Author: annulyse

The Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life met recently to complete the review of progress made on the recommendations adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2011. Access the implementation grid below. It demonstrates at least partial achievement of a number of items.

View the implementation grid.

At our March meeting, the discussion included reviewing the numerous recommendations related to reducing high-risk alcohol use by students. The members of the IAGGL received information about the efforts made both by the organizations and the College to address the serious issues of high-risk alcohol use. A separate committee, formed in September, has been tasked with developing a comprehensive strategic plan related to reducing high risk alcohol use. As a result of the excellent and detailed work of the Alcohol and Other Drug Oversight Committee, some of the initial Working Group recommendations affecting Greek organizations may be amended.

This should not be construed as a lack of progress in addressing alcohol use on campus. There have been several, significant partnerships that have emerged between the College and Greek organizations including sponsorship of late night alcohol free events at several fraternity houses and co-sponsorship of events during high-risk periods such as Homecoming and Lafayette-Lehigh. The College has made funding available to assist in defraying the cost of these events to the organizations. The College also arranged for appropriate training related to alcohol service (TIPS, RAMP) to those groups interested in holding events with alcohol.

The Committee will meet for the final time in the coming weeks and will welcome Greg Meyer, Director of Student Development, to provide background on how the conduct process works for individuals and organizations, including an overview of training, newly implemented this year, for members of the conduct committee.

Annette Diorio, Ed.D.
Vice President for Campus Life
and Senior Diversity Officer

The Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life met on Friday, November 9 to discuss a preliminary format for the required progress report from fraternities and sororities.  This meeting followed a day-long session with advisors to the fraternities and sororities held over family weekend.  The result is a plan to draft preliminary reports using data collected by the end of this semester.

Recall that metrics were established last year to demonstrate organization progress toward the four objectives articulated by the Board of Trustees:

Objective 1: Fraternities and sororities must facilitate demonstrated learning opportunities for students and provide benefits to the College as a whole

Objective 2: The academic performance of students affiliated with fraternities and sororities must be comparable to the student body as a whole

Objective 3: The disciplinary profile of members of fraternities and sororities, as well as the individual organizations, must be comparable to the student body as a whole and other student organizations

Objective 4: Fraternities and sororities must provide open access and engagement opportunities to all students at Lafayette (non-discriminatory in selection of members)

The metrics described by my predecessor in the June 14, 2012 update below must be streamlined because data is not available to support all of the items.  The College will provide data on academic achievement and conduct of both individuals and groups.  The groups will provide an executive summary of efforts to contribute to the overall learning environment and transparent recruitment and selection. A meeting between Stuart Umberger and the fraternity and sorority Presidents was held on Sunday, November 11 to discuss the reporting format, deadlines for submission and to answer any questions about the process.

It is anticipated that a format for the future will include a modified compliance document, similar to the previously used COMPASS program, coupled with a presentation by the organization leadership that will be open to the public.  The committee remains focused on providing useful feedback to the organizations as well as a transparent process for the community.

Annette Diorio, Ed.D.
Vice President for Campus Life
and Senior Diversity Officer

With the start of the new semester, I assumed the position of Vice President for Campus Life and Senior Diversity Officer, and thus, became the chair of the Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life.  For those who do not know, I have been at Lafayette for over twelve years in various campus life positions.  After serving as dean of students, I took a position last fall in the Division of Finance and Administration.  I thank the committee for the work they completed last year and I look forward to an open, productive relationship with members of the IAGGL and with Greek alumni and students.

As many know, the IAGGL, at the request of the Board of Trustees, concentrated its work last year on the development of assessment benchmarks, or “metrics.”  We will take some time over the next year to review these so that Greek organizations can reasonably work toward the objectives the metrics seek to measure.

We will now begin the important work of implementing the recommendations endorsed last year by the Board of Trustees.  The IAGGL group met on Friday, September 28 and discussed the first set recommendations in the report from the Working Group on Greek Life.  These focused on improving the relationship between the College and the Greek community.  In addition, the Committee engaged in conversation about various reporting mechanisms for the groups to demonstrate achievement of the four broad goals articulated by the Board.  It was agreed that a reporting format utilizing open dialogue would provide the greatest learning opportunity for students and provide the most complete information to the assessment team.

The Committee will continue to meet during the fall semester to review the remaining recommendations from the Working Group Report.  I will keep you updated as we progress.

Annette Diorio, Ed.D.

Chair

Hello from College Hill.  As you undoubtedly know, the last week of the semester was a difficult one for all of us at Lafayette.  In spite of this, I want to update you as promised on the work of IAGGL since our April 19 Virtual Town Hall meeting.  In addition to the feedback from that meeting, we received 85 comments to the proposed metrics we posted. Based on the feedback, the following revisions were made:

• For “demonstrated learning opportunities,” the number of academic programs organizations are to complete annually was reduced from 5 to 2
• Only one of these two programs will need to involve faculty. The other can either involve faculty, alumni, or outside experts
• For these two programs, organizations will need to create written learning outcomes for the events
• For “academic comparison,” we are adding first term GPA to ensure Greek and non-Greek GPAs are comparable heading into sophomore-senior year comparisons

I would also like to share with you the draft of the metrics for the fourth and final objective—”an open and transparent member selection process.”  These allow each organization to have autonomy over their process without introducing homogeneity of content into the selection processes of sororities or fraternities.

1. Do Greek organizations publish ahead of time to prospective members their selection timeline?
2. Do Greek organizations publish ahead of time to prospective members their selection process details?
3. Do Greek organizations publish ahead of time to prospective members their criteria used to select members?
4. Do Greek organizations publish ahead of time to prospective members the exit points for prospective members in their process (i.e. is it known clearly when cuts are made)?
5. Do Greek organizations publish ahead of time to prospective members the criteria used at each exit point in their process (i.e. how they make cuts when they make cuts)?
6. 6. Are there documented ways that organizations recruit prospective members that are similar to current members?
7. Are there documented ways that organizations recruit prospective members that are dissimilar to current members?
8. Do organizations notify prospective members when their active status in that group’s process changes to not active?
9. If organizations weight their selection criteria, do they publish this to prospective members and make it clear which exit points in their process it applies?
10. Do organizations publish ahead of time to prospective members the range of spots available in their process?
11. Do organizations have advisers present at each meeting in their selection process?
12. Do organizations provide current members and advisers in selection meetings with written guidance as to the value of a well-balanced membership?

The last meeting of IAGGL will be this Thursday afternoon. Please complete the feedback form on the “Submit Comments” page by noon this Thursday, May 24th, so your thoughts can be considered.

Thanks for your interest and support.  We will keep you posted.

Celestino Limas
Chair of IAGGL

Please submit your comment here

March 29, 2012

The members of IAGGL have made outstanding progress this spring in establishing criteria for the objectives articulated in our charge from the Board of Trustees. We have developed proposed metrics for three of the four objectives as listed below.

As you recall, the trustees charged IAGGL with developing metrics in these four areas:

• Fraternities and sororities must facilitate demonstrated learning opportunities for students and provide benefits to the College as a whole.
• The academic performance of students affiliated with fraternities and sororities must be comparable to the student body as a whole.
• The disciplinary profile of members of fraternities and sororities, as well as the individual organizations, must be comparable to the student body as a whole and other student organizations.
• Fraternities and sororities must provide open access and engagement opportunities to all students at Lafayette (non-discriminatory in selection of members).

IAGGL has developed metrics on the first three objectives listed above and is working on the fourth.  At this point, we seek feedback from alumni, parents, students, faculty, and staff on our work thus far. I would ask that you follow the link below to the comments page of this web site as soon as you can prior to our April 13 meeting as we plan on finalizing the metrics for those objectives at that time.

Integration with Campus Learning Opportunities (Greek organizations and students where applicable):

• Does each Greek organization plan/host five academic programs per year?
• Do each of the five programs meet the following criteria: open to campus, have faculty involvement, not social as primary focus, directly planned by Greek organizations, approved by the director of fraternity and sorority life, have active member participation?
• Are Greek members actively involved in a leadership role of one non-Greek organization (total cases and ratio of leaders to membership)?

Academic Performance  (Greek students to non-Greek students, separated where possible by Greek organization and also by gender):

• GPA 3rd semester students
• GPA 5th semester students
• GPA 7th semester students
• Major distribution (numbers and ratio)
• Academic probation (total cases and ratio)
• EXCEL Scholar (total cases and ratio)
• Thesis participation (total cases and ratio)
• Departmental honors participation (total cases and ratio)
• Study abroad participation (total cases and ratio)
• Other honor recipients/Dean’s List (total cases and ratio)
• Co-curricular (academic major) organization membership (total cases and ratio)
• Internship participation (total cases and ratio)

Disciplinary Profile  (Greek students to non-Greek students where possible, separated where possible by Greek organization and also by gender):

• Conduct probation of individuals (total cases and ratio)
• Conduct violations (total cases and ratio))
• Individual repeated offenses (total cases and ratio)
• Sanctions issued
• Administrative hearing cases by group
• Administrative panel cases by group
• Sexual assault Public Safety Reports (total cases)
• COMPASS compliance

These proposed metrics are designed to facilitate the evaluation of the progress of our Greek organizations toward the objectives outlined by the Board of Trustees rather than serving as an evaluation of the Greek system in its entirety. Please keep that in mind as you share your comments. Our plan is to discuss your feedback at the April 13 IAGGL meeting and consider it as we finalize the metrics for these three areas.

I also would like to invite you to attend our next IAGGL virtual town hall in mid-April. Originally this was planned for April 13 but we will now be hosting it on April 19 from noon-1 p.m.  Instructions for how you can participate will follow in the near future.

My thanks to you for your continued interest and support of IAGGL and Lafayette College.

Best,
Celestino Limas
Chair, Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life
Vice President for Campus Life & Senior Diversity Officer

Please submit your comment here