Last Sunday, Feb. 3, the Inter-Society Council (ISC) hosted the first annual ISC Leadership retreat in the Bristol Dwight Lounge. The event developed from an effort to create productive conversation between Greek organizations and the administration, and to present any and all guidelines for the rush process.
The retreat was conceived of by Noelle Niznik, Director of Student Activities, along with the ISC co-chairs Sarah Robertson ’19 and Kevin Alcala ’19. All Greek society leaders (the President, Vice President, treasurer) were required to attend along with one rush chair from each society.
The ISC is a student organization in which all Greek societies recognized by Hamilton must participate. It is the governing body for all private societies.
Recently, a major goal of the ISC has been to provide a central voice for the many fraternities and sororities on campus to communicate with the administration. These efforts have been prompted largely by the Blue Ribbon Committee, which was formed by Dean of Student Terry Martinez to review the activity of Hamilton’s Greek organizations as well as strengthen fraternity and sorority life on campus.
The ISC and the administration focused the retreat on improving communication between the two groups. Niznik provided a 45-minute update on the Blue Ribbon Committee’s findings, highlighting areas that are most likely going to be altered when the official report is published. Notably, the rush process, which in the past has lasted most of spring semester, is being shortened. This year, the formal rush period (during which societies can offer bids to rushes) will be ending on May 1 as opposed to the final day of the semester. Pending the results of the Blue Ribbon Committee’s report, Niznik informed the participants that it may be shortened further in the coming years.
Niznik also laid out efforts to increase the transparency of the rush process by having the recruitment chairs for each society submit a calendar with all planned rush events on it. According to Niznik, this would be to ensure that if medical issues occur at any rush events, the school can better determine where and how these issues occurred.
The retreat was not entirely dedicated to facilitating more open communication between the administration and the members of the Council. The first hour of the event featured a Q&A session during which senior leaders from the Greek societies answered questions about leadership strategies which have improved their society. This was valuable information, not only for the administration, but also for the other participating societies.
The panel discussed issues ranging from how to engage with alumni to effective budgeting strategies. This conversation came to an end with a discussion of a potential multi-society philanthropy event which the panel could host in the near-future. This event, which will be a mud run to benefit cancer research, is still in the process of being developed but presents a unique opportunity for the often-disconnected private societies to come together and give back to the community.
Keeping with the theme of helping the community, this retreat also featured a comprehensive 90-minute Bystander Intervention Training led by Cori Smith ’17, the College’s Title IX Education and Compliance Coordinator. The training acknowledged the ability that Greek societies have to influence the nature of social events on campus, and leaders were taught ways in which they could create a safe environment for everyone who attends their events.
The retreat provided both experienced and newly elected leaders with insight into how they can support the community going forward and take action if they ever encounter situations of sexual misconduct.
“It was great to have a place where we can share what makes each group better and how we can improve the community,” said Philip Tran ’20, treasurer of Delta Kappa Epsilon.
