Of the 30 total Greek organizations on NIU’s campus, 19 are on some form of academic probation.

But despite the high number, Ellen Dunseth, activities adviser for Greek affairs, said many of the grade-troubled fraternities and sororities have made great progress this year.

“Clearly, the grades have improved,” she said. “More than 20 of our chapters made improvement this fall.”

Those pledging to a fraternity or sorority should be aware of the house’s academic standing, Dunseth said.

The main source of that information is the Greek Life Commission, a panel in charge of setting guidelines for all Greek houses, as well as assessing each house’s status, including its academic performance.

“Part of that states that each fraternity or sorority house has to increase the house’s cumulative grade-point average by .2 [from the previous year] or meet the all-men’s or all-women’s GPA,” Dunseth said.

As of last spring, the all-men’s GPA was 2.3 on a 4-point scale, and the all-women’s GPA was 2.9. Any fraternity or sorority may have a cumulative GPA below the all-men’s or all-women’s average, so long as the house’s cumulative GPA moves up by .2 over the school year. Once the house’s cumulative GPA meets the all-men’s or all-women’s average, the house no longer has to worry about increasing its grades. However, failing to hit requirements means probation, as 19 Greek houses can attest.

“Each year we do an evaluation,” Dunseth said. “We take the fall GPA and spring GPA, and we average those together. Then we look at the all-men’s and all-women’s GPA, and if a chapter doesn’t make those requirements, then they’re put on first-year probation. Then, every year they don’t meet the requirements, they move onto the next stage of probation.”

In all, there are four possible stages.

“In the first stage, the organization meets with a Greek adviser, and they work on developing more of an educational plan and how they are going to increase their members’ GPAs,” Dunseth said. In the second probation stage, house members are required to attend two of the monthly scholarship chairman’s meetings, where academic topics are discussed.

“Again, they’re also required to meet with one of the Greek advisers to talk about their academic plan,” Dunseth said. “Then, also, they’re required to have two educational programs for the chapter members that are academic focused.”

Stage three is not fully developed because no NIU Greek house has yet reached that level of probation. Guidelines will be laid out this spring.

“I’m sure it will include what they do in stage two, and then maybe looking at other campus resources or resources that their international organization has,” she said.

Stage four would mean a house loses its NIU recognition.

Beyond NIU, academic probation also can happen at a Greek organization’s international level.

“A lot depends on the individual organization because they function on their own,” Dunseth said. “Some choose to put their own members on some type of membership discipline, where if you don’t meet a certain GPA requirement, then you have additional things you have to do through the chapter.”

Dunseth stressed that academic probation isn’t something that was created to hurt Greek chapters or get rid of them — the only way to help them is to strengthen their focus on education.

“We want the organizations on our campus,” she said. “We want them to strive, and we want them to develop academically. I don’t think it’s that we are removing recognition because they’ve done something bad, and we don’t want them on our campus. It’s the exact opposite. We want them on our campus, and we want them to do well.”

Someday it would be remarkable to have all of the Greek organizations’ GPAs at or above the required mark, Dunseth added.

“Our members are here first and foremost for an education,” she said. “It’s going to be incredible the day all of our chapters are above the all-men’s or all-women’s average. I think that’s just going to have to happen with time.”