Brent Volker
105h12
Helen Ewald
Substantive Revision
A few weeks ago I was elected Scholarship Chairman of Theta Xi Fraternity at
Iowa State. As newly elected Scholarship Chairman, I am responsible for the academic
progress of Theta Xi Fraternity. It is my purpose for this paper to establish a policy to
further academic progress.
To keep my proposal focused and relevant, it will only pertain to the Theta Xi
Fraternity at Iowa State. I did research on my proposal by talking to professors, my
chapter advisors, and former members of my fraternity to get ideas on how to improve
the academic program. I will use the professional policy proposal structure to present my
proposal.
In the past couple of years Theta Xi Fraternity’s grade point average has been a
little low. But through the recruitment of more academically focused members it has the
potential to improve its grade point average. All that is needed is an effective academic
program to facilitate improvement.
The academic program has three basic needs. The first need of the academic
program is to make academics the number one priority. With so much going on at my
fraternity, it is sometimes hard to remember that the reason we are all here is to earn a
college education. The academic program needs to emphasize academics to keep
members focused on studying and homework. The second need of the academic program
is to help members develop better academic skills. I have talked to various members who
said that they studied hard, but still end up doing poor on a test. The problem is that they
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want to do well, but don’t know how to study in an efficient manner. The academic
program needs to provide members with the tools to become better students. The third
need of the academic program is to develop a program that fosters learning through
rewards and helping each other. This is needed because everyone knows that people
always work better if they can get a reward. Also by helping each other, both the teacher
and the pupil learn.
My plan for the academic program has three basic parts. Each part addresses the
fulfilling of each of the three needs. The following plan is broken down into those three
parts.
The first part of my plan for the academic program is to make academics a
number one priority. First, I will institute mandatory quiet hours from 6-10 pm on
Monday through Thursday and all day quiet hours on Sunday and all of Dead and Finals
Week. This special time will be set aside for studying and focusing on academics. Little
noise will be tolerated during quiet hours. Members will also be required to study a
minimum of eight hours a week during quiet hours to assure that studying is done. The
second part of my plan is to invite Beverly Madden, Head of Career Services at Iowa
State, over for dinner. She can speak on how what students do in their classes at college
effects what job they get and how much money they will make at that job. She can also
discuss how doing poor in school can negatively effect a future job and pay. The third
part of my plan is to base what rooms people get on GPA. This will make members
study so they can get a good room because some rooms are bigger than others and in a
better location.
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The second part of my plan for the academic program addresses the need to help
members develop better academic skills. First, I will give everyone a questionnaire to fill
out. This questionnaire will ask question so that members can rate themselves in the
areas of study skills, time management, reading, lectures, writing papers, and how they
take tests. Next, I will hold a conference with each member to discuss the results of their
questionnaire. At these conferences, literature will be distributed on ways to improve a
weakness or weaknesses. These conferences will outline a step-by-step plan tailored to
each individual on what they need to do to improve that particular weakness. If, after
filling out the questionnaire, everyone seems to have the same particular weakness, I will
invite a guest speaker over who could discuss ways that as a group we could improve this
weakness. The final part of my plan to improve academic skills is to provide
checkpoints to monitor an individual’s progress on improving a particular weakness.
The third part of my plan for the academic program is to develop an incentive
program based on achievement and helping each other out. First, I will require each
member to set goals at the beginning of the semester. These goals will include the GPA
they want to graduate with, the GPA they want at the end of the semester and the amount
they want to improve over the previous semester’s GPA. These goals will provide each
member with a mark of excellence to attain. Goals will also help to signify when a
member accomplishes something. I will reward a member for accomplishing his
semester GPA or GPA improvement by awarding them certain number of points for the
Scholarship Drawing at the end of the semester. The Scholarship Drawing will be a
drawing held at the end of each semester. The drawing will be to win various prizes that
will include items that bear out Greek Letters and little items that every college student
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needs. Next, I will establish incentives for doing well in school. I will reward those who
receive an A or B on a test by giving them points in the Scholarship Drawing. I will
reward those who do an excellent job during the week at studying or at a test by honoring
them on the Scholars of the Week List. Scholars of the Week List will be a posted list
that honors members who try hard during the week to improve some facet of their
academics. I will honor most improved GPA and highest GPA by presenting them with a
plaque at the Annual Alumni Dinner. I will also establish a system that uses members of
the fraternity to help other members study. I will have each member compile a list of
courses that he would be willing and able to tutor other people in. Then when a member
comes to me with a homework question that I can’t answer, I can just look at my list and
tell them who can answer it. I will also highly recommend that people in the same
courses study together so one person can help other people learn the material.
If the academic program fulfills the three basic needs, benefits will be seen from
fulfilling those needs. By making academics a number one priority, it would be easier for
everyone to study because everyone would be focused on academics and there would be
fewer distractions. Developing better academic skills would lead to more efficient
studying and making learning easier. A program that helps learning through incentives
and peer teaching would lead to everyone getting better grades.
Along with benefits that directly result from fulfilling needs, additional benefits
would come from my academic program. Good grades would lead to a lower turnover
rate for the chapter, which will put less pressure on the members to affiliate a large
number of new members to take the place of those who had to dropout due to poor
grades. Sound academics would probably mean that our chapter leadership is stronger
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and more organized. Inviting dinner guests of the faculty over would help indivuals to
earn brownie points and the fraternity to enhance its reputation.
Implementation of my academic program will be easy. Since I am in charge of
developing an academic program I just have to follow the program I created in order to
implement it.
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