2008 Woodie Awards
Greek pledging controversy
IGC votes to uphold traditional pledging practices
Adriana Coopman
Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
The Inter Greek Counsel (IGC) has recently been debating over the issue of whether to change the traditional pledging process. Greek advisors proposed a new pledging process be created in order to give the Greek organizations on campus more recruiting time.
This would push back the start of pledging to November, pause in December for winter break, and resume in January. Ideally there would only be one pledging period for students, and a smaller pledging period would be discussed for those students wishing to pledge during spring semester. Traditionally rush week has been held in September with cross over being before Christmas break. There also has been a second period the same length of seven weeks held during the spring semester.
In addition to giving actives more time to recruit members, the Greek advisors also hoped that by creating this new proposal, it would allow first semester freshmen more time to decide which organization is the best fit for them. However, the Greek students felt that this new proposal was pushed upon them, and threatened their traditions. On Tuesday, September 4 IGC decided to set the proposal aside until next year, and keep the traditional pledging period for this school year.
Although the pledging process has been decided to stay traditional, the issue of whether to allow first semester freshmen to pledge has also been brought up. The IGC constitution states that any Lakeland College student with a college GPA of 2.25 can pledge. This restricts first semester freshmen from pledging since they do not have a college GPA yet. However, for the past four years IGC has voted to allow freshmen to pledge in order to get numbers up in Greek life.
Now that numbers in each organization have increased, the need to allow freshmen to pledge is being overlooked. Allowing these students to join a Greek organization their first semester of college causes concern to the Greek advisers. It is a lifetime commitment and they do not want students to make a wrong decision and pledge a fraternity or sorority that is unfit for them.
The first semester freshmen who have pledged say that pledging enabled them to become more involved on campus. These students also make up the majority of each Greek organization.
The issue was voted on by IGC September 13, 2007. The Inter Greek Counsel voted to keep the past rule, and allow first semester freshmen to pledge for the school year. This rule applies to each Greek organization on campus. The official GPA that first semester freshmen need to have in order to pledge is a 2.75 high school GPA. If they would like to pledge, but do not have a high enough GPA to do so, there will be another opportunity in the spring to raise their grades and pledge a fraternity or sorority.
This would push back the start of pledging to November, pause in December for winter break, and resume in January. Ideally there would only be one pledging period for students, and a smaller pledging period would be discussed for those students wishing to pledge during spring semester. Traditionally rush week has been held in September with cross over being before Christmas break. There also has been a second period the same length of seven weeks held during the spring semester.
In addition to giving actives more time to recruit members, the Greek advisors also hoped that by creating this new proposal, it would allow first semester freshmen more time to decide which organization is the best fit for them. However, the Greek students felt that this new proposal was pushed upon them, and threatened their traditions. On Tuesday, September 4 IGC decided to set the proposal aside until next year, and keep the traditional pledging period for this school year.
Although the pledging process has been decided to stay traditional, the issue of whether to allow first semester freshmen to pledge has also been brought up. The IGC constitution states that any Lakeland College student with a college GPA of 2.25 can pledge. This restricts first semester freshmen from pledging since they do not have a college GPA yet. However, for the past four years IGC has voted to allow freshmen to pledge in order to get numbers up in Greek life.
Now that numbers in each organization have increased, the need to allow freshmen to pledge is being overlooked. Allowing these students to join a Greek organization their first semester of college causes concern to the Greek advisers. It is a lifetime commitment and they do not want students to make a wrong decision and pledge a fraternity or sorority that is unfit for them.
The first semester freshmen who have pledged say that pledging enabled them to become more involved on campus. These students also make up the majority of each Greek organization.
The issue was voted on by IGC September 13, 2007. The Inter Greek Counsel voted to keep the past rule, and allow first semester freshmen to pledge for the school year. This rule applies to each Greek organization on campus. The official GPA that first semester freshmen need to have in order to pledge is a 2.75 high school GPA. If they would like to pledge, but do not have a high enough GPA to do so, there will be another opportunity in the spring to raise their grades and pledge a fraternity or sorority.
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