Npower, a leadership development consultancy firm, released a report on the WSU greek system. Entitled, Report for Strengthening the Washington State University Fraternity & Sorority Community, it mainly focuses on problems plaguing frats at WSU. Among the things the 19 page report says are:
There is a perception that the administration is out to “shut the system down” even when many acknowledge that the University President has publicly supported the fraternal organizations several times. There is a small but loud negative element in the alumni ranks perpetuating rumors and gossip. They are actively looking for ways that the University is trying to, in their eyes, destroy the community. This must be quelled by the equally vocal alumni who are tired of these negative attitudes. (page 4)
The fraternities are in a housing crisis. Fraternity facilities are generally in poor shape. They have signed house corporation contracts but these contracts are not being enforced It appears that fraternities are in a difficult position of either not charging enough dues and ensuring the collection of the existing dues and trying to find the appropriate pricing point to remain competitive with the other housing options. This is compounded by the current belief held by many fraternities that if they could just move freshmen directly into their chapter house it would solve all of their problems. (page 5)
Many of the men’s fraternities do not have a live-in adult house director. Greek Live In Advisors are required for chapters granted Freshman Approved Housing status (WSU Freshman Approved Housing Policy). Overwhelmed alumni volunteers are having a difficult time to fill the live-in housing positions. These alumni feel underserved by their own inter/national organizations, the University, and local chapters in this area. Undergraduates who do not have the knowledge of owning and maintaining a home are mostly left in charge. (page 6)
The current over/under stamping system of the Greek Alcohol Policy is not working. Police officers routinely ticket students for underage drinking. The men still feel the responsibility of hosting parties and general sorority member expect to be served alcohol.
Chapter and council leaders acknowledge that “alcohol is really holding us back.” New groups established as alcohol-free are challenged. In the words of one student “It’s hard to be different here.” New or reorganized fraternities may start with lofty goals related to alcohol use but when the sororities don’t attend events or just show for a very short period of time to the alcohol-free events, they feel the draw of alcohol. The women admit their attendance would be lower. There is little support for the fraternity leaders to change the party dynamic. (emphasis Cougster, page 7&8 )
See the full report here. Want to share you thoughts on Greek Life? Post in the Cougster.com forums.
Here is the winning film in the Wazzu 60 second film competition. It was made by WSU students and alumni who also are part of Optimistic Productions. They have other films on their website here. " target="_blank">Zombie
WSU President V. Lane Rawlins is having an dialogue session today at noon in CUE 518. This is your time to speak your mind and ask him whatever you want. We do suggest you rehearse your question and be polite even if you are not happy about something. This dialogue session will be streaming live. Most of the time you can email your questions in also.
Click here for the dialogue in Real Audio format and here for Windows Media. (at around noon they should work)
Update: While we are glad this dialogue session was streamed live we dissipointed that there was no way to email in questions (this has been in the case in the past) and that one could barely hear the questions being asked.
KLXY has a story on WSU vet school and the little "miracles" that happen there everyday. See the story here. Our vet school is actually pretty hard to get into. See our post from a while back on this here.
In the past year there have been a number of trail blazing universities posting complete sets of course lectures online in the form of podcasts and videos. Berkley has complete courses freely available on google video (see previous post on cougster here). Even UW has some free podcasts online for students and the general public. If we are in deed world class we need to show it. If Berkley can do it, why can't we? Lets build the WSU brand.
President Rawlins is having a open dialogue session tomorrow at noon in CUE 518. Cougster.com encourages you to attend and ask him to promote WSU to the world and put our course lectures online. Check out what some other universities have available here.
