Hello all,
Welcome back to my memoir (of sorts), thanks for visiting.
Today I'd like to discuss the means in which public relations can be applied for the betterment of the Greek system at the University of Georgia. This may sound boring and a little too formal for the average blog reader, but I'll go ahead and write this anyways.
Firstly, I'd like to recognize the fact that the Greek system, especially in regards to fraternities, is undergoing immense should I say...structural...changes. In general, I believe that the public views fraternities in a negative light, in that when someone mentions a "FRAT," images of crazy parties, binge drinking and intense hazing come to mind. What most people are not aware of is that the Grade Point Average amongst Greek students is much higher than non-Greeks at the University of Georgia and the pledgeship processes that new members must complete to attain brotherly statuses are structured and delivered to build the character and enhance the skill sets of these men.
However, the UGA adminsitration has begun to capitalize on this negative public viewpoint and has taken measures in the last few years to slowly grind the Greek (specifically, fraternity) system down into one that is more organized, docile and under the authority of the university to be shut down at any time. To support this claim, I will point to the fraternity houses kicked off of their prime locations along Lumpkin Street and reinstated in newer houses in the "Greek Park," but with university employees living and watching the brothers there. There have also been a number of instances in the past few years in which several fraternities have been caught for very minor infractions and punished to a grater severity than the "forbidden" actions called for.
So, with this scenario in mind and being a public relations major, I propose some ideas to help improve the images of the fraternities here at the University of Georgia and thus increase public support of the Greek system overall. With this change in perspective, the UGA administration will (hopefully) encounter more resistance to the ludicrous mandates for restructuring that it has been giving several fraternities in the past few years.
Firstly, I think that fraternities can utilize the local media to their advantage. Whenever these organizations participate in philanthropic events (which they do, as every chapter at UGA hosts philanthropic events at least once a year. E.G. 65% of UGA HEROs' fundraising comes from the Greek system), they should contact the local newspaper (Red & Black, Flagpole, Banner Herald) or television station (WNEG). This is an easy and effective means of spreading positive news about Greek life.
Another way to increase the public's good will is to apply for the awards that the University grants to student organizations on campus such as the Organization of The Year award or the Best Event Award. These awards mean a lot to the students who are involved in different clubs at UGA and if a fraternity were to win one, it would cast a very positive light on that organization.
If one were to get really serious about this subject, they could conduct focus groups to see what the general perception of Greek life amongst students at UGA is and what students thought fraternities could do to improve their images. Surveys could accomplish similar goals.
This is certainly an idealistic and perhaps unrealistic idea, but if a coalition of all of the fraternity presidents were to form, apart from the university-created IFC (Interfraternity Council), agree to approach the administration as a group and demand (or negotiate) that the university stop trying to, for a lack of a better word, domesticate the Greek system, there would be a lot of potential for at least some measures of success, which would be better than recent efforts to negotiate with UGA administration.
I apologize if this post seems a bit biased as it certainly is, considering I am myself in a fraternity. However, the issue I am discussing is very important to me and to the rest of the Greek community, I am sure.
Guess that's all I've got today.
Ryan
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