How to Make Scholarship Part of Your Chapter

Scholarship in Chapter Meetings
  1. Offer a vocabulary word of the week.

  2. Give reminders of final course drop dates, early registration, etc.

  3. Make weekly announcements of cultural, educational, and career opportunities on campus and in the community.

  4. Ask members to answer to roll call with the number of classes they cut the previous week.

  5. Announce job offers, admission into graduate schools, Who's Who, Mortar Board, Phi Beta Kappa, honoraries.

Scholarship in Membership Recruitment

  1. Display your scholarship trophies.

  2. Display graphs of chapter progress.

  3. Display bulletin boards with scholastic information.

Scholarship Charts and Graphs

  1. Chart the progress of the chapter average, the candidate average, and the initiated member average over the past four years.

  2. Compare your chapter average to other fraternities on campus.

  3. Show how your chapter compares with other TKE chapters. Ask your Regional Director for help with the comparison.

Chapter Bulletin Board Ideas

  1. Career Board (visit your Placement Office on campus for information to put on this bulletin board -- may be how to put together a resume, how to match careers with majors, etc.)

  2. Board for national and local news.

  3. Board for movie and book review.

  4. Post a "Thought of the Week".

  5. Put up an "I need help" sheet for members to sign.

  6. Put up an "I can help" sheet for members who want to assist members.

  7. List study halls and quiet hours, and proctors for both.

Study Areas and Quiet Hours

  1. If you do not have adequate study facilities in your chapter house or residence hall, secure a room in the campus library or another academic building.

  2. Have roommates rotate as quiet hour monitors.

  3. Have 24-hour quiet hours during mid-terms, the week before finals, and the week of finals.

  4. Change the name of quiet hours to "courtesy hours".

"How to Study" Ideas

  1. Recommend three hours of study per class hour instead of two.

  2. Present "How to Study" workshops or "Information Presentations" to the entire chapter.

  3. Explain Fraternity grade requirements, university grade requirements and academic probation, chapter grade requirements, etc.

  4. Teach study techniques.

  5. Explain honor programs.

  6. Outline your scholarship program.

  7. Discuss how to improve study atmosphere and chapter performance.

  8. Have skits or slide shows showing good or bad study techniques.

  9. Teach how to take essay vs. objective examinations.

  10. Give members weekly study budget sheets (time management), divided into hours.

  11. Teach a method of studying (i.e., SQ3R, etc.)

  12. Make "Library Use" booklets for each member.

  13. Describe learning skills centers and courses available.

  14. Alert members to counseling services.

  15. Distribute lists of chapter members and their majors.

  16. Give members "Class Progress Sheets" for recording their assignments, quiz grades, tests and papers.

Motivations

  1. Posters can show chapter creativity and can remind members of quiet hours, the need to attend classes, etc.

  2. Friendly Competitions:
    • Challenge each member to raise his GPA 0.1 each term.

    • Have one class challenge another class each term, and the losing class serves the winning class dinner.

    • Have Big Brother/Little Brother competitions.

  3. Have a chapter fireside before finals.

Useful Files and Library

  1. Stock files by having "Clean Out Your Notebook" parties at the end of each term; members can contribute books, notes and tests.

  2. Study aids might include: Effective Study, Francis P. Robinson, Harper and Row, 4th Ed., 1970; Effective Reading , Francis P. Robinson, Harper and Row; How to Study, Thomas F. Stanton, McQuiddy Printing Co., 4th Ed. 1954: Effective College Learning, Ohmer Milton, Ph.D, Univ. of Michigan; The Adventure of Learning in College, Rober H. Garrison; Improvement of Fraternity Scholarship, Ray E. Blackwell, Oxford, OH, 1957; The Easy Way to Better Grades (A Practical Guide to the Art of Study), Otis D. Froe, Ph.D., and Otyce B. Froe, M.A., Arco Publishing Co., Inc., 2nd Ed, 1976.

  3. Professor/Course Evaluation Files (or Teacher Comment Files) - outline the instructor's grading procedures, attendance policy, course requirements.

  4. Test Files (to be used properly, as a questioning learning aid only).

  5. Major and Minor Files (used for assigning tutors, study buddies, major mates -- anytime you want to find two people with similar interests).

  6. Graduate School catalogues and information.

  7. Graduate Record examination information and review books.

  8. Departmental catalogues.

  9. Schedule of courses offered each term.

Events

  1. Over-the-Hump Social (after mid-terms).

  2. Grumble Social (before exams).

  3. Mourner's Dinner (last night before finals, short dinner to which everyone wears black to signify that all other activities must die as you honor exams).

  4. Faculty Social (members invite their favorite professors and the university administration).

  5. Faculty Week (instructors from different departments are invited to dinner each night and talk about their departments).

  6. Scholarship Banquet (for chapter recognition, invite faculty) Note: write the G.P.A. of each member you are honoring on his place-card.

  7. Guest Speakers (invited to any event or open meeting):
    • Campus Librarian.

    • Placement office personnel or visiting representatives from businesses.

    • Administration officials from the College President to the Greek Advisor.

    • The winner of your local scholarship.

    • Board of Education officials in your community.

    • Alumni on the Faculty.

    • Prominent and successful alumni within the community.

Recognition and Awards

  1. Take every opportunity to recognize your achievers in in your campus or Greek newspaper and your chapter newsletter.

  2. Send letters to parents of excelling members.

  3. Recognize Mortar Board, Phi Beta Kappa, honoraries, Dean's list, etc.

  4. Recognize 4.0's and/or highest G.P.A. in the chapter, or perhaps in each class including the candidates.

  5. Recognize the most improved, in the chapter and in the candidates.

  6. Give each member door signs: Red - Do Not Disturb; Yellow - I'm Studying, Come Back Later; Green - Come On In..

  7. Have members take an Asset Inventory at the beginning of the year; or a Skill and Problem Inventory (let them tell you their "good assets" and where they might need help).

  8. Have members sign scholarship contracts at the beginning of each term: "I promise to study ___ hours per week during ____ term. I also promise not to cut class. I will do everything I can to live up to this promise because I value my education, my Fraternity, my parents, and my future."

Scholarship for Candidates

  1. Have a library night once a week.

  2. Take candidates on a library tour (arrange for someone at the library to give).

  3. Combine candidate education meetings with study sessions.

  4. Have the candidates elect a scholarship chair to serve as a member of the chapter scholarship committee.

  5. Encourage the candidates to challenge another new member class on campus.

  6. Ask the candidates to sign scholarship contracts.

  7. Give each new member a study buddy or study pal, one member especially responsible for motivating the candidate to study, and to serve as a resource for academic adjustment (try to match majors, or may use the Big Brother).

IFC Ideas

  1. Suggest that Panhellenic and IFC sponsor a campus-wide "Learning to Learn" seminar for Freshmen.

  2. Suggest that Panhellenic and IFC plan and participate in a Quiz Bowl using "It's Academic" format.

  3. Have your chapter challenge a sorority each term.

  4. Have your chapter challenge another fraternity.

  5. Work for a scholarship column in the Greek or campus newspaper.

  6. Suggest that IFC offer workshops for scholarship chairs and scholarship advisors.

  7. Suggest that IFC trophies be given each term, highest and most improved averages, both chapter and new member.

  8. Suggest that IFC host a Scholarship Banquet each term (invite only those with a 4.0 or 3.5 and above...award certificates to those receiving a 3.5 and above). Invite members of the administration, alumnus advisors, house mothers, Panhellenic delegates, and chapter presidents...have a theme and have a presentation pertaining to scholarship..

Miscellaneous Awards

  1. Study Nut (weekly recognition of member most often seen studying).

  2. Chapter Honor Society.

  3. Academic Improvement Award (most improved G.P.A.).

  4. Highest Big Brother/Little Brother, Most Improved Big Brother/Little Brother.

  5. Miracle Worker (4.0's) only 99? ..ok...100. Library book donated to the campus or chapter library in the name of the senior with the highest G.P.A.