Leadership
Leadership Standard
We encourage the development of strong leaders within our chapters by promoting leadership training opportunities for our officers and our members.
Through formal and informal positions, everyone in our organizations can be a leader. Members leverage the strengths of community to reach common goals and use interpersonal skills for coaching and development. Members also engage meaningfully outside their organization, learning about diverse and intersectional experiences in the campus and city communities.
Through a process of learning and applying skills, members can accomplish measurable and meaningful change.
Minimum Expectations for the Leadership Standard
Each fraternity and sorority must complete the following on an annual basis to achieve at least a “minimum” outcome for this standard of the Expectations for Excellence:
- At least 90 percent of new members have completed all components of the new member orientation program
- At least two members of the organization (or one for a single member chapter) participate in the fall leadership training
- The organization has a leadership transition process (ex. shadowing period, shared google doc, transition event)
- The organization has a representative at 75 percent or more of the monthly fraternity and sorority president’s meetings
- The organization has a representative at 75 percent or more of their governing council meetings
Leadership Philosophy
Members do not need to hold a formal position to be considered a leader. Being a leader means:
- Investing in an area of interest or concern
- Understanding your values, passions, and talents
- Developing skills to become effective at what you do
- Being willing to take action and becoming engaged to create positive change
Leadership Development Opportunities for Fraternity and Sorority Members
The Fall Leadership Training's mission is to provide student leaders a comprehensive, collaborative learning experience that they will benefit from and in turn strengthen their organization. Our goal for this training is to provide you with a breadth of information, resources, and ideas about successful student organization leadership.
The New Member Educator’s Training is a mandatory session for new member educators/intake chairs for each fraternity and sorority. The goals of the program are to:
- Provide new member educators with the resources they need to do their job successfully
- Understand University policies and resources related to new member education, in particular to ensure activities are beneficial to members and reflect community values
- Allow new member educators to share resources and brainstorm collaboratively on issues they face in their roles
- Provide enhanced facilitation, teaching, and coaching skills to help new member educators identify and solve problems in the new member program
The Mid-Year Leadership Training focuses on new leaders (i.e., new to a position or first time on an executive board) as a number of organizations hold elections at the end of the calendar year. This training provides student organization executive board members with a comprehensive, collaborative learning experience that they can use to strengthen themselves and their organization.
The Medallion Program is the College’s premier leadership development opportunity offered through the Office of the Dean of Students. The program utilizes campus departments and experienced alumni to offer leadership workshops and programs to all students and organizations at the University.
Fraternity and Sorority Affairs is proud to align its leadership programs to meet criteria of the Medallion Program. This alignment helps sorority and fraternity members propel successfully through the program.
Learn more about the Medallion Program, access a list of upcoming workshops and events, and enroll by visiting the Medallion Program website.
During the semester they join their sorority or fraternity, all new members participate in a series of required workshops and online modules designed to teach them more about the community and discuss their role in addressing issues such as diversity and inclusion, sexual violence prevention, and values-alignment.
SWARM Event Management Training is peer-facilitated and helps organizations that host events with alcohol. This interactive and participant-focused training is designed to educate participants on the University’s alcohol-related policy and guidelines for event management planning. It provides an opportunity for participants to build skills necessary for effectively hosting safer events. The training also provides safer drinking strategies for individuals who choose to drink.
SWARM Risk Reduction Training is a peer-facilitated program for students who are interested in learning more about safer drinking and active bystander strategies but are not hosting events with alcohol.
Contacts
Courtney Kristan
Associate Director for Student Organization Leadership
201 Wilson CommonsCourtney.Kristan@rochester.edu
(585) 275-3167
Cameron Perez
Graduate Assistant
101-D Ruth Merrill Center
Wilson Commons
ODOSLeadership@rochester.edu
(585) 275-9375