IFC launches 'GPA' program

How does the InterFraternity Council intend to improve the grade-point average of its members? With a peer-advising program titled, appropriately, "GPA." The Greek Peer Advisors program, announced last Thursday, calls for each of the IFC's 32 fraternities to submit the names of five brothers as academic advisers to the IFC executive board. The initiative is "an effort to increase the IFC [grade point average] and maintain the edge over the all male average," according to an IFC statement. Last fall, the average IFC GPA was 3.17, a figure that equaled the University's average for all male students, according to Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Director Scott Reikofski. In the spring of 1997, the IFC GPA was slightly above average. But the average IFC GPA last semester was lower than the University average of 3.22. According to IFC President and Alpha Chi Rho brother Josh Belinfante, the program can help alleviate GPA problems facing many chapters. Most chapters have both brothers with extremely high GPAs and brothers with low grades, he said. The College junior added that the initiative was created in order to take advantage of an untapped resource -- peer help. Although mandatory study hours implemented under the Greek 21st Century Plan have been successful, another provision to set up faculty advisers for each house has provided insufficient results, he said. "Most houses could not get people to devote the time to become an adviser," Belinfante said. IFC officials said they believe peer advising will prove a more useful resource than previous ventures. "[Greeks] feel comfortable with other Greeks," said IFC Vice President of Rush Jeff Snyder, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist. The Wharton junior and Phi Kappa Sigma brother added that the program will create a network to ensure that if a particular house is lacking its own tutors in a certain major, the members can seek help from other fraternities. Other IFC members said the program would foster more chapter unity. "Brothers seeking help from other brothers can only lead to good things, including strong inter-chapter relations," said IFC Judicial Manager and Pi Kappa Phi brother Adam Goldstein, a College junior. Belinfante said the chapter presidents will initially ask their houses for volunteers for the program. He added that they will try to select a group of advisers encompassing a wide range of subjects. Once the lists of tutors are submitted, the executive board will organize them by major and distribute them to the houses, so that students who need tutoring can immediately seek help from the appropriate adviser. Aside from helping themselves -- which according to Belinfante was the main focus of the initiative -- the executive board also said it intends to prove some of the University "skeptics" wrong about their perceptions that the Greek system is a negative influence on campus. But Belinfante said such persuasion is a secondary goal. "There are some [people] in the University community that are going to hate us know matter what we do," Belinfante said.