[Grace]: Good afternoon and welcome to the Fraternity and Sorority Life webinar hosted by Parent and Family Programs. My name is Grace Sullivan, and I work in the Dean of Students Office, which is where Parent and Family Programs is housed. And we’re joined today by Maggie Peterson, who’s also in Parent and Family
Programs, as well as our colleagues in Student Leadership. I’ll have them introduce themselves in a few minutes, but we just want to welcome you again. We’re grateful for all of you who are joining in. We know this is an incredibly busy time for students as they finish up the semester and for
Families, many of whom just hosted their students at home, so thank you for taking the time, and we really hope that this next hour will be informative and help you take away some great conversation starters to be had over the winter break.
So you will notice–a few housekeeping items–that if you’re logging on with video, your video and your audio are turned off. That’s a little bit intentional to just help with the ease of the presentation today. Those of us in the room here at Duke will be sharing our screen and sharing our voices. And
Then if you would like to participate in the conversation, you can do so through the chat feature. Hopefully you’re already seeing a little icon that’s popped up, as I sent a little welcome to everyone, but I will also message you all
Again throughout the presentation so that you can see where that is and know how to send in questions if you have questions or comments for us. So with that, I’m going to turn it over to my colleagues. [Anna]: Hello everyone. My name is
Anna Lehnen, and I am the Associate Director of Student Engagement for Leadership here at Duke. I want to point out our director, Emily that you see on the screen, is currently out on maternity leave, so she is also a
Wonderful support for us and will be back in the spring semester, but she’s not able to join us on our conversation today. In my role, I oversee the staff in our office and also directly advise the Interfraternity Council. We also are missing one staff member, a Student Development Coordinator, who
Would work with our Panhellenic Council. We are in the hiring process for that person and hope to have someone in late spring, but in the meantime, we’re all supporting that process. [Frederick]: Right, hello everyone. My name is name is Fredrick Kenley. I am the Assistant Director in our student leadership team,
And in my role I advise our Multicultural Greek Council, which are cultural-based organizations, and our National Pan-Hellenic Council, which are our historically the African American groups, and we’ll get into that a little bit later. [Anna]: So just a little bit about our office broadly before we talk about fraternity and
Sorority life specifics. As you can see, this is our mission: to support students experiential learning and development through opportunities that encourage that risk-taking but also some compassion for themselves when they do take risks, help students understand how to work collaboratively and create
Inclusive communities, and also build a commitment to advocacy for programs and causes that are important to them. Our overall goal is to help students make sense of their outside of class experiences and understand how to use those in their future endeavors. A brief overview of our agenda for today:
We’re going to describe the different governing councils that oversee all of our fraternity and sorority chapters and the recruitment and intake processes for each of those; we’ll cover some of the benefits of membership for your students if they do choose to join an organization;
And discuss some common concerns on how we work to support healthy relationships within our chapters; and then some of our initiatives and support for students and individuals; and finally some topics to discuss with your student that we think are good questions you can ask to help them make positive decisions in the process.
[Frederick]: So here at Duke, we have 30-plus chapters that make up our fraternity and sorority community. Those groups are organized under umbrella groups that we call councils, and these council designations mirror where they fall in a national scale as well. So our four governing councils are
The Interfraternity Council, also known as IFC; our Multicultural Greek Council, also known as MGC; our National Pan-Hellenic Council, NPHC; and lastly our Panhellenic Association know as Panhel. [Anna]: Alright, with our Interfraternity Council, this is the group that historically were the original Greek– social Greek-letter organizations you
Might have heard of. We have a full listing of all of the chapters, their nicknames that your student may use when they talk with you, and links to their websites–both national and local–on our website if you search for that.
We provide our website link at the end of the session as well as the current listing you see on that page. There are three more informal rounds in the Interfraternity Council process. This is a mutual selection process, so each chapter will extend invites to individuals, but then the individuals can choose to
Accept that invite or not and continue to talk with that chapter. The first night begins on Tuesday, January 7th at 7 p.m. with a simple open house event at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the pavilion. This is an opportunity for your student
Going through the process to meet every single chapter, learn a little bit more about them, and sign up for the chapters in which they’re interested. After going through those informal rounds, the final bid day will take place on Sunday, January 19th when students will turn in their selection. Students going through
The IFC process could get more than one bid option for a chapter, so you may be talking to your student about how to decide which chapter to accept and which bid to turn in on that Sunday. Many of the events for this council happen
Off campus at some of their houses or restaurants or other locations in the Durham area. So know that if they’re off-campus it doesn’t mean anything necessarily. There are some new national health and safety standards from the overarching organization for the Interfraternity Council that require
That there is no alcohol in the recruitment process at all. So if you understand that this is happening for your student, and it’s concerning to you, please feel free to reach out to us and share that information so that we can address it appropriately.
We do have some chapters that lost recognition within the last few years, and we feel it’s important to highlight for you what those groups are. They are also listed on our website specifically as not being recognized by the University. These are Kappa Sigma or Kappa Sig
Delta Sigma Phi or Delta Sig, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon or SAE. So if your student is talking to any of these chapters or thinks that they are going through a recruitment process for these groups, these chapters are not supported or recognized in any way by the University or have no oversight from us.
So again, we just want to encourage that responsible joining and so you can communicate that information effectively to your student as well. [Frederick]: Alight, next is our Multicultural Greek Council. This is our Council of cultural based fraternities and sororities. These organizations were historically
Found in the space for cultural identities, however are open to all. We have five chapters within this council: two fraternities and three sororities. Organizations within MGC are open to have intake either fall or spring semester for eligible students. Their process is a blend of recruitment and intake.
There are some chapters who host various recruiting events prior to offering a student a bid for membership, and then you have some chapters who host an informational or interest meeting and then proceed with an application and interview process for membership selection. And then afterwards would begin their new member education period.
Next is our Pan-Hellenic — National Pan-Hellenic Council, also known as the Divine Nine, and they’re our historically African American groups. Of the Divine Nine, we have eight established chapters here on campus: four fraternities and four sororities. So very similar to MGC organizations, within NPHC are open to having intake either fall or
Spring semester for eligible students. NPHC chapters host informational interest meetings and then proceed with the application interview process for membership selection. And then lastly we have our Panhellenic Association. The Panhellenic Association is our council for our National Panhellenic Conference women’s groups. Here at Duke,
We have ten of the 26 national NPC groups on our campus, and they’re listed on the screen. Panhel hosts one primary–primary recruitment period a year in the spring semester. For spring 2020, recruitment will be over two weekends: January 10th through 12th and January 17th to 19th
With Bid Day being on the 19th. The process consists of four formalized rounds where each round women attend events to meet the women within the chapters. Panhellenic recruitment is more of a mutual selection process, where each day they are narrowing down their options to eventually find their home within a Panellenic–
Panhellenic community. This process takes place entirely on campus. It is important to note that registration for Panhellenic recruitment opened on October 16th and closed yesterday. [Anna]: So, you may be wondering why your student is interested in fraternity and sorority life if they’ve
Indicated that to you or if you are interested for them, what some benefits of that membership are. One of the biggest things we hear from our students at Duke in general is that they are looking for a place they feel like they can belong. And students within our fraternities and sororities have found
That within that group–so that real true brotherhood and sisterhood connection has been valuable and important to their success and happiness at the University. Additionally, students in these organizations have extra connection and support to Duke staff, like us, and an alumni network both at Duke and within
Their national organization. We also offer many leadership development and civic engagement opportunities for students that are members from our office but also through their national organization. There’s many national conferences for every organization that they can attend across the country and gain really different and unique leadership
Development opportunities. Overall, about one third of Duke students are members of a social Greek letter organization, so it does play a significant role for some students in their Duke experience, but by no means is it the entire campus which it may feel like to some students.
Some common concerns we’ll spend some time discussing today. One of those is generally the question of is fraternity or sorority life for my students? And the short answer is it might be and it may not be. Not every group–just like any
Student organization on our campus–not every group is a good fit for every student. So they need to go in really aware and having defined what they’re looking for in their involvement so they can be asking good questions and making
Good responsible decisions. If it’s not for them, that’s okay, and if it is for them, that’s okay too. Financial obligations are another important concern and something to address and discuss with your student before they join an organization. There are many different due structures across our
Councils and chapters. Some of them are really simple and low-level dues that just go to their nationals, and others can be a little bit higher. These are split between a fee that goes to their international or national headquarters that covers that membership cost, insurance and liability, and other things
That they get from those national headquarters. But then there’s also local fees, and this is really where it can vary by organization. These go to support their events that they put on, away weekends, any other sort of shirts or gear that they buy as an organization, their socials, all kinds of things.
This is a really important question for your student to be asking groups as they talk to them: what is the fee structure for you all, and what does that go to support? It varies so much by group that we can’t provide you with a consistent answer
About that, but we really want your student to make an educated decision about what that cost is and where their money is going. Additionally, folks are concerned about that time commitment. Obviously academics are a priority for students, and this is a really great opportunity to have some good conversations with your student about
How they’re prioritizing their time. As they continue to select things that they’re interested in at Duke, it may mean that they drop something else or they expand in a different area. And we always encourage students to think about the quality of their involvement over the quantity of their involvement.
Questions like what are they most interested in, what is most valuable to them, and where will they find the most fulfillment are really good questions to be asking. The first semester of joining any organization will definitely involve more time commitment as they go through a new member education process and learn
About the group and make those commitments to it. And then after that, that time involvement is really up to what they want to give to the organization. Finally, both alcohol use and hazing are really significant topics we want to make sure that we address with you all, so we’re gonna give those
Some deeper consideration on the next pages. As we discussed a little bit, alcohol should not be present in any new member education, aka “pledging,” or recruitment, aka “rush” events. These things are intended for first-year students for the most part, and obviously that means that they are not 21, so it
Would be illegal for them to be drinking alcohol. And that’s part of why it shouldn’t be present in these spaces. Aside from that, we also want students to be making responsible and thoughtful decisions about where they’re joining and what involvements and relationships they’re building, so that’s difficult to do if they’re impaired.
If you have concerns about that happening, or you hear about it happening in any of the processes, once again, please share that information with us so that we can help address it and ensure the safety of all of our students. Any on-campus events that
Happen as part of the recruitment process are also expected to follow Duke Community Standards regarding alcohol use, and this includes Housing and Residence Life policies, recognized student organization policies, and any of their national headquarter’s policies. All of their off-campus events also need to follow those national headquarter’s policies in addition to risk management
Plans that students are required to make with our wellness office. [Frederick]: When discussing hazing, we found that it’s important for us to actually define hazing. Duke University defines hazing as any action taken or situation created, whether on or off organization premises, for the purpose of, or which is likely to produce mental or
Physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule. The graphics on the right are physical signs you might see in your student. Understand that hazing culture consists of relationships built on abuse of power, so it can be mental and emotional at times and not just physical.
We will discuss our office’s–office initiatives to eradicate the hazing culture in the next few slides, but this is a graphic being provided to all students and campus partners in order to continue to encourage people to be active bystanders. Here are things you can do to prevent and stop hazing at Duke. We particularly
Want to point out calling one–one of our offices and submitting an incident report. We take all allegations of hazing seriously; however, what presents as a challenge is when we receive a report with no details that help us open an investigation. So we’re asking if you feel your student is being hazed, please,
Please, please provide as much detail as possible so that we can seriously address the matter. You know your student best, so if you’re noticing any inconsistencies or changes in their behavior, have that conversation to check in how the new education process is going for them.
[Anna]: So to address some of our office initiatives around accountability for our organizations, we’ve provided some details of items on here for you to read, and I’ll describe them a little bit, but I don’t want to read them directly for you. The relationship statement is an agreement that describes how our Greek letter
Organizations and the University will relate to and work with each other and agree to work well together. The Duke Greek Community Standards are a minimum set of expectations our office outlines that chapters must adhere to in order to maintain good standing with the office. We publish the chapter scores
On these standards on the Chapter Scorecard, noted in the next column. The scorecard can be found on our website and lists all chapters, GPA averages in a number of categories relative to the council average, any conduct violations, and that standard score. This is a really great opportunity to download and review
That scorecard with your student, as they may not be inclined to look at it, but it is a good indicator of their interest, what the groups are doing, where they’re excelling, and where they might be looking to improve a little.
Please keep in mind we will be posting an updated scorecard for the fall semester in late December, once we have great reports and the community standard scores from the spring semester. As we talked about a little bit earlier, we’ve built some new processes in our office to help create a supportive and healthy
Environment for new members joining groups so that we can avoid hazing happening for our students. When it comes to new members, we have already built some sessions to discuss responsible joining or rather being a critical consumer of the experience that each organization is selling them.
This was our Embark New Member orientation program that happened in October and November. Hopefully your student was able to attend that. We had over 600 students attend that process. We’ve also created an online module that explores and discusses the power dynamics that become present in a hazing situation so that if
Students do find themselves in one, they can feel more empowered to remove themselves from it and stay safe. When we’re looking at current members and chapter leadership within an organization, we’ve also created content around bystander intervention so that students know how better to intervene
And can practice that if they know any hazing is happening. We do require that all new member plans be shared with all members so that every single student in an organization is aware of what should be happening. We’ve also built a semesterly webinar that we shared with our headquarter partners last week to
Communicate information effectively and update them, so they can also hold our student groups accountable. We sort of work–we work with our headquarters partners as a little bit of dual parenting for the chapters if you will. We’re both responsible for different aspects of what they do, and building
Better communication with them will help create better membership experiences that are safer for all of our students. We’ve built an extensive list of healthy, wonderful relationship-building alternatives to hazing that we provided with all of our chapters and already had some really great feedback
From students as we’ve been meeting with them of new ideas that they love on their that they think will be really useful and helpful in their chapters to solve some challenges they’re facing. We also have multiple touch points with our new member educators. This week we’re just completing meeting with every
Single student who’s responsible for overseeing that new member or pledging process so that we can review their plan, ask some critical questions, help them highlight where they may need to change something, and how to go about shifting that culture. Additionally and important for you to note, the final deadline for
Any initiation process is March 6th, so before spring break. There may be exceptions that come up to this, but they will only happen a few and far between, and students–if you have concerns about that, please contact us about the chapter, so we can confirm if that chapter was indeed given an extension.
Anything happening after that March 6th deadline is in violation of our university policy because we want to support students having a healthy academic experience as they wrap up their spring semester. We also have a number of office initiatives regarding training and development that we hope
Students can engage in to continue to get the most out of their out-of-class experience. I already referenced the Embark Potential New Member organization. We really encourage students to be critical consumers of the content that is being given to them by chapters on campus. In the sophomore year we’ve built a
Program called Pilot that is about helping students to find their goals for their time at Duke and understanding how to use their membership to effectively achieve those. For example, if they’re a business major and they want to end up working in finance for Wells Fargo, have they thought about volunteering to be
The treasurer for their chapter? That’s a great way to get experience managing a really significant budget and understanding how to communicate effectively about that in ways that would be really beneficial to them. So we’re helping students define some of those goals. And then in the soph–
In the junior year rather, for students that come back from studying abroad in their fall semester, we often see a drop-off or a challenge of reconnecting to the campus in general and to their organization, so we’ve created a program to help students rebuild their relationships after coming back from abroad
And use the things that they learned in that experience in their– to enrich their chapter and the rest of their Duke experience. Additionally, as we’ve mentioned, we have a wealth of staff that are supportive and connected to these students–not just our office, but advisers on campus for individual chapters that provide
Great support and advising and general counseling to some of the students and organizations. [Frederick]: So as I shared before, we want to encourage you to have open and honest conversations with your student about their decision to join. On the screen are some topics we encourage you discuss. So with
Their values, are you able to see your values with an organization? The Embark Program is where they should have been able to reflect on their values and figure out what they’re looking for within a respective organization. When it comes a new member education, could the chapter give you an outline of what the
First semester joining looks like? Our office requires chapters to submit the new member plan, as Anna shared, during the fall semester so that we can review their plan and have it available if requested. Opportunities for leadership and involvement: [cough] discuss with your student how they can maximize their
Experience with a fraternity–within a fraternity or sorority. So yes, these are social and service driven organizations but there’s so, so, so much more they can get out of this experience. This may be a good screen to take a picture of,
Screenshot of, just a have for future reference when having that conversation with your student. [Anna]: And then, we just wanted to outline in case you’re unsure of what your students should be doing next, or if they’re unsure and they’re talking to you about it, some of the next steps for each of
The different councils. As we said, IFC or Interfraternity Council recruitment will start Tuesday, January 7th. That registration is still open, and students, if they have specific questions, can email the IFC at recruit– IFCrecruit@duke.edu email as well as follow that bitly link to complete the registration and payment process. As Freddie mentioned, Panhellenic
Association has already closed their registration, but they do have a mandatory meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in Page Auditorium, so if you have a student that was planning to go through that process, please encourage them to attend that meeting tonight so they can get connected with their recruitment guide,
And learn about the process. We also have that bitly link to more information on that guide to recruitment from the Panhellenic Association. [Frederick]: If you have any questions about our Multicultural Greek Council or our National Pan-Hellenic Council, please feel free to reach out to me.
As it says at the bottom there, they do not do a council-wide recruiting process; they’re much more individual by chapter, so I will be more than happy to connect you with the right folks within that chapter or just to connect you to some good resources just to get you more information about that.
[Grace]: Great. Well at this point, we are going to turn over to questions. So I know that some of you have already sent in your questions. And I will be reading these out to our guests so that they can answer them.
If you continue to think of questions, please feel free to chat them in, and of course, if you would like to continue this conversation or you would rather ask your questions at a later time, you can certainly email our friends
In Student Leadership. And their contact info is up on a screen right now. I’m going to start. There multiple questions about recruitment letters. So families understand that they are not required, but are they still recommended, is there any worth in sending them in, can they even be accepted?
[Frederick]: There are chapters who accept them, but I would be honest in saying that they do not hold much weight in regards to the membership selection process. I know there’s– at many other institutions recommendation letters are a common practice and
Somewhat more of a required practice, but here at Duke that is not the expectation, and nor–if your student does not submit letters of recommendation, that does not hinder their chances into getting into an organization. [Grace]: Great. Thank you. Um, there’s a question about number breakdowns. I think it was particularly
About umm–well we can just–I’ll leave it open-ended. There are questions about how many students enter the recruitment or intake process and how many of them come out, acknowledge that sometimes students are deciding to leave the process, sometimes they may not end up in that final number because they don’t get a bid.
[Anna]: So last year, we actually–every single student that completed the process for both Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic did receive at least one bid. As I said, in the IFC process, they could receive more than one. In Panhellenic, every one of those students did receive a bid. Most of them at that point
Accepted that and move forward with it. Some then dropped out of the process afterwards, which we don’t always have great numbers on because it’s up to the chapters to communicate that effectively back to us. But as–any student that completed the process did receive an offer to join one of those organizations.
[Grace]: Wonderful. Let’s switch to hazing. I think there’s some questions understanding that there are rules and regulations, but how are those actually enforced? I guess from a university side, what sort of preventive measures are put in place beforehand, and then how are students held accountable if there are violations.
[Anna]: Yeah, one of the–one of the best phrases around some of this experience our new Vice President shared in the fall, which is we do everything in our power to help our students make really good, quality decisions in the moment,
But just like you, we aren’t there at 2:00 a.m. when those decisions are happening. So we have shared different educational resources with our students including those online modules regarding power dynamics and bystander intervention to help students understand what’s happening and really dissect that hazing, while it seems harmless in that moment,
Is actually, essentially an abusive relationship. And helping them understand that they’re not building relationships; they’re building fear and harm in that space. And so encouraging them to think more critically about what kind of environment and culture they want to create. Once the–if something is reported to us, once that happens, that process goes
Through our Student Conduct colleagues, and they will reach out to anyone they can get information from, including chapter members, presidents, the new member educator in an organization, to investigate that process and do that –that investigation. In the mean–in the meantime, while that is happening,
Chapter new member processes are generally suspended, and it is expected that any students who are going through that pledging or new member education process are not being contacted by current members, so that there can be some safety and security maintained in that time. All of this is dependent truly upon reports
Being shared with us, and that is where in so many ways we depend on you to know your student and understand what’s happening and reach out to us if you have questions. As Freddie shared, the worst thing that happens for us is we
Get sort of an anonymous report that says “well someone’s being hazed,” but we have no information about what chapter, what exactly is happening, where or when it happened, any students that were involved because we can’t actually do any investigation when that’s the information that’s shared. We have
Nowhere to start. Um so if we–I mean if you have that information to share, even if we can just get a chapter name and what kind of hazing was going, on it helps our Student Conduct colleagues start that investigation.
[Grace]: Thank you. On that note, there are a few other questions that came in that feel like they all fit under the safety umbrella as well as parents communicating their own expectations of students through this process.
Um, and I guess I’ll give a plug from Parent and Family Programs. Our model in general is that we really want to partner with you, and we hope that our office can be a place where you can come
To figure out what that means or what that looks like, but I wonder from your perspective, as students are going through this process, maybe you could reiterate your highlights of how parents can really–or families can help their students through this process particularly if they’re worried about
Things like hazing or alcohol use. Any other highlights you want to hit. [Frederick]: Yeah. It goes back to the open and honest conversation. We–asking your student did they go to Embark, and what’s important to them when looking at an organization,
And having them talk about their values. We–we discussed asking some of those targeted questions on when they’re joining an organization, asking about the new member plan and understanding what’s the typical timeline, how much time will you be spending with this organization. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to ask too
Many questions in this situation just because we understand the climate of a fraternity or sorority is at–in a place where there are a lot of questions and concerns around hazing. And that’s why we want to assure you that we’re doing our absolute best to make sure we’re providing some pre-education to both the
Potential students and the actual chapter members, but it does come down to just having those conversations, well-rounded, while they’re having it here and at home, on what the experience should be within a fraternity or sorority. [Anna]: Additionally, we also always encourage students to — as your students
May be going through a recruitment process, to really reflect on what they want out of an experience. It is very easy when you are 18 or 19 years old, as you all probably know well, from working and talking to your students all the time,
To think of the short term result of “I just want to be a member of this group, so I have somewhere that I feel a social connection.” And that drive is really important, and we empathize and understand that so deeply;
However, you all are in the great space — and what we do with them as well — is having those conversations about longer-term percept– like longer-term effects of that joining. It is not just about having that social space, but it’s about
If these people are treating you this way, what does that mean for how they’re going to treat you when you’re a member. Are they actually going to be your friend, or is this just driving you to be in there. One of the biggest phrases that we
Re-emphasize to students who are looking to join organizations all the time is you may feel like you need them — that’s a legitimate feeling — but in reality, they need you to continue existing. So you actually have way more power and value
In the situation than you realize. If you don’t join an organization and all of you say “this isn’t what I want–it’s not of interest to me,” then they will not continue to exist. So we try to give as much empowerment and education to
Students as possible, so when they’re in that 2 a.m. situation, and we are– we can’t be there with them, they may hear that little voice from you or their own internal conscience talking in that space. Additionally, some of the great research that’s happening right now around bystander intervention and some
Of that behavior modification also is to help your student practice and think about what they would say in that in that situation. So it’s a little bit of, you may not want to use this word with them because it sounds a little corny,
But like “role-playing.” If they find themselves in that situation, what are some ways they could get out of it? Oh, if you pretend to trip and fall over, it breaks the stress in a moment, and so you can say like “I have to leave,” pretend you
Have to go to the bathroom, anything to get out of a space can be really helpful for a student. Ultimately, you know that that–there’s a decision moment in there, and we want to help them have some options at the ready and think about how
To get out of something if they don’t find themselves in a healthy situation. Obviously we spend a lot of time talking about this because it’s really crucial if a student is in that space, but it is also, I want to be clear,
Not our expectation that this is what is happening broadly or all the time. Even if it happens to one student, that’s a problem, and so that’s why we want to talk about it, and we spend a lot of time on it, but we also do not expect and have
A sense that this is happening for every single organization or every single student. So I just want to make sure we emphasize that frame of reference: that it’s important to talk about; it is also not that we think it’s happening everywhere. [Grace]: Thank you. There’s a question about the average
Size size of pledge classes for sororities specifically, but maybe you could talk about that for a variety of organizations. [Frederick]: Yeah, it truly does vary. When we talk about our Panhellenic groups, when you go into the recruitment process one thing we always want to encourage everyone to do
Is maximize your options. We understand that there are what students call, like social hierarchies and things of that nature, where they’ll come in wanting this one organization because of that versus their values, and that’s where Embark came from — um having students kind of reassessed what they’re looking
For out of an organization and kind of focus more on that. So no, we don’t have an exact number of what the average size could be. Our IFC groups range; our Panhellenic groups range. We do have total, but even that changes per semester.
For our NPHC and MGC groups, they vary as well. Those are some of our smaller councils; however, their chapter sizes still — we have one that’s as small as three members, and one that’s as large as fifteen. So if it truly does vary per organization.
And these are private organizations who can make their own membership decisions, so there’s no requirement of a class size or a chapter size as a whole. [Anna]: I would say probably the largest we generally have in any organization is about thirty people. Between IFC or Panhellenic, that’s the
Largest new member class size that we would have, but those can those can be smaller based upon smaller organizations. [Frederick]: Yeah. [Grace]: Great. A few — I’m going to ask two questions together. One is how does a family find out what the dues for sororities were
–will be? Where can they find that information? And a reminder about where they can find that scorecard. [Anna]: Um, dues are all chapter dependents, so we do not have a list of the dues for every single chapter. That is a question that we hope
And want students to be asking as they go through a recruitment process, and also encourage chapters to be sharing pretty clearly up front. So that is a great question as your student is going through the rounds to be asking. It maybe shouldn’t be their first question in a conversation with someone but [chuckle],
But in their first round when they meet every chapter or even in their second round, it’s totally acceptable for that to be a question they’re asking. And students are used to answering that as they are on the other side of recruitment. I’m so sorry. What was the second question ?
[Grace]: You got them. Right? The fraternity — the the dues — [Anna] Oh the scorecard. [Grace]: Oh scorecard. Sorry. [Anna]: Thank you. Um, if you follow that link on our website — that’s on the screen.
Well, not the link. But if you go to our website on the screen, on the left side there’s a link that says fraternities and sororities, and you can find the scorecard under there. [Grace]: Thank you. There’s a question about attire. Will students find out in the mandatory meetings
What they’re supposed to wear? And maybe you could tell us what students are supposed to wear. [Frederick]: Yes, so tonight for Panhellenic, they will be going over attire. That information can also be found on Panhellenic’s website on that recruitment guide that we talked about earlier. One thing Panhellenic is
Doing this year, which we are very proud of them, the first round of recruitment every student will be brought in a t-shirt, and that is to kind of take the stress off of having to find a certain attire. So every student will
Be wearing the same t-shirt and actually the chapter members will also be wearing t-shirts –of course their chapter designation, so you’re able to differentiate between the organizations — but we really don’t want to have students focusing too much on attire or really having more focus on the conversations
That they’re having during recruitment. But understanding that with Panhellenic recruitment, they’ll be walking across campus a lot, information about attire and comfortable shoes will be provided both tonight and at the session again in January and on the website, so you can find all that information and your student will receive that information tonight.
[Grace]: Thank you. Can you talk about housing? How– what happens once a student’s in an organization? Do they house together? And there’s a sub question: if there are housing accommodations that are needed, can that be granted if a student is in a Greek organization?
[Anna]: So some of our Greek letter organizations have section housing through Residence Life, but not all of them do. That full list is on the Residence Life website, as they maintain that process and update it accordingly.
So they may have the option in their sophomore year to choose to live in section if they join a chapter that has a housing section. Um it is not necessarily required, but that can vary so much by chapter. From there, anything about accommodations goes right
Along with the regular Housing and Residence Life process, and any of their policies. Unfortunately, we don’t have great answers to those because we don’t make those policies. I would encourage anyone to check the Housing and Residence Life website for specifics, but anything that applies to any housing
Policy or any Selective Living Group is the same that would apply to any of our Greek letter organizations that have a section. [Grace]: This next question is specifically about IFC recruitment although there might be some connections to other processes. It’s really about whether there will be conflicting events
From different organizations through that recruitment process. Is there advice for how to navigate those competing rounds? And the sub-question would be does that compete with tenting if a student is also tenting for the UNC-Duke game? [Anna]: As far as those IFC events goes, there may be competing times because one
Night or one day could have seven different chapters having events. As they continue through the process, however, they will be going back to talk to less and less chapters, so that will be less of an issue. And this is very
Common that it does happen that students maybe, you know — if a chapter has an event for two hours, it might overlap by an hour with another chapter’s event that your student is invited back to. What we recommend at that point is just
Communicating effectively with the rush chairs. These are the students who are in charge of the recruitment process for the chapter. They are often–they are probably already texting with some of your students about things and their events. So it’s really easy to just let them know, and they are completely
Understanding of the fact that there are multiple events happening at the same time. And they know that your student may be able to come for half an hour to chat with them and then need to head out to another event.
[Grace]: Great, thank you. There are a few questions that have come in about SLGs, so I will go ahead and say that SLG’s, which is Selective Living Groups, are separate from our Greek letter organizations, although from a parent and family lens, I would say a lot of these values-based decisions
–or values-based conversations are still very applicable. Your student may be home talking about Greek letter organizations versus SLG’s, and I think the same conversations really do apply here. So, another — I realize that we kind of skipped the tenting question, and I don’t
Actually know when tenting begins. We’re trying to look it up right now. It’s not on the top of my mind, but I do know a general tenting policy is a group is tenting together, and so if a student had a conflict potentially with a Greek
Letter organization recruitment event, then hopefully one of their friends could be represented at the tenting event. Not everyone has to be in the tent at any given time, so that’s important to say. We are slowly or quickly starting to wrap
Up. Questions are dwindling a little. I apologize that I am talking and at the same time trying to read to see if I missed anything. [chuckles] [Grace]: There’s a mention of a recruitment guide Freddy that you mentioned. Someone can’t find it on the Leadership website.
[Anna]: Yeah, that’s — it’s because it’s not on the leadership website. It’s actually a Panhellenic hosted website. [Frederick]: Yes, which I believe is DukePanhellenic.com. Let me just double check… [Anna]: It was in one of the more recent pages. [Frederick]: Yeah. you go so the guide chair Krugman is linked right there so
[Anna]: You can go back. Oh, it’s the next steps page. Go back one. There you go. So the guide to recruitment is linked right there. it is a bitly link “/” Guide ToRecruitment. [Grace]: Great.
Um, I think that I may have gotten t– or we may have, yeah we may be at the end of the questions. I did try to loop some together that had common themes, so if you feel like your question still wasn’t addressed, please reach out to us.
You can email us at familyprograms@duke.edu if you don’t know where to direct the question. Or you can again contact Anna and Freddie whose contact information is again up here. I want to thank you all once again, Freddie and Anna, for joining us
And all of our families for taking time out of their day. We are recording this webinar. It will go online. We ask that you give us about 48 hours because we have to transcribe it so that when we put it on the website, it’s accessible.
And it takes a little bit of time. So if you could bear with us, we’ll get it online about midday Thursday. So, thank you all for joining us again. We hope you have a lovely Tuesday.
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