FROSTBURG, MD — Frostburg State University’s Office of
Student Activities and Greek Life has recently closed its doors to
organizations that want to start a Greek chapter on this campus indefinitely.
The university believes that it is time to evaluate the sororities and
fraternities on this campus and see what areas need improving.
Robert “Coop” Cooper, the Director of Student Activities and
Greek Life at Frostburg, mentioned that the reason for the expansion closure is
due to many factors including “…low participation, low enrollment, and performing
evaluations of the organizations currently on our campus.” Cooper believes that
in order to have successful Greek organizations, our campus needs to increase
participation in the organizations that are already here. “We live in an age of
assessment. We need to see what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong,
and what we can do to improve the organizations that are already on this
campus.” Cooper said. “We are about to launch a survey for Greek organizations
soon to assess what we have.” (update: the survey was launched 11/14) Jamie
Winters, Assistant Director of Student Activities and Greek Life at Frostburg
said “There is a decline in membership and quality of organizations and we have
this revolving door. We allow organizations to screw up, get kicked off, and
come back.” She continues “Why would we keep bringing in new organizations when
we don’t have healthy organizations to begin with?”
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| Information regarding Greek life at Frostburg state |
Winters also mentions that this is not an unfamiliar concept
across the country. More and more universities are closing their doors for
expansion in Greek Life. The University of San Francisco is no longer allowing
Greek organizations to expand chapters onto their campus. The USF Greek Life website
explains “The ASUSF GREEK COUNCIL is currently closed for expansion with no
future plans to open the process.” This pattern extends across the country to
the University of New Haven in Connecticut. Their Greek Life webpage
mentions that there is no plan for expansion until after June 30, 2018. There
are no explanations from these universities, but there is proof that it is not
just something that is happening in Frostburg. But why is this happening?
A common concept in both Winters and Cooper’s interviews is
low enrollment. They both believe that the decline in enrollment at FSU is
partially responsible for the decline in membership of the fraternities and
sororities. According to the enrollment
monitor for Frostburg, there is a decline of 236 undergraduate enrollment
from Fall 2015 and Fall 2017. The enrollment in first-year and transfer students
from Fall 2015-Fall 2017 declined by almost 300 students.
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| Sorority Bid Day 2017 |
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| 2017 Sorority Bid Day |
According to a document supplied by Jamie Winters, there is a pattern between the declining enrollment and participation in Greek Life. In 2015 there were 449 Greek Life members and only 15 organizations. Now there are 17 organizations, but membership has decreased by 58 members in 2017. In 2015, the total number of students was 4,915 which has decreased to 4,459 in 2017.
This could be the cause of the lower participation in Greek
Life, but Marcus Freeman, Graduate Assistant in the Office of Student
Activities and Greek Life, Tau Kappa Epsilon advisor, and Alpha Phi Alpha
alumni believes this may not be the only issue. Freeman believes that there
wasn’t much thought put into the changing of generations. He mentioned that
there are families that are having less children nowadays so that could factor
into the decline in enrollment. Freemen stated that there should be a focus on
retention, which may be where the decline in enrollment comes from and from the
student perspective, may be why students choose to stop enrolling. “If people
don’t like where they are, they’re going to leave.” he said. “When students
find out that the university is closing for expansion, there will be a wave of
angry people.” Freeman believes that closing for expansion may be best for the
current organizations, so they may succeed, but there are students that wait
their entire college career to join a specific organization and they will not
get a chance if the closing is indefinite. Freeman also mentioned that all
organizations are “…pulling from the same pool of people and the more
organizations the thinner it spreads.” he continues “The variety of Greek Life
is heavy in the social organizations, but in the Divine Nine we only have 3
Fraternities and 1 sorority until the spring. It would be interesting to have a
Latin sorority or something as well.” Freeman explained that not all students
want to be Greek and some don’t want to be involved. Then, there are the
students that want to be involved in Greek Life, but do not have the grades or
the funds to go Greek so they just find a different way to get involved.
Participation creates a difficult time for organizations
because in order to strive, the organization must flourish in numbers. Greek
organizations are required to have a certain number of members per their
national organizations. Cooper mentions that “Bringing more groups on campus
gives variety, but we need to help the groups we have be successful.” He
proceeds “I don’t think this will have any major effect on the students, I
think this will help them be healthy.” Ashley Smith, Greek Council President
and sister of the Delta Zeta Sorority, said “If anything, I believe this hold
will allow the organizations that are already present, to grow in numbers.” “I
do not believe that there will be a great impact on other students unless they
were looking to charter a new organization here on campus.” So in the end, the
belief is that the closure will allow the current organizations to flourish.
There are already 17 organizations on campus, so the reoccurring thought would
be that there is already a variety so why continue adding more organizations
until the ones that are here are healthy.
Melanie Rowe-Partridge, a member of the Alumni Board at
Frostburg State University and a sister of the Delta Zeta Sorority, said that
she was unaware of the changes made by the university, but believes it could be
beneficial. She mentioned that she hopes the change “…will not cause a
disruption to the school’s Greek Life at all.” Rowe-Partridge also said that,
although she cannot speak for all alumni, she believes the Greek alumni will be
supportive no matter what happens with this new rule and that alumni are aware
that these policies are in place for specific reasons, not to just ruin the
good time of college students. On the topic of declining enrollment,
Rowe-Partridge is concerned with not only the numbers themselves, but also the
policy that students with under 12 credits may not join Greek life, and the
presence of organizations that form off campus and are not affiliated with
Frostburg State University.
Another Alumni, Sarah Haddaway, a sister of Alpha Xi Delta,
has a different outlook on the closure. Alpha Xi Delta was closed by their
national headquarters in 2007, the semester after Haddaway was initiated. She
stated that the closure was due to the lack of active members in the chapter at
Frostburg. Haddaway said that she has heard through the grape vine that the
university was not looking to expand any time soon, but was unaware that if an
organization was kicked off campus, that they would not be unable to return
until the university opens for the expansion of Greek Life again. Haddaway
mentions “Initially, I believe some of the alumni in an organization that has
been kicked off will be very upset. However, I feel some may be understanding
of why it happened if they become aware that their current members re partaking
in unacceptable activities or behavior and bringing shame or negative publicity
on their charter, sorority, and alma mater.”
Throughout the entirety of the interviews conducted, the
common theme seems to be in support of the new policy to close expansion of
Greek Life. The variety of interviewees further expands on the idea by showing
that both young and old feel as though closing expansion will allow our current
organizations to flourish in participation and numbers. Although they are not
hiding it, the university may not be making a public announcement about closing
for the expansion of Greek Life due to the possible uproar it may cause among
students. To avoid the uproar, the university could post something on
Frostburg’s Greek Life website so that students looking to start an
organization will have to opportunity to see it, but they are not sending out a
campus wide email that will attract the attentions of everyone.
Greek Life at Frostburg realizes that there is strength in
numbers. The idea of more organizations on campus sounds helpful, but it will
hurt the organizations that are here. In the end, the university is trying to
help the current organizations survive.
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