UM Administrators want to bring 'Frat Moms' back
LINK to USA today article.
Administrators want to see more experienced adults involved in the day-to-day life of campus Greek organizations. The hope is that having those people around would help combat behavioral issues in Greek life, which sprang into full view this past school year when U-M frat members trashed a northern Michigan resort.
Administrators haven’t mandated the policy yet, but it may be a requirement for incoming organizations going forward.
Live-in advisers in fraternities peaked in the 1970s although they still exist in some spots, said Mark P. Koepsell, the executive director and chief executive of the Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values. His organization hosts an annual conference for live-in housing directors.
"In sororities you'll find they (the housing director or house mom) keeps the house going, but many also provide a mentorship role, particularly for the leadership of the house," Koepsell said. "It's like a hybrid role — more like a residence life adviser you'd find in a residence hall."
The house mom disappeared from fraternities for several reasons, including money.
Frats tend to be smaller than sororities with fewer members living in the house. That means less money to pay for things like housing directors.
August 11th, 2015 at 12:31 PM ^
Yeah, Anna Faris would be perfect for the job!
August 11th, 2015 at 12:45 PM ^
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I've never gotten the appeal of Anna Faris. Above hot photo notwithstanding.
August 11th, 2015 at 2:29 PM ^
Looks anorexic in that pic but still very tasty candy for my oculars.
August 11th, 2015 at 12:32 PM ^
August 11th, 2015 at 12:36 PM ^
I agree about the money part. As someone who was on our executive board while our chapter was still (relatively) young after re-chartering on campus, I can tell you the financials of fraternities are much stickier than people think. If you're a huge, old chapter with a house you own (and is paid off) you can afford a house mom no problem, along with a handful of other, large fraternities. But the bottom half of the houses have a hard time staying afloat as it is. Fraternities, even at Michigan, aren't full of rich kids like everyone thinks.
August 11th, 2015 at 12:47 PM ^
most of the houses at michigan operate on a very tight year to year basis, even some of the older and larger ones
August 11th, 2015 at 1:44 PM ^
August 11th, 2015 at 2:32 PM ^
Some schools living in a fraternity is actually substantionally cheaper than campus apartments/dorms or available housing alternatives. Our dues everything combined(including meals) were around 1/3 to 1/2 of what the school offered.
Yes had a "house mom".
Any increases were met with the pitchfork committee and while a few may have been wealthy, most were not and on student loans IMO.
August 11th, 2015 at 3:04 PM ^
I saved money in college by living in a fraternity, dues included, even if you didn't factor in the social events that the dues covered. Just rent. Maybe not compared to the absolute cheapest option way off campus in tiny, dingy apartment, but compared to what 90% of UM students did for housing and I was closer to the diag than most of them.
The other cool thing about our fraternity compared to most off-campus housing options is that we had 8 month leases instead of 12 month leases, so if you weren't staying on campus during the summer, you weren't on the hook for rent and you didn't have to bother finding a sublet (which would only get you a third of your rent back, anyway).
August 11th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^
My grandma went back to get her masters at WMU in the late 60s/early 70s after my grandpa died at a very early age. She didn't have much money so she decided to be a house mom for a frat. This is my favorite story that we've asked her to tell us a dozen times over the years.
One day the head of the campus health department contacted her to tell her that he wanted to meet with the house one afternoon. So she called a meeting to assemble the guys. The health guy informed the house that a certain sorority girl that was a bit loose had hepatitis and that if anyone had sexual relations with her it was in their best interest to go get tested asap. Of course none of the guys admitted to hooking up with her, nobody volunteered anything.
So the guy finished his little speech and took off. My grandma said a few minutes later numerous guys were running to their cars to head to the health department. The best part of the story is the way that she told it and she would laugh and laugh about it.
She's 95 and very feeble in a nursing home now and I just saw her last weekend during my visit back to Michigan. I think this house mom idea is interesting and may just do some good for frats these days. But I think the trick is to find the right woman to do it, my grandma was certainly up for that challenge.
August 11th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^
She probably has many more stories that are equally as awesome. I would love to share some football/college stories fom the 30's and 40's my grandfather tells me. Thanks for sharing!
August 11th, 2015 at 2:28 PM ^
yeah I'm sure she does. that is the one that always stuck out though.
Thanks man, and feel free to throw some stories out there from your grandpa.
August 11th, 2015 at 12:42 PM ^
August 11th, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^
this is a not very well thought out attempt at fixing the problem that resulted in the fiasco up north. Problem is a house mom wouldn't have gone north and even if she did likely couldn't have prevented any of the property destruction that resulted from a party that got out of hand. Outsiders to this incident still don't really have an idea how it got so out of hand and because of that it's really difficult to try to take steps to prevent it from happening again. I don't think the fraternity system is broken, IMO this was a crazy one time incident that I can't see recurring at Michigan ever again.
August 11th, 2015 at 12:59 PM ^
That wont stop what is happening at Fraternity Annexes, which UM Campus Life refuses to acknowledge, even though other Universities in the state of Michigan along with all Fraternity Insurance providers do. Strictly a CYA move by UM, they are not serious about solving the problem. Shame on Greek Life & Dean of Students. Complete Failures.
August 11th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^
Also, who wants that job? Can you think of anyone who would want to live in a frat house who can also be that responsible adult? And command authority?
I was greek at Michigan and I was ready to move out of the house halfway through Junior year.
August 11th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^
I had a ton of fun early on, but as money got tighter and recruiters got lazy things went downhill quick.
Frats can be positive organizations, but when they start letting anyone in the quality really declines.
Bringing someone in from the outside won't change anything if the members already suck.
August 11th, 2015 at 1:33 PM ^
Oh, I loved greek life, but I was tired of cleaning up after the parties. It's one thing when you're 19 and making the mess, it's another when you come home from the bar to that.
August 11th, 2015 at 1:37 PM ^
I was in a fraternity for 5 years; lived in the house for 3, on the executive board, blah blah blah.
We were pretty out of control sometimes and could out do anything you've ever seen on animal house. Our maturity level fluctuated with our membership numbers and those in positions of leadership. That seemed pretty normal.
However, the one thing that kept us from going off the deep end, and also allowed us to do a hell of a lot of good charitable work when motivated was a good chapter advisor
They were almost always an older alum (but not necessarily), that kept in touch with other alumni, had some business contacts, and obviously some free time to attend meetings and some events and parties.
Idealy this person was young enough , or cool enough to understand and relate to freshman, but was old enough to be mature, successful, etc. and really give good advice, a helping hand, a or a smack-down when necessary.
A good , commited chapter advisor can nip alarming trends and attitudes in the bud, as well as be a respected "cool uncle you don't want to dissapoint" personality.
That's all it takes sometimes to keep a hotel room from being demolished (even if they don't go on the trip).
Ours always worked for free, but i think most frats could afford a stipend to motivate an alum to volunteer.
August 11th, 2015 at 1:37 PM ^
Good luck with that. No woman in her right mind will want to be responsible for cleaning up after guys who treat their house like shit, and they sure as hell won’t want to live there. For each of the two years I lived in my house, easily more than half of the guys living there were lazy slobs who never cleaned up after themselves.
And that’s not even taking into consideration house finances. The houses that can’t afford going to the Bahamas for spring formal probably have little interest in forking over more of their already tight budget for a House Mom that’s going to try and tell them what to do. I think people outside the Greek community oftentimes grossly overestimate how much money a fraternity has to spend at any given time.
If this is an attempt to prevent future issues like what happened with the ski resort, it probably won’t help much. A house mom would probably never have taken that trip, and even if she did, you think she’ll be able to single-handedly stop the destruction of an entire resort by a bunch of drunk, coked out lunatics?
August 11th, 2015 at 2:28 PM ^
You got that right. When I was in a fraternity at U-M years ago, it was a constant, but steadily losing battle to get members to keep the house clean. We had mandatory work sessions, peer pressure, you name it. But, the problem is if a person who comes to Michigan is a slob, it's going to be nearly impossible to turn him/her into a non-slob. A house mother is not going to be able to do that either. And it's getting worse if anything. I've visited our chapter house a number of times in recent years and I'm appalled at how much of a pig dump the place is all the time. Respect for property and personal pride in where one lives seems to be vanishing values. Rant over.
August 11th, 2015 at 1:38 PM ^
I didn't go to Notre Dame for exactly this reason.
This is a very bad idea. If a given fraternity is not meeting its responsibility, suspend it. More likely, it's national leadership is out ahead of any serious incident.
August 11th, 2015 at 4:11 PM ^
I can't imagine there a large number of responsible women who'd want to live at a frat and keep a bunch of 20-year-old guys in check and responsible. I lived off South U when I was at UM and saw how a couple of these houses were run, and I'm not sure any sane person would want to hang out there and be the clean police.
The problems with the few frats that seem to legitimately have issues (not just "they get drunk and make noise") isn't going to be fixed by a couple of middle-aged women. It falls on the university and the national Greek leaders to do something, and it seems like both of those parties either ignore the issue or try to distance themselves quickly.
August 11th, 2015 at 4:41 PM ^
August 11th, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
August 11th, 2015 at 7:59 PM ^