VOLUNTARY REMARKS
Commentar y relevant to the Order
THE NUMBERS TELL THE STORY
How fraternity and sorority membership assists with retention on a post-pandemic campus By Dawn Wiese, Ph.D. In January 2024, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article of dismay regarding student engagement and retention on college campuses following the COVID-19 pandemic. One key factor was left out—that of fraternity and sorority life and how it bucks the trend of student disengagement. Dr. Dawn Wiese submitted a letter to The Chronicle’s Editor and it was published. In its original form, it is presented here. Erin Gretzinger and Maggie Hicks’ article, “Why Campus Life Fell Apart,” recounts post-pandemic student engagement, a key to both retention and graduation. Gretzinger and Hicks failed to note one of the greatest programs which retains college students— including post-pandemic—fraternity and sorority life. In the Summer of 2020, Ronald Yates, a math professor at the College of Southern Nevada, published an article titled, “Student Involvement and Graduation Rates: A Quantitative Study on the Impact of Adding a Fraternity and Sorority Community at Colleges and Universities in the United States.” As shared by Yates, “The results of this study suggest that the addition of a fraternity and sorority community can have a positive overall influence on student and institutional success.” Yates reviews literature dating back to the 1970s and going well into the 2000s, by such long-time higher education experts as Astin, Kuh, Tinto, Creamer (and Creamer), Pike, Pascarella and Terenzini: students who are engaged both inside and outside the classroom are more likely to stay and graduate. As summarized by Pike and Askew, “fraternities and sororities contribute to the psychological sense of 84
– with most national fraternities reporting overall positive gains in membership postpandemic, with some as high as 11% greater than prior to the pandemic. This, despite enrollment not having recovered.
community that is experienced by students and increases levels of social involvement.” Testing these works in the late 2010s, Yates affirmed these outcomes in his study revealing that “the addition of a fraternity and sorority community on a college or university campus correlated to a positive impact on graduation rates ... in alignment with Astin’s Theory of Student Involvement and Tinto’s Theory of Student Departure.” During the pandemic, when colleges and universities worked to continue instruction and manage all new policies and procedures related to student health, national fraternities and sororities remained at work on student engagement. As studied by Ballinger and Workman in “Fraternity/Sorority Organizational Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic,” fraternities and sororities, conducting their business differently, reported that “89% [of national fraternal organizations] believe their relationships with undergraduate chapters remained consistent or grew stronger during the pandemic.” While national organizations may have believed this, participation in fraternity and sorority life post-pandemic, also reflects this work with membership on the increase—not decrease
One can debate the merits of fraternity and sorority life. It is something I do every day. As a former dean of students and vice president for student affairs and, now, chief operating officer of a captive insurer for men’s social fraternities, I am well-versed in the benefits and drawbacks to fraternity and sorority life. What I definitively know: there is significant value in supporting a healthy, vibrant fraternal community. Such a community, working in partnership with national fraternal organizations, can share in the work of engagement, retaining and graduating students but also in educating in topics ranging from alcohol and other drug use and misuse, hazing, sexual misconduct and more. The decline in student enrollment and engagement is very real. Also very real: a strong fraternal community retains and graduates students—before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and post pandemic. The numbers tell the story. Dawn Wiese, Ph.D., is the Chief Operating officer of FRMT, Ltd. She is a former Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students at Washington & Lee University, a recipient of the North American Interfraternity Conference’s Silver Medal, and the Fraternity Executive Association Award for Fraternal Excellence. She is married to Larry Wiese, the Order’s Executive Director, and they have one daughter, Jill.
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