Hi everybody thanks so much for being here today um my name is Kristen Tori and I’m the director of Greek life uh we and I’m pleased to have members of my team and also some of the wonderful student leaders that I work with here today to help us um deliver this parent
And family webinar um I will toss it over to Destiny to introduce herself and then each of the student leaders to introduce themselves hi everyone my name is Destiny Savage I am the assistant director of Greek life in our office here I use she her hers pronouns and I’m
Excited to spend some time with youall this morning I will pass it over to Jack hey everyone my name’s uh Jack movik um I’m a senior undergraduate here at Vanderbilt and I’m president of the inner fraternity Council and I use see him his pronouns and I’ll pass it over to
Madison hi everyone my name is Madison Clark and I’m a senior at vanderbel I am the President of the panh helenic council and I use she her pronouns I’ll toss it over to Kayla hi everyone my name is Kayla I’m also a senior here at Vanderbilt and I
Use she her her pronouns I’m the president of the National panh helenic Council so we’re here today to give a brief overview of our fraternity and storyed community and we know that probably the majority of the participants on this call today are the parents and family members of first year
Students or potentially some transfer students um as the questions we received were primarily about the process so that we’ll spend some time talking about that today um what is Greek life at vanderbelt our frater and sorties our groups of students who work um collectively together um thinking about values of siblinghood academic success
Service and personal professional development it’s really the role that our frur sority community plays on campus is about relationships that Foster a sense of belonging that’s really one of the most important things that fraternities and sorties do on our campus is really making space for students to feel like they have a home
Away from home and a place where they can belong um being their authentic selves uh we have six Community priorities in our Greek community and they are diversity equity and inclusion creating spaces of belonging community and Civic engagement sexual misconduct prevention health and wellness and personal and professional development so
We have a set of both goals and action steps that are aligned with these six priorities that both our office and our chapters and our governing councils all work towards throughout the year and so you would hear your student talk about potentially different things that all align in these Community priorities
That’ll align with um both the student affairs and broader University mission and vision about how kind of we’re working towards those things uh we have a Greek member experience so this helps to outline for outline for our students what are the expectations about being a member of our
Of our fraternity and sority Community there are four components of those two of them are directed by their individual chapters that they might join one is a community impact initiative that includes things like their service initiatives um philanthropic like how they’re giving money or contributing to
A local food bank or things like that or advocacy and education initiatives the second chapter component is the diversity equity and inclusion initiative so they might work on a project or program that their chapter has decided about how they want to contribute um and then individual components are their their member ship
In their frering sority can’t be the only thing that they’re doing on campus so they also expected to participate in at least one other student organization on campus in addition we are in working in collaboration with this uh the Vanderbilt career center and all of our students are engaged in what’s called
Vandy pass and these are connected to eight career competencies and our students being expected to earn at least 300 points throughout the year in um these eight competencies that are Tech uh connected to to what they will do after they’re done being a member uh being a student on our campus and so
What they’re going to do in graduate school or for a career after they’re done here and so really trying to make sure that their Greek experien but their Collective vanderbel students as a whole are trying to make sure that they’re prepared for what’s next so we included some things on the
Slide here about why would somebody want to join and so these are some quotes from what some of our members have said and so we have a lot of reasons why students join at vanderbelt and um so I think what some of the ones that stick
Out to me the most here are really about I you know the student who said I’m so lucky to have such amazing sisters who support uplift and motivate me to be the best human and leader that I can be um you can see a lot of things on here that
Are about feeling a sense of community and support and love um but also helping them to uh be connected Elsewhere on campus and how they can really make an impact um for different uh the ways that they are engaged collectively um as a group but also as individuals uh so a
Student that said I was able to advocate for all black students not just black students in Greek life and asking for a seat at the table and so students being able to use their voices and learning to um develop and and grow in that way to uh find spaces for themselves um not
Just within the Greek Community but also outside of that um we wanted to outline some of the basic expectations really specific for both new members active members and also um the the leaders in our community that was a specific question that we got um from some of the parents in advance so
When a student joins our frateran sority community um they will participate depending on the council and chapter of which they join typically a six to eight-week new member education program um they will also participate in the Greek member experience which I just talked about they will also um
Participate in our ignite Vu core educ educational sessions um which is a part of our cultural competency building program and they um sp there are four core educational sessions that they will do they participate in an online bystander intervention training and an online risk management module and other chapter specific initiatives so there
Might be uh new member bonding events um they might have a retreat things like that that are going to be a part of that um that new member uh integration experience um once they join as an active member they will also need to participate um in the Greek member experience they
Participate in a bystander intervention tactics training they will have weekly chapter meetings and service and philanth service and philanthropy events metch a lot of programming and things like that they would be responsible for participating in if you have a student who chooses to become a leader in the
Community um you can see on here there’s a number of other things in addition to the things that they would do as just a general active member they have a lot of other um trainings and community wide meetings and uh uh interactions with our staff and and other student leaders uh
That they would participate in so um depending upon the level of Engagement like a lot of things on campus students are going to get out of it what they put into it and so uh we we want to encourage students to engage at a level that feels right for them um obviously
The three students who are on this call today are are three Council presidents so they’re engaged at really the highest level um but there is a lot of different options for engagement about how students want to participate in a way that feels good for them um so we’re
Going to have our students talk a little bit now about the um the the community and give some overviews of their councils and also of uh what the recruitment process is like after we talk about this that I think Destiny yes yes so as Kristen mentioned I know many
Of you all are on our call today to learn a little bit more about our intake or recruitment processes and so intake and recruitment is the process of pursuing membership into fraternity or soury on our campus intake refers to the processes that our Intercultural Greek Council and National panholic Council um
Students in pursuit of membership participate in and our IFC and pan helenic students so interner fraternity Council and pinic Council students participate in a recruitment process across all councils students have to have these criteria in order to be eligible so first of all they have to
Have achieved at least a 2.5 cative GPA and have completed at least 12 credit hours as you’ll note here on our slide Vanderbilt participates in a deferred joining process meaning that students have to have completed at least one semester of college prior to pursuing membership into any of our organizations
That is a model that we actually really enjoy because we want to make sure that our students learn how to be college students first and start to form community in their residence halls and in their classes prior to then taking on fraternity or stor membership because
That can can be very timec consuming and be difficult to balance especially when students are trying to navigate a new environment whether that be coming to college for the first time or coming to Vanderbuilt as a transfer student and so in addition to those two criteria also students may not be on disciplinary
Probation at any point during their joining journey and so our office reviews that information um on a regular basis to make sure that our students are not currently on that status with the University and then finally across all Council students must attend a project safe Center consent education session so
Our project safe Center for those folks who are not aware uh is our Center on campus that deals with sexual misconduct prevention education and advocacy work and so we have a really great partnership with them and they provide these sessions to all potential fraternity and sority members we provide
A host of those over the course of the fall semester and we’ll have one makeup opportunity for any students who maybe decide a little later on in the fall that they are interested in recruitment but have missed all the sessions that are prior um and then finally for any
Folks pursuing membership into igc or mphc they also must complete an intake seminar those again are hosted throughout the course of the semester a really easy way to satisfy that requirement is to attend either the igc informational session or Greek Mystique for mphc that happened a little bit
Earlier this semester but also again there have been multiple take session requirement opportunities for folks to meet that as well and then we will now move into talking a little bit about the different councils that make up our community is there Greek Council this council is actually a really great
Opportunity for students who are looking to join a culturally based organization that’s not specific tied to African-American or black Heritage um the two organizations that we currently have on our campus are alpha s Lambda National incorporated as you can see photographed here and they are currently working with capital teai Sor and
Pursuing an expansion and this council is one of our councils that we would really love to see some more student interest in in terms of folks who want to have a specific Greek experience tied to cultural heritage and so I want to start out by saying to you that in order
To join either of these organizations or any organization that comes into interre cultural Council in the future or excuse me Intercultural GRE Council of future you do not necessarily need to identify as having that cultural heritage yourself but have an understanding that that cultural heritage will be centered
In the experiences of students in that organization or those organizations and so that again is an opportunity where we’re really looking for some growth to happen in our community awesome so one some time talking about the inner fraternity Council and kind of our joining process as well right there
So uh we currently have 13 chapters on campus um you can see list of those on the left and then you can see uh our IFC leaders on the right right there and then uh so a lot of the kind of questions ahead of time we’re centered around what IFC Recruitment and
Kind of that process looks like both for uh transfer students upper classman and uh first year so the way IFC recruitment works is that there’s two main Cycles we have a cycle in the fall and that is for transfer students and upper CL uh upper class students um and that’s a process
That goes for a few weeks in the fall and then those students end up joining towards the end of September uh for first year students that’s a process where those students join in the spring and the way IFC recruitment generally works is as an informal process so there’s some open events and there’s
Some Invitational events throughout the fall semester that students are able to attend uh to ultimately uh join in the spring there so we have uh final selections and bids offered uh for first year students or for those upper class students who have chosen to wait and
Join in the spring um I think one point I wanted to touch on too that was a question was asked was about the idea of bids and kind of how that’s offered um what um bids are only offered in this uh in January at that time um students may
Think they have bids or students May um you think they have a good relationship with a chapter but the way our final selection works is we have a bid day in January where everyone is offered bids and membership to a chapter and then from there they’re able to join uh the
One exception to that might be is that some chapters also are going to continue to recruit and offer bids throughout the spring semester so all chapters are actively recruiting until this early January date and then throughout the spring as well we’ll have a number of chapters um looking to add more members
Throughout that time as well so one thing I’ll say to parents as well too is that um while we’re while we’re coming towards the end of that spring recruitment process um it’s certainly not too late in the sense that some chapters are also still recruiting throughout the spring so um if a child
Is still just starting to get into the inter fraternity Council recruitment process they have the opportunity to join a chapter during the spring for those still actively recruiting or if not like I myself did they can come back in the fall and joined as an upper classman as well so there’s plenty of
Times to join an IFC chapter and there’s almost continuous cycles and opportunities to join so um yeah that’s a broad overview of what I recruitment looks like hello everyone now I’ll be talking about the National panolin Council currently we have eight out of the nine organizations chartered on our campus
And you can see all of our leaders there to the right and then talking a little bit about our recruitment process there is a designated intake window each semester that lasts about six weeks and like Destiny and Kiren um talked about earlier you must attend an intake
Seminar which normally takes the form of Greek Mystique um around August early September which is an informal way to meet all eight Chapters at one time and really just learn about what mphc is and what that looks like on our campus but if you do Miss Greek Miss then there are
Continuous opportunities throughout the fall and spring to make sure that you do get that requirement taken care of and that you’re able to learn more about our community but each chapter has an individualized process for each organization that’s stipulated by their National Organization so it won’t be the
Same throughout all eight chapters um there will be varying lengths of time and the type of process that you would have to undergo to um obtain membership into certain chapters so doing your research and really practicing discretion is important throughout um our entire community but attending an informational to learn about specific
Organizations applications will be held by each chapter if they do decide to Pursuit intake for that semester so you will your child will have the opportunity to learn about the specific requirements for the chapter they are looking to join all right so now I’ll talk a little
Bit about the panh helenic council the panolin council serves as the unifying governing body for all of its member organizations at this time we have nine chapters on our campus which you can see here and then you can see my lovely pantic Council on our chapter presidents
On the other side of the screen um talking a little bit more specific about recruitment the transition there we go um we have two kind of processes in pan helenic we have the informal process which is continuous open bidding which takes place in the fall for some chapters for transfer and upper classman
Students to participate in and so no freshman can join in the fall as we are deferred recruiting campus and then we have formal recruit recuitment which takes place in January for first year students transfers and any upper classman students who want to pursue that later during their college career
Um this is a highly structured process it is not informal like some of the other processes um and it emphasizes Mutual selection between chapters and potential new members um something that is really key to advise your child at this process is to keep an open mind um
All of our chapters are great and have their own unique strengths and really being excited about any chapter throughout recruitment is going to be like make it a more fun experience um something a little bit different for us compared to other SEC schools is it’s not common for parents to attend bidday
Activities unless they’re serving in an official role for like their specific chapter if they have participated in Greek life previously so no reason to book a flight in January unless you have like extenda circumstances there sorry I might have moved that slide too fast madis or destiny if
There’s anything else that you want to say about pandal linic recruitment about the selection process or anything before you go into the slide I welcome that I I I was good on my end but wonderful thank you Madison so in talking about the financial obligation there is a financial commitment that students have
To make when they are joining a sority or fraternity on our campus and finances cover a lot of different things and look very differently by Council so some of our councils have a more or heavier upfront cost and then fairly minimal cost um throughout the rest of their membership whereas other organizations
Still have a higher initial cost and then a sizable cost moving after that initial semester membership um but not as high as that initial cost and so we have all those fees broken down for you all on our Greek life website um which has been shared in the Q&A that
I think everyone should be able to access but if not we will make sure to include that in any notes and followup um we have fees tied to membership in our organizations because these fees cover essentially the operating budgets for all of our organizations and so any type of programming that they’re doing
If an organization is housed um fees for support from their headquarters all of the local dues fees that members are paying are being spent very fiscally responsibly but in a lot of different ways and so that’s something that we always want to share upfront there is du’s assistance available um and that
Looks again a little bit differently by Council and so our in fraternity Council and panalin councils have du scholarships that they are able to provide on a semesterly basis um folks apply and then they are chosen through um a various a variety of different um systems in order to be selected for
Those applic for those scholarships those are not guaranteed to everyone so that’s always something that we want to note um every organization however does have payment plan options available for folks so if they’re unable to pay the full cost at one time there’s a way that organizations can work with individual
Members to break that cost down into more manageable bites so when I was a student that was something that I took advantage of instead of paying the full $11,000 in August I was able to break up those payments into $250 segments over the course of that semester so that it
Was more man ible for me because I was self funding my du’s and we know that many of you may be able to help your students but also many of you may not be able to help your students and so we want to make sure that we’re providing
All of those options um Upfront for folks in addition if we have any students that you all um are tied to who are eligible for need-based Aid they can also apply for experienced Vanderbuilt funds to utilize for joining a fraternity or sority or for continuing membership the really important thing to
Note about experience Vanderbilt is that it’s only um available one time per year so once your student applies that time per year that is the only time that they’ll be able to unlike the panal linic and ifcd scholarships that are available for application each semester experienced Mander bill is only eligible
To be applied for once per year and that total cost can be provided up to $500 for anyone who’s interested in joining a fraternity or sorority even if they aren’t a member yet so if they do receive experien Vanderbilt funds and want to use those funds for membership
Dues in an organization that they are not a part of yet they are able to do so to help um kind of subsidize those costs that come along with being a member of a fraternity or sority on our campus okay so one of the things that I
Wanted to discuss and talk about was related to hazing um both vanderbelt and tenness the state of Tennessee oh the state of Tennessee has a law about it not a policy I suppose is how I should phrase that um H but Vanderbilt has a a policies in our
Student handbook that relate to hazing and we also do a great deal of training and education with our new member Educators and chapter presidents and intake chairs and students about what are the expectations related to how all of our new members and anyone who’s participating in a process uh need to be
Treated with respect and dignity and hazing should not be a part of any of the processes that we have at Vanderbilt University um now H we have had chapters who have needed to be removed from our community for engaging in heing related behaviors so I would never look at a
Group of parents and tell them that I know exactly what the experience will be for anyone um on our campus at any time I will tell you that I have worked at Vanderbilt for 21 years and some of the stories uh that you see on the news or
The majority of things that you might see or um have great concern about associated with uh the some of the hazing things that you see on TV um or at some of the other campuses are not the kinds of things that we have needed to address on our campus luckily um uh
So I do think that our students have been very proactive in the way that they as leaders have chosen to address and take a stand on why that is not something that they want to accept in our community so I say that because I think it’s important for parents to
Understand that it isn’t something that’s just like um well because it’s in the handbook or because there is a rule or um an expectation about this from the office of Greek life or from student accountability that that’s why Why students um don’t want to engage in the behavior I think there’s also things
That are about our student population and the way that they want to exhibit care and concern towards one another that that is why um the uh we have the kind of community that we do here there are a variety of reporting methods um if there are any concerns that you do have
About what is happening related to um your child’s experience we have an online reporting form that anyone can use students faculty members parents anyone they can go online uh it’s available on our website on the student accountability website we train the raas about it um
And then that students can go in and or anyone can go in and fill out any concerns that they may have about what um what is taking place we also have a hazing hotline um The Hazing hotline is not answered by anyone so it’s not like you call it and then like someone
Answers the phone it is a message-based system where somebody might leave um a cons concern about what is happening but they choose to leave a message instead of the online form typically the online form is what people use instead of the hotline but um it that the Hing fing is
Is um available in within the IFC um the IFC has new member Advocates which are specific men within the chapters that um are utilized for the new members to identify and say I’m going to go to this person if I have any concerns about what
Is going on so I will give you an example um we had a situ this was a number of years ago now but um uh senior Steve had asked um one of the new members to come over and clean his off-campus apartment he had a big chemistry test
The next day but also knew that that was not an acceptable thing for him to be doing he let the new member Advocate from his chapter know that this request had been made the chapter then addressed that behavior with the senior who had made the request he was not allowed to
Participate in any more new member education activities for the rest of the semester and he was also not allowed to attend social events for the next month and that was how they addressed like internally to their organization they communicated with us and told us what happened and like reported it but they
Addressed that in a meaningful way I thought with that brother and the new member knew that he had the power to be able to say this is why I’m not going to engage in this Behavior with like this this brother who’s made this request of
Me um which I thought was a good example of the new member advocates in action people also call um when needed to ask questions about anything things that are going on to our office directly um so they just will call our office um and and we can help talk through any
Concerns that they might have and how they might best approach that with their student with their chapter it is really important that parents are Partners in addressing any concerns they might have um sometimes you’ll have a parent who will call and will say I’m concerned about this and they won’t tell us the
Name of the child the name of the organization or anything that is going on it’s very difficult to address um behaviors in any meaningful way if we do not know like any of the specifics so we really hope for you to be a partner in
That but also to be a a partner in having a meaningful conversation with your students um about what um they are they’re joining an organization for belonging um and so wanting to make sure that um that they do that in the right way and and how what expectations you
Want to talk with them about how they might want just want to get engage in that in the right way um I do want to communicate that we have uh two groups that are no longer recognized on our campus um they have been suspended within the last couple years um not
Actually for well one was was suspended for some of the hazing related behaviors that was Delta Capa Epsilon um and the other is Sigma Kai Sigma Kai was not suspended for hazing related behaviors they were suspended for a series of risk management related violations if your student is talking at all about joining
These groups these groups are not recognized by the university and they are not they are not groups that we would support participation in um uh as they are no longer recognized by the university we will send we can send out the slides as that was a request
From one of the comments um in the questions um and make sure you and you can also find the list of recognized frat attorneys on our website and those would be the ones that we would en um encourage participation um uh Destiny this question about U panalin recruitment um
Do you want to just answer that one on um like out loud sure okay so for the formal panalin recruitment process um yes there is an orientation session that will be happening on January 5th so the process does begin prior to the start of the spring semester so there will be an
Orientation session that is mandatory for all potential new members to attend that evening at 5:30 p.m. obviously we know that sometimes flights are booked in advance of knowing that information and so that’s totally fine if you have a student who is unable to attend that session not only we will send will we
Send out the slides after the fact but also your student will be paired with a recruitment counselor who can share any additional updates as well as getting in touch with our office and then the first round of recruitment will begin at 9:00 am on Saturday January 6th and we’ll run
Pretty much that entire day and then we will have the second round which is the first Invitational round that will happen on January 7th that Sunday and then we will take a break for the first week of class and then we will resume recruitment activities the following Friday afternoon so Friday January 12th
And then we will have events the 12th the 13th and then we will end with their bid day which is the day that they would hopefully if they’ve made it to the end of the process find out which organization that they have been invited to join and so again to address this
Question there are four different rounds of recruitment the first is the only round during which a student is guaranteed to meet with all nine of our participating organizations and then the remaining rounds are By Invitation Only meaning that our students who are participating have to say which
Organizations that they would like to go back to and those organizations hopefully have invited those students back and then that is what generates their schedules of invitations for the remainder of the rounds it’s really important to note that even though there’s a maximum number of organizations that a student could visit
Each of those rounds there is no guarantee that that student will receive the maximum number of invitations and so we can also make available to you all a schedule that’s detailed of what the recruitment process looks like for panalin recruitment because that will take a little bit longer to walk through
Than time that we have this morning but hopefully that answers those initial questions for folks um okay so just want to clarify so that what Destiny was just described desing was for the panal linic um and so the panal linic recruitment process is is their bid day is on January 14th um the
IFC bid day is on January 13th and phc as Kayla talked about all of the organizations operate on different timelines so I can’t give you like the this is when um that would take place for each individual organization um and so I’m just trying to look at like some of these questions
That we have in there um uh so hopefully that will hopefully that clarifies some of those things about the difference so um yeah so if you have a child who’s joining an IFC organization it’s fine that you’re not coming back until afterwards so um that’s okay um all
Right so we’re gonna answer um a couple other questions um that we’re gonna the students answer answer from in a panel perspective um about uh about for for the group so um Kayla can you talk to us a little bit about how you balance time within Greek life classes and
Activities yes so on addition to me serving as the president of National panolin Council I also serve as vice president of the black cultural center and hold several executive positions in my chapter so it can be a little hectic sometimes but I really think just staying organized delegating and
Communicating my needs have really helped me throughout this whole process especially before I took on the presidency was holding executive positions in my chapter so that’s kind of where I learned but staying organized looks like filling out my Google Calendar and really just seeing what my look week looks like visually helps me
To be like okay Tuesday’s going to be a hard day for me so I need to reach out to my exec to see if they or delivering on their action items that I gave them or can attend a meeting in my place that kind of thing so really leaning on the
People that I have close to me in my community and then communicating like okay I saw one of the questions about lab so as a Premed I definitely understand that that whole situation so if I like had lab or class or needed to go to office hours or something really
Just making sure that I um am communicating my needs and that I have time conflicts and really just yeah staying organized delegating and communicating has really helped me balance at all great thank you um okay uh Jack what would you say makes our Greek Community unique and
Special um I would say that the people within GRE life itself is what kind of contributes to that at Vander boo I’d say that there’s no specific mold for what a fraternity or sorority member at Vander Boo looks like and I think that speaks a lot to both the population we
Have at vandero but also the way we recruit and try and reach all sorts of different areas of campus to get students who have different levels of um kind of interest and familiarity with Greek life the ability to kind of meet our chapters and get to know what
Joining Greek life could be like and get a really positive experience out of that um I think like something very interesting about a lot of our chapters is that our individual members are not just members of their own chapters they’re usually a member of their chapter and something else whether
That’s a pre-professional society another club a sport whatever that might be you’ll find ADV Vander buil a lot of people in our Greek life Community are involved in leaders in a lot of different areas on campus so I think that’s something really positive that this it’s a very holistic engagement at
Tri of their lives it’s not just that students are a sorority or fraternity member and that’s their only involvement and I think that’s something really special awesome um okay so Madison this was a question that was specifically asked in advance how do you feel like the the Vu Greek Community promotes inclusivity and
Belonging yeah so I think something that has been one of the most rewarding parts of my experience in Greek life is that relative to other schools I think Vanderbilt places a really heavy emphasis on promoting diversity equity and inclusion through Greek life and so whether that be internal to my chapter
Participating in conversations surrounding inclusivity and Greek life or participating in things like ignite V which is our Greek wide initiative they’ve created spaces where we can really think critically about how we’re creating like spaces of true inclusivity and belonging for everybody um and I can say in my personal experience being in
Greek life has really filled my life with very empowering people who have given me a space to belong within the larger Vander World community so I think that kind of folding in like we both have this really strong emphasis on diversity equity inclusion but as Jack was saying we also have like wonderful
People in this community who really do Foster spaces of where you can feel like you could bring your whole self awesome okay and so this this last question is for all three of you can you um share with the parents what is one uh one is the most important thing that
You’ve learned from being a member of the fraternity and sority Community um what yeah what is the most important thing that you’ve learned I can go go ahead Kayla go ahead sorry I think I’ve learned how to find community in every space I go especially like at within vinils Greek community and all
The things that the office of Greek life Fosters it’s really allowed me to see that find commonalities between people and really learn how to grow in my strength as being kind of a people person and finding someone that I can connect with in multiple spaces and I’ve carried that into like my internships
And my volunteering spaces and especially like National pentalenic organizations really do place an emphasis on that we’re International organizations so there will be someone that you can connect to everywhere you go in this community has really helped me Foster and grow in that strength great um I was going to say
Relatively similar I think the kind of ability to both lean on others and have the sense of kind of mentorship with um older younger brothers I know in my chapter as well um and this is both like socially as friends and also professionally as well um I think within
Our own chapters you can find a really strong sense of community and Trust um among everyone there and I I think that’s something that um has been kind of integral to my college experience and being a member of my chapter has provided so I think that’s something
Really special about um all of our chapters and it’s something I really value yeah kind of piggybacking off of Jack’s answer I think from being a member in Greek life one of the biggest things I’ve learned is like how to be a really great friend I I think seeing the
People around me model like true friendship and you know if I’m having a bad day having friends who will drop anything they’re doing to come and like support me and uplift me has kind of taught me like what I value in friendships and like pushed me to bring
That back into my friendships and give that same energy to everyone else that I engage with um and then also from being a leader in Greek life I think one of the greatest things I’ve learned is like how to be confident in my abilities and I think any one of the council
Presidents could tell you like when you’re doing these kind of jobs you do hard things and that’s like a really empowering thing that I’ll take into any future careers that I can do challenging things I can navigate difficult situations um and be really confident in my leadership abilities in that right
Great okay so um thank you students um okay wanted to offer some as we’re approaching the end of our time together a little bit of advice for parents um you should encourage your student to get involved and meet many people at Vanderbilt Vanderbilt is an awesome Place Greek life is an amazing
Opportunity for students to make connections but it’s definitely not the only one here so um when we talk about like keeping an open mind Greek life is not for everybody um just because it might be uh you might have been in a fraternity or sority it doesn’t mean
It’s the right choice for your child um students need your support throughout the Recruitment and intake process in a new member education being supportive and asking questions and listening to their answers is is a best practice um acknowledging that fraternities and sorties are different on every campus so
Groups that might be strong on a campus where you attended school or might not they might not have the same reputation at Vanderbilt so let your student choose the group that they’re most comfortable joining sometimes we have students that um you know it can become really challenging when student wants to make a
Different decision than their parents or their sister or their grandmother um made and um you know so just being willing to um have the openness to like the what is the what is in the best interest for your child at this time might me different than the than the
Choice that you made um or other members in your family made um when when they were in school um talk to your student beforehand about the financial obligation so Destiny went through the slide that talked about you know the financial obligations of membership and the information that we
Have that is available on our website to try to you know like outline for folks you know what some of those things are but making sure that you talk with your student about that um you know I have a my stepdaughter is getting ready to go
To college and so like us talking with her about saying like Okay Ellie Kate like this is going to be what we can contribute and these are going to be the things that you’re going to need to be able to pay for um is an important conversation so that everybody can be on
The same page of knowing like like whose obligation is this and you you know so that they’re making um educated decisions about you know what what can they afford and what does make sense or is this something that they can do at this time is it something that they need
You know that we’re just really clear on that so that no one is kind of surprised about um those financial obligations um no I mean being like we want to be in a transparent conversation of knowing that fraternity andity recruitment at Vanderbilt is can be competitive not everybody who wants to
Be Greek at Vanderbilt is going to receive an invitation from membership um it is our aim that we want to do our best to make sure that students who keep an open mind um that would be the the thing that I would tell everybody if the
Student keeps an open mind they are very likely going to be very successful in our recruitment process but students who have tunnel vision and say like I am the best and I only want to be in whatever have defined as the best um or their parent has defined as the best can be
Very difficult for that to sometimes um be in the reality of like that this is not going to work out um uh you know for for them if it doesn’t turn out exactly the way that they had anticipated um but we do have I will say
Like our in terms of the people who have registered for Recruitment and the people who end up receiving bids um a a pretty high uh retention rate in our processes um certainly compared to um our peers and other folks um don’t become overly involved in your students decision uh in in their recruitment
Process in that like it is their decision so like um making sure that you’re allowing that space for like yes we want you to be there to help ask questions and those kind of things but but um not so involved that like they don’t feel like that they can be making
Their own choice um too often parents don’t allow students to fight their own battles um it helps students to mature and gain some assertiveness and some perspective when they are allowed to kind of how to they nav how do they navigate things at vanderbel instead of
Um the parents always being the one to do those things um um on their behalf uh there’s a lot of great resources here we are here to help um and I would encourage you to really think about like how can you how can you be the one who
Helps your student to think about do do are you the one who needs to make the phone call or can they help to make the can they make the phone call themselves sometimes it is you sometimes the parent does need to be the one who can help
Make that phone call on their behalf but sometimes um that student making that that make going to the Student Center for well-being on their own is a good step for them to make and shows um great maturity on their part and um you will be proud of them as a parent for being
Able to make make some of those choices on their own um and and showing that self- advocacy for themselves um so those are some of the pieces like as I think when I’ve talked to parents over the years some of the things that they’ve seen like um that they either
Wish they would have done differently or wish they would have had a conversation about like like the thing about the money like making sure that they’d asked about that in advance or you know making sure that they um they hadn’t pressured their student as much so um some of this
Advice is advice that that parents have said to me kind of for after after that they realize later on so um we I think we’ve answered all of the questions here in the chat today um we will make sure um up on here this is our team this is
My whole um our office of Greek life team um um and we are here to answer questions for you um at any time um I will work with the parent family office to make sure that everybody gets the link to our website and that we can send
Out the slid so that everybody has the things that they need um um but if you need anything please let us know and visit our website for the dates and details of um any of the other things that you might need um to be successful so thank you very much for joining us
Here today students great job thanks for um all of your work and partnership with us thank you
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