Executive Council Winter Scholarship Committee Report February 2nd, 2013 Chair: Richard Pelletier, Rowan '02 Here

is the status of the items previously discussed in my last report along with new items added near the end. New items will have NEW: at the beginning of the item. Text in Blue are my comments. Text in Red are updated completion dates. Text in Green are external text files accompanying the item. 1. Form a scholarship committee nationally Time of Completion: January 25th, 2013 A Facebook group was created for this purpose (http://www.facebook.com/groups/289496937819283/) and the group was promoted through the HQ Facebook and Twitter accounts, along with the Phi Psi connect forum. As of this moment, the group has 15 members. Several members have voiced opinions on topics included in this report and the committee continues to work on scholarship issues. I would encourage HQs to remind brothers from time to time that this committee exists and we are always looking for more volunteers. Time of Completion: January 25th, 2013 I changed this item from a conference call every 3-4 months, to continual discussion through the Facebook group. Since the committee has many members now, a phone call would be inefficient. Having the committee members discuss specific topics through posts in the Facebook group allows everyone to chime in and work to be done on a continual basis. 3. Develop guidelines for chapters to follow when addressing brothers with extremely low GPAs a. 2 step approach recommended at GAC: rehabilitation, then removal/disaffiliation Time of Completion: January 25th, 2013 See file accompanying this report Chapter Scholarship Manual.docx This issue was expanded from just dealing with brothers with low GPAs to discussing national scholarships, academic probation, ideas to improve member GPAs, and helping to set some standards for chapter scholarship chairs to use for their own academic probation guidelines. Basically this 1 document includes this item and the next 2 items in my report. The file includes suggestions previously provided by the document PKP.AcademicSuccessPrograms.doc, which is available through the Chapter Officer Resources section of Phi Psi Connect. This is the only other scholarship related document I could find through Phi Psi Connect. If there are other scholarship related documents that I am not aware of, I would appreciate someone sending me them so that I can incorporate them into my document as well. This document has been reviewed by the committee and has gone through a few drafts now. Further feedback and improvement will continue to be added to the document going forward. This particular subject of brothers with extremely low GPAs is predominantly covered in the section regarding Academic Probation. This section consists of a definition of academic probation, our recommendation of a 2 step approach to dealing with brothers with low GPAs, and a discussion of ways to handle reporting brothers with low GPAs as inactive or removing them from the chapter. I give suggestions for improving GPAs in a separate section which scholarship chairs can use as punishments or discipline actions for academic probation. If there are specific comments related to any section, I would appreciate feedback. I have concerns regarding the legality and wording of topics discussed in the Inactive Status and Removal section of the document. 4. Develop a list of ideas and suggestions for chapters to utilize in order to improve their member GPAs a. This document will be posted onto Phi Psi Connect for scholarship chairs to reference Time of Completion: January 25th, 2013 See file accompanying this report Chapter Scholarship Manual.docx This topic is the Ideas to Improve Scholarship section of the document. As such, I do not intend to create a separate document.

2. Hold regular, continual discussion with the scholarship committee via the Facebook group

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Develop a set of standards for scholarship chairs to bring to their chapter for implementation Time of Completion: January 25th, 2013 See file accompanying this report Chapter Scholarship Manual.docx This topic is the Definition and Rehabilitation sections of the document. As such, I do not intend to create a separate document. Develop improved ways for universities or chapters to report GPAs Estimated Time of Completion: February 28th, 2013 This is a topic that was brought up at the 2012 GAC. The committee has began discussing this and has a few ideas and concerns. Some questions brought up by the committee: How are GPAs being reported to HQs right now? Is it only with accreditation and semi-annual reports? Are ELCs getting this from the universities while they visit a chapter? Do the schools report the GPAs to HQs? Understanding this will help us come up with better ways for chapters to report GPAs to HQs. I will try to follow up with whoever would know this so I can report it back to the committee. Set standards for which semester GPAs will be used when analyzing GPAs for chapters a. This most affects chapters with more than 2 semesters per year Estimated Time of Completion: March 31st, 2013 This is a topic that was brought up at the 2012 GAC. The committee has began discussing this and has a few ideas and concerns. Some questions brought up by the committee: What is HQs using to evaluate chapters GPAs currently? Are they using the GPA from a single semester, say the fall semester? Is it an averaged value over several semesters? Understanding this will help us come up with better ways for HQs to analyze chapter GPAs. I will try to follow up with whoever would know this so I can report it back to the committee. standing nationally within Phi Kappa Psi. If necessary, determine the minimum GPA required. Estimated Time of Completion: May 1st, 2013 A member of the committee brought up the idea of a national minimum GPA requirement for men to join Phi Kappa Psi and for brothers to remain in good standing with the fraternity at large. We as a committee plan to discuss this option further, decide on whether or not this is a necessity, and if it is decided that this is a necessity, determine what the minimum GPA should be and how long a brother will have to improve the GPA above this threshold. As it stands right now, there is no official minimum GPA required to be a brother of Phi Kappa Psi on a national level. This is a question that is raised amongst chapters from time to time, and it is debatable whether a policy should be in place for this or not. I recently answered a question on the forum on Phi Psi Connect regarding this (Forum Chapter Operations Topic: GPA requirements for officers/members). This topic has been brought up to the committee already and has lead to a heated debate. We would very much like to hear some comments back from members of the EC regarding this issue, and the Attorney General regarding the constitutionality of adding a minimum GPA to the bylaws and constitution.

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8. NEW: Determine the necessity of a minimum GPA requirement for brothers to remain in good

9. NEW: Improve chapter involvement in the national scholarship application processes

Estimated Time of Completion: May 1st and December 1st of each year A member of the committee thought it would be a good idea for the scholarship committee to review how many chapters had members apply for national scholarships and then follow up with those chapters who had no applicants to encourage them to apply for scholarships for the next scholarship period. This was discussed with Tony Vukusich of the Foundation (and also a member of the committee) and Tony agrees that this is a good idea. He is working on getting a list of applicants from all chapters so we can get started on this.

10. NEW: Establish a working partnership with a tutoring/educational company to offer discounts to Phi
Kappa Psi members Estimated Time of Completion: September 1st, 2013

This idea came from brother Adam Goodman, district 1 archon. The concept is to establish some sort of partnership that would provide Phi Kappa Psi members distinct discounts on educational services, such as tutoring and test preparation, that they would not receive otherwise. This partnership will hopefully work similarly to how our current Boys and Girls Clubs of America partnership works, where we will actively promote our scholarship partner and encourage members to utilize our scholarship partner in exchange for the discount provided. We are currently researching our options in this matter and will hopefully have some more information for the next report. 11. Research and potentially develop a scholarship boot camp, similar to PLA and recruitment boot camp Estimated Time of Completion: June 30th, 2014 A member of the committee recommended that we promote the Scholarship Committee Manual and/or have scholarship related events/topics at national events, like PLA, NVO, and WWLS, to help promote the efforts were doing as a committee and Fraternity. This would allow us to help chapter presidents, advisers, scholarship chairs, and other members improve their scholarship endeavors and make them aware of the resources available to them. I consider this to be a valid substitute until a more official program can be established in the future for scholarship chairs. 12. Gather and develop more ways beyond those listed to improve scholarship Estimated Time of Completion: Ongoing