Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life

Community Values

Fraternities and sororities are the largest, most visible and most active values-based organizations on college campuses. We all share a common code of friendship, service, academic success, and leadership development. Every fraternity and sorority is guided by founding principles and values that serve as a moral beacon for its members.

Friendship

Brotherhood and sisterhood are among the founding principles of all fraternities and sororities. The bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood are life-long. Joining a Greek-letter organization results in an extended family, both on-campus and across the nation.

Service & Philanthropy

The entire fraternity and sorority community collectively donates time, money, and effort to service projects. Each individual chapter also raises awareness and money for their own philanthropies throughout the year. On a national level, we are the largest network of young volunteers in the United States. We provide 10 million hours of volunteer service a year. We mentor at-risk students, raise funds for medical research, offer aid at senior citizen facilities, build homes for the poor and collect food for the homeless. Our emphasis on service learning prepares members for a lifetime of community involvement.

Leadership Development

Fraternities and sororities are the most successful leadership development program for college students. Financial management, conflict resolution, public relations, effective goal setting and basic democratic principles are everyday lessons for our members. Comprehensive leadership programs teach values-based management skills and members graduate with the management and interpersonal skills needed to excel in today's society.

Academic Success

Our community promotes academic success through chapter-based scholarship programs. There is a minimum GPA for membership, and incentives encourage chapters to maintain a cumulative average higher than the all-university GPA. Fraternity men and sorority women consistently do better academically than the average WCU student.

Academic Performance of Fraternity and Sorority Members

Mission & Vision

Vision: Every fraternity and sorority member will carry out the lifelong commitment to live in alignment with their values.

Mission: To engage fraternity and sorority members in a commitment to their values, shared governance, and advancing the common good through a diverse learning environment that builds a lifelong affinity to West Chester University and the fraternal community.

History

Fraternities and sororities have existed at WCU since 1967.  View the history of fraternity and sorority life.

Programming

Members of the WCU fraternity and sorority community participate in a wide variety of educational programming on such topics as leadership development, diversity initiatives, alcohol and other drug education, personal health, and career networking. The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life provides direction in programming such as:

• Olympus Leadership Series
• Presidents Series (monthly)
• New Officer Training programs
• Council Officer attendance at national and regional conferences
• Fraternity and Sorority Awards and Assessment
• Departmental Partnerships - Women's Center, Career Center

A summary of programming highlights can be found in our Annual Reports:

• 2012-2013 Annual Report
• 2013-2014 Annual Report

The Fraternal Programming Board is responsible for providing community-wide programming that brings the different chapters together, creating a sense of community and shared purpose such as: community service block cleanups, community wide philanthropy, Greek Weekend and Homecoming events.  

Awards and Recognition

Fraternities and sororities were founded to support the academic mission, vision, and values of the host institution where a chapter is recognized. The Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life conducts a yearly assessment of its chapters in order to determine how the core values of individual fraternities and sororities support West Chester University. It is also the intention of the Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life to evaluate its impact on the co-curricular experience at WCU.

Spring 2021 Individual Award Nomination Information:

• Jack C. Sencindiver Fraternity Member of the Year Award - Spring 2021 : http://cglink.me/2f3/s43721
• Sorority Member of the Year Award - Spring 2021 : http://cglink.me/2f3/s43720
• Peter C. Galloway Outstanding Faculty/Staff Advisor Award - Spring 2021 : http://cglink.me/2f3/s43719
• Outstanding Chapter President Award - Spring 2021 : http://cglink.me/2f3/s43718
• Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award - Spring 2021 : http://cglink.me/2f3/s43717
• Emerging Leader Award - Spring 2021 : http://cglink.me/2f3/s43716 

Chapter Excellence Assessment Program - not active

The assessment is composed of six different categories in which each chapter is evaluated. Each category has different criteria that are assigned point values. A score of 90 or higher in a specific category means the chapter is achieving the minimum standards set by the Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life. The chapter that receives the highest point value in each of the categories below will get the Overall Excellence chapter award for that category. The Chapter Excellence Assessment program serves as the University’s annual assessment of our Fraternity and Sorority Community at WCU. Therefore, all WCU Fraternity & Sorority chapters must participate.

The core areas to be awarded for chapter standards of excellence are:

• Academic Excellence
• Leadership and Community Engagement Excellence
• Member Development and Education Excellence
• Community Service Excellence
• Philanthropic Excellence
• Chapter Management Excellence

Chapter of the Year: A chapter that has achieved excellent scores in all six categories, a score of 90 or higher, exemplifies an ideal Fraternity or Sorority organization that supports the mission of West Chester University as well as fraternal standards. This overall recognition will be given to one fraternity and one sorority, regardless of governing council affiliation.

You can submit a nomination of a fraternity or sorority member for individual awards here.

Download the 2016 Chapter Excellence Assessment Program Document

The 2016 Chapter Excellence Assessment Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday, February 5th from 2pm-4pm in Sykes Ballrooms. All Chapter Excellence Awards will be distributed here and the accomplishments of chapters will also be highlighted.

**These three individual Awards for fraternity and sorority members will remain part of the University Leadership Awards process in the spring: Oustanding Faculty/Staff Advisor, Outstanding Fraternity Man of the Year and Outstanding Sorority Woman of the Year.  Those applications will be available on March 1, 2017 and presented at the Student Leadership & Involvement Awards Ceremony in April 2017.

Order of Omega

Order of Omega is a leadership honor society for members of fraternity and sorority organizations. Order of Omega recognizes college juniors and seniors who have exemplified high standards in the areas of scholarship, leadership, and involvement within their respective organizations, campuses, and local communities. Members are selected from the top 3 percent of students at each institution. To date, more than 570 chapters have been chartered throughout North America, each sharing the common goal of recognizing the many outstanding student-leaders at their institutions. The West Chester University Theta Sigma Chapter was re-chartered in the fall of 2019.