SDSU Sororities, Fraternities Take Community Role

The speed bumps every 25 feet in the parking lot and the secure fencing surrounding Hardy Elementary School are signs of the traditionally uneasy existence between the tiny campus--with 350 students--and its behemoth neighbor, San Diego State University, looming on the bluff above and directly east.

But the relationship may come to be symbolized more by San Diego State student Christopher Duff playing word games with fifth-grader Jimmy Hong in the lunch arbor, or his colleague, Carl Linder, challenging Hardy student Markey Walker to beat him in a game of “multiplication” Monopoly.

Duff and Linder are among 108 San Diego State fraternity and sorority members who already have volunteered for tutoring, mentoring and other activities at Hardy as part of the school’s official adoption by the university’s Greek system.

The 30 fraternities and sororities on Montezuma Mesa have committed themselves to provide tutors twice a week for one-on-one support for Hardy students, to send speakers occasionally to each of the school’s 11 classrooms, and to revive the Hardy Halloween Carnival, dormant for the past five years because of a lack of volunteers.

The partnership with the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Assn. is “the first of its kind” by fraternity and sorority college students in the United States, council president Jay Charness said Wednesday.

Charness and association president Jennifer Yount joined a dozen of their fellow students at an official “kickoff” assembly Wednesday morning with all Hardy students.

“It’s not just tutoring, it’s more of a ‘Big Brother, Big Sister’ relationship we’re going to develop with the students,” Charness said. He added that the community work also shows that Greeks are serious in trying to shed their traditional image--only partly deserved, in their view--as “party animals.”

For Hardy Principal Gale Guth, the adoption offers her teachers a chance to push academic enrichment as well as improved self-esteem for their charges. The school’s population is 45% white, 23% Indochinese, 16% Latino and 9% black.

“My goal is that, by the end of the year, every one of Hardy’s students will have had a chance to spend time with one of the San Diego State students,” Guth said.

In planning for the program beginning this fall, several Hardy teachers spent the summer putting together “tutoring packets” in math, reading and language for each grade level, kindergarten-through-fifth, so that the San Diego State students would have prepared materials to guide them in working with Hardy children.

State students spend an hour a week with their Hardy peers on Tuesday or Wednesday, working both with the tutoring packets as well as other materials that a teacher may suggest for a particular child.

“It’s both enrichment and (remedial) help,” Guth said. The games format, as well as the large number of State students available to the school, makes all Hardy students eager to participate and eliminates the stigma sometimes associated with tutorial help by students, Guth said.

“We sent a letter to all parents asking if they wanted their children to participate, and the response has been terrific,” Guth said. “I’ve had some parents calling to say their children talk about this as the ‘greatest thing’ at the school.”

Because almost half of Hardy’s students live outside the neighborhood and ride buses to and from the school as part of San Diego school district integration programs, Guth arranged for late transportation on Tuesdays in order that bused students can remain after hours.

Guth admitted some surprise at the initial response of the fraternity and sorority students.

“I thought they would have a ‘convince me’ attitude when we gave our first orientation,” Guth said. “But that wasn’t the case at all; they have had enthusiasm, interest, devotion--and the teachers have gotten caught up in this as well.”

San Diego State senior Dave Blaschka enjoys the interplay with elementary students.

“I’ve worked on homework with my student, I’ve talked about myself and San Diego State, and I helped him with his speech for today’s (school) election assembly,” said Blaschka, a psychology major.

“We’re here because we want to be, not because we’re required to be. The most important thing that (Guth) has told us is to provide positive reinforcement for the students, since they really look forward to our coming.”

Fifth-grade teacher Jack Shriver added: “I can’t think of any downside to something like this.”