Delta Zeta Supports Hazing Prevention

 This week is National Hazing Prevention Week and many college and university campuses will be hosting programs and speakers. Our Delta Zeta collegiate chapters can also provide education about hazing prevention and we wanted to provide you with a list of resources to help your chapter spread the word about hazing prevention.

Delta Zeta’s Anti Hazing Policy states:

Delta Zeta recognizes hazing as a most destructive and meaningless activity, inconsistent with Delta Zeta standards. BE AWARE. Hazing practices can apply to both new members and initiates. Its practice demeans the individual and undermines Delta Zeta's values, ideals and principles.

Delta Zeta defines hazing as:

1. Actions that are against accepted Delta Zeta standards of conduct, behavior and good taste.

2. Anything that causes mental anguish or physical discomfort to a new member.

3. Anything that endangers the life of a new member or has the potential to cause bodily injury.

NCM 1/83

The Delta Zeta National Council affirms the following policy:

There shall be no hazing in Delta Zeta. Any member or chapter guilty of any hazing activity shall be subject to serious disciplinary action. Penalties to be imposed for violation of the anti-hazing policy are outlined in the Code of Regulations, Regulation III, and the President's Manual.

NCM 76, A 90, A 7/95

REMEMBER, ALLOWING OTHERS TO HAZE YOUR NEW MEMBERS OR INITIATES IS THE SAME AS YOUR CHAPTER DIRECTLY PERFORMING THE HAZING!

Knowing our policies is a great place to start. Our members should also know what they can DO to prevent hazing. Here is a great list of resources and websites for you to share with your chapter:

• HazingPrevention.org – A non-profit organization whose purpose is to “to provide a variety of educational programs and services in fulfillment of its mission to ‘empower people to prevent hazing’ in college and university student groups.” Visit their site for more specific information on National Hazing Prevention Week and download a free copy of their Planning Guide.
• #40 Answers in 40 Days - a crowdsourced resource for eliminating hazing born of a partnership between Sigma Nu Fraternity and HazingPrevention.org has been tweeting answers to hazing since August and will continue through National Hazing Prevention Week. Just log into Twitter and search the hashtag #40Answers.
• The ResponseAbility Project – The ResponseAbility Project’s purpose is to combat bystander behavior. When faced with hazing, many members might become a bystander and not stand up against what is wrong. Delta Zeta chapters have access to the ResponseAbility video program and the RA Project website has a number of free resources.
• Hank Nuwer – A nationally known hazing researcher, author and speaker, Hank’s website has a comprehensive list of hazing incidents and articles on hazing prevention.
• StopHazing.org – This website has more information on hazing, not on in fraternities and sororities, but in high schools, the military and sports teams. You can find a list of most state’s anti-hazing laws here as well.

Your campus fraternity/sorority life office may have additional resources as well.

Does your chapter have other resources you’ve used when planning for hazing prevention education? Share them with us using the comments feature below and we may use them during National Hazing Prevention Week posts to our Delta Zeta National Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Are you a courageous leader?

When you think about a leader, what comes to mind? Someone in charge, making decisions, moving a group forward? What about a courageous leader? That might be somewhat similar but it can mean so much more. A courageous leader is one that acts with integrity and stands up for what is right. The RESPONSE ABILITY Project has started a new campaign to spread the Courageous Leadership Revolution.

Delta Zeta Sorority has been an active supporter of the RESPONSE ABILITY Project, which educates our members on the issue of bystander behavior and intervention, and we continue to support the project which has evolved over the years. The RA Project, which was launched in 2008, has become a part of Delta Zeta's collegiate chapter programming with over 5,500 members participating in the program. Because of their participation in the program, 91% of members strongly agreed or agreed that they were able to confront unhealthy behavior. The RA Project believes that courageous leadership is the other side of the bystander behavior coin. Each day there are leaders who step forward to do the right thing and make a change. Delta Zeta provides our members information on becoming courageous leaders through our membership education programs, such as our new member program.

Are you going to be a courageous leader? Join the Courageous Leadership Revolution on the RESPONSE ABILITY website.

Members wishing to find more information on Delta Zeta's use of the RESPONSE ABILITY program can find more information about the RA Project by visiting http://raproject.org.

Delta Zeta’s Best Kept Officer Secret

We get lots of questions in our email boxes here at Headquarters at the beginning of each semester from chapter officers on how to use Chapter Inc. Of all of the officer tools which Delta Zeta offers members, Chapter Inc. is by far the one that is the least understood. Many times it is a harried Vice President of Membership who has just finished recruitment and needed to have entered her new members yesterday into Chapter Inc. Or, it’s a chapter advisor who has to update the chapter’s campus total and doesn’t know where to send it.

Chapter Inc. is the business tool for Delta Zeta collegiate chapter officers and alumnae. Members have access to Chapter Inc. via the Dashboard on the Members page of the DeltaZeta.org website. The Dashboard will show collegiate chapters and volunteers quick information about their chapter’s statistics. To view full info, please use the link on the Dashboard to go to view Chapter Inc. Access is tied directly to your chapter’s officer roster. So, if an officer changes and an update is not made, that officer will not have access to Chapter Inc. You will only see your chapter’s information when you log into Chapter Inc. While a Regional Collegiate Director, who has multiple chapters in her region, will be able to view the Chapter Inc information for each chapter by selecting them from the drop down at the top of the page.


Chapter Inc. is activity-driven. Chapters enter their information as it happens – a shift in thinking about the way information is submitted.

The first page you see when you log on is your Task Center. Your chapter’s task center consists of the navigation bar, the announcement window, the chapter snapshot window, and the six module area snapshots. All officers can view this quick information on the different areas of Chapter Inc so you all know how many members you have, if money is owed, or if paperwork is due to National Headquarters.

Within each heading there are three types of drop downs – Snapshots, Actions (forms that a chapter has to complete = input), and Reports (give data back to you from the action forms chapters complete = output). Only those officers designated to fill out an action have access to that menu item. For example, the recruitment chair fills out the recruitment results form. CCDs, RCDs, and National Chairmen can see the chapter reports. For some actions, more than one officer can perform them, such as adding new members (the VP of Membership, the Treasurer, the VP of NMEd, the President and the Secretary can all add members).

Chapter Inc. is a powerful tool for our chapter officers and advisors – but it is only as good as the information put into it! Make sure your officers are visiting often, adding information, and reviewing what is on the site. We also have training guides found on the Members page, under Resources, Chapter Inc. Tools folder. If you have any questions about the site, please let the support team know at ChapterInc@dzshq.com.

Five Quick (and free) Technology Tools to help you in your officer or advisor role

Who doesn’t like finding a new app or website to help make your life a little easier? With the new academic year underway here are five quick technology tools which we think can help you work a little more productively. Do you have a cool new tool you’ve been using? Send it to us at webmaster@dzshq.com and we can feature it in a future post.

1. Wunderlist - https://www.wunderlist.com/ This is an amazing cloud-based task manager. Basically it takes your to-do list and automates it. Even better – you can share your tasks with others and they can see what they need to do to help you get a job done. We can think of great uses for this during new member education planning or even organizing a philanthropy event where you have multiple chapter officers working together needing to communicate efficiently. 
2. Pocket - http://getpocket.com Think bookmark – but available on anything you read electronically. If you install the app on your iPhone, you can access articles you’d like to read later on the app but also on the desktop version. Maybe you scroll over something while riding the bus to class on Twitter but don’t have time to read it. Send the link to the Pocket app and you can read it later 
3.  QuickDrop for Chrome - http://quickdrop.io/ Many of our chapters and committees use Dropbox. QuickDrop is a Google Chrome extension which allows you to view and work with your Dropbox files in your Chrome browser.   
4. Search the Current Site extension for Chrome and Firefox – Need to find something on the current website you are visiting but don’t want to have to “google that”? The Search Site extensions for Chrome and Firefox make it easy to use Google to search the site you are currently on for whatever you are looking for.
5. OneNote - http://www.onenote.com/ An alternative to Evernote, OneNote from Microsoft is free. And, as of last spring, is now available across any platform you might use. iPad, iPhone, tablet, desktop – you name it – OneNote is available. You can capture thoughts, notes, ideas and share them with others making this a collaboration tool as well.