Funding used to solidify staffing
Added onto their dues, Greek Life students will now see an additional 50 dollar charge. PHOTO CREDIT: Maddie Bataille | Photo Editor
Students involved with Greek Life at the University of Rhode Island can now expect more additional charges on their tuition bill.
All active members of a fraternity or sorority must now pay $49 each semester to support “advertisement, program planning and risk management,” according to URI’s tuition and billing website.
Students were notified this past summer via an email from URI’s Division of Student Affairs that the per-semester fee is being assessed to “ensure future stability for the overall URI Greek community while allowing [them] to maintain improved levels of support for chapters and individual members.”
According to this same email, 3,350 students were actively involved in a Greek chapter as of May 2022. With new members being accepted into fraternities and sororities this past week, these $49 individual fees will total a minimum of $164,150 per semester for the Greek community.
Stephen Simo, assistant dean of students for student engagement at URI, said that the bi-yearly payment is now necessary due to budget cuts elsewhere in Greek life’s subsidies.
“One of [Greek life’s] full time positions used to be covered half by Student Senate and half by Housing and Residential Life,” Simo said. “As those budgets started to tighten up, housing and student activities started saying ‘Well, why are we chipping in for Greek life?’”
While Simo said that Greek life could “certainly” be funded under the general student activities fee, a proposal was made for more of an autonomous model, where less funding would be shared with other leadership.
The choice to implement a new payment, according to Simo, was modeled after various other institutions with “robust” Greek Life standards, specifically Pennsylvania State University, where 14 percent of their undergraduate student body are members of Greek establishments, according to Penn State Student Affairs.
Simo said that the additional funding will be used mainly for paying those in governance positions, going towards salaries for Assistant Director and additional Graduate Assistants for Greek affairs.
“The primary goal is to secure and solidify staffing,” Simo said. “We wanted to make [the fee] as moderate as we could and still get our goals.”
At URI, members of each chapter pay Panhellenic or Interfraternity Council dues which go towards the cost of programming and philanthropy operations. These prices range from $260 to $700 per semester, depending on which chapter a student belongs to. On top of these dues are also parlor fees, room and board and meal plans if required.
The new $50 fee will make Greek Life a more expensive experience for students involved.
Gabrielle Gluberman is a junior at URI and is a sister of Alpha Delta Pi. She said that the fee could have been handled differently, so as to not affect the finances of an already vulnerable population.
“It isn’t fair at all, because we’re college students that can’t even pay for ourselves,” Gluberman said. “It’s just adding more money and making things harder.”
While involvement in fraternities and sororities is optional, URI’s Greek Life website depicts that over 20 percent of undergraduates choose to get involved to facilitate the core values of fellowship, scholarship, leadership and service.
Another student, Rachel Rossman, who is a member of Delta Phi Epsilon, had similar sentiments to Gluberman.
“I think it’s stupid,” Rossman said. “I’m joining a chapter and I’m paying my chapter dues, so why do I need to pay another fee? I love Greek Life and I’ll do anything to stick with it, but it’s still unfair.”
Although the new funding model will prioritize the fulfillment of staff stipends, Simo said that additional allocations will be made if possible once the funds are assessed.
“Potentially after staffing is secured, we could use some of [the money] for programming,” Simo said. This is kind of just another piece of the puzzle, but it’s a bigger picture and sort of how we have to operate.”
Simo said that maintaining a proper staff will recognize URI Greek life as at least “a little bit above average” when compared to similar organizations of this caliber across America.