OFSA Staffing Updates

On behalf of Student Affairs, I want to provide two updates regarding staffing in the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.  As you all know, in June, Tim Wilkinson left Lehigh after more than 10 years of service to Lehigh to pursue the Associate Dean of Students position at Wake Forest University. Following his departure, we launched a national search for a new Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. I want to thank the members of the search committee who worked diligently throughout the search process.  

Ashley Baudouin, OFSA

Matthew Bay, IFC 

Ozzie Breiner, Residential Services

Gladys Castellon, Multicultural Greek Council

Chad Davis, Advancement

Howard Foltz, Greek Alumni Council 

Rosa Guzman, OFSA

Chris Mulvihill, Dean of Students Office

Tyrone Russell, Multicultural Affairs

Ellen Weich/Katherine McLaughlin, Panhellenic 

Throughout our process, we interviewed a number of candidates who could bring a variety of skills and experiences to this role at Lehigh.  However at the completion of our process, the search committee unanimously agreed that there was not a candidate who we collectively felt was best suited to lead Lehigh's fraternity and sorority community at this time.  Therefore, with the support of the Search Committee, we developed an interim transition plan and made the decision to launch a more robust national search at a later date.   

Effective August 1st, Ashley Baudouin who was recently promoted to serve as the Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs will begin serving as the interim Assistant Dean/Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs for the upcoming academic year.  Prior to beginning in her new role, Ashley served as an Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Affairs for 3 years at Lehigh.  In her time in that role, Ashley has had the opportunity to work closely with all aspects of the Lehigh fraternity and sorority community, including advising our undergraduate councils, partnering with the Greek Alumni Council, and implementing a variety of health and safety, diversity and inclusion and other educational initiatives within our community.  We feel confident that with the full support of the Student Affairs leadership, Ashley will effectively be able to lead the OFSA team during this time of transition.  Congratulations Ashley and thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity!

As mentioned above, we are committed to the continued future success of our fraternity and sorority community at Lehigh, and as such, we will begin a new national search for this position in Spring 2016.  

On another note, we would also like to announce that Jennifer Tedeschi who has served as an Assistant Director at Lehigh for the past year will be moving on to a new role as Interim Assistant Director for Student Activities and Greek Life at Gettysburg College in the next two weeks.  Jennifer worked with IFC and a number of our chapters over the past year and also assisted with other departmental initiatives such as the Greek Gala, Greek Week, and Social Host Training for our chapters.  We are very thankful to Jen for her service to the Dean of Students Office and Fraternity and Sorority Affairs at Lehigh and wish her much success as she begins her new role at Gettysburg and moves closer to loved ones in the D.C. area.  

Over the next couple weeks, chapters who worked with Jen as well as IFC can expect Ashley and I to be in touch with transition plans for the upcoming academic year.  In addition, we will begin an immediate search to fill this Assistant Director vacancy.

In conclusion, we are thankful to so many undergraduate students and alumni members of our community who have been supportive and actively involved with our office during this transitional time. We are looking forward to partnering with all of you to have an excellent year in Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything further, please email us at infrasor@lehigh.edu and Ashley or I will be happy to speak with you.

Thanks,

Allison Gulati

Accreditation Results for 2014-2015

The Accreditation results for the 2014-2015 academic year have been finalized and the ratings breakdown for the 30 fraternities and sororities reviewed this academic year included seven gold chapters, 13 silver chapters, and eight bronze chapters.  Additionally, two chapters were rated poor. 

The Accreditation results provide feedback intended to support efforts to enhance the success of Greek chapters.  We encourage chapters to accept the feedback in the constructive spirit in which it is offered, and urge undergraduate and alumni members to discuss this feedback and develop an action plan for continued success.  The results are published on the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs website at http://studentaffairs.lehigh.edu/node/2781.  

A heartfelt thank you goes out to the members of the Accreditation Committee who worked tirelessly through hours of presentations and discussions.     

For questions or concerns, please contact the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs by phone at 610-758-4157 or by email at infrasor@lehigh.edu. 

Rachel Sholder: What I've Learned from Greek Leadership

As a rising senior at Lehigh University and an active member of the Zeta Beta Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta, I have had my fair share of involvement with Greek Life and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. During my sophomore year, I served as Alpha Gamma Delta’s Vice President of Operations and Accreditation Chair. During my junior year, I served as the Executive Vice President of Member Development (VPMD), partial New Member Educator, and Standards Board Chair. This upcoming school year, I will be serving as my chapter’s representative on the Judicial Board of the Panhellenic Executive Council. I will also be entering my third year as my chapter’s representative as the Sorority Liaison to the Women’s Center. All of these positions together have given me great insight into what it truly means to be a Greek leader and what makes a Greek leader different than a regular club leader.

As a club leader, you have the opportunity to collaborate with incredible students, seek guidance from faculty advisors, and work with the school administration. As President of Key Club in high school and as President of the Peer Health Advisers in college, I have seen and experienced all of these things. However, being a Greek leader is different. While you still have the opportunity to collaborate with incredible students, the people you are working with aren’t just students; they are your sisters, housemates, and best friends. You are going to experience tension with them, and that is completely okay. You can’t go home at night and tell your family about your crazy “co-workers” and wake up the next morning with a fresh start; you have to eat breakfast with your “co-workers”, participate in fun events like Greek Week with your “co-workers,” and maybe even share a room with “co-workers” despite maybe disliking some decisions they make. While you still have the opportunity to seek guidance from advisors, unlike most club advisors who are the main source of support for club members, Greek advisors stand back and let the Greek leaders run the chapter. While you still have the opportunity to work with school administration, this can extend to much deeper levels; my position during my sophomore year in Alpha Gamma Delta allowed me to work with individuals outside of Greek life, enabling me to branch out of the Greek life environment and work with many people in the Office of the Dean of Students.

Respect is not only one of the hardest things to learn as a Greek leader, but also one of the hardest things to learn as a Greek member. As a Greek leader, how are you supposed to be the person who goes out and has fun with your friends, but calls them into a Standards Board meeting if they push things too far? As a Greek member, how are you supposed to listen to general in-house rules that are given to you by your fellow peer and friend? Of course, a general member is allowed to voice her opinions. But, what makes it okay to yell at a Greek leader of your chapter? Because you wouldn’t do that to your boss, a club leader, or faculty advisor. And essentially a Greek leader is all of those combined into one job. What I learned worked best was to separate the two, which also seemed to work best for my friends. I even once had someone knock on my door and say, “I need to talk to you about something related to Alpha Gam, but can you just be Rachel for a minute and not Vice President Rachel?” My door was always open and no matter how much time giving personal advice about school, family, relationships, etc. took away from my other responsibilities, the trust, openness and nonjudgmental environment I created in my bedroom helped to extend that feeling of camaraderie in other aspects of the member development of our chapter as well as earn me more respect from my sisters. It is important to maintain positive, constructive and respectful relationships with people, especially as a Greek leader because you may be many members’ number one source of guidance and support.

Appreciation is a big one. After my sophomore year in Alpha Gam, I felt as if I had dedicated the majority of my free time to my chapter, but that my work was under recognized. I made it my mission in my junior year as Executive Vice President to instill one thing in each and every one of our members: you matter. Being in a chapter with over 100 women, it is easy to feel like your dedication and support to the chapter is unnoticed—even as President—and it is easy to feel like your opinions, your thoughts, and your feelings don’t matter. Well, they do. To recognize dedication of chapter members, each Sunday was Officer Appreciation day; every sister holding a position had one Sunday during the year where her hard work was recognized. Every Sunday, there was also a new Sister of the Week; this award was given to a general member who did something outstanding in the week prior. These two initiatives that I started aren’t meant to stay forever, but meant to start a change of mind. We shouldn’t need a day to appreciate the hard work of our sisters. While the Greek leaders are vital, in reality, you need more worker bees than queen bees. We should realize each and every day that our chapter wouldn’t be operating without everyone’s hard work and dedication.

Bridging relationships across member classes (or pledge classes) is a huge part of appreciation. When I was writing the New Member Plan, I wanted to make sure each of the member classes had an opportunity to bond with our new members. I created one event for the new members to have with PC ’12 (mostly seniors), PC ’13 (mostly juniors) and PC ’15 (mostly sophomores). All of the new members said that by far, these activities were their favorites. Again, the purpose of these events was not only to bond and have fun, but also to start a change of mind. It is okay (and natural) to form cliques and feel slightly separated by member class. But it is not okay to exclude sisters who aren’t in your most direct clique, it is not okay to state generalizations about a member class (ex: if you are mad at a junior sister, be mad at her and not the entire junior class), and it is not okay to assume the newest member class has the majority of responsibilities. We are not four separate sisterhoods separated by class year. We are not twenty separate sisterhoods separated by cliques. We are one sisterhood (or brotherhood).

There’s a side of Greek life that most people don’t see unless they have had the privilege of being a part of it. Being in a leadership role in a Greek chapter is hands-on training for essential life, business and personal skills. Also, being in a position of Greek leadership allows you to instill respect and appreciation, among many other things, in your members—leadership qualities that are harder to learn than time management, commitment, confidence and intuition. It is a valuable experience that you simply cannot get anywhere else.

Reflections from UIFI: Lindsey Sokol

We're excited to feature yet another guest author on the blog today. Zeta Tau Alpha member Lindsey Sokol recently attended the Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute (UIFI). Here's what she had to say regarding the experience:

This summer I had the opportunity to attend the Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. During this time, student and faculty leaders of the Greek community from all different organizations come together to develop leadership skills, address difficulties, and find solutions. The new friendships I made at UIFI provided invaluable advice and a fresh perspective that has affected the way I perceive myself, my chapter, and the larger Greek community. This years theme of “It’s time” urged us to take action and reminded us that, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wisely said, “the time is always right to do what’s right.”

For me, the most remarkable part of the UIFI experience was a debate our entire group had about the future of Greek life. Using only personal experiences, we were randomly divided into pro and con groups and tasked with deciding whether fraternities and sororities are a benefit or a hindrance to the success and development of college students. After everyone had the chance to speak, a panel composed of students and facilitators deliberated the outcome and eventually ruled that they are a hindrance.

We came to realize that the positives (like building sisterhoods/brotherhoods, raising money for philanthropies, and personal development) cannot make up for or outweigh the negatives (like substance abuse, hazing, and sexual assault). We did not create these problems and we are definitely not the only ones to experience these issues. However, the fact that these negatives do not originate from nor exist exclusively within Greek life does not absolve us of responsibility. The question is not whether other organizations have the same issues but rather why we allow these problems to exist in our own community. Instead of looking outward, we should first look inward and set the example by creating an environment where they are absolutely unacceptable.

When we joined our respective organizations, we all agreed to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Ultimately, it is our failure to follow through on this promise that leads to situations which create the negative connotations surrounding Greek life. There is no right way to address the problems in our chapters or on our campus. But no matter how small we start, what is important is that we start somewhere and that we set achievable goals, enabling us to measure our success.

Lindsey Sokol
Zeta Tau Alpha 

Many thanks Lindsey for sharing your thoughts!! We love your passion and enthusiasm for leadership and can't wait to see the many great things that come as a result of this experience. If you or anyone you know would like to author a guest blog post, feel free to reach out to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.

Staff Announcement: Ashley Baudouin

As you know we have been in quite a time of transition within the area of Fraternity & Sorority Affairs over the past few weeks. With recent departures, we have had the opportunity to think about the best next steps for our Fraternity and Sorority community.  With the support of the Dean of Students and Student Affairs leadership alongside the Residential Services department, we are excited to share that one of our current Assistant Director positions in OFSA will be converted into an Associate Director position effective July 1st. Ashley Baudouin is being promoted into this role and, in this capacity, she will assist the Director in managing the overall OFSA effort with our fraternity and sorority community.

Ashley has worked as an Assistant Director at Lehigh for three years and, over that time, she has demonstrated a strong track record in creating successful and meaningful partnerships with other departments across campus, alumni volunteers, and parents and families. She has also established strong relationships with students, shown excellent communication skills, and a very strong overall understanding of all aspects of OFSA and its role within the Lehigh community.

Specifically in this new role, Ashley will oversee all educational and bLUeprint initiatives within OFSA; be responsible for all communication processes across the department; work closely with chapter and alumni advisors to train them effectively; assist with conduct follow-up and crisis response; and oversee the annual OFSA Accreditation process. Congratulations Ashley on this well-deserved new opportunity.

While we understand that it seems that many changes are taking place, we are truly excited for the opportunity to move the OFSA in this direction while also providing additional staffing support and continuity within the office. Additionally, we will be in contact with council, chapter, and alumni leadership shortly regarding Ashley’s transition into her new role and its impact on her current assignments and responsibilities.

Thank you,
Allison Gulati
Associate Dean & Director of Strategic Initiatives

Reflections from UIFI: Gladys Castellon

We're excited to feature a guest author on the blog today.  Mu Sigma Upsilon's President Gladys Castellon recently attended the Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute (UIFI). Here's what she had to say regarding the experience: 

This summer I had the privilege of attending the Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute (UIFI) at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It was great being surrounded by people who loved the Greek experience as much as I do. The days were packed with fun and informative activities and discussions, all happening while building lifelong friendships with those around me. We talked about things like our organizational values: how they relate to our own individual ones, how we exemplify those within different leadership positions, as well as our day to day lives.

One of the things that really stuck out to me was the phrase “That which we permit, we promote”. As a Greek community at Lehigh, I believe that we have been making great strides to better not only Greek life here, but the Lehigh experience as a whole. In order to continue doing this, we must hold all of our fellow Greeks and students accountable for the values that we promised to uphold by joining our chapters or even by just accepting to come to Lehigh. By not doing so, we are essentially promoting a community that is not living up to its full potential.

Coming out of UIFI, I am motivated to help foster the relationships between chapters, councils and other organizations on Lehigh’s campus. As leaders, we are nothing without those who share in our vision and who work with us to achieve them. I hope to aid in the growing collaboration between groups, as well as just the relationships and friendships that can come out of them.

Lastly, if you are able to attend UIFI at some point, definitely do it!

Gladys Castellon
Lehigh University '17
President of the Yemaya Chapter of Mu Sigma Upsilon Sorority, Incorporated
President of the Multicultural Greek Council at Lehigh University

Many thanks Gladys for sharing your thoughts!! We love your passion and enthusiasm for leadership and can't wait to see the many great things that come as a result of this experience.  If you or anyone you know would like to author a guest blog post, feel free to reach out to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.

Reflections from LeaderShape: Ricky Johnson

We're excited to feature a guest author on the blog today.  Delta Upsilon's President Ricky Johnson recently attended the AFLV LeaderShape Institute. Here's what he had to say regarding the experience: 

The week after classes ended, I traveled down to Orlando, Florida with my little brother, Evan Pentz, to attend the AFLV LeaderShape Institute. This institute was an immersive, colorful, and enlightening experience that I was very happy to have participated in. My little and I met about 32 other Greek leaders from across the country (and Canada) and took part in a leadership program that topped any other that I had ever experienced. During this program, I learned a significant amount about my specific type of leadership style. It was great realizing what my strengths were, but also recognizing my weaknesses and how to improve them. Further, I learned how to effectively communicate and work with other people who possess other types of leadership styles.

                One of the biggest things LeaderShape did for me was alter my perception of the word “Leader.” The program taught me what it takes to be a leader, what it means to be a leader and how to lead in the most effective way(s) possible- and these things aren't always as cut and dry as we think they are. I learned that every person leads in a different way and that there are a variety of leadership styles. For instance, leaders aren't always the individuals who can stand up in front of a large crowd and move them to act; leaders can be the exceedingly intelligent, albeit shy individual in the back of the room who knows how to develop a life-saving device. I learned that leaders are simply the individuals who are willing to challenge the social norm; they are the people who aren't satisfied with mediocrity. Instead, they question everything and when no one seems to understand or believe them, they continue to pursue their visions. We looked at various examples (such as Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Gandhi) and discussed how each individual had his/her own method of leading effectively and how each went on to change the world.  

                Most importantly, I learned that a good leader understands how to be vulnerable. In fact, the best leaders welcome vulnerability. When we look at different leaders throughout history, we tend to see the individual standing on a pedestal, successfully accomplishing every task he set out to achieve from day one. However, what’s most important to note is that leaders fail. Things get difficult, experiments don’t work, people don’t listen to you, and competitors cheat the system. But the most effective leaders have a certain tenacity that is unrivaled among their peers, and as a result, they do in fact accomplish their goals. Another form of vulnerability is merely that leaders are willing to admit when they are wrong and they are humble in all of their actions. Leaders who value vulnerability understand that it is okay to put yourself out the world, despite what the public perception may be and regardless of what other people say and think.

                Overall, my recent week in Orlando was one of the greatest personal development periods of my life. I learned tons about my personal leadership characteristics and I learned a lot about myself as a person. I discovered that the word “Leader” isn't as narrowly defined as I formerly thought. Furthermore, I now understand that it is okay to be vulnerable, and instead of fearing vulnerability, I should welcome it. 

Ricky Johnson

President, Delta Upsilon Fraternity 

Many thanks Ricky for sharing your thoughts!! We love your passion and enthusiasm for leadership and can't wait to see the many great things that come as a result of this experience when you return to campus this fall and beyond.  If you or anyone you know would like to author a guest blog post, feel free to reach out to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.