Greek Life students earn higher GPAs

For the first time in five years, Radford University students participating in Fraternity and Sorority Life achieved a cumulative GPA higher than those students not involved in campus Greek organizations.

The cumulative GPA calculated to 2.995 for the 464 students who were members of a fraternity or sorority during the 2021 fall semester, compared with a 2.940 GPA for non-members.

“This is a point of pride for everyone involved in fraternity and sorority life at Radford University,” said Associate Vice President for Student Life Tricia Smith. “We are really proud of their accomplishments, and we want them to continue to work and improve.”

The Radford University Fraternity and Sorority Life community comprises 24 social fraternities and sororities. Organizations fall under the governance of four separate coordinating councils: Interfraternity Council (IFC), Multicultural Greek Council (MGC), National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) and the Panhellenic Council (PC). The office is led by Director Nicole Cronenwett, Ph.D.

Each semester, the Fraternity & Sorority Life (FSL) office collects a Standards of Excellence report from each chapter within the fraternity and sorority life community. The FSL office then shares the GPA numbers with each chapter’s leadership and with the headquarters of each campus Greek organization “so they can get an idea of how we are living up to the expectation of academic success,” Cronenwett said. “When we ran the report this January, we had proof of the hard work the students have put in.”

To be offered membership into a fraternity or sorority at Radford, students must have at least a 2.5 GPA.

To help students reach their academic goals, the Fraternity & Sorority Life office provides multiple levels of support. This often includes connecting students with campus resources from McConnell Library, the Academic Success Center, Harvey Center, the Center for Career and Talent Development and the Center for Undergraduate Research, to name a few.

“Our office provides these connections and training,’ Cronenwett said, “and those relationships matter a great deal.”

That support also extends beyond academic life.

 “We want to make sure we give them the tools and resources they need to succeed academically but also help them develop leadership skills they can use while on campus and in their surrounding communities,” Cronenwett said.

There are four pillars of the Radford University fraternal experience: scholarship, leadership, service and friendship.

“We have evidence of some really strong work from our students in all four of those categories, including service and philanthropy hours,” Smith said. During the fall semester, fraternity and sorority students donated $7,785 to various local and national organizations and completed more than 3,000 hours of service.

“These numbers show the positive impact our students are having in the community,” Cronenwett said.

The news of the increased activity and soaring Greek Life GPAs is especially uplifting as students continued to navigate the enormous difficulties of the COVID-19 global health pandemic during the fall semester.

“It was tough, but our students are coming out of the pandemic clearer and more distinctly focused on their impact in their community,” Smith said, “and that’s a really impressive thing that we are excited to watch grow.”