With college growing ever more expensive and with cost of living rising, it has never been more important for college students to keep an eye on their funds. College is the first time that most students have been on their own, and even with help from your parents, it can be a little frightening keeping your money flow stable. Ultimately whether you are just taking a few classes or trying to complete one of the PhD programs at your university, trying make ends meet can be tough. Luckily, there are many tricks and tips for you to keep in mind.

1. Freelance

CBS News suggests freelancing. While you might be holding down a part time job, consider getting your name out there by doing a small amount of the work that you really love on the side. For example, if you want to be a writer, consider looking into article writing services. The best part about writing for an online provide is that you have the freedom to take on as many or as few assignments you can fit into you schedule. Plus, by the time you graduate, you’ll have an entire portfolio of work to show future employers.

2. Utilize Coupons

Going out has plenty of attendant costs, and over time, it does add up. If you go out, clip coupons and go to places offering student discounts. You can also find creative things to do while staying in. For instance, use art supply store coupons to stay in and have an art party, or use DVD rental discounts to have an obscure movie night in.

3. Move Out of the Dorms

With very few exceptions, dorms cost more than simply getting your own apartment and cooking for yourself. While dorms are important as they provide many students with a transitional period from home to more independent living, they are also expensive for that reason. When you get an apartment, try living with roommates. Roommates cut down on costs significantly, allowing you to afford a better spot. You can even use group payment platforms like WePay to easily manage all your apartment bills.

4. Purchase Second Hand Furniture

Ideally you’ll be able to find a place that is unfurnished, as unfurnished apartments are significantly cheaper. However furniture is one of the biggest costs of moving into an apartment, so it’s a good idea to get your furniture second hand or at a severe discount by using coupons. In some cases, you will even be able to purchase furniture from the people who are moving out of the apartment that you are moving in to, which cuts down on time and labor for moving. You can search Craigslist or other local services to find inexpensive, used furniture.

5. Take Advantage of Public Transportation or Ride Your Bike

Leave the car at home. Most campuses are pretty walking/biking-friendly, and if you have a full class load and an on-campus job, you will rarely leave campus anyway. Another option is to utilize public transportation. Investigate bus and subway options; many universities even offer free bus passes to their students. If you have a car, limit how often you use it and for who. It can be tempting to offer everyone a ride, but those gas costs add up pretty quickly.

6. Watch On-Campus Purchases

Businesses take advantage of the fact that college kids are notoriously bad with money. Therefore, the closer you are to campus, the more likely it is that the prices are inflated. Skip out on quick snacks from the general stores or the snack shops nearby and walk a few blocks out. When you get closer to the edge of campus, you’ll find that there are plenty of stores that offer you better prices. Search for coupons online and offline to keep your spending low.

Borrowed from our friends at CollegeMagazine.com

7. Borrow Instead of Buy Textbooks

Books are a major college expense, and there are several ways to bring the cost down – Check to see if your professors have loaner copies set-aside at the library. You can also share a set of books with another person in the class. Finally, try to purchase used editions of textbooks rather than new ones; the used copies may even have useful notes in them. If you don’t think you’ll ever need it again, you can also rent textbooks – besides, you can probably find the same information online.

8. Make Payments on Time

Stay on top of your tuition payments. If necessary, use smart phone apps and computer reminders to keep you on task. Similarly, be very careful about picking up credit cards. Some companies keep their interest rates very high, especially if they know that you are student. Late fees is a silly way to give your money away – You have to make the payment no matter what, why not make it on time?

 9. Monitor Your Accounts & Spending

“What gets measured, gets managed” – You should always know the health of your bank accounts and have a decent grasp of your spending habits. Begin measuring what you spend your money on most to make an honest assessment of your lifestyle. Are you spending more than you’re making each month? You can leverage online tools or setup a physical system for yourself to monitor your finances. For a wonderful (free) online money management tool, try Mint.

College can be an expensive time in your life, but take a moment and remember that there are definitely ways to save yourself some cash no matter what you are doing.

What have you done to save or make a few bucks? Let us know in the comments below…

Brittany Lyons aspires to be a psychology professor, but decided to take some time off from attending one of the top online PhD programs to help people learn to navigate the academic lifestyle. She currently lives in Spokane, Washington, where she spends her time reading science fiction and walking her dog.

Enter Clark…

In order to support the troops in a unique way this holiday season, students at Belmont University, members of their Greek community and Sodexo dining services came together to send letters and care packages to an adopted military unit deployed during this year’s Holiday season.

The fraternities Phi Kappa Tau, Phi Delta Theta and Alpha Tau Omega and the sororities Alpha Sigma Tau, Alpha Gamma Delta, Phi Mu and Kappa Alpha Theta were involved along side their Non-Greek organizations; Student Government, Bruin Recruiters and the basketball teams, to accomplish this heartfelt project. Together, Belmont students filmed a “Thank You” music video and compiled care packages to send to the troops. The video was also uploaded to YouTube as a national thank you to all the troops.

The success of this project depended on everyone’s willingness to work together for one common goal; appreciating the sacrifices made by our troops. The project allowed everyone to contribute their unique appreciation for the troops around the holidays. Many students, both Greek and non-Greek, appear in the video to pass along specific messages to loved ones. However, you won’t see any fraternity/sorority letters showcased in the video as this project is not about receiving “Good Will” credit for their chapters, but a selfless act of appreciation for the men & women that serve our country.

The video has already hit over 11,000 views and everyday continues to rise. Please let us know in the comments below who you’d like to thank for serving our country and send this video to them as a special thanks during this Holiday season.

Connect with & follow Clark Buckner on Twitter

So your fraternity got in trouble. Maybe it was serious, or maybe it was just harmless college fun. Regardless, the powers that be think it warrants a university hearing. Here are five steps on how to make sure your punishment fits your crime.

1) Own up to your mistakes as soon as possible. It is much better for your national headquarters and your Greek Life Director to hear about the incident from your fraternity as opposed to campus police.

2) Get your alumni and national HQ involved for advice as soon as possible. This is where it will pay huge dividends if you have a good chapter advisor. He will be invaluable in this process.

3) Be humble and apologize if you were wrong. There is nothing worse than a cocky college kid trying to talk his way out of trouble. That never works. Everyone screws up in life. Those with character admit their mistakes and strive to become better because of the experience.

4) Apologize to any parties you offended. If the situation warrants it, write a letter of apology and deliver it in person. Be sincere in your apology.

5) Come up with a written agreement of how your fraternity will address the issue with your Greek Life office, your alumni and your national HQ. Getting their buy-in will be huge with your hearing with the university.

If you do these five things, your hearing will go as smooth as possible.

What will happen is you will go in, explain what happened.You will show how you owned up to your mistake by reporting it as soon as possible and apologizing to the offended parties.

Then you will show a plan of corrective actions that already has the buy-in of your national HQ and your school’s Greek Life Office. This will show you handled your issue as maturely as possible, and the sanctions you receive will be fair.

Finally, whatever happens, be sure your fraternity grows as a result. Every challenge is an opportunity to become better. Be sure you and your fraternity brothers grow from it.

Pat Daley is the author of The Fraternity Leader and thefraternityadvisor.com. Both are dedicated to helping you make your fraternity the best on campus.

I know you may be thinking, “But you just said…Halloween is less than one week away! We have no time…or budget!”

If you ordered custom T’s for your chapter and rush order them for this weekend (if that’s even possible), it would exhaust your entire budget! Not to mention, you’ll get nickel & dimed for each additional color, graphic, size, etc. So, depending on the complexity of your design, it can cost you upwards of $30/shirt….and that price is sure to give your treasurer the chills!

Fortunately, with a little creativity, some DIY attitude and a few household products, you can make awesome custom T’s for a fraction of the cost!  How?! The wonderful invention of Heat Transfer Printing (aka iron-on printing)! It may not look as professional as screen printing, but heat transfer can serve as a cheap way to print very colorful, fully custom T’s when you’re short on time and money.

Heat transfer printing is simple and can be done with some common household items:

• Blank t-shirts (Gildan, Fruit of the Loom, Anvil, Hanes, and Jerzees)
• Awesome design (you can have multiple designs for Execs, Actives, Pledges, PNMs, etc)
• Computer with basic graphics program
• Printer (standard inkjet)
• Heat transfer paper
• Iron or heat press

Ok ok…so you have your shirts, design, paper & iron…Now we’re ready to rock! Depending on how custom you’d like to make each Tshirt (you can design individual shirts for each of your brothers or sisters), your first shirt can be done in minutes…here’s how:

Step 1: Flip your design horizontally to make a mirror image with the software of your choice

Step 2: Print the design onto the heat transfer paper (just like you’d print anything)

Step 3: Trim graphic so only the printed portion is on the heat transfer paper/film

Step 4: Place trimmed paper & film face down on the shirt

Step 5: Apply heat using iron/heat press to seal the image on the shirt

Step 6: Smile! You just made your first shirt!

Step 7: Repeat!

So that’s a basic DIY lesson on how to make custom T-shirts for your Fraternity or Sorority event this Halloween. Don’t miss the opportunity to make this the most memorable Halloween ever (until next year)! Shoot over to our friends at Shirts In Bulk for a more detailed breakdown of the supplies & directions to make awesome T-shirts for your chapter.

You can even create a campus company around this idea and print custom T-shirts around popular campus events:

• Is your rival football team playing at home this weekend?
• Make some kickass shirts cheering on your alma mater!
• Finals/Midterms coming up?
• Make some funny “Study-Buddy” T-shirts & sell them at the Library!
• Big Intramural game coming up?
• Intimidate the other team with custom shirts touting your kickball skills!
• When is parents weekend?
• Capitalize on Parent/Child love & print some fun Mother/Son or Father/Daughter shirts!

You get the picture…the possibilities for Heat Transfer Shirts are endless –  So get some shirts & start printing today! What T-shirts have you made for your Fraternity or Sorority? What about for your school? Leave your best design ideas in the comments below:

Change is inevitable. You cannot avoid change or ignore it’s presence – you must embrace it and progress forward. If you set up the appropriate tools and processes within your chapter, you can leverage the necessary change to propel you chapter forward. However, resisting change will only delay the inevitable and expose your chapter’s shortcomings.

Enter Brady Kent, Political Science and Spanish Major at Southwestern University. Below, Brady explains how to successfully administer change within your chapter with anecdotes from a popular book in organizational management:

Being a leader in college is difficult. Not only are you required to balance the responsibilities associated with a leadership position on top of the rest of your coursework, but you also have to motivate your peers. In my opinion, successfully achieving the latter requirement is the hardest proposition a student leader faces—one that becomes even harder in a Greek environment when the people you’re trying to motivate are your closest friends.

Fortunately, this is possible and if you use the right tools, it can be much less painful than you think. The ideas I’m expressing are based on the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath. Switch tackles the concept of motivating change in an environment where old habits are an engrained part of the culture. Tradition remains the backbone of most Greek chapters, making it difficult—but not impossible—to change outdated habits and culture.

Switch presents simple concepts based off the metaphor of a person riding an elephant down a path (dorky, I know, but bear with me): you need to direct the rider, motivate the elephant, and shape the path.

Direct the rider: Give your members a goal to achieve – You cannot direct change if you do not have a specific outcome you wish to achieve. You must make SMART Goals – Make them Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Make sure everyone understands the goal and work together to determine the best way to achieve this end. If possible, connect with other chapters on campus or within your organization to determine best practices for your specific goals. More often than not, you can find another chapter that has overcome the same challenges you’re currently facing – don’t try to reinvent the wheel; learn from others.

Motivate the elephant: Emphasize the benefits of the change and your members will find it appealing and necessary for the chapter to progress forward. This will help Motivate them toward accepting and embracing the change. Highlight the benefits of change and break it down into smaller, more manageable steps. Simply telling your chapter to up their GPA to a 3.5 by the end of the year is too much: remind the chapter that scholarship is important for rush and make it simpler by offering rewards to raise grades in on tests, then midterms, then classes, and the higher semester GPAs will follow.

Shape the path: Change the environment your members exist to promote the change you’re seeking. Build a culture around the change you wish to see. If you’re trying to raise the GPA, make it clear that participating socially requires high academic standards. At every chapter meeting, recognize those members who are doing well in their classes publicly and run a competition for the best GPA at the end of the semester. In short, make GPA a priority by integrating it with other aspects of chapter life and all your members will see a reason to achieve. Make change apart of your chapter’s culture.

The above suggestions are not the only answer to motivating a chapter to change, and only briefly cover the ideas in Switch. What are some suggestions you have from your chapter? How would you promote change using the ideas above? Let us know in your comments below:

 About the Author: When school isn’t interfering with his education, Brady stays up to date on the latest trends in technology, leadership, minimalism, design and international relations. Brady gives back to his community as President of Southwestern University Student Congress, Peer Academic Mentor atSouthwestern University and Vice-President at Pi Kappa Alpha, Alpha Omicron Chapter.

Check out his blog. Follow him on Twitter. Find him on LinkedIn.

Hazing is any action taken or situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule; risks emotional and/or physical harm to members of an group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate. 

Unfortunately, there are countless incidents demonstrating the harmful effects of hazing on individuals and organizations. Hazing has taken lives, ruined relationships, emotionally scarred members and torn organizations apart – our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who’s lives have been affected. That’s why, more than ever, we must stand together to educate our peers and prevent future incidents.

It is our ability to respond to hazing that will ultimately put this demon to sleep…It is our ResponseAbility.

Monday marked the beginning of National Hazing Prevention Week (NHPW: Sept 19 -23) – an opportunity for organizations and individuals from all backgrounds to stand together against this cultural demon. During this week, organizations from around the country are setting up initiatives on campus and throughout their communities to shed light on the dark, harsh reality of hazing.

Thousands of Greeks have joined the movement to eliminate hazing throughout their organizations. HazingPrevention.org has a series of events all week to raise awareness and the North-American Inferfraternity Conference made a video to call you out to do your part to Stop Hazing.

Although hazing prevention must continue year-round, NHPW is off to a great start! I’ve compiled a handful of tweets and facebook posts demonstrating a small fraction of the initiatives taken this week to stand hand in hand against hazing…
 

 

Now, it’s your turn – Let us know…

What are You doing to help raise awareness on campus?

What is Your Chapter doing to eliminate hazing within your organization?

…Tell us in the comments below!

We rolled up our sleeves, grabbed a few cases of Monster Energy and built the first private, productive, social network for fraternity and sorority chapters.

We’ve taken all the cloud applications you know & love, threw in a kickass new tracking app, wrapped it up behind a facebook-esque social wall and slashed our prices to only $9/month/chapter - regardless of chapter size!

Now, you can post, share, stream, comment, “cool”, collaborate, schedule, vote, profit, sell, text, email and more…with only your chapter. It’s kind of like an improved, productive facebook, but without advertisers, friends of friends or farmvillers trying to sell you virtual tomatoes.

So take the next 58 seconds, get stoked on the new WebGreek and Join The Party – you won’t be disappointed…

Communication is vital to the growth and stability of any organization, and Greeks are no different. Greek organizations must be agile and adapt, while staying deeply rooted in their foundations. Greeks must proudly represent their organization, while reaching out to strengthen every member of the organization. Greeks must work together for a more stable and secure future through the exchange of ideas, experiences and information.

FCA has devoted itself to facilitating open communication and promoting innovation through it’s annual FCA Awards Banquet where outstanding organizations are honored for their progress in communication and leadership. In March, just over a month before the 2011 FCA Awards Banquet, VCN Celect.org, FCA’s website provider, had come under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This investigation ended with the SEC shutting down Celect’s operations, ultimately freezing FCA’s websites and interrupting communication throughout the organization. Hardly weeks before the 2011 Banquet and no website?! No Awards platform to accept, organize and deliver awards, for the Awards banquet? As you could imagine, President Steve Latour needed to find a new web site provider, and needed one fast…

Check out the newsletter here to see what happened with the FCA website…Did they get a new site before FCA Awards?!

Enter Bridget Sandorford, a full-time student and part-time chef. In response to Morgan and Her Campus, Bridget decided to provide her perspective on dating a Sorority Girl…

Pro: She gets that you have other obligations.  She has events to attend and understands that you, as a brother, have matching commitments.  You’ll likely blame each other for events that you miss, anyway, so try to be nice about it.

Con: Kiss privacy buh-bye. Girls seek comfort through sharing experiences; men seek comfort through fixing problems or pretending they don’t exist.  I’m not being sexist and if you think I am, take it up with Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.

Eve had a lump removed from her breast.  Shortly after the operation, talking to her sister, she said that she found it upsetting to have been cut into, and . . . that [the] seam [had] changed the contour of her breast.  Her sister said, “I know.  When I had my operation, I felt the same way.”  But when she told her husband, he said, “You can have plastic surgery to cover up the scar and restore the shape of your breast.”

Eve had been comforted by her sister . . . but she was not comforted by Mark’s comment.  “Why are you telling me to have plastic surgery?”

Mark was hurt and puzzled.  “Because you were saying you were upset about the way it looked.”

The point is this: most girls share experiences to connect with each other.  That means, depending on the individual girl, your secrets and private life might not be secret for very long.

The difference between dating Greek and not?  Big Sister (read: every sister in her house) will always be watching and with an intensity unmatched by any girl or girls outside of a sorority.  And because by dating a sister you’re dating the entire sorority, there are a lot of girls who know about that weird noise you make.  You know the one.

Pro: You have mutual friends.  Dating outside the Greek system could mean that you might have nothing in common with her friends (even that you’ll never see them, which might not be a bad thing).  Dating a sister means that you probably already have mutual friends, which can strengthen the relationship.  (This could be listed as a con, too, but that would be too easy.)

Con: She still goes to mixers with fraternities that aren’t yours.  Even if a sister has the best of intentions, brothers from other frats may not.  They’re not there to spark invigorating conversations about the plight of gray wolves or the ethnic tensions in Sudan.  They’re looking for the same things you look for at mixers (when you were single, of course).  That still goes if the sister they’re looking at is taken.

Pro: Free breakfast and lunch at the Sorority House. Waking up on Saturday morning is usually much different than waking up at a sorority. What’s the difference? The sorority’s willingness to provide you with an amazing buffet breakfast to start your day off right!

Con:  You become a sounding board for the entire sorority house. If a sister comes home after an unfortunate situation with her boy friend, be prepared to take the wrap for men everywhere. In addition to playing the scapegoat, you’ll have to endure hours of sorority gossip, learning things no man should ever know.

With that being said, I think the PROs of dating a sorority girl outweigh the CONs – What do YOU think?…let us know with your comments below.

If you’re currently dating a sorority girl, Thank your lucky stars…some guys aren’t so lucky…(see below)

Bridget’s Bio: Aside from school and working part-time as an Assistant Chef, Bridget Sandorford is the resident Culinary Schools blogger where recently she’s been researching international culinary schools as well as Japanese culinary colleges. She lives just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

As one of the most innovative Greek Organizations in the country, it’s not surprising they were the first national organization to  leverage Social Media to build their brand.

You can check them out on Twitter & Facebook. They even have iPhone & Android apps for their brothers – check them out & download them here.

A few of the guys from WebGreek recently attended the Fraternal Communication Association Annual Conference in Chicago and were fortunate enough to witness the great men of Alpha Tau Omega being recognized for their outstanding leadership and values. We had an awesome time celebrating & congratulating them – Cheers to Alpha Tau Omega!!

The men of Alpha Tau Omega were recognized for the following accomplishments:

1^st Place Communication: Publication Improvement – Printed Materials

1^st Place Communication: Multi-Media Presentation

1^st Place Communication: Total Communications Award via the 2010 ATO Congress

2^nd Place Magazine: Story Packaging via “Building Impact” featured in the Spring 2010 issue of The ATO Palm

If you’re interested in joining this incredible group of men, visit their recruitment page for more info.

Be sure to leave your comments congratulating these great men!