Chapter of Excellence - Introduction

Fraternity and sorority chapters have a multi-faceted mission of fostering leadership, scholarship, fellowship, and citizenship in wholesome quality of life surroundings. A prominent initiative in the national movement for change in Greek life is an effort to set standards for chapter excellence, measure performance, assist chapters to meet the standards, and reward them for their achievements.

This State of the Chapter Report is the first effort of this type at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is intended to assist fraternity and sorority chapters in fulfilling their mission. It also is intended to attend to the well-being of chapter members and to assist in oversight of Greek life. More specifically, the purposes of the State of the Chapter Report are to:

• Provide each chapter with a regular mechanism to access its performance and progress in meeting its overall mission
• Gather information that can be used to describe the Greek system at UW-Madison and to document its contribution to campus life through the Chapters of Excellence program
• Give the Greek Advisor information regarding chapter membership, activities and accomplishments
• Identify practices that have helped individual chapters to effectively meet their overall mission.

Accomplishing this depends upon efforts of fraternity and sorority leaders who are asked to reflect upon and provide information about their chapter's operations and activities.

The overall goal of the State of the Chapter Report process is to help bring positive changes to Greek life on our campus. The process will provide an ongoing mechanism for setting standards and assessing achievements of chapters. Importantly, these reports also will provide a way to recognize, encourage, and assist chapters and the entire Greek community in their efforts to improve. Chapters of Excellence is a program initiated by the All Greek Council to promote growth, motivation and quality within each Greek chapter on the University of Wisconsin campus. This program is supported by the University of Wisconsin, the Commission on Fraternities and Sororities, the Interfraternity Council, and Panhellenic Association.

Each chapter is being asked to complete the State of Chapter Report. The report is based on four pillars: leadership, scholarship, citizenship and fellowship. A panel of UW faculty, Greek officers and members of the Commission will then assess each chapter against the standards for the Chapters of Excellence. Based on a four-star rating, each chapter will receive a star for obtaining the standards set per pillar. A chapter that receives four stars is deemed a chapter of excellence. In the Spring each chapter will be recognized at the annual All Greek Awards and will receive publicity and recruiting privileges at SOAR.

If you have any questions regarding the Chapters of Excellence program, please contact Caroline Kirby by email at ckirby@wisc.edu.