As a parent or family member of an Edinboro student, you probably are curious about what your student is getting involved with outside of the classroom. As part of the Campus Life and Greek Life office, we hope that we can provide you valuable information that will give insight to the family of a student interested in Greek Life.
While joining a fraternity or sorority is a student's personal choice, parents and family members can assist and guide in this decision-making process, helping the student to choose what's best for them. Once a student decides that Greek life is the route they want to go, it's important for them to check out each of the organizations our campus has to offer. An important thing to keep in mind is that, while they fall under the same national organization, chapters vary from campus to campus; what you may know about a specific organization may not be true with our chapter at Edinboro. Reaching out and talking to a member of the fraternity or sorority may give you a better understanding of the men or women of that chapter.
Even after the decision to join and then recruitment (which is briefly explained in our I Want to Join! Section), support and interest in your student's experience is valuable. Ways to foster this support and interest include asking questions about their experience, keeping up with community events, attending family events, and meeting their brothers/sisters. Being a member of PennWest Edinboro's Greek life will likely be a significant part of their college experience, and supporting it will be something your student will appreciate.
Many parents and family members have concerns about their student joining a fraternity or sorority. Some concerns involve hazing and academics. Edinboro's fraternities and sororities are under strict anti-hazing policies as well as Pennsylvania and federal laws against hazing; ours are strictly non-hazing organizations. Academically, our Greek organizations have standards for grades and academic performance. Each fraternity and sorority has minimum GPA requirements to join and remain an active member, and most institute mandatory library/study hours. Also, the university requires the chapters overall to maintain a standard of cumulative new member GPAs each semester and overall chapter GPAs. For more information on academics, please refer to the Academic Report page, which contains current academic information for each fraternity and sorority as well as general Greek information.
If you have any questions or are concerned about your student's current status in a fraternity or sorority, please email greeklife@pennwest.edu.
