the student population and the changing Trends there and also
Making sure our groups are healthy before we add anyone else thank you uh Anna asks are there weekly meetings for each chapter so I guess I would I’ll pose that to all of you because it maybe it’s the same or maybe it’s different by Council but
Excuse me um Lila why don’t you start do you have weekly chapter meetings or I guess how frequently do you meet for meetings and then other kinds of activities that you’re doing um yes so we do have weekly chapter meetings um it’s once a week however you are on the executive board
You meet twice a week so you will go to an executive meeting and then chapter meeting um and then as far as other meetings you might have Sisterhood activities Clos Sisterhood activities or open Sisterhood activities for the community um as well as we might have community service together so depends on
The week and month but um anywhere from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester could look more busy or less busy depending on the month excellent Megan um the panel and council’s very similar in that meeting style um the only thing I would maybe add is that if
You’re in the new member program typically you have to meet once more in addition to the weekly chapter meetings and that is just to learn more about the chapter um study up on the facts of your organization and get to know your pledge class a little bit better great Bo is it
The same in IFC yes very similar I know that some chapters aren’t as good about meeting every single week but for the most part most of the chapters will meet um on Sunday evenings and they’ll last 30 to 45 minutes just to have everyone in the same room and make sure everyone’s
Listening to what’s being said sure um okay Caitlyn asks what is the marching band program like with balancing Greek life so we had some questions earlier about balancing academics and maybe if you’re in the Honors College and what what about other activities that you’re doing marching band’s a really good example because
There’s some pretty significant commitments uh in the fall semester around football season um so I don’t know if any of you have um brothers or sisters who are in the marching band but can you talk about that and maybe by extension other commitments um yeah I actually knew a fraternity
In mgc in the marching band um I know that the marching and we had sisters in the marching band as well I know marching band can be pretty rigorous time wise I’ve heard so a lot of afternoons and um you definitely get a workout in I’ve heard um so sa but as
Far as balancing it with Greek life I know it can be a little bit difficult because of the time commitment um however there are Pros to it as well as like getting to travel with the football team and getting to meet new people so yeah anyone else have other have a
Different experience or is that pretty much the same job with what you were okay um oh I had a question on the tip of my tongue based on something you said Lea and it has escaped me okay that is fine we are in the home stretch um
And so I want to actually end on this question that was posed and it’s a really great question um and uh this is how Jenny asked or sorry I’m not sure who asked this question um how has Greek life prepared you for your career and life beyond TCU
And I know some of you are a little bit closer to Life Beyond TCU than others but um so why don’t we go uh Leila Bo and Megan since Megan is about to graduate here yeah so I actually have two more years left of TCU um which is very
Exciting um for what’s ahead of me and what’s going on right now I think Greek life has definitely prepared me for what is ahead um being in a leadership position so young quote unquote I think has allowed me to really step into a larger role and have confidence within
Myself right now and going forward in like my future endeavors I think leading people and being in charge of people has also taught me a lot of responsibility um being on top of things like I said was such an important thing for me so it has taught me a lot of
Responsibility and moreover it just taught me a lot about connecting with people and valuing relationships that I make here because at the end of the day I think for me that’s the most important thing um the relationships I’ve made at TCU awesome for me I will I will say with
Full disclosure that there’s a huge transition I between your sophomore and junior year at least in my opinion you go from wanting to have you know a lot of fun meet as many people as you can go to every single social event that you can and then by your junior year I’m a
Junior now for me personally I’ve definitely dialed back on the social events and some of the um glamorous sides of the fraternity life but I’ve realized that similar you know the the double blade sword of having 150 guys to rely on the other side of that is that
There are 150 guys that you have to learn how to deal with sometimes and so we’re all in college we all want the best for our fraternity or for our parties or for our community service events but realistically we aren’t always going to agree and so I think
That that’s been a huge life lesson for me as I make my way out of TCU and into a career you know whether it’s working on a team or working with a company I know I’m not not going to particularly love everyone that I’m interacting with or spending time around but it’s
Important that you’re able to compromize and listen to what other people need and then of course Implement your own ideas to best serve the the community so that’s been big for me that’s a great thoughtful answer thank you Megan our to be graduate don’t remind
Me I think the two main things that uh my great life experience has prepared me for the real world is probably accountability and soft skills like Bo was saying um although on a larger scale in pentalenic sorties there are 300 women relying on me that I make the same
Great grades that they do to keep our GPA up or that I relay the messages from the panel anic Council back to my chapter so they know what’s going on um or learning how to own a mistake if you make a mistake which is really important in leadership especially when you’re
Leading your peers um and then soft skills especially during formal recruitment you’re doing a lot of talking a lot of small talking and a lot of trying to get to know people on a very deep level in a very short amount of time and I think the soft skills that
You can’t necessarily learn in a classroom do come from all of the social interaction that you get in a sority um and learning how to navigate a really large social group has been very beneficial well you all did a fabulous job thank you very much it is now 7 o’cl
Central time I’m sure you have homework or some other maybe inter murals or some other activity you want to participate in so thank you all for being here Brooke I want you to get home to your family as well and I also want to thank three individuals that you all did not
See but we working feverishly behind the scenes Amy Peterson from tcu’s marketing and communication division Rob Berlin from our office of alumni relations and Jenny Moore from the office of admission thank you thank you thank you for helping us make this work that’s it for the month of March we’ll be back next
Month with another edition of Facebook live um so until then go frogs
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