Fraternity/Sorority community representatives are gathering at the West Fraternal Leadership Conference which is held in conjunction with the National Cultural Greek Leadership Conference (WFLNCGLC) this week. Gamma Sigma Alpha was pleased to be represented there today to announce our regional GPA awards and honor roll recipients. The institution receiving the highest award for the Spring 2011 academic period is also the winner for the Fall 2011 academic period and that is the University of San Diego! Congratulations!

The Honor Roll schools that are attending WFLNCGLC this week are listed below. These schools have fraternity/sorority communities that achieve a higher GPA than the general undergraduate communities.

Spring 2011 Honor Roll recipients:

Fall 2011 Honor Roll recipients:

For more information about Gamma Sigma Alpha and how you can get your school name on this list, visit our website.

For the past 12 years Gamma Sigma Alpha has honored those schools whose fraternity and sorority GPA is at or above their undergraduate counterparts. Begun in 2000, the Gamma Sigma Alpha regional GPA competition seeks to recognize those schools within the various regions whose undergraduate GPA is the greatest above their undergraduate GPA. Last week, Gamma Sigma Alpha was pleased to recognize academic achievement among the sorority communities attending the Southeastern Panhellenic Association Conference. 

The institution receiving top academic honors with the SEPC Regional GPA award for Spring 2011 is ALSO our winner for Fall 2011 and that sorority community is at the University of Miami.

The schools listed below were able to achieve honor roll during both 2011 terms.

The Honor Roll recipients for SEPA are:

A full list of honor roll schools and regional award recipients will be published mid-month after awards are presented at The West Fraternal Leadership Conference. You still have time to add your school to our Honor Roll if the Fraternity/Sorority GPA is above the all-undergraduate GPA. Complete the online form here.

For the past 11 years Gamma Sigma Alpha has honored those schools whose fraternity and sorority GPA is at or above their undergraduate counterparts.  This elite group of schools represents the top 5% of schools throughout the country.

Begun in 2000, the Gamma Sigma Alpha regional GPA competition seeks to recognize those schools within the Central region whose fraternity and sorority GPA is the greatest above their undergraduate GPA. Schools who have already submitted their GPA information are featured on our Honor Roll and provided a certificate. If the Fraternity/Sorority GPA on your campus is higher than your all-undergraduate GPA, you can submit your grades through the end of the semester to be included in the HONOR ROLL. Submit grade information here.

Awards were announced today at the Central Fraternal Leadership Conference/National Black Leadership Conference in St. Louis, MO. The institution receiving the award for the Spring 2011 academic period is ALSO our winner for the Fall 2011 academic period. The winner is Oklahoma State University.

The 2011 Honor Roll Recipients for the Central region are:

Albion College (Spring & Fall)

Ball State University (Spring & Fall)

Binghamton University (Fall)

Case Western Reserve University (Spring & Fall)

Eastern Illinois University (Spring & Fall)

Elmhurst College (Spring & Fall)

Longwood University (Fall)

Missouri State University (Fall)

Northwestern University (Spring & Fall)

Oklahoma State University (Spring & Fall)

Pennsylvania State University (Spring & Fall)

Rutgers University, New Brunswick (Spring & Fall)

University of Illinois (Spring & Fall)

University of Iowa (Spring)

University of Michigan (Spring & Fall)

University of Washington (Spring & Fall)

Wittenberg University (Spring & Fall)

Stay tuned–NGLA Conference is next week and we’ll be announcing our regional winners there and online! To stay updated, follow Gamma Sigma Alpha on Facebook & Twitter.

We’ve all been in meetings with student organizations and Gamma Sigma Alpha chapters where some great ideas are discussed only to be squelched because some financial resources are needed and the organization’s account isn’t overflowing with available monies.

We heard you and this Spring, Gamma Sigma Alpha national headquarters is hoping to help. Mini-Grants will be available to active chapters seeking to sponsor or co-sponsor programs, host events and/or recognize students/faculty.

Important things to consider when discussing applying for these funds:

1. 1. Any school that hosts an active Gamma Sigma Alpha chapter is eligible to apply for a mini-grant. An active chapter is defined as a chapter that has initiated students into Gamma Sigma Alpha during one of the most recent three semesters.
2. The completed application form must include signatures by the originator and approval from the Department of Student Life and/or Fraternity and Sorority Life.
3. Mini-Grant applications deadlines will be as follows:
   1. February 1, 2012 with notification by February 28, 2012
   2. October 1, 2012 with notification by October 31, 2012
   3. December 1, 2012 with notification by December 31, 2012
4. The Mini-Grant Committee will review proposals and may recommend funding at, below or above the request based on review committee consensus.
5. The minimum request amount will be $100 and the maximum awarded amount will be $500.
6. Projects in progress or completed are not funded. Project start date should be AFTER notification date and within six months of the notification date.
7. Compensation to individual student, faculty and/or staff will not be considered.

To apply, download the application here.

Questions: Contact director(@)gammasigmaalpha.org

The heat continues here in Indianapolis, but Gamma Sigma Alpha knows that fall is right around the corner. Students & advisors are planning fall semester and we want to be a part of it! Please take a look at a few exciting updates we have for fall! As always, feel free to contact us with questions or concerns.

Dues Increase:  Effective August 1^st, 2011, national membership dues will increase to $35 per student. Please plan accordingly. Many of our chapters add a ‘local dues’ option when collecting payment from students, this is a great for building some resources to support academic achievement or other programs on your campus. We know that each chapter is different and only you know what rate students on your campus will pay for membership in an honorary and we ask that you keep this in mind when adding a local dues to the national fee. This is the final stair-step increase our Board of Directors approved three years ago. Honor cords will remain $10. We will do our best to keep this fee consistent over the next few years and avoid another increase. The primary reason for the increase is heightened costs for services, increased number of services provided and the growing cost for operational expenses.

You Spoke…We Listened: Based on feedback from our Member Services Survey we conducted in the Spring, we will be undertaking a few projects this fall. The first will be an online submission tool that will allow advisors to input names electronically and pay via a secure site to enable the fastest and the most accurate processing we can provide. We are partnering with WebGreek to use cutting-edge technology and are hoping for a seamless piloting of this processing option in August. More details on this will be distributed in the next couple of weeks.

In addition, we will launch a newsletter to communicate with advisors concerning scholarship processes, award deadlines, chapter profiles, program ideas and other valuable information. Stay tuned for the debut of this new communication tool.  If there is something specific you would like to see highlighted in an upcoming newsletter, let us know!

We will continue to grow the Gamma Sigma Alpha website and blog with resources to help you differentiate Gamma Sigma Alpha with other organizations on your campus, grow your chapter and excel academic achievement within your fraternity/sorority community. We know that many of our chapters operate as a recognition society and that serves our mission and is a great program for some schools, but many others want to develop the chapter into something more than that and we want to help. Friendly reminder: our membership should never be ‘capped’ at a certain number of students—if they meet the qualifications and pay the membership fee, they should be granted membership–our goal is to recognize as many academic achievers as we can.

Gamma Sigma Alpha annually distributes a roster to all inter/national fraternity/sorority headquarters identifying the students within their organizations who affiliated with Gamma Sigma Alpha over the previous academic year. We think membership is something to brag about, so we do this in order for the inter/national groups to brag about their members who put scholarship first!

For the third year in a row, Sigma Phi Epsilon took top honors with the most affiliated men initiated into Gamma Sigma Alpha. It appears that these undergraduate men are following their mission: Building Balanced Men. Balance to us at Gamma Sigma Alpha starts with academic achievement and it appears they are doing it right. Congratulations Sigma Phi Epsilon!

Kappa Kappa Gamma is the highest yielding group in the women’s category. Over 125 Gamma Sigma Alpha initiates across the country were affiliated Kappa Kappa Gamma members. Education is important to their organization and it is illustrated through the national philanthropy they adopted in 2004: Reading is Fundamental or RIF. RIF, Inc. works to build a literate nation by helping young people discover the joy of reading. Congratulations to Kappa Kappa Gamma!

 Based on feedback from our Member Services Survey we conducted in the Spring, we will be piloting a few projects this fall. The first will be an online submission tool that will allow advisors to input names electronically and pay via a secure site to enable the fastest and the most accurate processing we can provide. We are partnering with WebGreek to use cutting-edge technology and are hoping for a seamless piloting of this processing option in August. Details will be distributed in July and August.

WebGreek was founded when three of the six WebGreek members lived as brothers of the same fraternity at UC Berkeley and often struggled with managing their chapter alongside their college life because any solution attempting to relieve their headaches just ended up creating a new batch of their own. So naturally, they pursued their own workable solution. They accepted the challenge of customizing web-based solutions for Gamma Sigma Alpha and we are excited to partner with them to bring you, our members and advisors, the best experience possible. Stay tuned.

For over 10 years, the Gamma Sigma Alpha regional GPA competition has sought to recognize the schools that have the fraternity/sorority GPA greatest above their undergraduate GPA. Honor Roll schools are determined by those schools whose fraternity/sorority GPA is above the undergraduate GPA.

AVLV-West: The institution receiving the award for the Spring 2010 academic period is the University of San Diego! The AFLV-West winner for the Fall 2010 academic period is Loyola Marymount University.

The Spring 2010 Honor Roll recipients for AFLV-West are:

University of San Diego
University of Southern California
Loyola Marymount University
California State University, Northridge

The Fall 2010 Honor Roll recipients are:

University of San Diego
University of Southern California
University of Nevada, Reno
Loyola Marymount University
California State University, Northridge

Southeastern Panhellenic Association (SEPA): The institution receiving the award for the Spring 2010 academic period for SEPA is Jacksonville State University. The SEPA winner for the Fall 2010 academic period is Western Kentucky University.

The Honor Roll for this region holds eight schools that were able to achieve honor roll during both 2010 terms.

The Honor Roll recipients are:

Clemson University
Jacksonville State University
Spring Hill College
The University of Louisiana at Monroe
University of Miami
University of South Carolina
Vanderbilt University
Western Kentucky University

Begun in 2000, the Gamma Sigma Alpha regional GPA competition seeks to recognize those schools at the various regional conferences (AFLV-Central, NGLA, SEIFC, SEPA and AFLV-West) whose fraternity and sorority GPA is the greatest above their undergraduate GPA. The awards at AFLV-Central were distributed last week.

The institution receiving this award for the Spring 2010 academic period is ALSO our winner for the Fall 2010 academic period. BIG congratulations to Oklahoma State University.

The Spring 2010 Honor Roll recipients at this time from the AFLV-Central region are:

The Fall 2010 Honor Roll recipients at this time from the AFLV-Central region are:

A comprehensive list will be published after all of the regional conferences this semester. For more information about how you can get your school’s name on this list, click here. Submissions will be accepted for Honor Roll through the end of the Spring semester.

From my position as the president and CEO of the North-American Interfraternity Conference, I’m often asked by members of the media or university administrators to highlight some examples of success in today’s fraternity/sorority experience.  One of the first examples I use is often the members of Gamma Sigma Alpha across the country.  These men and women are outstanding examples of the academic success earned by so many students today.  Their success is through hard work, dedication to the learning community and the prioritization of academics in their daily schedule.  As a Gamma Sigma Alpha Board member, I’m proud of our member’s achievements and hold these men and women up as role models for others.

 These students are evidence that you can achieve excellence in the classroom and be a member of the fraternity/sorority community.  They exemplify the value of academic achievement and integrity that must be part of the complete fraternity/sorority experience.  All members of the fraternal community should embrace the concept of learning for personal growth and commit to excellence in the classroom. 

Too often, it is easy for our outstanding leaders to major in “activities” and place a lesser emphasis on the academic side of their collegiate experience. A true leader finds the balance.   

So, if you are a student struggling with academic focus, ask yourself some hard questions:  Are the people you hang around with encouraging you to go to class, meet with your faculty, go the academic success center and study?  If not, maybe you and your friends need to make some changes to your routine in order to create new habits and seek academic success.

Academic success must be learned and it’s easiest to do it at the beginning of the academic experience.  It can and should be learned and practiced.   Our newest members of the fraternity and sorority community can look to the outstanding members of Gamma Sigma Alpha for motivation and know how.   Do you want to know how to do well in college? It’s easy. Follow the example of those that have already proven their success. Look to your Gamma Sigma Alpha scholars.

Peter Smithhisler, President & CEO

 North-American Interfraternity Conference

Recent Posts

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• SEPA Awards Announced
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• Central Awards Announced at CFLNBGLC

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