MEMORANDUM
TO: Alumni Members of Greek Chapters
FROM: President Daniel F. Sullivan
RE: Greek Engagement Project
DATE: March 29, 2002

I write to invite your participation in a project launched just prior to our Spring break in mid-March, a project that will center on student initiative about and aspirations for the Greek system at St. Lawrence University. When the students return, our collaboration will begin in earnest and we will shape the scope, nature and format of the project that will continue through the fall semester. Therefore, I issue an invitation early in the process, knowing that our students and campus participants will define the means for your involvement later this spring. A dedicated Web site will advise on updates and opportunities: http://www.stlawu.edu/ucomm/engagement.html

Let me foreground the project by citing the reasons we launched it. Three important issues continue to face the Greek community: declining membership, declining grades during new member selection, and occupancy issues. The system is struggling with these issues, especially as students today come to St. Lawrence with a variety of interests and expectations and create a variety of social options. Greek organizations must recreate themselves for contemporary life.

Declining membership: Some historical perspective may be a helpful place to begin. In the 1960s, 75% of the students belonged to a Greek chapter. In the 1970s, that percentage had dropped to 50%, and interest in joining a fraternity or sorority has seen steady decline in the years since. Over the past several years, when we surveyed the students who arrive for first-year orientation (part of a national survey project), we have seen less student interest in joining the Greek system, especially fraternities. For example, in 2000, only 7.2% of those coming to St. Lawrence stated an intention to join a Greek chapter while in college. The following fall, when those first-year students became sophomores, 23% of them who achieved the GPA minimum of 2.5 chose to pledge a Greek chapter (overall, 15% of the sophomores claim Greek membership). When we consider all three classes who are eligible (sophomores, juniors and seniors) we see that 13% (120 students of 927 who met eligibility) elected to join the system-that compares, for example, to 22% in the fall of 1996 (185 students from 835 eligible). Overall, 26% of all upperclass students currently belong to the Greek system. This compares to 29% in the Fall 2000, 34% in the Fall 1999 or 37% in the Fall 1996.

For our part, to help guide the Greek system, we've increased professional staff support to enhance recruitment and programming; we have refurbished houses; we adjusted the GPA requirements to allow students who improve their academic performance to become eligible; we support faculty, staff and alumni advisors; we allow houses to hold informational meetings for first-year students late in the spring semester and Greek houses can hold informal spring pledging for upperclass students. Four administrative staff members have Greek advising as part of their job descriptions.

Declining grades: A review of academic performance before, during and after pledging for the past four years reveals that pledging, especially for men, has a negative effect on students' grades. For men, grades drop .2 to .4 points and in none of the completed pledge semesters reviewed has the GPA returned to the level prior to pledging. For those men who meet the minimal Greek membership GPA requirements of 2.5, and who suffer as much as a .4 decline in their grades, this means they place themselves in jeopardy of academic probation and endanger their graduation. I believe we are not serving these students as well as we should; clearly they had been capable of more.

We have reviewed the grade data for independent students, and we find that grades for sophomore, independent women rise in the fall semester while grades for independent men decline an average .034 points, much less than the .2 to .4 drop of the Greek male classmates.

Occupancy issues: The University's residence halls are at full capacity now, although theme cottages and Greek chapter houses, primarily fraternities, have empty beds. Fraternities had a 64% occupancy rate last semester, with 45 empty beds of 125 available in four houses. Sororities fared better, with 100% occupancy in the University-owned house and 11 empty beds among the three other privately owned Greek houses. This is a problem we must resolve immediately. The Board of Trustees has authorized enrollment growth of up to 150 students, due largely to improved retention, as an objective that helps the University achieve its strategic goals of academic leadership and financial stability. We expect residence halls to be full for the foreseeable future. St. Lawrence has steadily maintained its mission as a four-year, residential liberal arts college. That means we believe students learn in residential situations and we work to involve students in residence all four years. It's who we are. We also recognize upperclass students' desires to be more independent, while retaining membership in the campus community for philosophical as well as practical purposes. That is why we are pursuing plans to construct townhouse-style residences for seniors on campus.

Therefore, all available spaces on campus-Greek, theme and residential-must be used to house students. As of fall 2002, theme cottages and Greek houses that are unable to fill their spaces with members will work with residential staff to fill spaces with friends of the organizations. The University will not assign students to themes and Greek houses, but will work with students to identify compatible students to live there.

The Greek Engagement Project: We're asking students to demonstrate that they can recreate Greek societies as relevant and productive organizations in our contemporary culture. Current Greek student leaders and alumni advisors, faculty/staff advisors, student life professionals directing the project, and other student leaders interested in the health and welfare of the Greek system will work together. Their mission is to identify exemplary models of Greek life, to adapt and improve upon these models, and to recommend what steps and changes need to be implemented to assure that St. Lawrence has an inclusive, progressive and collaborative system emphasizing scholarship, fellowship and service. The partners will examine the relationships between the chapters and the University, current challenges, shared values and external relations.

The Greek Engagement Project will gain a broad perspective on the state of the Greek community and will hold a series of open forums and meetings with students, faculty, staff, advisors, community members and alumni.

Some suggest the current status of the Greek system is a direct result of decisions made by the University in the past. Two decisions, cited most frequently as a cause of challenge, date to 1993, emanating from a tripartite "Recommendation 26 Committee" of faculty, staff and students. (Recommendation 26 refers to the final suggestion of the 1987 faculty Commission on Alternatives to the Greek System [CAGS], a suggestion that asked that a "Presidential commission be convened to re-examine the Greek system in light of changes that resulted from the other 25 recommendations." CAGS itself was a faculty examination of the role and nature of the Greek system at 10 liberal arts colleges, including St. Lawrence. From CAGS came the Reciprocal Relations Agreement, which guided Greek-University policies for five years.)

One 1993 decision was to defer rushing and pledging until the sophomore year, the other raised the grade point average necessary for Greek eligibility to 2.5. Both recommendations were proffered to allow first-year students the chance to establish the firmest foundation possible to their academic careers, and both were cited as consistent with the Greek aspiration of academic excellence. These decisions stand, though with some alterations-first-years can attend informational sessions; students with two consecutive semesters of a 2.5 GPA can pledge and students have the option to pledge either fall or spring. We acknowledge these are factors in decreased Greek participation, but we believe less so than the system's inability to be an attractive choice both here and nationally. The fact remains that there are several hundred students (74.6% of sophomores, juniors and seniors) on campus who meet eligibility requirements, yet choose not to join the system.