Culture and Student Organizations
Invoking change within your group while maintaining the overall identity
By Dan Bureau

Fraternities, sororities, honor societies, and Student Governments are just a few of the organizations on college campuses that have a long history, with members engaging in the same practices, traditions, and ceremonies for years. This type of shared behavior can also be identified as the culture of an organization. In the broadest sociological sense, culture can be defined as a set of norms, customs, values and assumptions that guide particular behaviors of groups.

While a group’s culture can help maintain its identity and solidarity, culture can also prohibit an organization from growing or evolving. For example, chances are slim that people in contemporary society would want to be associated with a group considered racist and sexist. However, that’s how an organization could be perceived if it traditionally only accepts white male members. Eventually this group, unable to adapt to the demands of a culture that celebrates diversity, would cease to exist. Although this example might be extreme, many campus leaders find themselves faced with the challenge of making cultural changes while trying to preserve the overall identity of their organizations.

Traditionally speaking
One aspect of culture that’s very evident in student organizations is the ritual. Although this term is often associated with religious practices, the idea of "an established or prescribed procedure" can apply to student organizations as well. Rituals reinforce the values of an organization by reminding all participating members of the organization’s philosophies and goals. When members take part in these rituals, they gain a better understanding of the value of involvement in the organization. For example, rush is a ritual fraternities and sororities engage in every fall and spring. Potential members gain better insight and understanding into the organization they want to join, and existing members are able to recruit students who have similar ideologies and goals. The same can be said about ceremonies. Organization leaders are inaugurated to ensure that the founding principles and important components of culture are preserved.

Culture shock
Perhaps, no student organization on campus illustrates the idea of culture within a group better than Student Government. The foundation for many SGs mimic the structure of our federal government, which was developed by our country’s forefathers more than 200 years ago. Parliamentary procedures, constitutions, meeting times, officer transition, and elections are all cultural components. However, even SGs are restructuring to accommodate new trends in campus politics. Women and minorities are elected into key leadership positions to mirror the increasingly diverse student populations.

It’s all a haze
Typically, problems occur when the culture of an organization becomes socially unacceptable or extreme and threatens the solidarity or structure of the group. Hazing, an exercise designed to humiliate and subjugate new pledges, was a time-honored tradition among sororities and fraternities for years. However, 41 states have adopted anti-hazing laws, and administrators at public and private educational institutions have developed policies in accordance with these laws. Officials at the University of Virginia revoked recognition of the Phi Delt chapter for hazing, and at the University of Illinois, hazing allegations got a fraternity suspended for two years. Although the severity of punishment may vary depending on the school and the situation, hazing does pose a threat to the Greek way of life. In order to continue their legacies, fraternities and sororities have to change their cultures by eliminating this practice. For example, chapter members at Syracuse University attend mandatory anti-hazing workshops and adhere to anti-hazing contracts.

A change for the better
Another threat to the future of a group occurs when a pattern of neglectful or detrimental behavior has been ingrained into the culture. What if an organization always elects their finance committee chair based on popularity and good looks instead of knowledge and experience? For years, members vote for candidates based on superficial qualities as opposed to common sense and economic know-how. Over time, unqualified candidates allow financial records to become disorganized, funds to be overspent, and money may go to projects and events that aren’t supported by the organization’s members. However, a new leader breaks the pattern by requiring all candidates to be finance majors with bookkeeping experience. Initially, this course of action might throw the entire culture into upheaval, but in the long run, it will serve the organization better.

Creating the change
Student leaders might have difficulty juggling basic organizational principles, traditions, and change. Campus organizations have a transient membership, and a group’s leadership turns over every year, if not every semester. How do you preserve the best traditions while at the same time enabling the group to grow? Here are some helpful guidelines to follow if you’re trying to invoke change within the culture of your group without alienating members or losing the identity of your organization.

• Recognize which components need changing and which ones DO NOT: Don’t change things just because you want them to be different. Make your decisions based on the well-being of the entire organization.
• Determine what steps you’ll have to take to accomplish the desired change. Identify your long-term goals and plan accordingly.
• Embrace all of the resources available to you. Some members may shy away from technological advances, but groups that don’t adapt to societal forces will fall behind. Use a web site to promote your group, or use e-mail to communicate more effectively.
• Educate members about the proposed change.
• Establish individual roles to determine what each person will do to assist in the accomplishment of change.
• Recognize and reward members who are instrumental in bringing about positive change.
• Monitor progress to make sure you aren’t taking two steps forward, but three steps back. Have weekly meetings to get feedback from members.
• Once the desired change is implemented (which could take months to years), work with newly elected officers to ensure the new culture will be maintained.
• Start the cycle over as often as possible.

Members of student organizations engage in a variety of shared behaviors that comprise the culture of their group. An organization’s culture embodies all of the best and worst traditions, philosophies, and ceremonies of its members. An effective student leader has the ability to realize when change is needed and how to invoke it without upsetting the entire structure of the group. Preserving traditions that have shaped an organization is imperative, but it’s also important to keep evolving and developing new traditions for generations of leaders to come.

Dan Bureau earned his B.A. at the University of New Hampshire in 1995 and went on to get his Master of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Bureau is the student activities advisor at the University of New Mexico where he oversees Campus Leadership Programs, fraternity and sorority life, as well as the Golden Key National Honor Society. For more information, e-mail Dan Bureau at dburea@unm.edu.

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