Jennifer Jones Hall is a member of the Gamma Sigma Alpha Board of Directors and is the Assistant Dean of Students at Valparaiso University in Indiana

Our Guest Blogger is Jennifer Jones-Hall, a fraternity/sorority advisor who was responsible for starting the Gamma Sigma Alpha chapter at Valparaiso University last academic year. Additional resources to start a Gamma Sigma Alpha chapter can be found here. Still have questions? Contact us.

Another honorary for Greek students, are you kidding me? I don’t have time to advise and work with another group on campus?!  Many of you are probably thinking that each time you receive an e-mail or postcard from Gamma Sigma Alpha, but from where I sit as the Assistant Dean of Students for Greek Life and New Student Orientation at Valparaiso University, it was simple to start a chapter and beneficial for my school and the students.

 Last year I got asked to serve on the Board of Directors of Gamma Sigma Alpha.  I was excited to return to such an important group of colleagues who really valued the academic experience within Fraternity and Sorority life.  So when I said yes, I knew my next step was to be a good role model as a Board member and host a chapter at Valparaiso University. The last thing I wanted was to advise a new organization, so I took a most simplistic approach. 

1. I chose to put out the letter to all Junior and Senior members of the fraternity/sorority community at Valpo who were eligible to see if there was some interest. I worked with my University Registrar to pull all Junior and Senior members of the fraternity/sorority community with a 3.5 cumulative grade point average.

 2.  Once I had that list, I put together a formal invitation that was sent to them via email with the possibility of starting a new chapter of Gamma Sigma Alpha.

 3.  The email invitation was sent and I had 20 men and women interested in becoming charter members.  They paid their one-time membership fee of $30.00, scheduled an informal induction ceremony 3 weeks from then and off the Chapter Petition Form went!  It was that easy.

Now the students are eligible for scholarships, they get some recognition on campus and have an honor society membership on their resume. More importantly, these junior and seniors are modeling the way for freshmen and sophomores in their own chapters about the importance of academic achievement.

Sigma Phi Epsilon brought in our largest number of initiates from an all-men’s group. Also known as, SigEp, they represent the largest fraternity with 241 chapters nationwide.

Our largest all-women’s constituency came from Delta Gamma. Delta Gamma has almost 150 chapters nationwide.  

These organizations obviously make scholarship a core value in their fraternities. Congrats to both of these groups for your commitment to academic achievement in the fraternity/sorority community and thank you for your support of Gamma Sigma Alpha!

Gamma Sigma Alpha Board of Directors, Summer 2010

The Board of Directors for Gamma Sigma Alpha meet semi-annually and recently convened in Indianapolis for our Summer Retreat. Eleven of our twelve board members attended and our time together was productive. We typically spend a bit of time on business aspects of the organization: Bylaw Updates, Financial Policy revisions and evaluating the state of the organization. In addition to this, we also find ourselves asking some deeper questions, including:

• How can an academic honor society contribute to the overall academic mission of our host schools?
• How can we continue to serve our students through programming, scholarships and academic support?
• What recognition can we provide for the advisors at our host institutions that make our chapters so successful?
• What intentional partnerships can we form to make the foundation of our organization stronger than ever?

These are questions that don’t have easy answers but led us to some powerful dialogue. If you read this and ever have any suggestions or comments regarding Gamma Sigma Alpha, simply send a message through the CONTACT US page. As for the Board or Directors, thanks for all you do!

Any initiated Gamma Sigma Alpha member with plans to pursue graduate school in the fall is eligible to apply. The deadline is April 30, 2010.