It is our intent to provide those alumni who volunteer as Chapter Alumni/ae Advisors with as many resources and as much support as possible. It is through our partnership with such alumni/ae that we reach are able to consistently shape and guide our best fraternities and sororities. This page includes many sources of information and support for your most important work. Scroll down for resources like relevant University policies, support resources, programming resources and ideas, and retreat sites. This site and its resources will grow as information and your requests are submitted.
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RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES:
As alumni advisors, you may have occasion to need to see and refer to appropriate University policies related to fraternities and sororities. Those policies can be found in the OFSA Policies Section of this website.
RESOURCES AND SUPPORT:
A plethora of resources exist both at Penn and nation/continent-wide to support you in your work with undergraduate chapters. You can find many of those resources on our Alumni Resources Page.
HELPFUL PROGRAMMING RESOURCES:
Special Events Sites
Following are venues (and their weblinks) that are available for chapter and/or alumni/ae events:
Retreat Sites
Following are retreat sites that we have used:
Other Great Resources:
A resource for potential financial support for women's issues programming.
The Drug and Alcohol Resource Team has designed and provides a peer training program, participation in which is required of all Penn Student Organizations This training provides information, resources and discussion for student leaders on intervention procedures to address high-risk behavior relative to alcohol and drug use/abuse and other potentially harmful activities. The essence and information involved in this training can be found here. Also more information can be found at
http://www.saysomethingatpenn.org/
- First Step and Group First Step Programs
First Step and Group First Step Programs provide brief alcohol and drug interventions for students who are experiencing negative consequences as a result of alcohol and other drug use/abuse. The First Step program understands that students use and abuse alcohol and other drugs as a way to cope with stress, unwanted or uncomfortable feelings, social tensions and low self-esteem and, therefore, offers students a safe place to begin exploring the underlying motivations for their use patterns. First Step is a great intervention strategy for chapters for use in referring individuals who may be experiencing any of these issues.
Group First Step does the same thing, only on an organizational scale. Group First Step also provides data regarding the specific group's attitudes and norms and compares that to Penn's institution-wide data. Those who have gone through Group First Step indicate that they are not only surprised at the openness and frankness of the conversation among their peers, but are very encouraged by the results and the continued conversation once the program is actually over.
Both First Step and Group First Step are completely confidential--nothing gets back to OFSA about individuals nor does it end up on any individual's records, and for Group First Step, the only thing that OFSA hears is that the group completed the process.
For more information, please go to http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/alcohol/firststep/ |
