Written by: Dan Bureau, Ph.D. (University of New Hampshire, '95), National President
Study hours are not enough (and actually may be detrimental) for your scholarship Program.
We have many expectations in the Fraternity, including the need for members to meet and maintain academic standards. This aspect of the organization may matter differently across our chapters and within individual members but on the national level we know that our members should not perform poorly academically as a result of Phi Kappa Theta AND we have a responsibility to facilitate academic success for members.
How we create environments in which members feel like they can succeed academically will impact not only the recruitment and retention of members but also their entire lives. These programs can look different per chapter but one thing for sure is:
Brothers, study hours are not enough, if they are even helpful.
Study hours provide a time during which members are “required” to study or at least be in a space where they and others are studying. Often it is for new members as if those are the only ones for whom we need to provide academic direction and support (and for whom we’d be accountable for academic success). I get that from a time management perspective, the requirement to be in a space in which you are forced to study might make sense, but I strongly believe that study hours as a primary strategy for academic success is not going to make chapters successful.
Why don’t they? Here are a few reasons:
Different majors require different types of work. Sometimes it’s quiet to study for a test but often it’s writing papers, working on group projects, doing online course assignments, etc. Your science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related majors have different needs than your humanities or social sciences types. Everyone being in the same place prevents some of our members from doing the work they really need to do either by themselves (depending on study preferences) or with groups (likely those who do not involve Phi Kaps).
In a world where more and more college students have learning disabilities, the need to develop self-directed and managed approaches to studying has never been more important. Many students with learning disabilities come to college with some level of management ability; however, for some where college is a new environment unmonitored by people with a specific ability to support their learning disability, it is important to figure out ways to attend to how they need to best study and conduct academic work. I am willing to bet it rarely comes in the form of the study hours environment which can sometimes be poorly managed with a well-intentioned member who may not be able to hold the people in the space accountable for doing the work they are their to do.
Additionally, The McGraw Center at Princeton University showcases some of the ways to better manage time and energy. The world is a lot and people have so many different demands outside of Phi Kappa Theta. For many, studying from 6-9 at study hours just isn’t the best time to make it happen.
Sadly, the biggest reason I think to abolish study hours is that while academic success is a nice outcome, it isn’t about that. Chapters use it to exert influence and control over members. While I would not classify study hours as hazing, it’s done more for reasons outside of ensuring individual academic goals are met and it just is not the best way to facilitate your members’ academic achievement.
So what do you do instead? Philosophically, I think that the best approach to academic success of your members is to create communities of shared academic and career goals in which members can come together. The environment must be such that all members recognize their opportunity to contribute.
What does this look like?
First, consider creating teams to foster positive competition and connect members to those with comparable academic demands and goals. This may look two ways: you can set up teams by buckets of majors. Put all of the heavy math or science people into a team or two. Put those who are doing more writing and creative work in another. Business majors? They can have a team or two all by themselves.
You can create challenges across the teams. For example, teams set an average GPA goal. They hit it, they get something cool. Across all teams, whomever beats their own goal the most, gets something even more awesome. You want more ideas? Reach out to me.
A second idea is to help members develop an individualized plan. What Phi Kappa Theta should do is provide the resources and connections to help members be academically and otherwise successful. What about having each member submit an academic plan in which they (1) document a minimum GPA to which they are aspiring (and is at least the minimum GPA a member needs to be active), (2) develop the plans they are going to use to manage their time to achieve, (3) identify one to two campus or other resources they will use to achieve their GPA and manage their diverse academic demands (such as attending supplemental instruction, tutoring, or other educational supports), and (4) develop a series of checkpoints to ensure progress. For the last idea of checkpoints, this may be where breaking them up by major would be most helpful.
Finally, having one person in charge of scholarship or academic success as we are used to is not a good model either. In my chapter, the person who often held this role was an engineer with whom I had so little in common (loved the guy, one of my favorite friends eventually, but nothing in common) and he just could not help me address the demands of my social sciences and humanities disposition.
When you consider the models I have proposed above about using a team and having individualized plans, those models take a village more than a person. You might have at least one member from each class standing or from each bucket of majors serving in a role. This person will be advisory and supportive - connecting members to what they need to be successful.
In closing, all of our members need academic support. Using a teams model that engages more people in the oversight and attention to academic goals can help a chapter be more successful. Determining a plan for success that aligns with chapter expectations can position both the member and the chapter to achieve their goals. Study hours will not make the difference: providing an environment in which academic goals are supported, individual learning approaches are honored, and the entire chapter is committed to each member doing their best to move the chapter GPA up the rankings while also helping members excel is what matters most.