General Questions

Why choose a sorority?

Sororities exist as a proven support network as you embark on this new period in life. Close to a million students across the country are current sorority and fraternity members. There are 261 women in our four sororities, as of Fall 2007. Typically, over 100 freshmen women will register for recuritment in the spring. After the Formal Recruitment period in February, Centre's campus will be slightly more than 50% Greek-affiliated.

Sororites can help personalize your experience at Centre by:Offering a scholastic support team

• Providing hands-on experience in leading committees, managing budgets, and interacting with faculty and administrators
• Exposing you to potential careers through educational programs and discussions with alumni
• Offering the chance to give back to the community through service projects
• Creating close friendships with men and women who will cheer you on when times are tough

What about alcohol and sororities?

Alcohol abuse is unhealthy and inconsistant with sorority/fraternity ideals. All sororities and fraternities are expected to uphold state and city laws, and college, sorority/fraternity, and Panhellenic policies regarding the consumption of alcohol. In addition, fraternities and sororities are not allowed to purchase alcohol for members or guests. The days of open keg parties at Greek social functions are gone. Today's fraternities and sororities promote responsibility concerning alcohol.

What impact could membership have on grades?

Students often find it difficult to manage their time when moving from the highly structured high school environment to the freedoms of college. Sororities and fraternities assist in that transition by offering scholarship programs that may include study partners, mandatory study hours based on GPA, and time mangement workshops. Additionally, you can access and network with members who already know how to use campus resources such as the library, tutors, computer labs, study lounges, and academic advisors. National studies show that students who join Greek organizations are 28% more likely to graduate (and on-time) than non-Greeks.

What is the policy about pledging or hazing?

New sorority and fraternity members all experience a period of oritentation. During this time, you and other new members will participate in weekly meetings to learn about the college and the sorority/fraternity history, leadership retreats, community service projects, and activities to build friendships among new members and the initiated members. ALL SORORITY AND FRATERNITY POLICIES STRICTLY FORBID HAZING and are committed to a membership education period that instills a sense of responsibility and committment in the new members. This period will assist you in overcoming some of the concerns about success in college.

Centre College views any form of hazing as contrary to the mission and purpose of the institution. No individual or group may haze another at any time including initiation into any organization or at the time of affiliation with an organization. In accordance with the Fraternity Executives Association, the National Interfraternity Conferences, and the National Panhellenic Council, Centre College defines hazing as any act or behavior whether physical, emotional, or psychological, which subjects a person, voluntarily or involuntarily, to abuse, mistreatment, degradation, humiliation, harassment, embarrassment, or intimidation, or which may in any fashion compromise her or his inherent human dignity.

At Centre, respect for the personal dignity of each student, faculty, and staff member is crucial to our enterprise. Along with the Association of Fraternity Advisors, the Fraternity Executives Association, the National Interfraternity Conference, and the National Panhellenic Council, the College endorses the hazing policies of the Fraternity Insurance Purchasing Group.

The Student Life Office is committed to appropriate personal, social, and intellectual development of all Centre students and seeks to foster an environment that promotes a positive collegiate experience. Hazing is viewed as detrimental and contradictory to these objectives and will not be tolerated. Any member of the college community who observes a hazing incident should report it immediately to a staff member in the Student Life Office, the Director of Athletics, or the Department of Public Safety. Individuals or groups found guilty of hazing are subject to penalties, which may be as severe as expulsion from the College.

Additionally, forcing, requiring, or expecting new members or initiated members to participate in any of the following actions or activities is explicitly prohibited. The following list is not all-inclusive but gives examples of the kinds of activities/actions that are strictly prohibited.

•  Drinking alcohol or any other substance
•  Using any drug, narcotic, or controlled substance
•  Eating spoiled foods, raw onions, goldfish, or anything a reasonable person would not eat
•  Dropping food or other substances (e.g. eggs, grapes, liver, etc.) into another person's mouth
•  Tying a person to a chair, pole, anchor, tree, or any other object or to another person
•  Causing fatigue through physical or psychological shock
•  Branding
•  Paddling of any nature
•  Performing calisthenics (sit-ups, push-ups, runs, etc.)
•  Rolling up or down hills
•  Pushing, shoving, tackling, or any other physical abuses
•  Throwing anything (whipped cream, garbage, water, paint, etc.) at a person or a group of people
•  Exposing oneself indecently or appearing nude or in a way that is considered by a reasonable person to be offensive
•  Harassing new members verbally
•  Calling new members demeaning names
•  Misleading new members in an effort to convince them they will not be initiated or that they will be hurt during initiation
•  Carrying any items (shields, paintings, paddles, bricks, etc.) that serve no constructive purpose or are designed to punish or embarrass the carrier
•  Waking new members at odd intervals or permitting fewer than six continuous hours of sleep
•  Conducting new member activities between the hours of 12:00 am and 8:00 am
•  Conducting and participating in line-ups
•  Conducting new member activities that do not allow adequate time for study
•  Wearing apparel or accessories that are conspicuous and not normally in good taste or wearing items that cause discomfort
•  Wearing more or less clothing that the temperature or weather permits
•  Defacing property (trees, grounds, buildings, cars, etc.)
•  Stealing any property (composites, trophies, etc.)
• Compelling a person or group to remain at a certain place or transporting a person or group anywhere without their consent (road trips, kidnaps, etc.)
•  Assigning or endorsing pranks (stealing, panty raids, harassing other organizations, etc.)
•  Acting like animals or objects
•  Engaging in public stunts and buffoonery
•  Yelling when entering, traveling through, or leaving any building
•  “Trashing,” intentionally, any area for the purpose of annoying others or for having others clean the “trashed” area
•  Disallowing new members to talk for an extended period of time
• Blindfolding and parading individuals in public areas or privately conducting blindfolding activities that serve no constructive purpose
•  Having new members perform personal chores or errands
•  Having only new members perform wake-up or phone duty
•  Allowing new members to use only a particular door when entering or leaving any building or to use only certain stairways within a building
•  Conducting quests, treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, paddle hunts, etc
• Expecting participation in an activity in which initiated members themselves would not participate

What are IFC and Panhel?
The Interfraternity ( IFC ) and Panhellenic (Panhel) councils are the governing bodies for individual chapters on Centre's campus. These umbrella organizations provide chapters a method by which they can exchange information, create policy, pool resources, and work together towards common goals like service, scholarship, and risk management.

What is the Mutual Statement of Responsibility?
Mutual: given and received in equal amounts.
Responsibility: liable to be called to account for something.
(The American Heritage Dictionary, 1983)

We can be proud of over twenty years of “mutual responsibility,” and of the tradition of excellence associated with the Greek system here at Centre College . These two items, however, are not mutually exclusive. The Mutual Statement of Responsibility requires that we continue to work together in partnership toward a healthy future for the fraternities and sororities at Centre – but more importantly, for the men and women that will come after us. What we do together today will affect their future tomorrow. The Mutual Statement of Responsibility outlines the specific ways in which we all strive to live up to the goals and expectations that we have of each other. It builds upon the work of those that preceded us, and asks us to build upon their success

What is the Greek Review? What are possible standings a chapter could have?
Greek Review is a year-end process that chapters undergo to determine their strengths and opportunities for improvement from the past year and toward the future. The chapters complete a document which provides a comprehensive assessment and accountability measure related to The Mutual Statement of Responsibility. Every four years the Greek Review is a formalized process, and involves a committee of faculty, staff and trustee members.

There are eight possible standings a chapter could have after their Greek Review.

Level 1. Continuation in good standing with commendation and no concerns
Level 2. Continuation in good standing
Level 3. Continuation in good standing with stipulations
Level 4.  Continuation with stipulations
Level 5.  Warning . An indication of significant failures to comply with the agreement which must be corrected by a certain time if the chapter is not to be placed on probation.
Level 6.  Probation . Revocation of one or more privileges of the chapter and/or imposition of additional conditions on it for a specified period of time due to (a) an event or circumstance in violation of the expectations and requirements of the College or (b) failure to comply with the conditions of a warning.
Level 7.  Suspension of Recognition . Revocation of the chapter's rush privileges, credit, approval for campus social activities, and/or other privileges for at least one half year's time due to (a) an event(s) or circumstance(s) in substantial violation of expectations and requirements of the College or (b) recurrence or lack of correction of matters which gave rise to a warning or probation.
Level 8.  Revocation of Recognition . Revocation of all privileges as a recognized fraternity or sorority and termination of all aspects of affiliation with the College due to (a) a major and flagrant failure by an organization to carry out its duties and responsibilities under this agreement or (b) a recurrence of or failure to correct matters which gave rise to probation or suspension of recognition.

What are Rho Gammas? Why don't men have them?
Rho Gammas are women who have chosen to disaffiliate temporarily form their chapters in order to make sure the recruitment process goes smoothly and is effective for all of the Panhellenic chapters on campus. There is no male equivalent for many reasons, including a desire for more autonomy by individual chapters in recruitment, as well as a lack of a single national governing body for the four male fraternities on campus. On some campuses (larger in size) there are a group of temporarily disaffiliated men who operate identically to the Rho Gamma process here. Many, if not all, of these campuses have a formal recruitment structure for the fraternities identical to our structure for the sororities.

What are honorary initiates?
Honorary initiates are men and women that have been chosen for membership in their respective Greek organizations for reasons usually involving long-time service to the organization or some other significant contribution. They do not have to complete the formal pledging process, but are full and worthy members of their organizations.

What is the Order of Omega?
The Purpose of the Order of Omega is:
To recognize those fraternity men and women who have attained a high standard of leadership in interfraternity activities, to encourage them to continue along this line, and to inspire others to strive for similar conspicuous attainment; To bring together outstanding fraternity men and women to create an organization which will help to mold the sentiment of the institution on questions of local and intercollegiate fraternity affairs; To bring together members of the faculty, alumni, and student members of the institution's fraternities and sororities on a basis of mutual interest, understanding and helpfulness; To help create an atmosphere where ideas and issues can be discussed openly across Greek lines and to help work out solutions.

The requirements for membership in the Lambda Delta chapter of Order of Omega here at Centre are:

1. a one-time initiation fee is $40,
2. One full academic year of residence at Centre College
3. Junior or Senior (undergraduate) standing.
4. Rank academically above the all-Gender average, respectively.
5. Be in good standing with your fraternal organization.

Nationally, the Order of Omega offers scholarships for leadership institutes, graduate and doctoral programs. At Centre, Order of Omega offers a leadership scholarship to the Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute (UIFI), and participates in community service work in the greater Boyle County-Danville area.

What do risk managers do?
Risk managers are responsible for the management of sober monitor programs within the chapter, designated driver programs, chapter reporting in the wake of an incident, and are generally seen as responsible for the safety of the chapter house, members, and guests. They may also oversee educational programming on hazing, alcohol, drugs, and gender issues (some chapters have a separate chair for this). They are NOT babysitters or EMT 's.

Why do sororities have “dry” houses?
Sororities, and many fraternities, have dry houses for many reasons. All houses that are “dry” on campus are mandated that way by the individual national organization, and not Centre Colelge. The two most frequently cited reasons for mandated “dry” houses are: (1) alcohol causing members to act contrary to the organization's values, and (2) having an alcohol-free facility is a method of controlling skyrocketing insurance costs. In case you didn't know, each chapter is required to carry at least one million ($1,000,000) dollars of liability insurance for their organization. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners ranked fraternities and sororities as the sixth-worst risk for insurance companies – just behind hazardous waste disposal companies and asbestos contractors.

My fraternity/sorority is a “social” organization. What does that mean?
Social, in every sense of the word does not mean “with alcohol”. A basic definition for social in this context could be: interacting with different people in unique settings. One could also look at “social” and believe it to be “preparing young men and women to develop critical people and interaction skills that are necessary for success in life.” Ultimately, groups are not called “social” because the events they sponsor (i.e. parties, formals, mixers, etc.), but rather because they are founded to teach their members how to act in society.

Social: prepare members for life in society (e.g. Alpha Delta Pi, Delta Delta Delta, Phi Kappa Tau, Phi Delta Theta, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi)

Academic or ‘honorary': recognize high achievement and scholarship (e.g. Phi Beta Kappa or Order of Omega)

Professional: prepare members to be better *biologists, businessmen, chemists, psychologists, writers, etc.* (e.g. Beta Beta Beta)

Service: prepare members for a life of servant leadership (e.g. Alpha Phi Omega)

The world we live in today has changed. Today's fraternities and sororities are not the drinking clubs they once were associated with. This is, however, not to say that there doesn't exist a few drinking clubs that masquerade as fraternities or sororities. The ideas and ideals of the founders are alive and well. The bedrocks of academic excellence, the provision of opportunities for leadership and personal growth, the doing of good deeds for community and philanthropy, and above all the establishment of a brotherhood and sisterhood that forever burns in the hearts of its members, are stronger now than ever. Through providing those assets and bedrocks, a home away from home is created unlike any other. Nationally, studies have proven that retention and graduation rates have increased as a result of membership in a Greek organization.

The 1990's brought us the true culture of Animal House, Old School, and Van Wilder, to name a few. Historically, this decade marks the paramount time when drinking clubs masqueraded as fraternities and sororities. Not surprisingly, the 1990's were wrought with numerous tragedies, deaths and unfortunate circumstances. In 1999-2000, fraternities and sororities returned to the values and ideals of their founders. In 2004, after two years of planning, 60+ member organizations in the National Interfraternity Conference adopted and mutually agreed to enforce the standards which call men and women to something greater – and demand accountability and responsibility for their actions. In 2007, those same groups have taken the next steps to form coalitions of good men and women with the purpose of traveling to the over 800 campuses in North America that have Greek communities and assessing the health, status and climate of their Greek systems. From this information, these groups hope to provide an agreed-upon framework of resources in an effort to raise campus communities to the level in which they need to be.