Twelve delegates from Monmouth University’s Greek community attended the Northeast Greek Leadership Association (NGLA) conference this past weekend in Pittsburgh, PA. The students in attendance applied to represent Monmouth, alongside Assistant Director of Student Activites For Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL), Michele Kaplan.
Kaplan stated, “The NGLA conference builds community among students from a variety of fraternal experiences, challenges members to align their actions with fraternal values, and empowers advocates to transform and improve their communities. It Is exciting to see our students return with new perspectives and more definite future goals for the FSL community.” The purpose of the conference is to provide a number of resources for members of the Greek community that assist in furthering the mission of their organizations. The weekend-long event included members from Greek chapters all over the Northeast region.
Monmouth University’s delegates included the Presidents of the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC), the Panhellenic Council (PHC), the Multicultural & Professional Greek Council (MPGC), and Greek Senate, as well as individual chapter presidents, and chapter delegates. Monmouth paid for the students’ attendance, as well as accommodations for the group in Pittsburgh. Each student was able to attend a variety of speaker seminars of their choice. The seminar topics ranged from how to recruit in different ways to learning more about how to strengthen your own leadership skills.
Greek Senate President and Junior psychology student, Morgan Lavalee, said, “I enjoyed NGLA and thought it was a great experience. It gave me ideas to bring back to our campus. I especially enjoyed one seminar I attended about things that worked or didn’t work within your chapter/campus and was able to hear other schools’ opinions and frustrations.”
The school’s delegates were split into one of 17 institute groups that met each of the days to discuss relevant information for all to be knowledgeable about. The first institute focused on Title IX and Sexual Harassment on college campuses. Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. This session consisted of ways to promote Title IX awareness as well as sexual assault and the dangers that are prevalent to a college campus. Following the first institute, the second focused on diversity and inclusion on campus. It is important to recognize and include all Greek groups on the campus in order to promote unity and respect between all oganizations.
“I attended a session about bringing the IFC Fraternities back to their basics. We learned to create a mission statement, how to effectively market the IFC to the Greek community, and valuable ideas on how to bring all fraternities together,” said Kevin Zielaznicki, sophomore finance student and President of IFC.
The variety of seminars offered proved to be a crucial part in ensuring that each member in attendance of the conference was able to take away certain lessons that pertain to what the felt was necessary to helping their own Greek community. NGLA is known to members on every campus as a valuable resource that provides a demonstrated return on investment. Sophomore homeland security student, brother of Sigma Pi and VP of IFC, Nick Infante, commented, “It gave me the opportunity to learn more about leadership in Greek life that I can apply to IFC and to my individual chapter.”
The NGLA Conference held each year provides members of the Greek community with new resources and information in order to help their chapters and community succeed. It continually gives students the support and leadership skills they need to help the Greek community remain a positive, successful environment.
