Six Fraternal World Predictions for 2013

A number of other professions create “predictions” or up and coming “trends” for the upcoming year. Unless I missed them, I noticed that the fraternal world does not. In most circumstances, these predictions are nothing more than an educated guess. Yet, every now and then one hits the nail on the head. I figured why not make some predictions for the fraternal world. Who knows maybe one will hit the nail on the head! So with that being said, here are my six bold predictions for 2013:

Service Becomes THE Thing To Do

In 2013, we will see a record number of service hours completed by Greek organizations. Students will embrace the dirt and sweat of doing community service and start to do it on a more frequent basis. “Forget the once a month service event, let’s do it once a week” said the upbeat, newly elected Community Service Chair. Partnerships with local agencies and National service trips will lead the way in this awesome initiative.

A Record Hazing Lawsuit Will Occur

Each year, there are positive predictions and some that are not so pleasant predictions. This prediction unfortunately fits the latter. With the lack of patience from University administrators, National Headquarters, parents and alumni, 2013 will be the year where a record hazing lawsuit will occur. “Enough is enough” will be the headlines from the lead attorney of the family who loses a child due to reckless, immature and illegal hazing. $150-200 million is the number that pops in my head.

Larger Staffs on Campus and at National Headquarters

“We need more support. We need more bodies. We need more money” shouts the Executive Director and Director of Greek Life respectively. Surprisingly, National Headquarter Foundations and University Administrators finally agree with this sentiment. In return, we see a growth of Risk Reduction, Digital/Social Media and Expansion/Extension National staff support. One might argue a need for more Associate/Assistant Exec. Director positions as well.

On the campus side, we will see more Coordinator and Assistant Director positions’ open up. At the very least, more graduate assistantships will become available to help fill a much needed void in student to staff ratio.

Greater Digital Presence from National Headquarters

Social Media is here to stay and with that will become a need to reach students via various social media platforms. This will result in National Headquarter staffs hiring more Social Media Community Managers/Strategist/Specialist. Facebook engagements will increase. Twitter chats will become a weekly thing. Pinterest parties will be the new “it” social. Organizations who embrace LinkedIn will see a tremendous growth in alumni networking and help recent graduates find a job. Most of all, blogging from the National Headquarter staff perspective will become a great way for their undergraduate students to see the “behind the scenes” stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more webinars, podcasts and SlideSharing occurring to engage more undergraduate members, volunteers and alumni.

A Campus Will Close Their Greek Community

Dartmouth had such a brutal year in 2012 that I’m sure people considered the option of closing their Greek community. Trinity College is forcing Greek organizations to go co-ed or risk their existence on campus. These are just two examples of Greek communities on thin ice. They aren’t the only campuses under the microscope. I predict there will be one campus with two different large scale risk management issues that push the Board of Trustees to close their Greek community. Students will be outraged but in the end, their own lack of accountability will be the demise of the community they loved.

A New, Disruptive Program Will Be a Game Changer

In the business world, being disruptive is embraced. It is a development/program/philosophy that disrupts the status quo and allows for a positive shift in the game. Remember when that thing called the “iPhone” came out. Yeah, that was a game changer. That website called “Facebook” – another game changer.

In the fraternal world, game changers come every 4-5 years it seems. I’d love to see more game changing and I think 2013 brings a game changer to the fraternal world. My gut says that it will be in the philanthropy/service arena but realistically, I think it will come in the risk management arena. Ritual education is the golden egg waiting to be found and used as a game changer. Bystander behavior had its moment but has fizzled out a bit. A disruptive academic program would be awesome as would a real challenge in recruiting in the sorority and multi-cultural environments. Regardless, there will be a disruption in the fraternal world and it will be a game changer. The question is who will create it?

Those are my six predictions. What predictions do you have for the fraternal world?