Chapters credit better study habits for higher grade averages
Assistant Director of Student Development and Orientation Kevin Bazner said the emphasis on academics has been increased along with individual improvements within each chapter or council.
“On our end, from just the university, it’s really just been a lot of discussion and a lot of emphasis that academics are important. We need to focus on it. Council level, IFC, Panhalennic and MGC [Multicultural Greek Council], they’ve been working individually with the chapters,” Bazner said.
A 2.0 GPA must be maintained for any officer in an organization. The members within a particular organization have different requirements for the individuals involved.
“Individually, as a university, the only requirement is that any officer for any organization must maintain a 2.0 average. For any of the individual organizations, they will have specific requirements,” Bazner said.
Bazner said the goals for any of the councils or chapters is to be above the respective average, with all males in an organization being above the all-campus male average and all females in an organization being above the all-campus female average.
“We’d love to maintain the all-Greek GPA above the all-campus GPA,” Bazner said.
Any organization existing on campus has either a component of academics or scholastic achievement in its organizational goals. From an academic standpoint these objectives are in line with the organization’s mission.
“Every single one of the groups has some sort of component where they’re all about making sure they’re graduating their members or educating their members to be productive members of society,” Bazner said.
After a low all-Greek GPA last semester, emphasis on grades has been stricter on each organization.
“The emphasis that grades are important, academics, and being very public with the grade reports has really helped.”
Commander of Sigma Nu fraternity Zane Pollock said his fraternity has increased library hours to increase the chapter’s GPA and dropped members who consistently had low grades.
“Our GPA has consistently been raising since last fall, and we now have the second highest GPA in IFC,” Pollock said.
Sigma Nu has maintained a high GPA by requiring members to participate in study hours. Two nights a week the fraternity gathers in study rooms. Study hours for this group ranges from two to 10 hours based on the previous semester’s GPA.
“Our study habits have improved by our scholarship chair keeping watch of who does their study hours. We get study rooms two nights a week to allow for all of us to study together, keeping each other on track and off of Facebook and Twitter,” Pollock said.
Academics are important to Sigma Nu because high grade point averages attract new members and promote a faster graduate rate.