In this episode of Roompact’s ResEdChat, join our host Noah Montague, and Guest Carter Roane, Resident Director at Miami University of Ohio, to talk about all things Greek Life, that is Fraternities and Sororities. Affiliated students have unique campus experiences and when they live in the halls, those experiences become all the more complex, exciting, and stigmatized. Noah and Carter explore fraternity and sorority life, discuss supporting students who are affiliated, share impactful stories, and provide practical advice to Residence Life Staff working with the Greek community.
Guests: Carter Roane (she/her/hers), Resident Director, Miami University
Host: Noah Montague
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About ResEdChat
Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast is a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in residence life and college student housing. If you have a topic idea for an episode, let us know!
Transcript:
Noah Montague:
Welcome back to Roompact’s ResEdChat Podcast, a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in Residence Life and college student housing. My name is Noah Montague and I use he/him/his pronouns, and today I will be your host.
As you’ve maybe come to know in these videos as of late, I like to say that I am a storyteller by trade and the stories that I choose to tell are those that center the student and the college experience, which makes me all the more excited about today’s topic. So with that, today we’re going to be talking about all things Greek, and by that, I mean fraternities and sororities and how Residence Life staff are uniquely positioned to support students in Greek organizations.
While much stigma exists around Greek life, and we will talk about that a little bit today as well, it is all the more important for student affairs professionals, particularly those in Residence Life, to talk about how we directly are thinking about working with students in fraternities and sororities.
So today’s guest is a friend and a colleague that I met all the way back in 2019, which I realized not that long ago, that we know each other that long, which is super cool, when I was a grad student in Residence Life and now I’m just so privileged to call her a friend and just a really special person in my life. So I’m super excited to introduce you all to her today. So with that, I’m going to start off by letting our guest introduce herself.
Carter Roane:
Oh, thanks Noah. And I feel exactly the same way. You’re a very special person to me too and a very good friend. It means that means a lot. Hi everyone. My name is Carter Roane. I use she/her pronouns. I work at Miami University as an RD, work there with Noah.
I guess another thing for the sake of this conversation that introducing myself is I am also a member of Psi U, which is a national Greek organization. We used to be local, a group called Delta Nu Psi, that was up in New Hampshire, but we are now national. Even though I use she/her pronouns, we’re all considered brothers in Psi U. Even if you’re female presenting, you are considered to be a brother because they say it’s easier.
So we’re like, “Okay.” So you start with it. But I am a brother of Psi U [inaudible 00:02:30] and I’ve been involved in that. I’m a part of our alumni association. Dabble a little bit with the sorority LLC here on campus. I sit in on meetings and attend events, programs that are done. So fraternity, sorority life is very much a passion of mine, something I will probably continue on in the field doing. So yeah, that’s me.
Noah Montague:
Thank you. I think you spoke on it a little bit already, Carter, but my first question really for you is if you could share a little bit about what your experience has been working with fraternities and sororities.
Carter Roane:
I was in an organization when I was an undergrad, and I really enjoyed it. I got more out of it than I thought I would get out of it. I just did it more just to see if I could do it, and my friends were doing it. And then I actually really enjoyed it. And then I actually ended up becoming president of my organization.
Noah Montague:
Wow.
Carter Roane:
Yeah, yeah. And then we have a thing called IOC and Delta Nu Psi fell under IOC, and I ended up on the executive board of that. And it was something I thought I wanted to go into the field to do, but Res Life was also very much a passion of mine, so it was always the back of my mind I wanted to do that professionally as well.
But the schools that I worked at, none of them had fraternity sororities. So this is actually the first one that I’ve worked at that has one. So I’ve been able, which has been really cool, I’ve been able to dabble a little bit in that, getting some professional development experience, being able to be involved professionally.
There were some opportunities back home, but they didn’t really ever quite fit. I was our house manager for a while and I was unofficially a graduate intern for a little bit, but also, it was unofficial. It wasn’t an official position or anything like that, but they knew I could maybe offer some perspective of some fraternity, sorority life experience.
So again, it’s something I hope to do more of in the future because if Res Life is my number one passion, fraternity, sorority life is 1A right up against each other and it’s something I really enjoy being involved in; the ups and the downs. There are definitely a lot of challenges, which I know we’re going to talk about, a lot of challenges and a lot of negative parts of fraternity, sorority life that definitely come with it. But it’s very cool to see somebody grow in that community.
Noah Montague:
I think for me, a couple of things that are standing out from your thing, thank you for sharing a bit about your experience and where you’ve been with it, as you know Carter, but not as our listeners know currently, I have not been very involved in fraternity and sorority life. I was not in a fraternity of sorority. I did not engage in that space. My undergrad was not very big on fraternity life.
And the fraternities that did exist were very quiet. We didn’t hear about them very much, and that depended on stigma, that depended on a lot of things. They just were not very present on my campus. And now working at an institution like Miami where 30% of our students are in fraternities or sororities, I find myself thinking about it so, so, so much more, which I’m sure you are as well, talking about that experience.
But for me, the majority of my experience working with fraternities and sororities has been the couple of residential students that I’ve had here and there that have chosen that experience, have chosen to be involved in that way.
I had an RA a couple years ago who was the president of her sorority and was also incredibly involved in Acropolis as one of the things that she was in; a huge leadership experience that she then brought back to the hall and was able to do a lot of the things that she did there with us as far as icebreakers and things like that that she learned there.
But that was one of the reasons that I particularly wanted to talk to you about this today is that I’m significantly less familiar with this conversation than you are, and getting to be in this space together, I think it’s just going to be a really cool time.
Carter Roane:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Noah Montague:
I think brings me pretty perfectly to my next question in, what unique needs or dynamics do you think that Greek affiliated students bring to the residence hall environment?
Carter Roane:
I think in terms of unique dynamics, I think definitely a sense of leadership. And even if it’s a brand new brother or sister, maybe they were the one in their pledge class or their associate member class, could have been a group of 20 and they were the president of that class. So there’s leadership dynamics. Community also. Knowing that they have another community outside of their residence hall.
Community that they may spend a lot of time in. And it’s not necessarily a slight against the RA or the RD if they’re not there, they’re just somewhere else. But I’ve seen some members who want to do both. They like the on-campus residence hall perspective and they also like the fraternity or sorority perspective. So definitely those dynamics.
I think another need I think too, such with a young member, maybe somebody in their first year or their second year, they’re maybe looking for leadership experiences within the organization. So maybe, I think that’s something that they could be searching for in some way, shape or form or learning how to be a leader.
Because for them maybe this is like they’re 18, 19, this is the first maybe leadership role they’ve ever been interested in having, so they want to learn more, okay, how do I become a leader? What do I do to take the next step? So I think those things.
I think too, even some people join a fraternity or sorority because of the networking. Maybe too they’re looking for, okay, how do I network with people? How do I network my alumni? And I’d say those kind of things for real, for sure.
Noah Montague:
And that want for leadership and community is such an interesting space to be in for students in Greek organizations because so often, at least in my experience, and I feel like you’re going to agree with me here, that isn’t the image that we have largely of why students might join a Greek organization. That’s not what we’re thinking about.
And the reality, that is why the majority of students are joining these organizations and those line up so perfectly with what we’re doing in Residence Life with RAs and leadership development and all councils and leadership development. And community building in that space offers such an interesting way to partner with these students in the space who we know are seeking out that experience.
They’re very specifically like, “No, I want to be in this organization that maybe my parent was in, maybe this person was in because they had a great community there and I want that too.” I think that that is such a unique need and dynamic that fraternity and sorority students have that maybe a more typical or a residence hall student that is not affiliated might not be looking for in the same way.
Carter Roane:
Right, exactly. And I think too there is an opportunity for good partnership if both partners let it happen. And I think it’s hard too maybe because me being from the Northeast and then the Northeast is not as fraternity and sorority friendly as it is the Midwest and the South.
The fact I’m still always a little bit surprised that my college actually had a [inaudible 00:11:07] system, but we did. But it was like Res Life was over here and fraternity and sorority life was over here. They could not have been more separate from each other. And it was unfortunate. It was like-
Noah Montague:
That’s a shame.
Carter Roane:
Yeah. There’s good work that could be done if both parties both open up their minds a little bit. And it just seemed like my school, they didn’t want to do that at all and there wasn’t much of that. But here, I’ve seen a lot more openness or at least trying to definitely open up those doors a little bit more where there could be some sort of partnership, which I think is good.
Like you were saying, I think when people think of fraternity and sorority life, I think people think of one thing and that’s the social life. I think that’s the big number one thing. And that is why some people do it because for some people it can be a reason, but I think for many people it’s not the only reason.
I think they do want that sense of community, that strong community, walking in and there’s, in my case, 20, 30 members who become good friends. And I think that’s very appealing to a lot of people. And I especially think even nowadays, especially after COVID where we were all separated from each other for a long time, I think now even more so than ever, I think younger people or college age are really almost craving that. That’s [inaudible 00:12:45]
Noah Montague:
Definitely. And even I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the identity and the spaces that go into the creation of fraternities and sororities and how they’ve historically evolved and changed over time as different students are coming to campuses and how need changed.
And now especially with some sorority, fraternity members choosing to live on campus or becoming RAs, that changes the need again. Well, as we’re having [inaudible 00:13:16]. But you spoke about this already a little bit too as far as some misconceptions that might exist, but I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit more about those misconceptions that might exist with Greek students specifically living on campus.
Carter Roane:
And I want to be clear about this too. There are some misconceptions, but there are also some things where the organizations have not helped themselves at all. They have not helped themselves at all. And I can speak of that as being an active member, I can speak of that as alumni. I can speak maybe to somebody now who is a school administrator. I’ll hear about stuff like that and I’m just sitting there like, “Oh, man.” A part of me dies a little bit inside.
Noah Montague:
That was a choice.
Carter Roane:
Right, exactly. And it’s like, come on, there are other ways you can do the things you need to do, or I’m just going to say it, you don’t have to haze a person to do it. You can build somebody up in a positive manner. You can talk about the values of the organization. You don’t have to intimidate people doing it.
And any time I hear about it, it kills me. It’s painful because that feeds into people going, “Yep, there you go. There it is. There it is.” I think another misconception, a big misconception out there is buying friends. And I think people too sometimes don’t understand a lot of times with the organizations, especially for a national organization, what you’re paying for is you’re paying for the insurance because in a national organization, every member has to be insured.
And it’s one of those things you don’t think about until something happens. And I know in my organization something like that happened. I think it was just a weekend activity, people were just having fun, and one of our members got hurt. And to the point, I think they had to be transported, but we were national and because he was insured, that made the whole thing a lot easier than before when we were local and something like that had happened.
So I think that’s a misconception of people that doing it just to buy friends. And I found that’s not the case. I’ve had friends outside the organization. I’ve also had friends who, again, when you pay for your dues, that goes towards other things. That could go towards, again, insurance. That goes towards events that are happening.
We use this sometimes or maybe if we’re doing some sort of our philanthropy, maybe saving up to maybe donate or maybe something like for some sort of activity we were doing for our philanthropy and making sure we had the funds to get the supplies to do whatever it was we’d be doing. So I think that’s a misconception.
I think maybe to the partying, I think people think that’s all all members do. And again, that’s not the case. I know plenty of students, I’ve seen them where they don’t party. I’ve had members who have never drank. And I think that could be a misconception. I think within the residence halls too, I think people are concerned like, oh, that’s going to be the person who’s going to act up. That’s going to be the person who’s going to cause trouble in the halls. And I know that’s usually not the case.
So if anything, that’s why somebody you don’t see as much of, because they are probably either involved in the organization, sometimes if they’re brand new, they’re probably over the house somewhere. So I think that’s a misconception. People like, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to have five or 10 members, and what’s going to happen here? Are they going to bring the party onto the floor?”
And I really have found that, at least in my experiences, to be not true. Like I say, if anything, I’ll see them out in other spaces than I would on the corridor or in the hall. So those are, I’d say, some big, [inaudible 00:17:39] misconceptions that I’ve seen.
Noah Montague:
That last one that you mentioned is probably the one I’ve seen and to be honest with you, experienced most as well, that coming from an institution that did not have a very active FSL population that we were aware of as a typical student, I didn’t hear about much. What I did hear about was not activities I was choosing to engage in when I was an undergraduate student.
And I’m sure that other things occurred, we just never knew they were happening. We weren’t directly involved. So I think for me, entering into a resident director position and being told, “A lot of your students are going to be involved in fraternity sororities, some of your RAs are,” I wasn’t sure what to expect coming into that space having no experience other than those misconceptions about what was going to be happening.
Very quickly, I learned exactly what you did, that the students who I knew were affiliated were elsewhere, aren’t in the halls very often. And when they were, they were very kind and engaged and were not doing the things that I would believe that they were going to be doing.
Carter Roane:
You’d think that they were doing. Exactly.
Noah Montague:
I mentioned that RA I had hired who was very involved in her sorority and Acropolis, but I’ve had so many RAs choose to get involved in that experience. Some of which, most recently I had an RA this year who actually applied for a sorority because of the community and leadership that she gained from being an RA.
Carter Roane:
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Noah Montague:
Being an RA made her then want to get involved in another community outside of the residence hall, which is something that I hadn’t experienced previously and was again, the exact opposite of that misconception that I had of Greek students are just going to party all the time.
And that is truly what I expected coming into this space because that is the image, for a lack of better way to put it, whether it be a movie, a TV show, or being a student and what we’re told. Which is a whole different conversation about perception, but a really interesting one all the same.
Carter Roane:
Right.
Noah Montague:
But thinking about that leadership and community piece, how can we tap into that in the residence halls, of these students who are choosing this experience for leadership and community largely? How can we better tap into that in your experience?
Carter Roane:
I think something that, and I’ve seen and I’ve heard RAs and I’ve heard professional staff say this, like, “Well, I don’t know anything about it.” You don’t really need to know anything about it. You don’t have to be an expert. You don’t have to understand the terms. But maybe just checking up with that student, like, “Hey, how’s it going? How’s that? How’s the experience going?” Just seeing how they’re doing.
And I think that can mean mean something to them. I think that can mean a lot to them. I think too, maybe also to understanding what they’re doing. And I think, again, that might mean something to them, even if it’s something you would never do and something you don’t understand, it’s something you don’t get, that’s okay.
They may have a reason for doing it too. Again, in the Northeast, it’s not as much, but I know out here, and I know down South, it is not uncommon where you have daughter’s in a sorority, mom was in the sorority, grandma was in the sorority. You might have three generations.
Noah Montague:
Great grandma was in the sorority.
Carter Roane:
Yeah. That is not uncommon where you’re joining the organization that family members have joined and there’s a lot of pressure with that. For somebody, that’s a very big thing. So during the recruitment experience, maybe understanding if they seem a little bit on edge, yeah, there could be a reason. It could be like, oh my gosh, if I don’t get in, what do I tell my family?
I had experience one time where I had a student where her roommate got into the organization that the student’s big sister, their real big sister, their family big sister was a part of, but she didn’t. So roommate and their big sister were a part of this organization. She was not. And there were feelings about that. So I think understanding, respecting, having those conversations.
I think maybe too, also, again, maybe meeting them where they are, I think it’s always good. I had a CLT two years ago, all of them joined an organization, joined a sorority. And in the back of my mind, the very back of my mind, I’m like, “Well, we had a good run in the fall. I don’t know if they’re going to be back in the spring because of this.”
No. They’re like, “Nope, we still want to be involved. Just let us work out our schedules and let us figure out some things.” And we started a little bit later. We started about two or three weeks later in the semester because we had to figure that and figure out schedules. But they were like, “No, we enjoyed this. We like this. It’s a good experience. We want to be involved.”
And I am glad I kept my mind open with that instead of being like, “We have to start on this date and if we’re not, then we’re not going to do it.” I wanted to be respectful of their time. This is something that they wanted to do. And they brought a lot to our CLT, the fact that they had this leadership community experience that they were able to bring to the residence halls.
And I think their programming was even better in the spring than it was in the fall because they were gaining that experience. So I was so glad that they went and stayed on and worked together, and we had a great year. It was a small CLT, three of them, a CLT meeting hall council, which I know you know, but not every viewer I know may know that because I know it’s called something different in other schools.
But I think those things, I think we can do as professionals to help bridge the gap and make it a little bit closer. If there’s a service program, maybe specifically inviting those students from fraternity, sororities. Because being undergrad, I was always looking for community service hours. Always, always, always.
So if they were right there in front of me, perfect. I don’t have to go, I can do it right in my residence hall. I don’t even have to leave my building to do it or something. Or pointing me in that direction too, oh, there’s this thing that I can go to and I can do my service hours.
Because a lot of times, students join because of the philanthropy, they join because they wanted to be involved in community service. So sometimes, again, that’s another misconception that it’s all about the social life, but there’s also much more to it where it can also be about, yeah, I want to be a part of something, I want to be helping people, I want to be involved in something.
And I think even now, today’s generation of students, I think I’ve seen that now more than ever where they want to be involved and they want to help people and they want to do service-based things. And sometimes it’s a matter of finding those things.
But if we, in the residence halls also offer that and making sure that at least our affiliate students know about it, I think they might be, oh yeah, perfect. Oh, then I can do this. It’s literally right upstairs. I could go up a flight of stairs and it’s in the first row lobby and I could be there and I can do that. So I’d say those are things definitely.
And just making sure to have those conversations. Again, it could mean so much to have somebody just be like, “Yeah, so how’s it going? How did recruitment go?” And maybe they won’t tell you everything, but maybe they’ll be at least like, “Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m a part of this and I’m really enjoying it. I’m really having…” Sometimes too, you can jump off of there too and go into other conversations with that.
Noah Montague:
I think that we underestimate how much care matters to the students that we’re serving, just showing them that we care. I’ve had so students, the exact point that you’re bringing up, asking them, “Hey, how is recruitment going? How are you doing? Are you taking care of yourself? How is it?” I’ve had students go, “I forgot that I even told you that I was trying to get into a sorority. I forgot that we even had this conversation.”
And I watched that connection matter so much just in that space. And I think that in so many ways, a student choosing to get involved in an organization of this type is another space for us to be like, “Tell me why. Why is it important to you?” That’s a way in very easily for us, especially when it is the conversation of family and those things. It’d be like, “Do you have family who was involved in this? What does being in this sorority specifically mean to you?”
And I hear that from a lot of my students with the philanthropy piece and those spaces where it’s like, “I need to be in this one, and this is the sorority that I want to be in. This is the fraternity I want to be in because my great-great-grandmother was in it, and it matters to me for these reasons.”
And I think that provides insight into a student’s experience, but also for us and living and working, it provides space for us to unpack that experience with them. Why is this so important to you? What are you hoping to get out of it? And it gives us that in [inaudible 00:28:19]
Carter Roane:
Which, again, you don’t need to be affiliated to have that conversation. And I think some people think that you do. You definitely don’t. And I think too, even if the students were like, “Yeah, that’s why we had that conversation.” Or sometimes I think the ones that I’ve come across will be like, “Oh, wow, so you knew that?” And I’m like, well, “Yeah, I’m [inaudible 00:28:41], I know everything.”
Noah Montague:
Yes, you do.
Carter Roane:
Right. But I think they appreciate the fact that you took the time to be like, “Oh, I saw your name. I saw your name on there, on some sheet somewhere.” And just, well, yeah, just see how it’s going. I think that means a lot to them, and I think it means more than I think we even realize that it does. And maybe we don’t see it.
Noah Montague:
That’s full time.
Carter Roane:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think the fact that we are taking that step and having that conversation and showing that we care and just being like, yeah, we’re not judging them on it. We’re just like, “How’s it going?” And I think for them, I think definitely they appreciate that.
Carter Roane:
They appreciate that. I know for me as being affiliated, I’ve been able to hop into other conversations as in like, “Oh, I know. Wait until you get your big sister or wait until you’re on the other side and you see another class after you.” And I’ve had those conversations having had the experience. But even if I didn’t have that, even if it was just more just from the intent, just like a, “Hey, how’s it going?”
And then also too, realizing that again, maybe somebody again is feeling that because, oh, there’s a lot of family pressure or there’s a lot of, all my friends have joined and I want to be a part of this thing with them. So it’s waiting, because, speaking from personal experience, waiting for that knock on the door is like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Is there going to be [inaudible 00:30:20] would wait for it.
And I’m like, “Oh my God.” I heard a knock the door and open the door and there wasn’t there because I’d psyched myself out. But just things like that. I think just being mindful that this is something for somebody could be very important to them and understanding why it’s important to them. And this necessarily isn’t just, oh, I’m going to do parties every week, because I think in many cases it’s much more than that.
My fraternity and sorority system that I’m from is different from here, and it’s also a long time ago. But usually the person who was just in it for the social life, those weren’t as often as you think it was. And usually, you could tell when somebody was like that. And we used to call them letter getters because they were only in it for the letters.
They could not care less about the organization they belonged to, didn’t care about the values of the organization, didn’t care about the members. They just wanted to go and party. So sometimes we would actually… At King, it was different because we were so small. We’re smaller, so our organizations were closest. So you might have a really good friend in another organization, and that was not uncommon.
So maybe you would say to me, “Hey, that person, I know that person. I see that person at parties. That person’s a letter getter.” We’re not going to tell you what to do, but just be mindful of that person. And the other person be like, “Oh, thanks.” So we talk with each other about that kind of stuff.
Noah Montague:
That is so interesting that there would be stigma against what people think is the stigma around… That’s such an interesting dichotomy there.
Carter Roane:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
I’m going to have to think about that one a little bit.
Carter Roane:
It’s fascinating because like I said, it would not be uncommon for somebody in another sorority who I knew would come to me and be like, “Hey, this person doesn’t care about your organization. They’re just in it for the letters.” And it would not be uncommon for us to warn each other because of somebody doing something like that.
Noah Montague:
Wow, [inaudible 00:32:37]
Carter Roane:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
Well, Carter, I think my next question for you then touches on some of what you just spoke about. You’ve repeated this notion that Residence Life staff don’t need to have been in a sorority or fraternity to be able to support students in Greek life, which I firmly, firmly agree with, but what are maybe a couple things that you think RAs and professional staff should understand about Greek life or culture to be effective supporters and educators for students in the organizations?
Carter Roane:
I think too, we touched upon, just understanding why somebody’s doing it and then maybe for a deeper reason than you think. And just being understanding of that. And again, not needing to know all the terminology, not needing to understand the culture, but just being like, “Okay.” Just understanding why this person’s doing it.
And I think too sometimes too, I think they may come to you. Maybe they can’t talk a lot about all of it, but I think sometimes too, it’s helpful when it’s somebody that’s not involved because when you’re involved in the organization, sometimes that’s your world. That’s your world. Those are the people you see all the time, 24/7. And sometimes you need a break, you need a rest, you need a break.
And if you are stressed out, unfortunately maybe there are some deeper issues. Maybe there’s something that could be the hazing, things like that. But sometimes it can be like, yeah, I’m just stressed out dealing with my associate class, stressed out with that and just stressed out, feeling all this time. It’s just a lot.
I think just being a good listening ear, I think sometimes that’s all affiliates sometimes needs. It’s just that listening ear. A lot of times, again, it can be somebody who’s not affiliated because they can offer a different perspective from a thousand miles away. I don’t want to say outsiders, but just a different opinion that I think could be really valuable.
I think too, maybe too, I think we as professionals and RAs, just because you’re not seeing as much of them, of the affiliated students doesn’t mean they still don’t want to be involved in the community. And instead of just dismissing and be like, “Okay, they’re not going to show.”
I’ve heard sometimes and I’ve seen it happen where they’re like, “Yeah, I want to come to this program. Wednesdays are the best nights for us, for me and my organization because we don’t do much on Wednesdays or Thursdays.” And maybe it’s working around schedules a little bit, but I think they still would want to be involved in the community. Maybe just sometimes they just have other things going on where they may not be as available as they were in the past.
But they still want to be a part of the community and they’re still like, “Oh, there’s that cool program. Oh, that’s awesome. Cool [inaudible 00:36:02] is coming.” And it’s like, “Oh, I definitely want to be there for that.” But I think not dismissing the fact that they don’t want anything to do with the hall community, which definitely may not be the case.
And just making sure, still inviting them, connecting with them. Maybe there’s some program that can happen that happens together. And having definitely those kind of conversations I think will all [inaudible 00:36:32] some things we can do to have that strong partnership. And then, yeah, you might have that fraternity member, that sorority member who decides, oh, I want to be an RA. I want to be an RA because I got a lot out of it.
For me, it was the opposite. I was an RA first and then I became affiliated, but then I realized, oh, I can actually do both. I can do both, and I can make a career out of doing both. But I think having those conversations, and again, like I said, not assuming that they’re going to be out and about every night of the week.
Which some people are, which I’ve seen some people too, but I think if you still include them in the community, I think they want to be involved. They’re going to find ways where they can still be involved in the community. And then I’ve seen it happen many times. It happened many times here.
Noah Montague:
I completely agree with all of those things. I think there’s so much assumption that comes in when we’re talking about students in fraternities and sororities that is so different than any other leadership organization-
Carter Roane:
Nothing like it.
Noah Montague:
[inaudible 00:37:50] to involve themselves. Thinking about something you just spoke about in a practical step for Residence Life staff to take being, hey, let’s think about when, if you have students in these organizations in your halls, maybe let’s think about when they’re busy as far as when we’re organizing our hall programs.
Carter Roane:
Exactly.
Noah Montague:
That is such maybe a baseline thing to consider, but I don’t know that we do that in the same way that I might try to schedule my team meeting around my RAs’ classes. I might try to schedule an event around, okay, I know that I have a lot of engineering majors who are all in class until 7:00 PM on Thursdays. I can’t do an event before then. That is something I’m aware of, I’m going to plan around that, and yet we don’t really think about that-
Carter Roane:
Don’t think about it.
Noah Montague:
… as far as it comes to sororities and fraternities, even when it’s such a large historical thing for students to engage in, and I think that’s such a good and important piece of practical advice to be thinking about. Something that I also try to do in my halls that you also spoke to is trying to plan programming that the students that I have are going to go to, and that very much aligns.
I do a lot of service events because I have a service living, learning community in my space, but that also invites, I do a lot of very targeted recruiting to sororities and fraternities. I’m like, “Hey, we’re doing service stuff as a community. You should come and be a part of this because I know this is a value you have.”
And I think that that is something that we can be thinking about at a larger level and being like, “What are the components of why students are joining these spaces and how can we incorporate those into our programming and into our practice?”
Carter Roane:
Exactly.
Noah Montague:
And that is something that I don’t think we think about enough when it comes to fraternities, sororities. And I think it’s, again, maybe a very baseline practical step that we’re already doing when it comes to other orgs. I’m not going to schedule my RAs’ one-on-one during their club meeting.
Carter Roane:
Right, exactly.
Noah Montague:
I’m not going to do that. Why would I not ask them when they have something for their sorority?
Carter Roane:
Right, precisely.
Noah Montague:
And that is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
Carter Roane:
I can’t speak for Miami, but I can speak for King State. Every fraternity, sorority, all of us, we all had our meetings on Sundays. They were always on Sundays. They were almost always at seven o’clock, eight o’clock. So if there was somebody wanting to do a program, I’d be like, “I would love to. We have our meetings on Sundays.”
And almost all of us, that almost seemed like an organization system thing where just everyone met on Sunday nights. But that way, if there was something similar here, knowing that, okay, oh, every organization meets on this night, planning around that, again, trying a different night.
But thinking a little bit about what you said about the baseline, the thinking, just, yeah, again, you might have somebody from the newest member class and they’re looking for that, how do I learn how to do this? How do I learn how to do that? And I could bring that to my organization. Oh, that’s really cool. Oh, I learned about leadership. Oh my gosh, let me bring that to my organization.
Or vice versa. Maybe they have that experience and they bring it to the halls. Those kind of things. But yeah, like you’re saying, things we do a little bit, but maybe even thinking bigger and broader and wider picture, I think is really helpful. I think it’d be really good.
Noah Montague:
I do too.
Carter Roane:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
Carter, thank you so much for being here today.
Carter Roane:
Already?
Noah Montague:
That wraps up our time.
Carter Roane:
Oh my gosh.
Noah Montague:
I know. It goes quick, doesn’t it?
Carter Roane:
Wow.
Noah Montague:
But that wraps up our time together today. Carter, thank you so, so, so much for joining me.
Carter Roane:
Thank you.
Noah Montague:
I hope you had a good time, and enjoyed chatting today.
Carter Roane:
Me too. As you saw me moving my hands and stuff like that, I’m very passionate about this. I love this subject. I love this. I love talking about this.
Noah Montague:
Thank you so much.
Carter Roane:
Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
Noah Montague:
And thank you all for joining us, those listening, on this episode of ResEdChat. If you have an idea of a topic or a person that you would like to have on the show, please let us know by reaching out to Roompact. But for now, thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.
Carter Roane:
Bye everyone.
