The Greek system is looking for a little academic guidance from the Iowa State faculty.

The Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils are seeking faculty advisers for several sororities and fraternities to help the chapters with scholarship programs and advise them on day-to-day operations.

“There’s some houses that have them and some houses that don’t and I thought it would be a good idea to help some of the houses that don’t have them find one,” said Travis Muff, Interfraternity Council vice president of educational programming.

He said he isn’t sure how many houses don’t have advisers or how many want them.

Faculty members don’t have to have a background with the Greek system to be advisers, he said, although it would be ideal if they were already members of a particular fraternity or sorority. He said some chapters may initiate their adviser as an alumni.

“[Being an adviser is] a good way to see what they missed out on as an undergrad or to find out what the Greek system was like,” Muff said.

Phi Delta Theta has had an adviser for at least five years, said Mitch Beggs, the fraternity’s president. Their adviser helps them from an academic standpoint, he said, by monitoring their grades and making recommendations to guys who aren’t doing well and commending those who are.

Each semester, their adviser gives a motivational speech at their dinner and ceremony to award students who have outstanding quality points and have improved greatly during the semester.

“Being a member of the faculty, he knows exactly what the right things to say are and having been a student he knows the problems students encounter and he has a good way of motivating people,” Beggs said.

Michael Owen, professor of agronomy, serves as adviser for Phi Gamma Delta. He was a member of the fraternity as an undergraduate student.

He said he was asked by the fraternity to provide academic guidance.

“Our fraternity has stressed the need for better academic achievement,” Owen said.

To accomplish this, he helped the house members set up a system to keep track of each other and develop better study habits.

He said since they began about a year ago, the members have improved their grade points and tied for second in the Interfraternity Council for GPA.

Owen said he thinks it is every faculty member’s responsibility to be involved with undergraduate students as much as possible in any capacity. He said it is part of teaching.

“I learn quite a bit from my interaction with the students,” he said. “It is worth it.”

Advisers could possibly help develop academic guidelines and rules, study hours, study tables where members are required to put in so many hours of study a week and minimum GPA requirements to stay in the house, Muff said.

Muff said his house, Delta Chi, doesn’t have an adviser at the moment and would like one. Time commitments would be worked out by individual chapters, he said, but would probably include attending at least one meeting a month and keeping in touch with the social chair.

“Hopefully I do get some responses because I think it would be a real worthwhile position,” Muff said.

For more information or to volunteer to be an adviser, contact the Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils at 294-2977 or Muff at 268-0037 or by e-mail at [email protected].