Coalition Formed to Create Assessment/Accreditation Process for
Fraternity and Sorority Communities
Dr. Ron Binder, 2006 AFA President
January 2006
We’re just a few days into 2006 and there is already much to share about a historic initiative getting underway that has the potential to transform campus fraternity/sorority communities. This month’s President Report will serve as the first of many communications about the coalition that has been formed to create an assessment/accreditation process for fraternity and sorority communities. AFA is, and will continue to be, actively involved in all stages of this initiative.
Many of you are familiar with the Call for Values Congruence that was disseminated broadly in 2003. The authors of the Call for Values Congruence - college and university presidents, the presidents of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), and inter/national fraternity and sorority executive directors - joined together to develop a presidential initiative to transform the collegiate fraternity and sorority environment. They referred to themselves as the Franklin Square conferees due to the location of their deliberations.
Dr. Steffen H. Rogers, in the A Call for Values Congruence booklet states,
“The Franklin Square conferees firmly believe that rhetoric will match reality when fraternity and sorority headquarters, host campuses, and students collaboratively implement and assess practices and policies grounded in a shared set of standards. A site visit certification process is proposed to affirm shared standards among collegiate Greek chapters and inter/national Greek organizations.”
In the A Call for Values Congruence a Recommendation For Presidents And Chancellors is:
“Establish a periodic ‘certification process,’ preferably conducted by or including representation external of the campus, of all recognized social fraternities and sororities. This site visit process would focus on each individual chapter’s record of abiding by established policies and fulfilling enunciated expectations. The results of these certification reviews would be shared with individual chapters, designated alumni, and the respective national headquarters of each fraternity and sorority. Such reviews should result in commendation, certification, or probationary status, and where justified, should lead to the closing of individual chapters.
This certification process should also entail:
A. Expanding the interaction between the campus student affairs leadership with Greek representation and local alumni to discuss best practices and to address behavioral problems;
B. Forming a review committee of campus programs targeting alcohol abuse and its second hand effects; and
C. Submitting best practices to higher education associations and fraternity headquarters to facilitate widespread adoption.”
This recommendation was the focus of conversations at the recent NASPA Greek Summit, held in Evanston, Illinois on November 7-8, 2005.
At the Summit updates were provided from NIC, NALFO, NPHC and NPC representatives or designees regarding the status of their standards documents and/or the initiatives each had put into place to ensure their member groups are educating students/alumni about their standards and how member groups are holding undergraduate chapters accountable. Present for these reports were representatives from the presidents’ associations and several university presidents originally represented in the Franklin Square group.
These presidents and association leaders met with the umbrella organizations in attendance. They congratulated the organizations on establishing their standards documents and initiated discussion about assessing the effectiveness of the documents on a campus by campus basis. It was tentatively agreed upon that an ad hoc committee comprised of all four umbrella organizations, in addition to AFA, would meet to create an assessment/accreditation process. In the most general of terms, the assessment/accreditation (to include pre-assessment data gathering, an onsite visit and post-assessment follow-up) would take place once every ten years, with the first series of campus visits to be confirmed by September 2006. The coalition is charged with sending a draft of the assessment/accreditation to the presidents for review and feedback by the end of April. Refining will take place through the summer months and implementation, as mentioned above, will begin in this September. This is a quick timeline; however we are confident we can move the interfraternal movement forward with this accreditation process.
A coalition has been formed with representatives from AFA, NIC, NALFO, NPHC, NPC, and FEA to create this assessment/accreditation process. Clearly there is much work to be done and many questions to explore during this process. It is not an overstatement to say that this effort is historic and will require the commitment of all of our organizations and their members to be successful.
I have appointed Amy Vojta and Mike Hayes to serve as AFA’s two representatives on the coalition. Amy currently serves the Association as Past President and is a two-time AFA President. She is the Assistant Dean of Fraternity/Sorority Affairs at Rutgers University. Mike Hayes is the Director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Maryland and a past president of the Association. Mike has solid experience with both accreditation processes and coalition building within the fraternal community. Mike and Amy will be working side-by-side with colleagues from across the coalition in the months ahead.
There will be more information to share as the coalition begins its work. Their first meeting will be held in the coming weeks and we will keep AFA members informed as we learn more about this tremendous endeavor. In the meantime, please direct any questions you have to Amy Vojta at
vojta@rci.rutgers.edu. We will make sure they are answered in a timely fashion and will share insights and answers to them more broadly in future Association Updates.
My best to each of you for a prosperous New Year. Please let us know how AFA can assist you with your good work.