"Accidental advisor" ponders faculty involvement

I serve as faculty adviser to Pi Beta Phi sorority. Recently I was asked to share my thoughts on greek-faculty relations at a lunch sponsored by the Greek Standards Initiative. The occasion brought to mind the afternoon I heard Henry Kissinger intone this eulogy for Gerald Ford: "Propelled into the presidency by a sequence of unpredictable events, he had an impact so profound it's rightly to be considered providential."Kissinger's words seemed out of joint with news reports on Ford's career. They said he was a bungler. At a celebration of Lincoln's birthday, Ford said, "If Lincoln were alive today, he'd roll over in his grave." They called him the "Accidental President" because he gained the White House without having sought it.

Sometimes I consider myself an Accidental Adviser. In 2005 I was named "outstanding faculty adviser," but I feel that I have been propelled by a sequence of unpredictable events. I wasn't notified that I won the award until the day after the award ceremony. Most of the women at Pi Phi didn't know who I was when I thanked them for the honor. And I couldn't tell you what I did that the other advisors didn't. If an "outstanding" advisor can't say what makes him outstanding, then what are faculty to the greek houses, other than accidental?

Generally, the greek faculty adviser was conceived as a mediator between the house and the faculty to address academic issues within the University. In a climate that has become charged with suspicion, this purpose has become crucial and extends to all faculty.

I've talked to greeks who feel disdained by the faculty for being greek. I've talked to faculty who believe that the greek system is inimical to the mission of the University. The purge at Delta Zeta sorority has generated a faculty petition in support of the excommunicated women and has fueled the idea that sororities are ethically repugnant cliques that corrode the ideals of free thinking and tolerance to which we pay lip-service in the classroom.

And the fraternities? Many of them at DePauw are on probation. At best, we accept the conventional wisdom that living in a fraternity house is counterproductive to academic performance. At worst, they have been associated with binge drinking, drugs, hazing, gambling, sexual harassment, fighting, property damage, hospitalization, incarceration and squalor. If Gerald Ford (a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity) were alive today, he'd roll over in his grave.

Some say that these problems are real. Others say they are problems of perception. Either way, they present an opportunity for faculty to play a more significant role in the social and academic life of DePauw. A few months ago, a former fraternity president wandered into my office, frustrated by the tenor of the discussion surrounding the Greek Fact-Finding Commission and by the recent conduct of his own house. "What can we do to improve the way the University sees the houses?" he asked me. I asked him, "What can we do to improve the way the houses see the University?" This is the beginning of the conversation that faculty must lead. I don't aspire to have "an impact so profound it's rightly to be considered providential," but I'd like to think that our job as faculty at a predominantly greek university is more than accidental.



-hbrown@depauw.edu