Whether on a campus or at a fraternity headquarters, fraternity and sorority professionals care deeply about student development and the continued improvement of the communities and students we support. Because of that commitment, our field has become remarkably good at building programs, processes, systems, and initiatives that are designed to improve the student experience.
We have also become remarkably good at making that work more complicated than it needs to be.
Over time, well-intended efforts have evolved into multilayered systems that require increasing amounts of coordination, oversight, and most of all, staff capacity to maintain. Programs expand. Trainings multiply. Processes gain additional steps. What may have started as a well-aligned, goal-oriented solution, turns into something far more complex than originally intended.
Most of our programs did not start that way. It took time. One added requirement. One extra meeting. One more expectation at a time, until the original purpose became harder to recognize.
In an industry that places such emphasis on innovation and creativity as an almost innate approach to problem-solving, this pattern is not at all surprising. Higher education and student affairs professionals are encouraged to think broadly about how we can better serve students. But somewhere along the way, we developed a habit of responding to challenges by adding more — more structure, more steps, more complexity (because clearly one more step is exactly what we needed).
On a team with ample staffing and resources, this might seem pretty manageable. But in our current industry’s landscape, complexity is a liability.
Across the country, institutions are navigating ongoing financial and operational changes. Shrinking professional development dollars, hiring freezes, and reorganizations are common realities for our colleagues on campuses. Fraternity and sorority life offices on campuses often feel this pressure most intensely. Many professionals across our industry work in offices of one or two staff members who are responsible for advising dozens of chapters, supporting hundreds of student leaders, responding to crises, and managing complex accountability structures, while also supporting the work of orientation, housing, and student engagement departments (not speaking from experience, of course). And the expectations don’t come from just one place; university administrators, alumni, volunteers, and other stakeholders contribute well-intentioned ideas that continue to add layers to our already overflowing plates.
And yet, despite limited capacity, we continue to build systems that assume we have more to give. Each added requirement may seem reasonable on its own, but collectively, they create systems that are difficult to manage as staff and are even harder for students to navigate.
In a case study conducted by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), a vice president was charged with creating a “bold new vision” for a student affairs division and quickly implemented strategic, but not intentional, changes, only to face multimillion-dollar budget cuts shortly thereafter. The result was a division that was left trying to sustain new systems with significantly diminished resources, ultimately leading to poor staff capacity and morale (Coburn, Sandeen, & Labanc).
Despite these realities, our professional culture continues to reward reinvention. New initiatives are launched. New models are introduced. New structures are built. And rarely are we, as professionals, recognized for the time, energy, and effort that go into creating in this way.
The problem is that most of the challenges we face are not new. Leadership development, risk management, and accountability have been central components to fraternity and sorority advising long before our time, and will remain central to the experience long after our time. Professionals across institutions have spent decades researching and developing strategies to address these areas. Yet when familiar challenges arise, we often default to building something new, rather than improving what already exists. If constant reinvention creates unnecessary complexity, what might a more sustainable approach look like?
One possible answer to this can be found in an unexpected place: music. In the late 90s and early 2000s, for R&B and hip-hop artists, remixing a song was a rite of passage. The remix wasn’t an afterthought. It was the moment. Bringing together new voices, new energy, and an entirely new experience to a song that audiences already loved, while keeping the original foundation intact.
When Brandy released the remix of “I Wanna Be Down” featuring Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and Yo-Yo, the result wasn’t a completely new song, but something arguably even better. Fraternity and sorority life work could benefit from the same mindset. Not every challenge requires a brand new initiative. Sometimes the work needs a remix. A remix mindset shifts the question from “what do we need to build?” to “what already exists?” with the hope that professionals can build on existing foundations rather than completely replacing them.
In practice, this approach is simple. First, identify the original hit. This is your “I Wanna Be Down” moment. Most offices already have programs or systems in place to support student needs. Instead of rebuilding from the ground up, take a closer look at what is effective and worth keeping. Second, add the right voices. Just as any good remix does, introducing new artists enhances the track. Programs can benefit from new perspectives. Student feedback (Queen Latifah), collaboration with campus partners (MC Lyte), and insights from industry colleagues, alumni, etc. (Yo-Yo) can elevate existing initiatives without requiring a complete redesign. Being intentional about who you seek feedback from can make or break your remix.
Finally, elevate without overcomplicating. A good remix enhances the original without burying it beneath unnecessary layers. If a change makes a program significantly harder for your already stretched-thin team to manage, it may be worth reconsidering whether that addition will truly have the impact you hope it will. Some of the most effective changes do not come from large-scale reinvention, but from intentional and strategic refinement. Simplifying assessment processes, consolidating training, or adapting existing models can produce stronger outcomes than starting from scratch.
These changes may not feel as exciting as launching something new. But they are often more effective and realistic for the staff capacity we actually have. As higher education continues to evolve, while navigating resource constraints and shifting student needs, sustainability matters. The desire to innovate is one of the biggest strengths of our profession, but it can also be our biggest downfall. Innovation does not always require starting over. Sometimes, the most impactful thing we can do is stop making the work more complicated than it needs to be. Like my favorite remix from 1994, don’t get rid of the original. Keep it, add to it where necessary, and turn it into something that will be just as useful and just as effective. Because not every challenge needs a shiny new solution. Sometimes, it just needs a remix.
References
A., Coburn, M., Sandeen, A., & Labanc, B. (n.d.). A Bold New Vision, but Declining Resources. Retrieved April 21, 2026, from https://www.naspa.org/images/uploads/events/Executive_Transitions_10_11.pdf
About the Author
Haley E. Davis serves as the assistant director of fraternity, sorority and cooperative life at Purdue University. In her role, she advises two governing councils, supports 30 chapter presidents, and leads programming efforts for a community of 7,600 students. She recently earned her Master of Business Administration from Purdue University Global, which informs her passion for organizational strategy and program development.
