As a celebration of fraternities’ academic achievement, the MU Fraternity Alumni Consortium awards banners that high-achieving chapters can proudly display outside their houses.
The organization recognized 11 Interfraternity Council chapters whose fall 2011 GPAs exceeded the all-campus GPA at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Jesse Hall rotunda.
IFC President Patrick Wolff said recognition is important in providing goals for chapters to exceed.
“There are benchmarks set here, and it’s always great if you meet a benchmark,” he said. “It also creates an incentive for other chapters to reach a benchmark, to set a benchmark, to achieve improvement from where they were, so I think creating an incentive is a very important step in bringing up the standards, to allow all our chapters to thrive.”
MU administrators, IFC and the Office of Greek Life have been collaborating with the Fraternity Alumni Consortium to enhance fraternity chapters since 2009. They began recognizing academic achievement four semesters ago.
“We (the administration) want the fraternity chapters to be a place where students can be academically successful,” Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs said during the ceremony.
The organization hopes to get all IFC chapters to exceed the all-campus GPA, John Dean, Fraternity Alumni Consortium Academic Achievement chairman said. Before this program was implemented, only about 25 percent of fraternity chapters would achieve the all-campus GPA each semester. Between 40 and 50 percent of fraternity chapters now reach this goal.
Dean said new techniques during recruitment are designed to help all chapters surpass the all-campus GPA.
“There’s actually a form that a prospective fraternity member fills out, and it includes such information such as GPA in high school, SAT or ACT score and some of his leadership responsibilities,” Dean said. “It’s not a requirement that (fraternities) use that form, but more and more of them are using it, and more and more of them are starting to screen for academic potential. That’s a job that you have to do internally in each fraternity.”
Dean said during recruitment and Summer Welcome, the banners act as effective recruiting tools, especially for parents.
“It’s effective on parents who may be skeptical about having their kid join a fraternity, but when they see the academic banner and they go inside and start talking about academics, it means something,” he said.
The Fraternity Alumni Consortium awarded two types of banners. Eight chapters received a black banner, meaning their all-chapter GPAs exceeded the all-campus GPA. Alpha Gamma Sigma, Beta Sigma Psi, Delta Tau Delta, Phi Gamma Delta and Sigma Chi received banners. Alpha Epsilon Pi, Theta Chi and Alpha Gamma Rho retained this honor from the spring 2011 semester.
Chapters with the top three all-chapter GPAs receive gold Chancellor’s Circle banners. Phi Kappa Theta and Acacia received banners. Beta Theta Pi retained its gold banner from last semester.
Phi Gamma Delta was recognized for the first time since its recolonization. Members kept each other accountable in order to each the chapter’s academic goal, Phi Gamma Delta President Jack O’Neill said.
“Last year, when we were a colony, we set a goal to get (at least) a 3.0 average, and that’s what we achieved,” he said.
Wolff said the banners are a source of pride for individual chapters.
“They show to other chapters, to prospective members, to alumni, to family, the importance the chapters place on their academic excellence,” he said. “It’s a symbol of pride and a symbol of accomplishment for them.”