The Texas Tech Greek Advisory Council will have its first meeting of the Fall semester in a few weeks. Ahead of that meeting, Senior Vice President, Dr. Juan Munoz, sat down to talk about the success the council had in its first year.
The council was birthed from tragedy. The university created a Greek Task Force in 2014 after several national reports of alcohol abuse and sexual harassment. Almost a year after its creation, the Task Force made 39 recommendations for improvement. The recommendations fit into six categories including: leadership development, stakeholder communications and accountability.
Texas Tech then created a permanent board, the Greek Advisory Council.
“The goal of the council would be to have a standing body that could review very important or topical issues of significance to Greek life,” Dr. Juan Munoz said. “A standing body that could more responsively provide us with insight into what is compelling into Greek community on our campus.”
Tech now has four full-time staff members working on Greek life issues and opportunities.
“We have new offices to provide that kind of training,” Dr. Munoz said. “We have new staff to provide that education, and now we have new structures in place to hold students accountable for their behaviors.”
There are more than 4,000 students involved in Greek organizations, so Dr. Munoz said they lean on faculty, alumni and community leaders for support.
“These are young people,” Dr. Munoz said. “They are young people of ambition or they wouldn’t be at Texas Tech. They’re young people of aspirations to excel academically, personally, professionally. We want to encourage those best instincts. And obviously some of them make poor choices and we want to make sure they are in an environment where the best choices are encouraged.”
