An Explanatory Study of the Institutional Factors Relating to the Quality of Social Greek Letter Societies
An Explanatory Study of the Institutional Factors Relating to the Quality of Social Greek Letter Societies
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Date
2001
Authors
Zacker, Terry York
Advisor
Komives, Susan
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Abstract
This exploratory study sought to describe which institutional interventions
and/or factors seem to make a difference in high quality Greek (fraternity and sorority)
communities. The research provided a descriptive analysis of the institutions which
host Greek letter communities identified as promoting the positive ideals of the Greek
experience. Through a revised Council for the Advancement of Standards Self
Assessment Guide (CAS-SAGR) measurement tool, several factors important to
Greek community success were postulated. The institutions were identified by experts
familiar with the fraternity and sorority arena (e.g. national executive directors of
fraternities and sororities, Association of Fraternity Advisors national board members)
as hosting Greek letter communities with chapters which embody the ideals and
founding principles ofleadership, service, academic excellence, and
character/personal development; and have Greek self-governance systems of high
quality.
Greek communities from sixteen campuses were selected as those that best
represented high quality fraternity and sorority systems. Four individuals at each
campus completed the CAS-SAGR instrument. The CAS-SAGR instrument included
14 categories which represented dependent variables in the study. Each category
contained several items which asked respondents to rate the importance of the item to
their Greek community and how well they accomplished the variable. The data from
these surveys were analyzed using Manovas and several correlations based on the
independent variables of size and type (e.g. public or private). The results of the
Manovas showed no statistical significance for either variable of size or type which
suggests more similarities between quality Greek communities. Additionally,
Cronbach alphas were applied to the CAS-SAGR instrument to provide an initial
screening for reliability. Of the fourteen categories of measurement on the CASSAGR,
eleven had alpha scores above .60.
The identification and description ofthe 16 institutions, representing varied sizes
and types, which host high quality Greek life communities, provides practitioners with
prototypes for Greek systems to use when looking at improving their Greek
community. The results of this research provide "models" of Greek communities
where the founding principles and ideals may be approximating realization.