USING A CHAPTER HEALTH INDEX TO SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS

In fall 2016, a chapter at Case Western Reserve University closed after 24 years despite significant effort to keep it open from the Greek Life Office, chapter’s alumni, and headquarters staff. As we reflected upon our inability to save the chapter, we realized the efforts to do so began too late. By the time our staff intervened — with the help of headquarters staff and volunteers — the chapter was already too far gone. This situation prompted us to think about the warning signs we missed and how we could create a system to identify the next chapter slowly heading toward closure so we could intervene before that chapter reached the point of no return. From the ashes of this closed group emerged the Chapter Health Index.

We realized if we can determine objective data points to serve as warning signs of a chapter in decline, we can engage students, volunteers, and staff when change is still possible. In creating the Chapter Health Index, we reflected upon components of a “healthy” chapter. What does the chapter do or not do that contributes to its current status? Ultimately, four categories emerged: Community Standards, Community Involvement, Recruitment/Retention, and Academics. Within each category we identified objective data points the Greek Life Office or university were already collecting.

Within the Community Standards category, data was utilized connected to individual member campus conduct history as well as chapter conduct history. We know this information is an important connection to the overall health of the chapter. For example, the chapter that closed had 96 unique responsible student conduct cases related to individual members the year before closure. In establishing this category, we not only took into account severity of the conduct cases but also allocated additional points if the chapter “failed to comply” with outcomes. We believe a chapter that fails to comply with outcomes is indicative of poor chapter management or attitude about the conduct process.

Another element of Community Standards is a chapter’s walkthrough scores. The Office of Greek Life, Office of Housing, and Office of Facilities conducts monthly walkthroughs of university-owned houses (only four of the housed groups at CWRU have privately owned facilities). Including the walkthrough score was important because it relates to the idea of “how you keep your house is how you keep your chapter.” Additional data points are included in the sidebar.

COMMUNITY STANDARDS

+ Pytte Cup – Community Standards Score

+ Pytte Cup – Chapter Development Score

+ Individual Judicial History

+ Chapter Judicial History

+ Failure to Comply

+ House Walkthrough Score

+ House Occupancy

ACADEMICS

+ GPA in Comparison to campus averages

+ Scholarship Score

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT/ENGAGEMENT

+ Alumni Involvement

+ Attendance at Educational Programs

+ Attendance at UIFI

+ Involvement in Community Leadership Positions

+ Greek Life Office Assessment of Chapter Health

GREEK LIFE OFFICE

+ Assessment of Chapter Health

+ Recruitment/Retention

+ Chapter Recruitment

+ New Member Retention

+ Member Retention

The Community Involvement category is primarily comprised of data points connected to an individual chapter’s community engagement. This can be evaluated through attendance at key leadership programs and leadership roles in fraternity and sorority community organizations. In our experience, greater chapter involvement in these programs and positions connects to a member’s increased desire to improve their organizations and community. We found when less successful chapters become more engaged within the community they quickly demonstrate positive growth and development. The other key data point in this category is alumni engagement. Despite this being a subjective data point, we believe the quality of alumni engagement is essential to the long-term success of an organization.

The Recruitment and Retention category is comprised of data regarding recruitment results and member retention within the first year. Data limitations prevent the consideration of longer term retention analysis. For men’s recruitment, fraternities are evaluated based on the average number of members recruited per chapter for the year. For NPC sorority recruitment, sororities are evaluated based on spring semester quota. The retention data is scored based on members being retained for at least one year past when they join. We believe these two data points are vital to the long-term health of the organization.

The Academic category is comprised of the chapter’s GPA related to the all men’s and women’s average and the chapters’ Scholarship+ points. We choose to compare the chapter’s GPA to the all men’s and women’s average because all chapters exceed a 3.0 GPA. For example, the highest sorority GPA for last spring was almost a 3.7 with the next chapter only .1 below. With such an academically rigorous institution, we believe it is more relevant to compare the chapter against the all men’s and women’s GPA. This demonstrates whether or not a chapter is enhancing the academic experience of its members.

The Scholarship+ points are a program run by Gamma Sigma Alpha, the Greek Scholarship Honorary. It allows chapters to submit supporting documentation about how they facilitate a holistic academic experience focused on intellectual development, career development, and academic engagement on campus. Including the Scholarship+ in the model was important because it showed the academic culture a chapter works to facilitate.

Once solidified, the categories were weighted based on what most contributed to a healthy chapter. Therefore, the categories were weighted out of a 100 point scale as follows: Community Standards at 43 percent, Community Involvement at 28 percent, Recruitment/Retention at 21 percent, and Academics at 9 percent.

Throughout the process of creating the Chapter Health Index we looked back at the chapter we closed in 2016 as a test group. Would the data we chose have alerted us the chapter was in trouble? That helped us focus on the important data and how it should be weighted.

After compiling data for the academic year we give it to every chapter. This provides each chapter a chance to see where they stand against the rest of the community. We also give chapters several years of longitudinal data so they can see any progress or regression that occurs. Our focus, however, is on chapters at the lower end of the scale.

For chapters that receive lower scores, we spend more time digging into the data and talking about how they might have reached this point. The chapter leadership is often surprised by their results in the Index. The point of the Chapter Health Index is to start working on changes before the chapter enters a steep decline phase. Using the data as an impetus for dialogue can make a big impact and fosters a sense of urgency for chapter leadership. This usually leads chapter leaders to take action to improve the chapter.

We also created a formal intervention for chapters with lower scores. We recruited a group of eight alumni and trained them to be consultants. The training was based on Intentional Change Theory 1 and Appreciative Inquiry. 2 This approach is meaningful because it is strengths-based, not deficit-focused.

Two groups each semester are identified and assigned two consultants. The consultants interview chapter members and alumni. Then, the consultants produce a report on the current state of the chapter along with a list of priorities to address. This process gives the chapter a clear list of areas to work on with the benefit of not being told what to do by the Greek Life Office or “nationals.” They receive feedback from an unbiased external source with no agenda other than trying to help them improve. We discovered chapters are excited about this process. Additionally, it places the Greek Life Office in a supportive — rather than authoritative — position. The chapter is empowered to make informed decisions about its future with staff support assisting in the process. We find it is much easier to facilitate change when the chapter understands a need for change and is the one leading the change with the support from others.

The Chapter Health Index is only one way the Case Western Reserve University Greek Life Office assesses the fraternity and sorority experience. Our vision as an office is to “reclaim the original definition of social fraternity.” This means we want to help students, volunteers, faculty, and staff understand and develop an experience intended to help members grow personally and professionally so they can have a positive impact on society. We work to achieve this through creating a culture of care. We believe to reclaim fraternity we need to work on building the necessary skills in members so they are able to make healthy choices for themselves, their chapters, and communities more confidently. To do this, we also work with Scott Hedyt, Educational Consultant with Refined Character, to create a framework based on Social Emotional Learning and the development of specific assets — or skills — based on the work of the Search Institute for K-12.

For the past three years, we have distributed our annual Greek Life survey based on these assets to better understand how a chapter is exhibiting these skills and helping its members develop these skills. Along with the Chapter Health Index, we provide this comparative information with concrete ideas to address chapters’ gaps in asset development by leveraging chapter strengths. This information is given to chapter presidents, advisors, and council officers at our annual Lyceum (chapter president and council retreat). During the retreat, we utilize the Intentional Change Theory and Coaching for Compassion techniques to build a sense of community by envisioning members’ ideal organizations. Here, we utilize the data to better understand the organization’s current reality regarding strengths and gaps as they relate to their ideal vision. We also identify a concrete method for creating a learning agenda to address these gaps and emphasize developing key relationships to support the intentional change.

Our goal is to provide leaders and advisors tools to facilitate the necessary changes to achieve the ideal vision of their organizations. We believe this approach to support chapters fundamentally changes the relationship between our office, the chapter, and the advisors. It helps foster a shared vision based on key data points we all agree upon and allows our office and the alumni to truly support the chapters in taking ownership of their own health. The Chapter Health Index and Culture of Care data allows our organizations to proactively consider what a healthy organization looks like and make timely decisions and necessary adjustments to ensure the longevity of their chapters.

Mark Starr is the director of Greek Life at Case Western Reserve University and is a longtime volunteer for Delta Tau Delta. Mark is a two-time graduate of Case Western Reserve University, B.S. in chemical engineering and JD, where he joined Delta Tau Delta.

Amie Jackson is the associate director of Greek Life at Case Western University and has volunteered with Kappa Kappa Gamma on several chapter advisory boards. Amie received her B.S. in marketing from Butler University, where she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma, and has a master’s degree from Kent State University in higher education administration and student personnel and from Case Western Reserve University in positive organizational development.