Industry and Stakeholder Analysis

As a member of the Industry and Stakeholder Analysis team we were put to the task of discovering what industry the USU Greek System is in, make a SWOT analysis and define stakeholders.

Industry: Campus Involvement

We examined the purposes outlined in the Greek Council’s Constitution, and we found one of their main goals is to enhance the practical abilities of all the Greek members through getting involved “in all aspects of the college experience.” Since the Greek Council believes campus involvement is the driving force behind the sustainability of their chapters, they encourage each individual house to support participation in campus activities (the Greek Council’s Constitution).

In addition, Greek houses have defined their “industry standard” through the process of recruitment. According to the PR Audit Report, “Being part of a fraternity or sorority requires individuals to be involved somewhere else on campus.” Specifically, one of the factors that play a role in qualifying applicants for membership in a chapter is the level of interests in getting involved on campus. In a talk with student groups on campus, PR Audit Team found nearly all Greek members have established connections to these clubs and organizations.

Even though the past news coverage related to Greek events is limited, some articles show cooperation between the Greek Community and on-campus student groups. For example, at least 2 issues of the Utah Statesman reported Greek letter houses’ participation in ASUS sober parties and elections (the Utah Statesman).


We have taken into consideration what the Greeks are about currently at Utah State University and found campus involvement is the industry that the client best fits into. They could use this information to recognize the competitive rules and develop strategies.

Problem & Suggestion
In the campus involvement industry which the Greeks as a whole belong to, there is a common misconception. Many people make the easy assumption that “campus involvement” equals participating in an activity/organization on campus just for fun. In a study conducted by USU students, one of the most important reasons for undergraduate students’ decision to not go Greek is lack of time (MHR 3110, Dare to be great). In other words, non-Greek students believe that participation in Greek life may have eaten up the time that would otherwise have gone to other sectors, such as study and work.

The problem is that people are not aware of many other benefits that Greeks offer. In addition to boosting “campus fun,” the Greek Community provides academic support, leadership opportunities, and service to the community and to the University (Think Greek web site).

When Greeks try to increase the publicity for their advocacy of campus involvement, the Greek Council should consider going farther in their efforts to inform people their involvement in providing academic assistance and service opportunities. Doing so will make the Greek Community become more relevant to student’s campus life, and it raises the acknowledgment of Greek Council’s role in furthering the university’s objectives, instead of simply putting themselves in campus activities.

Stakeholders:
The analysis of stakeholders will inform the Greek Community of the interest and the influence of those who are involved or not involved in the Greek life at Utah State University, which will enable the Greek Council to develop strategies to gain the most effective support possible. We identified key figures, groups of people, and institutions that will affect or be affected by the Greek Council, knowingly or unknowingly. We sorted them out in order from most affected to least:

1. Greek Council officials
2. Greek students; USU alumni; Greek houses
3. USU students; Campus and Student involvement
4. Greek Alumni
5. Family of Greeks
6. USU faculty and administration
7. National Greek organizations
8. Philanthropic organizations
9. Cache Valley citizens

Groups:
Latents
Cache Valley
USU faculty
Greek Alumni

Promoters
National Greek organizations
Greek council
Student and campus involvement

Apethetics
USU students
USU alumni

Defenders
Family of Greeks
Greek houses
Philanthropic organizations


Grouping the previously identified stakeholders gives us a visual representation of where each stakeholder stands in interest and influence over our client. The stakeholders are divided into four groups depending on their ability to create change and their interest to do so. No stakeholder should be ignored; however, some need more attention than others. Grouping the stakeholders identifies those areas where we should focus most of our time and effort.
Promoters:
Defined as those stakeholders who have a high interest in the Greek community and also have the ability and influence to create change. The Greek Council is very high, if not highest, in both of these. They are elected officials from each house at USU who gather and discuss problems facing the Greek community and solutions to those problems. Votes are then taken to enact and enforce the proposed changes. They are most directly affected by what goes on the Greek community and it is their responsibility to ensure that the Greek system is operating in a way that reflects their goals and mission statements. National Greek organizations are also included in this group as they have the authority to withdraw their own chapters from university locations. They also have a keen interest in making sure that their specific chapters are meeting the set criteria for enrollment, academic excellence and other things for their continued sponsorship of the houses. Also, those in charge of promoting campus involvement will be motivated to promote the Greek community on campus because of the Greek’s emphasis in being involved with university clubs, programs, and activities.
Latents:
Latents are those stakeholders who have the influence and power to effect change within the Greek community but lack the motivation or need to interfere at this time. This group must be kept abreast of things happening within the Greek community and satisfied with what they are accomplishing. Cache Valley is included in the group because if at any time they decided to actively promote the Greek system and what they do for the university things would change dramatically for the Greeks. If they opposed the Greeks however, there is little the Greeks could do to remain a part of the community if public opinion turned against them to that degree. USU Faculty and Greek alumni are much the same. As long as Greeks are helping out with university sponsored events there is no reason for faculty to oppose having them be part of campus life.
Defenders:
Defenders are stakeholders who have a high interest in seeing the Greek community perform at its best and helping them do so, but they have very little power to do anything other than voice their support. Families of Greek members, philanthropic organizations, and even each individual Greek house fall into this category. Only when the houses come together in Greek council do they have influence over the Greek community. Standing alone they can do very little without the support of the council. Stakeholders in the category need to be merely informed of things going on the Greek community.
Apathetics:
Stakeholders from the final group, apathetics, are those with neither a high interest nor legitimate authority to make any changes to the Greek community. These stakeholders need to be monitored in the event that their level of interest or influence should change. These include USU students and alumni who are not involved with the Greek community. What goes on in the Greek community has hardly any affect on them and their involvement with the university.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths
Loyal supporters
Service projects
Parental support
Higher graduation rate

Weaknesses
Alumni Relations:
Outer image
Reputation
Publicity
Making goals but not achieving them.
Parental support

Opportunities
Build relationships with the statesman and PR department.
Utilizing their alumni
Educate parents.
More on-campus or campus-involved service projects

Threats
Low numbers
Cache Valley’s conservative culture
Other Competitors

Strengths:
Loyal supporters: Included in this category are the Greek students and Greek Alumni which could also involve some parents of Greeks if their parents were involved in a fraternity or sorority.
Service projects: When asking students what good the Greek community does one common answer is service. Each fraternity and sorority has a different philanthropy specific to their national organizations of which they hold fundraising events and to charity work in behalf of.
Parental support: Most students that have parents that were Greek are supported by them, especially if they are a “Legacy”, which means that the student’s parent(s) was part of the same fraternity or sorority at Utah State University.
Higher graduation rate: Most students who are Greek tend to graduate if they are well-involved in their fraternity and take on executive positions of their house through their college career.

Weaknesses:
Alumni Relations: Communication is lacking between Alumni and the collegiate chapters at Utah State. Alumni aren't informed on upcoming events. Many Alumni take offense to this and don’t want to donate or help out if they feel like they’re getting nothing in return.
Outer image: Fraternities and sororities are looked at as a partying and trouble-making group. It’s not uncommon at Utah State for the majority of students to think that that’s what Greek Life is all about. Greeks need to make their achievements, especially when it comes to things such as academics, leadership and campus-involvement, more known.
Reputation and Publicity: All bad incidents are published and not enough good. But also the bad is always going to get more attention than the good, i.e. the Michael Stark’s Case. Making goals but not achieving them. This is something that has become common in the Greek community, too often goals are set but there isn’t really anyone put in-charge to make sure they are getting followed through with. Parental support: Most parents that haven't been Greek and live in Utah are very unsupportive of their student joining, usually because they don't take the time to find out what it's about.

Opportunities:
Build relationships with the statesman and PR department. The Council PR chair should know and be working with the Statesman, putting in any kind of news about events or specific achievements going on in the Greek community as often as possible.
Delegating: The Council might want to look more into delegating specific assignments to members to get things done, this could maybe result in meeting those goals that otherwise might not get much attention otherwise.
Utilize alumni, keep them informed and up-to-date on events then they may be more willing to help out down the road.
Keep parents more informed and involved by sending out newsletters or holding events specific for educating parents.
Hold more on-campus or campus-involved service projects instead of just at the individual Greek houses; advertise them more in advance as well if it is possible.

Threats:
Low numbers: If houses don't reach total, or quota, their charter can be pulled from Utah State.
Cache Valley’s conservative culture: Most people from Cache Valley have very conservative views and just the idea of joining a fraternity or sorority can shine bad light. Greeks just need to make themselves more known and show that they aren’t a threat to the community as well.
Competitors: Other clubs on campus, sports teams, work, studying and time spent with family are all things that can take up a student’s time and play big roles into why they may or may not join a fraternity or sorority.

We encourage you to include questions in your survey related to the SWOT analysis and try to include participants from as many of the stakeholders as possible. We believe this will give you the best results. You will probably want to conduct several surveys, are involve questions specific to individual groups since the stakeholders include such a wide variety of subjects.