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Rick Barnes and I are featured in an upcoming issue of Campus Activities Magazine sharing our ideas about "the biggest issue impacting the future of Greek Life." Rick is one of our most successful and experienced speakers, and he chose "risk management."Little surprise there, but I thought it was very interesting when he suggested two really big changes which might be imposed on fraternities and sororities in the next five years if significant risk management progress isn't made.
Specifically, he says it's quite possible that between insurance companies and university/college presidents, Greeks might be required to make ALL events dry and eliminate all new member programs.
Rick is not some outsider looking in. He's on the board of the North American Interfraternity Conference and a former president of the Association of Fraternity Advisors. Oh, and he speaks to thousands of Greeks and organizational conventions each year.
Here's the short article. Decide for yourself. Do you think it's possible?
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RICK BARNES
Risk Management is still the big issue
Risk management – reducing the potential and incidences of damage, injuries and death – continues to be the dominant issue in Fraternity and Sorority Life, said Rick Barnes. Barnes has been speaking about risk management, values, hazing elimination, and leadership to Greek audiences for more than a decade.
“It’s hard to believe that risk management is still the big issue, but it is,” Barnes said. “Many university administrators equate Greek Life with alcohol abuse, sexual assault, hazing and all the negative fallout from those problems,” he said. “We have not done a good enough job turning that around.”
Right now, Barnes says, fraternities and sororities are on a collision course with administrators and their own insurance companies. Unless significant risk management advances are made quickly, Barnes believes that all Greek events will be mandated dry and that new member education programs will be banned within five years. Either or both would be enormous game changers for fraternity and sorority communities.
What should Greeks be doing RIGHT NOW to get things moving in the right direction?
Barnes believes the vast majority of Greek student leaders understand the gap between their organization’s values and some members’ behavior. Most are trying to make things better. But, Barnes said, most of these leaders have yet to learn the skills needed to effect massive, fundamental cultural change in their groups.
“And, it’s not just about the students,” Barnes said. “If we could figure out a way to get all four groups – student leaders, administrators, national organizations and volunteers – marching in the same direction and making some critical changes in our organizations, we could steer ourselves away from these mandates.”
In his campus keynotes, Barnes is trying to help student leaders understand how critical their leadership is during this time in their organizations’ history.
“The answer, of course, is to reshape our organizations to our original purpose,” Barnes said. “Our future will be about changing the perception of Greek Life by changing our reality.”
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Watch for the full article in the February issue of Campus Activities.
