Members of Greek Life assess semester report

Southeast Missouri State Greek life consists of the National Panhellenic Council, the Interfraternity Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council; each of which are evaluating their spring semester report in order to progress this fall.

One of the main goals Greek Life at Southeast Missouri State University set out to accomplish last semester was to increase the GPA of its members due to the closing gap between greek GPA and the all-undergraduate GPA. In the spring 2016 semester, the all-Greek average GPA was 3.17 while the all-undergraduate was 3.02. Leading in grades is the National Panhellenic Council, which broke a record this year with an average GPA of 3.332. Alpha Chi Omega had the highest GPA (3.459) while Sigma Sigma Sigma ranked the lowest (3.167).

While NPC improved in grades, the Inter-Fraternity Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council remained consistent with their past averages. The IFC board obtained an average GPA of 2.981 and NPHC obtained 2.719. Both are above the average all-men’s and all-African American GPAs, but below the all-undergraduate average.

“If you look at the all-NPC GPA compared to the all-undergraduate women’s GPA, you will see a very similar trend to the IFC grades compared to the all-undergraduate male GPA. Both IFC and NPC have shown consistently to be above the averages of their respective sexes,” IFC president, Sean Thomas, said. “Same goes when comparing IFC to NPC. The campus has shown that women tend to get better grades than men by a significant amount, regardless of Greek affiliation.”

In order to help elevate grades among IFC members, the executive board took an active role in catalyzing collaboration among chapters about specific academic plans. The executive board met with an officer from each chapter and assessed their academic plans and success. Once they were through meeting with each chapter, they gave individualized feedback on how each chapter could improve.

“We saw the downward slope of the IFC academic performance and wanted to address the problem before we dipped below the male average,” Thomas said. “The introduction of these programs will not have a direct and immediate impact on chapter grades, but will hopefully be seen in two to three years given that the programs are still running.”

IFC also has a $1,000 grant that the chapters split up between every chapter based on their number of participants in tutorial services.

NPHC has the lowest GPA of all three councils on campus. They allow every chapter to set their own individual academic goals which they achieve through different strategies such as study hours.

“We as a council would like to raise our council GPA and that starts with holding ourselves accountable,” NPHC president Justin Robinson said.

The NPC executive board has recognized the gap in GPA between itself and IFC and NPHC and wants to sponsor a presentation by a guest speaker that emphasizes academics and invite all of Greek Life to attend as a minimum standard.

Although NPC did have a very successful year in regard to academics, the executive board did not address many of its other goals.

“It was a crazy semester,” NPC president, Claire Simonds, said. “There were a lot of unexpected things that happened like refilling offices and bringing Alpha Phi to campus.”

Last semester the executive board lost two of its members and had to find other candidates to fill the positions. The board also completed an entire selection process and successfully brought a new chapter, Alpha Phi, onto campus.

“This upcoming semester we want to publicize more to the community the positive aspects of Greek Life,” Simonds said.

All three councils had a successful philanthropic year by breaking the previous year’s records in community service hours and dollars raised for charity. NPC raised $52,254.81 between 619 members and served 5,919 community service hours. The highest ranking chapter in money raised was Delta Delta Delta, which raised $33,120 for charity. IFC raised $24,455.08 and served 2,832 hours between 537 members. The highest ranking chapter in money raised was Pi Kappa Alpha with $9,940 raised. NPHC raised $730 between its 39 members and served 147 community service hours. Delta Sigma Theta accounted for $705 raised and 133 community service hours.

“The drastic rise in philanthropic donations is largely due to the timing of events held by IFC chapter(s),” Thomas said.

Thomas said the spring semester is a big time for Greek Life philanthropy. He is not expecting IFC to beat that fundraising number in the upcoming semester but to beat last fall’s numbers as a better comparison.

This semester, IFC plans to be a bigger presence at Southeast’s athletic events, see an increase in average GPA from their academic plan, and host campus-wide events to create a more inclusive community.

NPC surpassed its GPA goal last semester and is moving toward getting a better reputation around the community. Its members also want to focus on sisterhood and new member experiences from each chapter in order to keep retention as high as possible.

This year, NPHC will focus on becoming more inclusive with the other greek councils on campus. Robinson plans to host community service events and invite IFC and NPC in order to give back to the community as well as integrate the greek councils.

NPC will host formal recruitment Sept. 7 through 11; IFC chapters will host rush events from Aug. 19 through Sept. 2; and NPHC will accept applications for membership as soon as school begins.

Students can sign up for recruitment at semogreeks.com.

Click here to view the entire semester report.