Why don't students at NMsU join a Greek organization? Bethany Naylor Marketing 310 December 6.2002
Table of Contents Introduction Hypotheses Objectives of research Methodology Analysis and Findings Cross tabulations 30 Limitations Conclusion and recommendations Appendices Appendix A: Survey Appendix B: SPSS frequencies and cross tabs
Introduction: My research question for this project is: Why do students not join a Greek organization? I will conduct a survey from a sample of 100 students at NMSU to research this question. The Greek community at NMSU consists of six sororities and fourteen fraternities. This number is quite small for a Greek community. NMSU has a population of about 15, 000 students but the number of students that are members of fraternities and sororities is low. I believe that although currently New Mexico State University has a small Greek community that this campus has the potential to increase its population. So often on this campus you hear the Greek community giving out reasons advocating the joining of a Greek organization, yet the Greek community on this campus often struggles for membership. On other campuses around the country a large percentage of the student population join Greek organizations. It seems that on other campuses students are more responsive to the greek community. Not only are the number of fraternities and sororities smaller but so is the number of members each sorority and fraternity has. On many campuses the individual Greek organizations have one hundred members, but on our campus each chapter has forty to sixty members. The motivation behind my interest in this subject is due to the fact that I have been involved in a Greek organization for three years and I am currently in charge of membership for my sorority In conducting a survey I will try to gain knowledge on why students at nmSU are not as responsive to the greek community. From this survey I would also like to gain knowledge about what changes the greek community can make in order to increase interest. I hypothesize that many students on this campus have not joined a greek organization due to the issues of money, time, negative stereotypes, whether or not their
parents were in a Greek organization, parents'approval and not having friends in a greek organization Hypotheses Many students have not joined a sorority/fraternity because they do not want to spend money Many students who are not in a Greek organization have parents who were never members in a Greek organization Many students are afraid to join a Greek organization because they think their parents will not approve Many students have not joined a Greek organization because they believe that Greeks on this campus have a negative image Many students have not joined a Greek organization because they believe it will take up too much of their time Research Objectives To determine if there are negative stereotypes about the greek community on our campus To determine the reasons behind students not joining a greek organization To determine which sororities or fraternities on this campus have a bad image To find ways to improve the Greek organization as a whole These objectives are found in some of my questions in the survey. These objectives will be discussed later in the report to help me analyze my findings. I believe that these objectives helped me compose a good survey and will lead me to determine why students at NMsU are not interested in joining a Greek organization Sample Methodology One hundred students on this campus were surveyed for this research question Surveys were passed out to fellow classmates, and to students walking to and from class This sample was very random) Analysis and findings (All results and data are based on 100 participants Question 1: Are you currently a member of either a non academic sorority or non academic fraternity? I did not analyze the data for this question because all 100 students to this question. If any of the students had answered yes to this question they would not
have completed the survey because it was a requirement for these students to not be involved in a Greek organization Question 2: Have you ever pledged into a fraternity/sorority? rg Dilative Valid 93 Total 100100.01000 Only seven students out of 100 answered yes to this question. Seven percent of the sample population had pledged into a fraternity or sorority but then dropped out of the Greek organization that they had joined. I expected this number to be low because most people who join a sorority or fraternity tend to stay in the fraternity or sorority. This percentage is about as low as I expected it would be Question 3: Was your mom ever a member of a non academic sorority? mom member of sorority Mom member of sorority vaid「 Cumulate frequency Percent PercentPercent 170 17.0 83830830 100.0 Total 1001000100.0 Question 4: Was your dad ever a member of a non academic fraternity?
dad member of fraternit Dad member of fraternity Cumulative Frequency Percent Percent Percent 210210 21.0 79790790 Total 10001000 One of my hypotheses for this research question was that students would be more inclined to consider joining a fraternity or sorority if their parents were once members of a Greek organization. Only 17 percent answered yes to their mom being a member of a sorority and 2 1 percent answered their dad being a member of a fra expected this percent to be low because I thought that most people whose parents were in a Greek organization would have already joined a sorority or fraternity. However these a little l than I ws that 83 percent of the students I surveyed have moms that have never been in a sorority and 79 percent of the students fathers have never been in a fraternity. These percentages may be big enough Question 5: Would your parents approve of you joining a sorority or fraternity? parents approva Parents approval Valid Cumulative Frequency Percent Percent ercen Valid ye 83830830 83.0 1717.0170 100.0 Total 100.01000 A majority, eighty three percent of the population I surveyed responded that the parents would approve of them joining a fraternity or sorority. While seventeen percerr of the students thought that their parents would disapprove of them joining a Greek organization. This percent was much larger than I expected it to be. I thought that a majority of my respondents would answer no to this question because i assumed that parents' approval would be an important reason as to why these students did not join a Greek organization. Since parents' approval was high but the students were not members
of a Greek organization, then hopefully my survey will uncover if there is a major reason for not joining Question 6: Would you consider joining a fraternity or sorority? consider joining a greek org Consider joining a Greek org Frequenc Percent Percent Percent Valid yes 44.0 44.0 44.0 56056.0 1000 Tot 00100.01000 conSider joinng a greek org For this question the answers were close to each other. Forty four percent of the respondents answered that they would consider joining a sorority or fraternity, and fifty six percent of the respondents answered that they would not consider joining a sorority or maternity. It is actually quite surprising that so many of the respondents said that they would consider joining a fraternity or sorority. I thought that this percentage would be lower than it is because i assumed that since all of these students were not already in a sorority or fraternity they would not even consider joining one Question 7: were you ever approached or asked to join a Greek sorority/ Fraternity? asked to join a greek org Asked to join a greek organization d Cumulative cent Percent 82.0 82.0 820 Total 100100.01000 d to join a greek org Eighty two percent of the respondents answered yes that they had been approached or asked to join a greek organization. Only eighteen percent of the sample population said that they had never been approached or asked to join a Greek organization. These results are actually about what I had expected because the greek community is always setting up booths and rush information stations in order to get students to sign up for sorority and fraternity recruitment, and i know that many students on this campus have been exposed to this
Question 8: When you first came to nMsU did you anticipate joining a Greek sorority or Fraternity? anticipate joining a greek org Antic ining a Greek organization Valid C Freque PercentPercentPercent 190 190 810 810 Total 10001000 Only eighteen percent of the respondents said that they anticipated joining a Greek organization and the other eighty one percent said that they did not anticipate joining a greek organization when they came to NMSU. I expected that there would be more people who did not anticipate joining a Greek organization than there would be eople who did anticipated joining a Greek organization. The reason I believe this was because most people who anticipate joining a greek organization when they first come to NMSU usually end up going through recruitment right away Question 9: Do you have any friends in a fraternity or sorority at NMSU? friends in greek org Friends in Greek organization ValidCumulative Percent Percent Valid yes 790790 21.0 100.0 Total 1001000 friends in greek org Seventy nine of the respondents answered that they did have friends in either a fraternity or a sorority, while the other twenty one answered that they did not have friends in a fraternity or sorority. So a majority of students who answered this survey have friends in a greek organization. I would have expected that a majority of the students would not have friends in a sorority or fraternity because I think that if you have friends in a sorority of fraternity you would be more likely to join one yourself. So it appears that having friends in these organizations in not a major reason to join, either Question 10: Which sorority do you have friends in?
have friends in Alpha Xi Delta Have friends in Alpha Xi Delta ValidCumulative 89 890890 Total 10010001000 have friends in Chi Omega Have friends in Chi Omega 61.0 61.0 1000 Total have friends in Ceres Have friends in Ceres 4 4.0 1000
have friends in Deta Zeta Have friends in Delta Zeta Valid Cumulative PercentPercent Percent 54.0 46 46.0 Total 1001000100.0 have friends in Delta zeta have friends in Pi Beta Phi Have friends in Pi Beta phi ValidCum Frequency Percent Percent: Pero alid yes 24.0 1000 Total 10010001000 have frends in Pi Beta phi have friends in Zeta Tau Alpha Have friends in Zeta Tau Alpha ValidCumulative Frequency i Percent Percent Percent Valid yes 2 32.0 32.0 1000 Total have friends in Zeta Tau Alpha a. Since seventy nine of the respondents said they had friends in a sorority I wanted to see which sorority they have friends in. Out of 100 respondents eleven percent said that they had friends in the alpha Xi Delta sorority and eighty nine percent said that they did not have friends in Alpha Xi Delta. Thirty nine percent said that they had friends in Chi Omega sorority and sixty one percent said they did not have friends in Chi Omega Only four percent said that they had friends in Ceres sorority and ninety six percent said that they did not have friends in Ceres. Fifty four percent of the respondents said that they had friends in Delta Zeta sorority and forty six percent said they did not have friends in y Delta Zeta. Twenty four percent had friends in Pi Beta Phi sorority and seventy six said they did not have friends in Pi Beta Phi. Thirty two percent said that they had friends in
