Recently, Emily Stone, Roosha Patel, and I sat down with Brandon Cutler, the Assistant Dean of Fraternity and Sorority Life at Purdue. There has been a lot of talk recently about the office of Fraternity, Sorority, And Cooperative Life, so we wanted to find out more about who our Dean and what he's like. We traveled down to the office in the basement of Stewart Center and sat down with Asst. Dean Cutler to ask him about his goals and the current state of fraternity and sorority life.
We asked Asst. Dean Cutler about his plans for the Greek Community.
He has created a Greek Life Task Force to sit down and hash out a plan for the next 18 to 24 months and decide which direction to go in. Cutler also stated that unfortunately, Greeks are not reaching their full academic potential, which we all know is incredibly high. He cited graduating in four years and graduating at a higher level than the rest of campus as big goals he’d like to see achieved over the next few years, as well as for fraternities to achieve an above 3.0 cumulative GPA. Community service was also a big topic for Cutler. As present, Greeks only achieve 3.41 community service hours per year, which is a number that can, obviously, be higher. He was happy with all of our involvements in philanthropies and other on campus events, but is really looking to push our involvement into the community and getting our service hours raised.
Asst. Dean Cutler went on to talk about more intangible goals, such as Greeks having more opportunities to tell their story to show the larger community the positive impact on people's lives. He knows the true potential of the Greek community and cited our collective potential as one of the most exciting things about working as Dean of Greek life at Purdue. But he also knows about the bad rap that Greek life often gets. We should all have the goal to be in the news for all of the good things we do instead of for getting in trouble.
Asst. Dean Cutler also went on to say that one of his biggest goals is helping chapters live out their missions. He referenced my own fraternity’s mission statement, the True Gentleman, and said chapters need to really focus on living out what their creeds say, which he is fully committed to helping happen.
I was personally interested in what
Cutler saw as our biggest flaw as a Greek community. I was fully expecting him to reference alcohol or risk management, but he surprised me when he said our biggest issue is health and wellness. While certainly not only a Purdue problem, but a college-aged, student problem, Cutler says we can all do ourselves some long term good by improving our health and wellness. He’d like to see Greeks educated on topics such as mental health and preventing violence against women. Brandon also noted that prescription drug abuse is on the rise at colleges in America; he hopes it does not become a serious problem at Purdue, but is ready to combat it if it becomes a major issue.
Roosha asked Asst. Dean Cutler about his thoughts on the Greeks being more self-governing. Brandon said fraternities/ sororities and the University have a close relationship which includes organizational expectations. At times, the University has the responsibility to be more involved in governance issues, but ideally chapters and governing councils would self-govern. He would like to see more self-governance at both the chapter and council level. If groups do their jobs proactively and when issues arise there should never be a need for outside intervention in Greek life. He noted the new structuring of the Greek judicial board to two faculty members and three students as a move toward increasing student involvement in the governance process. Previously, students were not represented on the board. Part of the task force’s strategic plan is to find out what is important to the students and head in that direction, as much as possible. The goals is to find ways to get students invested, involved and engaged and, hopefully, that translates into more success and excitement about Greek life.
Asst. Dean Cutler informed us that he is always free to talk to students and really wants to know what we find important and what we want to see out of Greek life here at Purdue.
Since we thought we should end on a positive note, we asked Cutler what he thinks our greatest strengths are. Brandon said that one thing he has noticed in his six months on the job at Purdue is that our traditions and history are unrivaled. We have chapters that are well over 100 years old and have been on campus continually that entire time, which is very cool to see. We have a strong alumni base, who are actively involved in helping ensure the current Greeks have the same experiences they did in their collegiate career.
Asst. Dean Cutler revealed that our chapter houses inspire awe in him. From the mansions out on Littleton to the sprawling houses you find in the Acres, every house has its own intriguing story, which you don't find on many campuses.
Another strength Cutler sees is our tremendous potential and talent. With a school as competitive and well regarded as Purdue, it is not hard to find good students, but when you look more closely and look at the students that were cut out for Greek life, it is really exciting to think about all of the things we can achieve.
Asst. Dean Cutler is fully committed to the Greek community here at Purdue and is excited to really get into the job this semester. The Purdue Greek community is one of the greatest in the nation and is just waiting to reach its full potential. While Cutler may be a newer face in our community he shared some words of wisdom about Greek life that I found particularly profound. “The only constant in the history of the Purdue Greek system has been change.” And he is right. If that doesn’t get you excited about our future, I don’t know what will.
As always feel free to interact with me on Twitter at @newcheddarwolf.