Leadership

The Greek community at Michigan State offers endless opportunities for developing leadership skills in its members. Each chapter is self-governed and relies on the individual talents and leadership skills of its members to run effectively. The Greek community provides students the opportunity to transform into well rounded graduates through opportunities to get involved at the chapter, council, or community level. These leadership roles often provide a place where students can gain valuable experience managing events, balancing budgets, leading other people, serving as a liaison to external constituents, or even representing the entire Greek community with an audience of prospective or incoming students to the university.

Order of Omega

The National Order of Omega is a Leadership Honor Society only for individuals who are members of a fraternal organization. Michigan State University recognizes its chapter Gamma Omicron, as an honors society. The Order of Omega explicitly restricts its members to academically and socially outstanding undergraduates. It requires upperclassman status, full-time attendance as a student, and a GPA higher than the all-Greek average at the campus in question as minimum standards. Members include the highest achieving members of the undergraduate Greek community, in both the academic and philanthropic endeavors.

The Order of Omega was founded on the following principles:

• To recognize those fraternity men and women who have attained a high standard of leadership in inter-fraternal activities, to encourage them to continue along this line, and to inspire others to strive for similar conspicuous attainment;

• To bring together outstanding fraternity men and women to create an organization which will help to mold the sentiment of the institution on questions of local and intercollegiate fraternity affairs.

• To bring together members of the faculty, alumni, and student members of the institution's fraternities and sororities on a basis of mutual interest, understanding and helpfulness;

• To help create an atmosphere where ideas and issues can be discussed openly across Greek lines and to help work out solutions.

The benefits of membership in the Order of Omega are infinite. The Gamma Omicron chapter will seek to provide members of our communities with opportunities for leadership, networking, and community service, along with life long membership in the National Order of Omega.

For more information about Order of Omega please visit our national website www.orderofomega.org or email our local chapter at www.msuorderomega@gmail.com.

EAD 315 – Student Leadership Training – Greeks Only

This coming spring semester, a leadership class (EAD 315) for Greek students will be available for the first time. EAD 315, Section 002 will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:20 AM to 12:10 PM in Room 215C of Wells Hall. The class will be for 3 credits with the Pass-No Grade (P-N) system.

This will be a small class setting with a maximum of 25 students. Student interactive learning will be emphasized with discussions, case situations, role-playing, group involvement activities, etc. - this class focuses on discussion, not exams! The course will be based on the leadership literature. Overall the class will include developing and cultivating effective combinations of leadership and people skills for various situations. This will also be a great opportunity to meet new people in the Greek system and enjoy a class with fellow Greeks!

Topics include: effective listening and communicating, characteristics of outstanding leaders, leadership approaches and styles, teamwork and team building, positive problem solving, achieving win-win results, disagreeing in agreeable ways, group decisions, consensus facilitating strategies, positive personal relationships, helping others to further develop their strengths, effective people networking, dealing with rudeness, anger and difficult people, and putting it all together for effective implementation.

For additional information, contact Professor Pat Enos, enos@msu.edu, 353-6650 or Professor Don Ricks, ricks@msu.edu, 355-0145. An override is required for this course, which can be obtained from Dr. Enos.