This quantitative study was used to determine the perceptions that may have caused a decline in membership in fraternities and sororities and to examine active organization involvement between affiliated and unaffiliated students at a single higher education institution in northeast Texas. Eight perceptions were given regarding fraternity and sorority life and why students chose to remain unaffiliated with fraternities or sororities. The instrument used was a modified version of the Extracurricular Involvement Inventory, created by Winston and Massaro (1987) and was administered to participants online via Survey Monkey. There were 206 participants total: 55.3% were female, and 44.7% were male. Regarding ethnicities, 47.0% were African American, 37.5% were Caucasian, and 15.5% were Hispanic/Latino. Out of the participants, 20.9% were in their freshman or sophomore year, 23.8% were juniors, 33.5% were seniors, and 21.8% were graduate students. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 32, with a mean of 22.89 (SD = 2.81). The research questions were analyzed using two techniques: logistic regression for the first question and multiple regression for the second question. Findings for the first research question indicated that lack of values, lack of diversity, poor academic attitudes, and a requirement of too much time were primary reasons unaffiliated students chose not to join a fraternity or sorority. Findings for the second question indicated that Greek-affiliated students averaged higher involvement intensity scores when compared to unaffiliated students. Practical implications and future research are discussed.

As sorority membership numbers keep rising, national sororities need to be cognizant of the ways in which they may induce their members to remain active and involved within the organization. Identification inducement messages are one way in which sorority organizations can continually reinforce organizational identification within their membership. This thesis sought to discover the strategies and tactics found in national sorority magazines and expand Cheney's (1983b) identification inducement typology. A content analysis of 25 articles found new ways in which the strategies and tactics were used. All four strategies - common ground, identification through antithesis, assumed "we," and identifying symbols - were found in the data and these strategies were used in new ways. Three new tactics - personal stories outside of the organization, positioning within the organization (both within the common ground strategy) and nicknames (within identifying symbols) - were found within the sampled articles.

Thesis (M.A.)-- University of California, Santa Cruz, 1993. / Title supplied by cataloger.

The present study has a twofold purpose. First, it will attempt to ascertain whether ordinal position remains an effective discriminator of affiliative need and level of anxiety within the selective confines of a strong social organization, a college sorority; or whether the selective criterion of membership in the strong social organization tends to suppress the differences in affiliative need and level of anxiety between the ordinal positions. Secondly, it will attempt to further explore the relationship between affiliation and dependency.

This study proposes that members of Greek social organizations have higher rates of binge drinking as compared to other college students due to their greater acceptance of norms and motives that support binge drinking. The College Alcohol Study, a survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Heath, was administered to 10, 904 university students. The survey measured various aspects of students' experiences at their respective universities including experiences with and perceptions of alcohol use. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine normative and motivational predictors of binge drinking for Greek and non-Greek students. The results show that Greek members binge drink at higher levels than do other students. The results also indicate that social norm and motive variables, which were thought to be predictive of binge drinking practices for all students, are better predictors of binge drinking for non-Greek members. Implications of theses findings, discussion of results, limitations of the study, and recommendations for future research are presented.

A commitment to advancing civic engagement has been evident throughout the history of the U.S. higher education system. Civic engagement is a part of the mission of fraternity and sorority organizations. Because of this commitment to civic engagement, the purpose of this study is to understand what is happening in the development of civic engagement of fraternity and sorority alumni, specifically the role fraternity and sorority life plays in this development. The research questions that guide this study include: 1) How do fraternity and sorority alumni exercise civic engagement upon graduating from their undergraduate college experiences?; 2) How do fraternity and sorority alumni make meaning of the impact past Greek participation play in their current commitment to civic engagement?; 3) What impact do environments along the academic pathway (e.g., high school, college, postcollege) have on the longitudinal process of meaning making around commitments to civic engagement for fraternity and sorority alumni? Levering key perspectives from Astin’s (1984) Person-Environmental Theory, Baxter Magolda’s Self-Authorship Theory (1999), and Musil’s Spiral Model (2009), the literature review synthesizes research on civic engagement inputs and outcomes into a new conceptual model for understanding the complex process of longitudinal civic engagement commitments via iterative precollege, college, and postcollege experiences. The design of this study comes a from a constructive-development pedagogy lens, that used focus groups to collect data from the narratives of 25 alumni members of fraternity and sorority organizations from a single institution site broken down by Council membership of the National Panhellenic Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council, and the Inter-Fraternity Council. The themes from the results included that most participants took part in a variety of civic engagement experiences prior to college; their commitment to civic engagement grew due to the influence of other chapter members and other student organizations during college; membership commitment due to the foundational leverage of internal commitment to civic engagement; and current environments and previous lived experiences had an impact on participants’ current civic engagement commitment and identity. Additional research should be conducted to determine if this research could be replicated at other higher education institutions and fraternity and sorority communities to better understand the long-term impact of these experiences on alumni’s civic engagement identity.

No description available.

Heavy drinking behaviors have been observed in relation to fraternity and sorority membership. Some have argued that this relationship persists as a result of the drinking-conducive social environments of Greek organizations, but others have suggested that this relationship may be spurious. Using data from The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (n = 10,904) the link between Greek affiliation, alcohol consumption, and parental influence was examined through the lens of social learning theory. It was hypothesized that members of Greek organizations would report higher levels of drinking compared to others and that the inclusion of the variable of parental influence would effectively render this relationship spurious. The results reveal a strong relationship between Greek affiliation and drinking behaviors, but parental influence failed to sufficiently account for this relationship.

Past experiences have relevant truths for the present. An uncommon work and living situation from this writer's undergraduate days shows how prejudice and stereotype can be subtly arranged, and participated in, by the nature of his surroundings. This thesis explores, through the combination of related past events with an interspersed imperative address to the reader, the ways in which the writer was stereotyped by those he served because of the limited nature of their interactions. This writer, in turn, formed prejudices against those for whom he worked. The imperative addresses to the reader advise one not to accept without question simple categories and judgments for people based solely upon circumstance and situation. / Graduation date: 1996

This paper explores the manner in which campus culture during the middle of the twentieth century idealized the image of the campus sweetheart, which had become common within higher education during the period, to project characteristics and beliefs that adhered to a restrictive feminine standard. By analyzing newspapers and yearbooks produced at multiple Midwest universities during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, the paper demonstrates how the image of the sweetheart promoted an unrealistic feminine standard pertaining to beauty and monogamy to young women entering higher education during the period. In addition, the paper illustrates the detrimental effect of the sweetheart image for women's educational experiences through an analysis of Sylvia Plath's journals from her time at Smith College.