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The University of Illinois fraternal council recently passed an initiative to "return chapters to the basic goals of leadership, service, brotherhood, academic achievement and proper risk management."

For those who don't know, Illinois' greek system is one of the most renowned systems in the world.

When asked if he knew of any other colleges that "follow as extensive of a program" as the Illinois Greek Initiative, UIUC Interfraternity (IFC) Council Vice President of Standards Steve Sternberg claimed he was unaware of any.

Sternberg also went on to add, "We have hopes that other greek communities at different schools will follow."

I only bring this up because the Illinois Greek Initiative, or IGI, reminds me of another school that approved an initiative similar to the IGI more than 10 years ago. That same school is currently on its third evolution of the initiative-and its initiative is indeed more extensive than the IGI.

The school I'm talking about actually resides right here in Carbondale.

In the fall of 1997, the North American Interfraternity Council invited SIU to adopt the initiative known as Select 2000. We were one of four schools nationwide to implement the program, which required, among other things, an alcohol-free fraternity house.

Greek coordinator Andy Morgan was a member and advisor to Pi Kappa Alpha during the years before Select 2000. He describes these times as something like anarchy because there was no way to hold fraternities accountable for their actions. Among other problems, police reports involving greeks were unfortunately frequent in those days.

No statistics on community service, grade point average or risk management were kept during this time, however they did manage to keep track of the greek GPA during the year before Select 2000 was implemented. The results show Select 2000 had a major impact on our system, both positively and negatively.

In 1996 the total number of IFC fraternity men was 667; today it is 317. But as numbers declined, so did the constant risk management issues and police reports.

Other aspects of greek life improved. GPA has steadily increased. The fall 1996 GPA for fraternities was a 2.27. Last semester it was a 2.58. Community service and philanthropy have increased as well, along with the sanitary conditions of many fraternity houses.

By 1999, Select 2000 had been replaced by the Greek Millennium Initiative, an evaluation system that was in place until last semester, when we adopted a less complicated version known simply as the Greek Standards. The GMI was replaced to simplify the process of filing documented paperwork.

The Greeks Standards are broken down into eight categories, ranging from academics to new member programming and recruitment. There's even a section devoted to how involved your advisers are.

There are roughly 100 yes or no questions that are asked in this evaluation, half of which Student Development fills out for the chapter. Many of the questions require documentation, like providing names of attendees for educational speakers (of which each chapter is to attend three per semester), campus events your chapter participated in and so forth.

Evaluators then add up the number of "yes's" the chapter answered, and give a corresponding grade based upon those scores. If a chapter has a sub par score for three straight semesters, it will most likely be put on probation or even suspension. The evaluators are made up of mostly greek leaders, with some faculty and advisors adding some input.

As "the Illinois Greek Initiative confirms that [U of I's] Greek community's success is unsurpassed" according to the authors of the document, I applaud them for setting an example for other major greek systems in America.

And while I'm sure a smaller greek community such as this one will probably never have the numbers or attention of systems like that of UIUC, I hope we can hang our hats on the trail we have blazed for other large-scale greek systems to follow.

After all, a core foundation of being greek is demonstrating leadership. And part of being a good leader is staying ahead of the curve.

Sophie is a junior studying

radio-television and journalism.

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