In a report critical of Greek life last week, the Florida-based consulting firm Dyad Strategies recommended that freshmen no longer live in fraternity houses.
This was based partly on the claim that they perform worse academically than non-Greeks.
MU’s own data suggests otherwise.
Since at least 2013, the latest year available, the average GPAs of fraternities’ new member classes — which are mostly freshmen — were higher than the average GPA of all male freshmen on campus, according to MU data.
“(Greek) GPA is consistently and significantly above the all male average,” said John Dean, chair of the academic achievement committee for the Missouri Fraternity Alumni Consortium.
This past spring, the average MU freshman male GPA was 2.761. Of the 25 fraternities surveyed, 72 percent of the new member classes had GPAs higher than that, according to the Office of Greek Life.
MU, which has cracked down on fraternities in recent years, commissioned the report for $22,000. The original report was released Oct. 26, but a modified version — without the language about the academic performance of freshmen fraternity members — was posted to the MU website on Thursday.
The original report, which didn’t list any research to support the claim about freshmen fraternity members, stated: “There is ample research to suggest that freshman students who live in residence halls have the most positive academic and co-curricular outcomes. Freshman fraternity members at Mizzou do not perform well academically compared to their non-affiliated peers.”
The last sentence was removed in the modified report.
The recommendation that freshmen not live in fraternity houses was also based on additional factors, including “risk management, health and safety (including hazing) issues, as well as a scenario in which most chapters are run by sophomores with upperclassmen generally ‘checking out’ of the fraternity experience.”
Gentry McCreary, Dyad’s CEO, said, during his initial visit to the MU campus, an administrator — whom he did not identify — told him that freshmen fraternity members do not perform well academically. He put that comment into his notes, and it ultimately ended up in the report.
“I have since been provided with grade reports indicating that some (but not all) fraternity freshman perform above the all freshman male average,” McCreary wrote in an email. “I should have checked the information in my report against the campus grade reports but did not.”
Dean said the flaw calls the report into question.
“I find that the report is lacking in credibility,” he said.
John Hartman, president of the Missouri Fraternity Alumni Consortium, declined to comment.
The Residential Life Committee, which includes Dean of Students Jeffrey Zeilenga, met the day after the original report was released, and its members discussed an unenforced rule that all freshmen live in residence halls, said Tom Phillips, the committee chair.
“We think it would be good if more people lived in the residence halls because it does promote good academics and college success,” Phillips said.
Gary Ward, interim vice chancellor for student affairs, said in an Oct. 26 statement about the Dyad report that “no final decisions about specific recommendations will be made before spring.”
Zeilenga was not available for comment Friday.
Former MU Residential Life Director Frankie Minor, who was laid off during university budget cuts in July and has since taken a similar job at the University of Rhode Island, said decades of research indicate students benefit greatly from spending their first year living on campus.
“It gets them connected with each other, and it gets them connected with the campus,” Minor said. “It’s the one experience they share in common.”
But individual experiences are hard to predetermine, he said.
“No one can predict what’s going to be the best experience for an individual student,” Minor said. “We have to look at what we know is best for most students and develop policies and practices around that.”
Minor said he recognized that some students want or need alternatives to living on campus and that Greek life is one available option.
“It’s unfortunate that some of the men didn’t choose to (live on campus),” Minor said. “They chose something that they thought was equally as good and beneficial.”
McCreary is expected to return to the MU campus in the coming weeks to share recommendations with Greek students, alumni, faculty, staff and MU leadership, according to Ward’s statement.
An open forum to discuss the report is scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 10 in Jesse Wrench Auditorium in the Memorial Student Union, MU spokesman Christian Basi said.
Missourian reporter Rachel Wegner contributed to this report.
Supervising editor is Sky Chadde: news@columbiamissourian.com, 882-7884.