Next year, Fraternity and Sorority Life’s (FSL) standards system, which promotes academic and community involvement, will be updated. A committee has completed the final draft that, if approved, will take effect in April. These new standards, drafted since early last semester, aim to address various complaints from standards chairs of FSL organizations from last year, particularly regarding attendance requirements for different events and trainings.
During a meeting on Feb. 25, the standards committee produced a draft that Sigma Theta Tau Standards Chair Sonja Postma, senior mathematical finance and economics double-major, called generally satisfactory for the FSL community. For last year’s standards, organizations earned “points” based on the percentage of members attending standards events, such as trainings or guest lectures, according to Postma. The issue with the old system was that members attended these events simply out of obligation.
Breona Jones, coordinator for Fraternity and Sorority Life, said the new standards aim to address this concern by including members of the FSL community in its development, with the goal of making members more genuinely passionate rather than seeing them as extra requirements. She said this current draft is believed to be the final product, though it hasn’t been officially approved by her supervisor, Jarvis Clark, director of Student Engagement and Development. However, Jones said she hopes this draft will be approved by April and implemented at the beginning of next year.
“I would hope that since the community got to be a part of giving feedback towards the standards and the revamping process, that they feel a sense of ownership towards it,” Jones said. “That it would continue to build on the community pillars they have as Greek Council and Fraternity and Sorority Life.”
Associate Dean of Students Ben Williams acknowledged this collaborative nature as well, saying feedback regarding standards is important for the FSL community. He said the previous system had become about enforcing requirements without considering what they were trying to achieve, which is why feedback from FSL members is so important.
“It’s super helpful to us so we can figure out how to avoid doing that, and that’s part of why the engagement with the community and all these people and pieces are so critically important,” Williams said. “So hopefully people will feel comfortable coming in and having those conversations.”
The Trinitonian was unable to obtain details of the current standards because, according to Jones, it has not been finalized and remains subject to change.
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