What will it be? This is my question.
After our discussions last week in class, I started to really think about this. President Gee said he wants to expand Greek life at Ohio State (essentially, double in size) in the next five years. This doesn't seem feasible at first glance, at least in my opinion, but with the switch to the semester system I start to see it become a real possibility.
Right now, around 2,730 students are actively Greek at Ohio State, 6.5% of the OSU undergrad population. Let's be a little more conservative and say we don't double, but still increase in size from 6.5% to 10%. Should that be the case, the OSU Greek population would increase from 2,730 to 4,208 members. I don't think the numbers really do this justice. This change, I think, would be huge, and have an impact on this Greek life and this entire campus that we cannot even fathom at this point.
With all that said, I have a strong concern with this. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE for Greek Life to expand at Ohio State. However, with this expansion, I think we as members of the Greek community need to be very cautious. I have learned from visits to other campuses and conversations with Greeks at other schools with strong Greek involvement that their version of "Greek life" may not be one that is tasteful, especially with the current struggles of the fraternal movement. In essence, what I am saying is that I have a little fear in the back of my mind that if Greek life expands at OSU as President Gee and others are pushing for it to do, many Greeks might become caught up in the media version of what it means to be in a fraternity or sorority.
I may be totally disconnected with this assumption, so please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! I am also concerned with the push that the University is giving to Greek Life. I am not saying that there aren't other, even more guys out there that are great men who can become Fiji's however i think this push can have a major impact on our chapter. First of all we do not have the knowledge as of right now on how to hold a chapter as large as 120 people. I think that it will come with time however there will be problems as we approach that number. I also worry that some people in our fraternity will find it necessary to bring up any and every guy that they find in order to increase our chapter size. Although they want to increase the size of greek life, we are not increasing the size of the University at the same time. So there will still be the same amount of guys for us to recruit. I just feel a little uneasy because I want us to do what WE feel is right not what the University thinks we should do.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I'm a little worried about this switch. Now most of my worries came from 1st semester recruiting. I would never feel confident about recruiting a kid right out of high school, its just such a gamble. That said, Sharrell made me feel better last week when she said that scenario is unlikely right now. Even then, I don't want to be like SigEp and not know all my brothers. Not to mention what having 120 people could do to successfully running the chapter.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, I feel it is our duty to leave FIJI in a position to be successful when this push happens.
I definitely agree with you Quintero. I'm very much nervous to see how this transition would have worked out. Especially with recruitment and what fraternities are allowed to do. When they're allowed to extend bids and so on and so forth. I know that I would not have even considered greek life if I did not have an entire quarter to think about it and venture round to check out many of them to make my pick. I think a lot of guys are in that category and this switch might hinder us recruiting those kinds of guys.
ReplyDeleteIt will be each chapter holding each other accountable, as wlel as strong councils and a strong support system from the University that keeps Greek life from falling apart when growing. Its not an overnight thing. Do you think we could all of a sudden have 150 members? No way.
ReplyDeleteIn 5 years? Maybe not 150, but 100-120 is totally feasible, especially if the Greek community growns. It is a constant process, not an overnight thing. However it requires a strong basis and strong values that show that the greek community.
I also don't know my thoughts on the high school recruiting. That is a very very touchy subject, however making that initial connection and then keeping on it (recruiotment committee) shows that there is an interest. The university supporting our recruitment efforts (like giving us the listserv to all potential first years or allowing us to recruit/talk about greek life at orientation, or with OL's, or have a greek invovlement fair etc etc) are the first steps, but only after we show that we care about this university and we live our values.
I think it's good to be cautiously optimistic about growing as a community. When I was a Senior (2004), we were hovering around 3% of campus was Greek. Obviously, we've grown as a community since then. As we look at policies and standards that will help to support Greeks, it's important to listen to the voice of the undergraduates. It's also important that groups like FIJI continue to set the bar high. This will help the entire community to recruit better members and ultimately create change for their chapters and the community as a whole.
ReplyDelete