Posts by: Michael De Lisi
Once again The Lafayette published several articles touching on the topic of Greek Life at Lafayette College.
Brett Billings ’12 reports in the article Tough rush getting tougher:
Lafayette sororities have dug their heels in.
Banning [sic] together, they engaged an Ohio law firm to craft a response to Lafayette’s request for information regarding each sororities’ selection and initiation practices.
Lafayette General Counsel Leslie Muhlfelder and Dean of Intercultural Development John McKnight were notified this past Sunday in separate documents of the sororities’ commitment “to continue their single sex status,” according to the legal opinion of the law office of Manley Burke.
Another article about VP Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to Lafayette College, highlights the fraternal experience of Biden’s Deputy Chief of Staff Alan Hoffman ’88:
Hoffman, an American Studies major when at Lafayette, was the 1988 Pepper Prize recipient, participated in Student Government and served as president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity for two years. Reflecting on his four years on College Hill, Hoffman spoke to The Lafayette heavily of his involvement in Greek life after he was awarded the Pepper Prize.
“I was confronted with the same old line that no matter what we do, we will never accomplish anything,” Hoffman wrote. “Cause some commotion, create some controversies, but most of all, do something. Do not wait for someone else to take charge, do it yourself. The opportunities to affect change are there, use them.”
EDIT:
There’s an Op-Ed titled On Alcohol Patrols by Brett Billings ’12 addressing the issues of alcohol patrols targeting fraternities in the wake of the withdrawal of charges against Delta Upsilon following improper search of private student rooms. After reviewing the documents describing the past 20+ years practice of targeted alcohol patrols in fraternities, Brett concludes:
This document pertains to and affects all students. Just as water flows around a barrier placed in the middle of a stream, so too will the alcohol flow around — somehow, someway — the barriers the college has placed in the social settings of its students.
Take away Monroe Street housing, and the party scene will migrate. Students will walk further from campus, and they will cross more streets, walk more blocks to find a social release that challenges the barriers imposed on them. This is not a Greek issue. It is a student issue.
Stuart Umberger, the Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at Lafayette College, rolled out a cohort model for leadership development within the Greek community at Lafayette College since the beginning of this academic year. Under this model, he’s identified eight cohorts comprised of leaders from each chapter in addition to the traditional Presidents meetings and governing council (IFC and PHC) meetings. The eight cohorts are:
- Values and Standards
- Academic Integration
- Recruitment
- Membership Development
- Civic Engagement
- Public Relations
- Finance
- Marquis (the new COMPASS)
Leaders from each chapter receive training and advising services from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life as a group. As you’ll read in the upcoming Rho News, we’ve identified several alumni to serve as dedicated resources to DKE representatives in certain cohorts. These alumni will provide year over year support to institutionalize DKE best practices.
We still need volunteers to help our students in Public Relations, Civic Engagement, and Membership Development. If you want to get involved, please contact Michael De Lisi at delisim@comcast.net. You do not need to be local to Lafayette College. Volunteers from all age groups are welcome.
Once again The Lafayette published several articles touching on the topic of Greek Life at Lafayette College.
Brett Billings ’12 reports in the article DU avoids probation that the College is walking back its punishment of DU for unattended alcohol inside of a refrigerator and in a student room.
In the early morning hours of February 4, Officer Carl Faulkner and Patrolman Craig Marshall entered a room considered a common area in search of “unattended alcohol.” The door to the room was left open. A bottle of alcohol was found inside a fridge, according to incident reports. In the common area, another door leading to a student room was left open as well. There, they discovered another bottle of alcohol on a student desk.
Read the full article for more complete reporting and a description of Delta Upsilon’s appeal.
Another article Greeks: to give or not to give by Anda Totoreanu ’15 poses the question if Greek alumni will continue to give to Lafayette College if the Board of Trustees eliminates fraternities and sororities. Referencing VP of Development and College Relations Jim Dicker ’85, the article states,
Greek participation in giving has dropped only slightly (from 35 to 33 percent) since the recent removal of some fraternities
A related piece, Alumni giving remains steady by Jon Dumais ’13 addresses alumni giving in general. What is surprising is the giving percentages offered by the newspaper appear to conflict with the percentages cited by Dr. Limas in the IAGGL town hall. From The Lafayette:
According to Lafayette’s Office of Development, 40 percent of Lafayette’s alumni donated money to the school from 2008 to 2009, but that number was reduced by 15 percent for 2009 to 2010. In 2011, however, the number of alumni who donated rose to 37 percent.
This is in contrast with Dr. Limas’ statements that in 2011, the percentage of alumni giving to the college was 33%, and 34% for Greek and non-Greek, respectively, both of which are lower than the 37% quoted in The Lafayette article.
From the IAGGL town hall transcript,
Dr. Celestino Limas: Yeah. We do have some data. This is from the Office of Development obviously of course. Some initial Greek giving rates in terms of participation, I can tell you. 2011, the Greek giving rate was 33%. The non-Greek giving rate was 34%. 2010, the Greek giving rate was 30%. The non-Greek giving rate was 31%. So I think we see strong parallels between Greek and non-Greek giving rate.
This conclusion of strong parallels ignores the historical data that the WGGL analyzed over 15 years from 1994-2009, which showed that Greeks consistently gave at much higher rates 37% Greek versus 25% non-Greek (p. 16-17 of the WGGL full report, which is available in hard copy to all members of the Lafayette College community by calling (610) 330-5200).
This difference between IAGGL’s and The Lafayette‘s reporting of alumni giving rates emphasizes the importance of comparing apples to apples, especially when discussing the percent change of percentages. Come on guys and gals, it doesn’t have to be this hard, does it?
Only time will tell if students paying over $200,000 to attend Lafayette College will donate money to the College after graduation despite their experiences as a student having Public Safety search their private refrigerators looking for “unattended alcohol.”
For those alumni unable to listen to the full hour long virtual town hall Lafayette College hosted for the Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life (IAGGL), Michael De Lisi ’03 commissioned a transcript, which you can download as: 2012-02-17 IAGGL Town Hall
The purpose of the transcript to keep the Lafayette College alumni community informed on the progress of the IAGGL. In that spirit of reaching and engaging as many alumni as possible, please circulate the transcript to your fellow Pards.
Feel free to discuss in the comments on this site or other forums. If you have questions about the transcript process itself, please contact Mr. De Lisi, who’s e-mail address is embedded in the transcript document.
Happy reading!
Lafayette College hosted its first Greek Life Virtual Town Hall this afternoon. It is available for download and viewing at this link. I suggest everyone interested in Greek Life, DKE, and the progress of IAGGL (pronounced Eagle), watch and listen to the presentation. The first half hour is an overview by Dr. Celestino Limas. The second half hour is a Q&A session with a mix of pre-submitted questions and questions submitted during the virtual town hall by online participants.
The main speakers are:
- Bob Massa – VP of Communications – “Moderator” of the town hall
- Celestino Limas – VP of Campus Life & Senior Diversity Officer – Main speaker, Chair of IAGGL
- Stuart Umberger – Director of Fraternity & Sorority Life
- Other speakers were faculty/students, who introduce themselves when they speak
This Lafayette’s first time using this technology to communicate with its alumni base and parents of students. They covered a lot of ground and this is a good opportunity for alumni to see, hear, and think about how IAGGL is approaching their work.
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or opinions about the virtual town hall or IAGGL’s work, please write them in the comments section of this post or e-mail them directly to Michael De Lisi.
In a recent speech at The Episcopal Academy, Will Forbes ’96 recognized his Great-Uncle Frank Forbes, who today is 94, a retired fighter pilot from the Flying Tigers in the 14th Air Force during WWII. Frank was shot down and MIA for 3 weeks and managed to get out. In telling his Great-Uncle’s story, Brother Forbes reminds us of the lasting impact the experiences of our formative years has on our lives. Will passed along the following note:
If you have 15 minutes to watch it, it is a great story. How many times in your life do you get the chance to honor someone who is still with us?
This week’s edition of The Lafayette is now available online here. There are again several articles of interest to the Greek Life community.
First, is the article Conversation begins at first IAGGL town meeting, which describes the first on campus meeting between students and members of the IAGGL (pronounced Eagle):
Limas stressed that the requirements were not purposefully ambiguous, but that the ambiguity came as a cause of the ever-changing campus demographics. “You’re going to have to trust that this process is fair,” Limas told students, “and that it is objective.”
The article also quotes a Deke:
“Certainly, many people are afraid that the ‘discussion’ is jumping right to whether Greek life should be ousted from the campus or not,” Delta Kappa Epsilon member Jared Piette ‘12 wrote in an email interview. “But I personally feel that the administration is truly interested in hearing Greek life’s side before making any rash decisions.”
Piette, as well as some faculty members expressed their disappointment at not seeing more non-affiliated members attend the meetings. Piette stressed that their inclusion is “paramount” and Limas was “surprised that we still don’t have a critical mass of non-Greek students at these events.”
Other articles of interest include summaries of presentations by the final candidates for the new Dean of Students. This week’s edition covered presentations by Brian S. Mauro, the Dean of Students at Farleigh Dickinson University , and Anamaria Cobo de Paci, who is “working on her dissertation at Widener University, but she has worked in higher education for 20 years.” Click on the links for the summary of each presentation.
Read through the articles to learn about the potential next Dean of Students at Lafayette College.
As a reminder, you can receive electronic editions of the newspaper by registering here.
This week’s edition of The Lafayette is now available online here. As the undergrad website noted, Billy Leonard ’14, a Deke, is featured in the “Proud of our Pards” segment:
Away from the track, Leonard is a proud member of Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. “The 4×4 is a lot like being in a fraternity,” Leonard said. “Your contributions are going to something bigger than yourself and other people are relying on you.” This type of mentality and effort is something that Leonard brings to all aspects of his life.
His Coach, Robert Farrell, expects nothing less than a complete effort from the talented sophomore. “He is very competitive and always exhibits the kind of confidence that’s necessary for success,” Farrell said. “He trains very hard but can always keep practice fun with his sense of humor.”
Several other articles are noteworthy to Greek Life at Lafayette College. The first is the article “Living Learning Communities Cleaning up Monroe,” which describe the new LLC initiative:
Every department sponsoring a LLC chooses which students will live there. Interested students can collaborate with a department to secure a LLC.
Twenty LLCs are in the works for next semester including one for French, Wall Street and the Association of Lafayette Feminists (ALF)/Women and Gender Studies partnership.
Read the full article for more details with comments by the administration, faculty, and students.
The other articles of interest are summaries of presentations by the final candidates for the new Dean of Students. This week’s edition covered presentations by William Stackman, currently Director of Student Activities for Texas A&M University and Paul J McLoughlin, currently a professor of higher education at Boston College.
Read through the articles to learn about the potential next Dean of Students at Lafayette College.
As a reminder, you can receive electronic editions of the newspaper by registering here.
The New York Law Journal recently reported Brother McCurdy ’82 was elected chair of the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren:
Kelley Drye & Warren has announced the election of Paul McCurdy as firm chair, succeeding John M. Callagy, who has been in the role since 1992. James J. Kirk, a partner in the real estate practice group, will continue to serve as managing partner, a role he has held since 2004. Mr. McCurdy, 51, said that among his goals as chair will be to create an environment for partners to become more engaged in firm governance; to continue to recruit high-quality lateral partners; and to build on Kelley Drye’s culture of “collegiality, inclusiveness, diversity, transparency, community service and pro bono.”
The Am Law Daily has more detailed information on Brother McCurdy’s background, the firm, and the selection process including:
The firm brought in consultants Dominick Volini and Bob Rosen from Healthy Companies International, a consulting firm McCurdy says a client recommended, to lead a thorough review of Kelley Drye’s governance structure. That review is not yet complete, says McCurdy, adding that his first goals as chair will be to successfully adopt new policies to shape the firm based on the feedback the consultants and firm leaders have gathered via their extensive interviews with the partnership.
Please join us in wishing Paul well in his new role of firm chair at Kelley Drye. Paul previously served as the President of the Rho House Association and President of the Lafayette College Alumni Association. He currently serves as a trustee of Lafayette College.
Brother Glock ’86 is again rallying the Rho Dekes from ’86 (plus or minus a few graduation years…the more the merrier!) Contact Peter Glock for more information.
Gentlemen, we are having our 3rd annual Rho ’86 DKE summer outing this year on May 5th (and 4th for those who are interested) in Washington, DC. We are planning to see the Phillies play the Nationals on the 5th at 1:05 pm, sandwiched by obligatory “cultural events,” of which there are certainly plenty in our nation’s capital. Given some of our brothers’ ties to DC, I’m sure we can also plot some outstanding night spots for Saturday night. We had a great time a couple of years ago in NYC. Our group continues to express a desire to reunite with Dekes from the years around us, so this is the perfect vehicle to bring the larger group together.
A few of us are planning to arrive in DC around noon on Friday, and do some sight-seeing, so we’ll be staying for 2 nights. Still, it’s fine if you just want to do Saturday night as well. If there is interest, I can see if we can get some group rates for hotel rooms if enough guys are interested.
I have been in touch with the group ticketing office of the Nationals, and it sounds like we will be able to get tickets together for the game, but because it’s a Phils game, they expect high demand for group tickets for the game. So the earlier we can get our request in, the more likely we’ll be able to get seats together in a desirable section. Please let me know if you’re going to be able to attend by Thursday so that we have a pretty firm grasp on the number of tickets we’ll need, and I can get our deposit in to give us a better chance.
We got 15 of us last time for the Yankee game (picture below). I’m hoping with this larger audience that we’ll be able to get double that for a major DKE reunion.
Feel free to extend this invite to any other Dekes that I may have missed, and “persuade” your fellow Dekes to attend with you. The more, the merrier !
Hope you can make it !!
Rho Dekes at Yankee Stadium
Sample from DKE Gallery
Latest Update from IAGGL- Virtual Town Hall Meeting, April 19An update from Vice President Celestino Limas and members of the Implementation and Assessment Group on Greek Life (IAGGL) will be the subject of a Virtual Town Hall meeting noon-1 p.m. Thursday, April 19. All are invited to participate. Topics for discussion … Continue reading → […]
- Virtual Town Hall Meeting, April 19
- Undergraduate news
- Dreaming of Commencement Day: “Pipes, Ladies and Champagne” May 19, 2012 John Burke
- DKE: Getting Down to Business May 6, 2012 John Burke
- Brother Leonard Named Orientation Leader May 2, 2012 John Burke
