President Byerly sent a message to the campus community today, in which she outlined the Board of Trustees’ endorsement of her vision for creating a unified and comprehensive residential program that connects and integrates residential, co-curricular, and academic experiencs for all students. In this new model, fraternities, sororities, and other academic interest-based and social residential groups will become a part of an enhanced vision of a living/learning community. Reaccreditation of existing groups, and applications from current students for new groups, including Greek organizations, theme houses, living-learning communities, and social houses, will be considered in the context of whether they are consistent with and advance the overall values and objectives of the College’s integrated residential life vision. The administration will begin implementation of this new structure for building campus community immediately, and will develop next fall a rigorous application process for all proposed groups, including Greek organizations.
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The draft version of the IAGGL report is now available for public review and comment. To facilitate community feedback, two open forums will be held to discuss the draft and to answer questions regarding the data or recommendations:
- Monday, April 21, 7:30 p.m. in Colton Chapel – students
- Tuesday April 22, 4:15 p.m. in Hugel 103 – faculty, staff, and other interested members of the community
Members of the community may also submit questions and comments directly through the IAGGL website. I will respond to all questions and will incorporate the common themes that emerge from the discussions and questions into the final version of the report that will be shared with the trustees in May.
Several groups including the Faculty Committee on Student Life, Student Government, AISB, and current fraternity and sorority presidents have already discussed the draft report. We hope to meet with several other groups of students in the coming weeks. The dialogue has been collaborative and helpful, and some themes have already emerged as a result of these meetings. All discussions have focused appropriately on ways the College can support students by providing a robust and diverse residential experience that encourages all students to find their place at Lafayette. I am exceedingly grateful for the energy and good will that have been directed at these discussions and am heartened by the knowledge that faculty, staff, students. and alumni are unified in our desire to provide the best possible educational and social experiences for Lafayette students.
Some important next steps are underway even as the draft report circulates. The accreditation program that is included as a recommendation in the report has already been in use by our organizations during this academic year. The groups will present their accreditation materials during the week of April 21. If you are interested in attending those sessions please let me know via the email address below.
The College is also in the process of securing the software program to collect and disseminate information regarding men who are interested in recruitment (another recommendation in the draft report). This will allow us to have a complete understanding of membership demand. It will also help us to streamline the educational records release process so organizations can be certain that the men they recruit meet the high academic and conduct standards the groups have embraced. This means that men and women will use the same mechanism for collecting information about interested students. It is not anticipated that the recruitment process itself will change — women will continue to use a formal process and men an informal one. The software is merely a tool for creating a standard set of information about all prospective members that will help organizations get the information they need about the students interested in membership.
The draft of the IAGGL report and recommendations will be available for comment until Wednesday, April 23, 2014. The report will remain on the website after that time, but in order to compile and organize comments into related themes, this deadline is necessary. We expect to finalize the report during the next month, slightly ahead of the June 2014 deadline.
As we continue to discuss issues that are important to our community, I am hopeful that we will refine and clarify the College’s firm commitment to the highest quality experiences for our students in class, on campus, and in the wider world. If you have any additional thoughts or suggestions, please feel free to send them through the comments section of the IAGGL website or directly to me at diorioa@lafayette.edu.
Thank you.
Annette Diorio
Vice President for Campus Life and Senior Diversity Officer
The Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life met for the final time on March 14, 2014. The committee reviewed data related to achievement of the four objectives, implementation of the recommendations from the Greek Life Working Group, and formulated a set of recommendations (in draft form) for the “President concerning the Greek Life system at Lafayette based on the metrics established to measure the four criteria outlined by the Board in their directive” (as outlined in the charge to the committee).
The draft report was discussed at the Board Committee on Student Life at its March meeting. Following the meeting, the draft report was distributed to Student Government, the AISB, the Faculty Committee on Student Life, and the current fraternity and sorority presidents. Discussions were held or will be held in the next week with those groups to receive feedback on the recommendations.
Late next week, the draft report will be made available on the IAGGL website for all members of the Lafayette community to provide feedback. Two open forums will be scheduled in late April to receive additional comments from the community. The final report, with themes and observations from the feedback received from all constituencies, will be submitted to the Board this May.
We are very pleased to announce that the 10 Greek organizations will present their accreditation materials from the first year of the new accreditation program on April 21, 22, and 23. Each group will have an opportunity to give a multimedia presentation to capture how they live their values that will be a supplement to any written materials submitted. The entire submission will be evaluated and feedback provided to each group regarding strengths and areas for improvement. The results of the accreditation program will be posted on the fraternity and sorority website. This is a very significant step in terms of transparency and one that I hope the community finds helpful.
As always, I remain willing to answer any questions you may have about this process.
Annette Diorio
Vice President for Campus Life and Chief Diversity Officer
diorioa@lafayette.edu
IAGGL met Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. President Byerly joined the group and participated in a productive discussion about progress made to date.
The group discussed a proposed time table to finish its work in March, and the potential for additional meetings beyond the two scheduled in the coming month. The goal of the next meetings is to produce a document, to be shared with the president and trustees at the end of March, that summarizes the successes and challenges experienced by fraternities and sororities in meeting the four broad objectives for the Greek organizations. Those four objectives are:
- Fraternities and sororities must provide open access and engagement opportunities to all students at Lafayette (non-discriminatory in selection of members).
- 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.
The specific metrics established by IAGGL during the first year will inform this work, but the finished product will also incorporate other sources of information, including committee discussions and information received from alumni during the process.
The meeting included a discussion of a draft of the accreditation program and a review of historical membership and conduct statistics as well as fall grade reports.
The accreditation program was still in draft form at the time of the meeting as it had yet to be shared with students and alumni for comments. The committee agreed last year to transition from the previously outlined metrics to a more robust, annual accreditation program. The document has been shared with the AISB Board and with the fraternity and sorority presidents during their January retreat. This document represents significant streamlining and revision from the Fraternity and Sorority of Excellence program discussed by the committee last spring. The organizations are completing this program for the 2013-2014 academic year.
The accreditation program includes categories for Scholarship, Leadership, Service/Philanthropy, Chapter Development, and Administrative Duties. Definitions for minimum standards are provided and additional information regarding how organizations can achieve bronze, silver or gold status are succinctly and clearly articulated. The benefits of the program are that it documents organizational commitment to their own core values in addition to the College’s goals for the organizations. It allows each organization to showcase their strengths and receive ongoing coaching regarding areas for improvement but it is forward looking and reflects what good practice looks like for the organizations.
The committee received three pieces of information related to historical conduct information, fall grades, and historical membership data. The fall grades from the organizations were quite good and demonstrate a continued effort in regard to academic achievement.
The membership statistics were provided to place in context the current numbers of affiliated students within a historical context. The number of men affiliated with fraternities had declined, which is consistent with the loss of groups over the corresponding time period. However, the committee understands that the total number of men interested in joining fraternities is not known for any given semester, because the recruitment process is far less structured than for the women. It is uncertain whether the decline in membership for men’s groups is solely a factor of the fewer available groups or if fewer men are expressing interest in joining organizations. The number of women’s organizations has remained the same, but the total for each group has risen slightly over the past decade, allowing for more women to become affiliated. The number of women who express interest in joining an organization is known as are the numbers of students who withdraw or are released from the process.
Finally, historical conduct data were distributed. Overall, the percentage of Greek-affiliated students who violate College policy is lower than the percentage of Greek-affiliated men and women in the overall population. More detailed analysis of these data will be provided in the next update.
The committee next turned to a longer discussion regarding impressions of the process and observations regarding the campus climate. A productive discussion followed including helpful feedback that has been received by members of the committee from both affiliated and unaffiliated students regarding their perceptions of the process.
IAGGL met for the first time this fall on Friday, November 22. There has been some turnover on the committee due to faculty and students rotating off and graduating. The agenda for the meeting included reviewing the original committee charge to ensure the group is on track to meet the objectives established in 2011.
The Committee welcomed Dan Ayala, who was hired in August as the Associate Director of Residence Life and Adviser to Fraternities and Sororities. Dan discussed his experiences with fall recruitment and the committee discussed a variety of ways to enhance transparency in that process for students.
The Membership Exploration Week website did a better job explaining when events would be held but the group acknowledged that some additional work could be done to help students understand what organizations are seeking in new members.
Dan and Annette discussed the work that has been ongoing with Administrative Information Systems (ITS) to enhance the types of information being stored in Banner. This has allowed for more accurate reporting of items such as Excel Scholar participation, academic honors and participation in study abroad. Future enhancements to the way information in stored in Banner include keeping track of more club and organization membership for students (currently participation is only recorded for Greek affiliations and varsity athletics).
Dan discussed briefly the work on the new accreditation process that is replacing COMPASS.
A timeline for future meetings was also discussed and it was determined that the Committee would benefit from inviting President Byerly to attend the next meeting.
Also on the agenda for the next meeting is a thorough review of achievement on the metrics to date. A draft document was distributed to the committee for comment.
Annette Diorio, Ed.D.
Vice President for Campus Life
and Senior Diversity Officer
June 14, 2012
Before the summer gets too far along, I want to provide an update as of our last meeting. On May 24, IAGGL reviewed the feedback from community members regarding the proposed metrics for “an open and transparent member selection process.” Based on your feedback, the final metric will now read “Do organizations provide current members/advisers in recruitment and selection processes with written guidance as to the value of a well-balanced membership? Yes or No.”
This concludes the first part of IAGGL’s work—the metrics are now established and are listed below. If additional suggestions are submitted during the summer, however, IAGGL can certainly choose to revisit these in the fall.
My thanks go to everyone who helped with feedback and suggestions, and who followed our progress this year. It has been a very productive experience and consensus-based effort among all IAGGL members.
IAGGL will not meet over the summer but will reconvene in the fall. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all members of IAGGL as they have been outstanding colleagues who have been willing to embrace a very large task with care and insight. As we move into the implementation phase, our next update will be in late September.
Best wishes for an enjoyable and productive summer.
Celestino Limas
Chair, Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life
Vice President for Campus Life & Senior Diversity Officer
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Fraternities and Sororities at Lafayette: Objectives and measurement of progress (metrics)
Objective 1: Fraternities and sororities must facilitate demonstrated learning opportunities for students and provide benefits to the College as a whole
1. Does each Greek organization plan/host 2 academic programs per year?
2. Do each of the 2 programs meet the following criteria: open to the campus, and one led by faculty and the other by an outside expert (including alumni) or faculty member?
3. Are the events not social as the primary focus?
4. Are the events directly planned by Greek organizations?
5. Are the events approved by the director of fraternity and sorority life?
6. Do the events have active member participation?
7. Do the events have clearly defined and measurable learning outcomes?
8. Are Greek members actively involved in a leadership role of one non-Greek organization (total cases)?
9. Are Greek members actively involved in a leadership role of one non-Greek organization (ratio)?
Objective 2: The academic performance of students affiliated with fraternities and sororities must be comparable to the student body as a whole
1. GPA 1st semester students
2. GPA 3rd semester students
3. GPA 5th semester students
4. GPA 7th semester students
5. Major distribution
6. Major distribution ratio
7. Academic probation total cases
8. Academic probation ratio
9. EXCEL Scholar total cases
10. EXCEL Scholar ratio
11. Theses participation total cases
12. Theses participation ratio
13. Dept. honors participation total cases
14. Dept. honors ratio
15. Study abroad participation total cases
16. Study abroad ratio
17. Other honor recipients/Dean’s List total cases
18. Other honor recipients/Dean’s List ratio
19. Co-curricular (academic major) organization membership total cases
20. Co-curricular (academic major) membership ratio
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
1. Conduct probation of individuals total cases
2. Conduct probation of individuals ratio
3. Conduct violations total cases
4. Conduct violations ratio
5. Recidivism of individuals total cases
6. Recidivism of individuals ratio
7. Sanctions issued
8. Administrative hearing cases by group
9. Administrative panel cases by group
10. Sexual assault public safety reports total cases
11. COMPASS compliance
Objective 4: Fraternities and sororities must provide open access and engagement opportunities to all students at Lafayette (non-discriminatory in selection of members)
1. Do organizations publish ahead of time their selection timeline? Yes or No
2. Do organizations publish ahead of time their selection process? Yes or No
3. Do organizations publish ahead of time their criteria used to select members? Yes or No
4. Do organizations publish ahead of time the exit points of their process? Yes or No
5. Do organizations publish ahead of time the criteria used at each exit point in their process? Yes or No
6. Are there documented ways that organizations recruit prospective members that are similar to current members? Yes or No
7. Are there documented ways that organizations recruit prospective members that are dissimilar to current members? Yes or No
8. Do organizations notify prospective members when their active status in that group’s process changes to not active? Yes or No
9. If organizations weight their criteria, do they publish this and make it clear which exit points in their process it applies? Yes or No
10. Do organizations publish the range of spots available in their process ahead of time? Yes or No
11. Do organizations have advisers present at each meeting in their selection process? Yes or No
12.Do organizations provide current members/advisers in recruitment and selection processes with written guidance as to the value of a well-balanced membership? Yes or No
Moderator, Dr. Robert Massa: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our second virtual town hall meeting, sponsored by the Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life, or IAGGL, as we have affectionately called it here at Lafayette. Thank you all for joining us. My name is Bob Massa. I am the vice president for communications at the College. And I’m pleased to host this event today. With me is Dr. Celestino Limas, who is the vice president for campus life and senior diversity officer. Also, with us today is a member of the IAGGL group, Dean Erica D’agostino. Erica is the dean of academic advising, member of the Class of ’95, and was also a sorority member here on campus. We will be joined shortly also by Stewart Umberger, who is the director of fraternity and sorority life, and we’re hopeful to have a student or two join us as well. They’re not here at this point. But let me turn it over to Dr. Limas to begin the process. Let me also say to you, actually, two things, if you will, before we begin. Continue reading
Moderator, Dr. Robert Massa: Welcome to our first virtual town hall meeting to update alumni and others on the progress made by the Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life. My name is Bob Massa, and I have the privilege of serving as vice president for communications at Lafayette, a position I have held for the last three years, but the most proud affiliation that I have is as the parent of a graduate in the class of ’08 who had an extraordinary experience here, which led me to come to Lafayette. With us today is Dr. Celestino Limas, who is the vice president for campus life and senior diversity officer. He’s also the chair of what we affectionately call the IAGGL group here on campus and there are several members of the group with us as well. And I will ask them to introduce themselves in just a few seconds. The format for today: We’ll begin with a presentation and Dr. Limas will lead that presentation. He will update all of you for approximately 30 minutes. He will also, at times, ask members of the group to give their impressions of the progress made thus far by the Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life. After that, approximately 30 minutes or so into the town hall meeting we will field your questions. You can ask those questions right on the website as you will see in front of you. We will do our best, our very best to answer all of the questions; we can’t guarantee that we will get to all of them. We had several questions submitted earlier from alumni and friends who could not join us today. I will remind all of you that this is being recorded and within several hours after the presentation today we should have a link on this, on the IAGGL website, for you and for others, for those who are not here, for your friends if you want to tell them to be able to listen to the entire presentation. We also plan to send an email out today shortly after the presentation to all alumni notifying them that they can listen in on the virtual town hall meeting by going to the website. So now without delaying any longer let me just ask members of the group who are here to introduce themselves and I’ll begin with Dr. Childs on my left. Continue reading
An update from Vice President Celestino Limas and members of the Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life (IAGGL) will be the subject of a Virtual Town Hall meeting noon-1 p.m. Thursday, April 19. All are invited to participate.
Topics for discussion will include:
1) The previously posted recommended metrics that IAGGL has developed to measure progress of Greek organizations toward the objectives set by the Board of Trustees;
2) The next steps involving implementation of recommendations for strengthening the Greek community set forth by the Working Group on Greek Life and Campus Community and endorsed by the Trustees;
3) Questions and answers.
A total of 69 comments were received through the IAGGL website. A number of alumni were critical of the metrics themselves, several had good questions that IAGGL will attempt to answer, and some simply thought the entire process was aimed at eliminating the Greek system. The IAGGL appreciates these observations and will address the major themes contained in these comments in subsequent updates.
Alumni, students, faculty, and staff may ask questions in advance through 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 17. Questions may be asked during the Town Hall meeting as well, with instructions provided on the screen. Questions will be answered to the greatest extent possible, as time allows.
A recording of the meeting will be available following it on the IAGGL home page.
February 8, 2012
To Lafayette alumni and members of the on-campus community:
Greetings from unseasonably warm College Hill. I am writing to provide an update on the work of the Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life (IAGGL) and to invite alumni and the on-campus community to the first of our Virtual Town Hall meetings on Friday, February 17, from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time. This event will provide a rich opportunity to be briefed on our work and to ask us questions.
In accordance with our charge from the Board of Trustees, the members of IAGGL have been working to establish clear metrics for evaluating the progress of our Greek organizations toward the objectives that were outlined by the board in October. We expect to have these metrics, including interim benchmarks, established by mid-March. Following that, the remainder of the spring semester will be devoted to planning the implementation of recommendations designed to improve Greek life that were proposed by the Working Group on Greek Life and Campus Community and endorsed by the board. At the second Virtual Town Hall meeting, on Friday, April 13, I expect to spend time discussing the metrics that will be used to evaluate the chapters’ progress.
We will host Virtual Town Hall meetings twice a semester, giving alumni and the campus community the opportunity to interact with three or four IAGGL members and to ask questions about our efforts. The meetings will be broadcast from the campus via the internet in a webinar format. First, group members will discuss our progress during a slide presentation. Then there will be plenty of time for questions, and we will answer as many we can during the meeting.
To participate in the meeting, simply click on the Virtual Town Hall link, found on this page, while the meeting is in progress. Our software will allow up to 100 people to participate in this way. To allow for broader involvement in the dialogue, we invite you to submit questions for the meeting in advance. You may do so from now through Monday, Feb. 13, via a link also found on this page. If you can’t join the meeting in real time, the entire program will be recorded and will be available for viewing at your convenience via a link on this page.
I sincerely appreciate and thank you for your support of the work we are doing through the IAGGL, and for your interest in our current students and the College. We will host the Virtual Town Hall meetings this spring on February 17 and April 13 from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time. I hope you can join us for these events.
Best regards,
Celestino Limas, Ph.D.
Vice President for Campus Life & Senior Diversity Officer
Chair, IAGGL