There is no more important position in today's fraternity or sorority than the volunteer advisor, who serves as a role model and mentor.
Each chapter should have an advisor who meets with the chapter regularly to provide advice and guidance. There is a strong correlation between successful chapters and good advisor support.
Information for advisors and understanding campus polices: Advisors 101
Chapter advising is a challenging but equally rewarding experience. Your time with the chapter is invaluable and directly supports the Greek Strategic Plan.
Need to Find an Advisor?
If you’re an officer for a Ball State chapter that needs a new faculty advisor, please download our “Faculty Advisors 101” guide. Download guide (PDF).
- Attend chapter meetings, new member events, initiation and executive officer meetings
- Request copies of minutes from chapter meetings, executive board meetings, and judicial hearings
- Recruit and utilize a full advisory board—follow your international/national guidelines
- Review manuals on a yearly basis
- Build strong relationships with the president, new member educator, treasurer, social chair, recruitment chair, and council delegate. A recommended way to do this is to attend events and communicate weekly through email and phone
- Review the new member program with new member educator each semester
- Officer transition is critical—help plan and please attend
- Leadership conferences work. Try to get as many chapter members as possible to attend something every year
- Use the internal judicial process for your chapter. Council judicial boards are not meant to deal with individual chapter member issues. Accountability must happen at the chapter level
- Attend any training provided by your headquarters
- Attend Ball State advisor meetings, when offered
- Don't go at it alone—ask for help!
- Expect greatness out of your chapter at Ball State. There is no reason your chapter cannot be award-winning
Ideally all chapters would have an advisory board, comprised of several individuals, to help advise the chapter.
Consistently good chapters usually have a group of dedicated advisors, who work closely with the officers and the chapter. Dedicated advisory boards work to continuously improve the chapter and the fraternity experience.
The Advisory Board may include the following:
- Chapter/Grad Advisor—responsible for organizing the board, recruiting new advisors, and attending university meetings
- Financial Advisor—responsible for working with the undergraduate treasurer
- Alumni Relations/Communications—responsible for working with the undergraduates on strengthening alumni relations and communications
- Recruitment/Intake Advisor—responsible for working with the undergraduates on bringing in new members and planning recruitment/intake activities
- New Member Education Advisor—responsible for working with the new member educator to create a positive, challenging and hazing-free new member education process
For more information about how your Alumni Advisor Board is structured, contact your international/national organization.
- Advisor Directory – contact information for all advisors
- Advisor Listserv – a listserv for advisors to share information and keep up-to-date on the Greek community. To subscribe, email Fraternity and Sorority Life.
- Greek Weekly Newsletters – contains news, deadlines and reminders and is distributed to advisors weekly
- Individual Member GPAs – a listing of all individual members' GPAs each semester, to use for eligibility and academic purposes
- Panhellenic Recruitment Advisor Meetings – held once each semester to bring together all advisors to share information
Update Contact Information
It’s important that our office has up-to-date contact information for you. This way, we can keep you current on our listserv, send you copies of our newsletter, and make sure you receive invitations to meetings and events.
Questions or Concerns?
We welcome your input! Please contact our office.