Welcome to the seventy-fifth story from The Mu of Monmouth College. For nearly three years, our publication has been discussing important stories in men’s and women’s fraternity life around campus and across the nation.
The Mu started with the intention of giving Greek Life a voice that it did not have before. “Articles in The Mu give the campus an opportunity to see how we have affected the community,” says Ryan Brandt ’10, one of the founding editors-in-chief.
Starting off as a print journal in December 2008, the layout was made in Microsoft Publisher. The Mu was released in this form every month to the Monmouth College campus via email to faculty and administrators, with an online version posted for parents. The periodical would feature pictures, stories, and a layout similar to most newsletters.
While the process was effective for making a newsletter, The Mu had to evolve and change mediums to achieve its goal as a highly accessible source of information about Greek Life. The format was changed to a blog, which cut back on the time it took to publish each story, and made it easier to reach a broader audience. Starting last August, The Mu also has a Facebook page where readers are encouraged to discuss stories.
Although The Mu covers events going on around campus, the blog also takes a wider look, and tries to look into the motivation and culture of fraternal organizations. The Mu “sheds light on the deeper meaning of Greek Life,” says Brandt. “People know Greeks do philanthropies, fundraisers, fun events, etc., but what they don’t always see is the feedback.”
From its start, The Mu has also reached beyond Greek Life for perspective. The editorial staff, which is exclusively student-run, often selects articles written by professors, faculty, and even Monmouth College alumni, who discuss important connections between Greek Life and the world around us.
In his essay for The Mu, Col. Stephen Bloomer, a Monmouth College senior development officer and adviser to Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, says, “Leadership in Greek life is one of the many opportunities available to students at Monmouth College as part of our President’s strategy for informal and formal learning by students as a member of our engaged campus community.”
In 75 articles, The Mu has discussed many of those Greek Life opportunities, but there are still many more to be covered. Greek Life will continue to grow by leaps and bounds, and The Mu will be there to give the fraternity community the voice it deserves.
“I hope to see continued success with The Mu and see it continue to open the eyes of others to see Greek life’s positive impact at Monmouth as well as nationally and encourage people to take part in everything Greek Life has to offer,” says Brandt. μ
Alex Woods ‘12
Also of interest
Student Commentary: What about rateyourgreek.com?
Thursday, January 27th, 2011Several years ago, a website called rateyourprof.com came onto the scene. It allows students to anonymously grade their professors in a public forum. The idea is that the students, with their identities hidden and protected, are free to give honest reviews.
A small group of professors decided to turn the tables by creating rateyourstudents.com, as detailed by W.T. Pfefferle in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
As the title of the website implies, professors would rate the performance of students. Educators anonymously sent e-mail to the website describing experiences and stories ranging from student excuses for not turning in assignments, to complaints about class attendance, to simple disgust about student behavior. Unlike the free-for-all students’ ratings of professors, these ratings were moderated by a panel.
While anonymity can theoretically bring honesty, it can also lead to some hurt feelings. Some students began to complain about rateryourstudents.com, saying that they were “misunderstood” and that the ratings were “unfair” because they were already being judged by the grading system.
It may be a fair complaint from students, because there was little to no way for those students to defend themselves on the website run by educators.
“We will rate our students here,” said the first post on rateyourstudents.com, “And we will do it without compunction. Then we’ll just see where we’re at. We’ll still be poor academics. But at least those callous and ignorant ‘customers’ of ours will know what it’s like.”
The goal of this was to let teachers get the weight off their shoulders and let the world know their true opinions about their students and their profession.
This now brings up the question: What if there was a similar website that applied to Greek Life? A rateyourgreek.com of sorts. Visitors and contributors could be advisors, chapter presidents, Greek members, or even non-Greeks.
While rateyourstudent.com was seen by students as a mudslinging website, there is no reason why rateyourgreek.com could not be used for positive reasons and constructive criticism. It does not have to pick out individual members and judge them, but it can be used to pick out flaws in the system.
Rateyourstudent.com allowed professors to get the metaphorical weight off their shoulders by voicing their complaints on a worldwide forum. A similar system for Greek Life could be helpful, but only as long as it did not become a venue for gossip.
It could be used to improve the system by offering comments to make the Greek community better with constructive ideas by the right kind of people. Anonymity might be helpful in this situation because it might avoid the discomfort of holding Greek brothers and sisters accountable.
While the original concept of rating students was a short lived project, the concept of rating Greeks could be used for the overall improvement of Greek Life. μ
Alexander Woods ‘12
Also of interest:
Tags:Community Involvment, Marketing and Relations, Member Development, Technology
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