Well put. I honestly didn't know shit about my fraternities 'ideals' until i started the pledgeing!

Would you apply this to organizations that historically banned women from joining? If so, then that's A LOT of universities! Or is it different when it comes to sexism?

Just wondering.

From this thread, it does look like an NPHC/NIC thing as far as where priorities lie and whichever way you lean has a lot to do with which type of organization you'll want to join.

Me too! I want lots of them! Red hair is beautiful!

I also think it's a maturity thing. I don't want to come off as talking down to younger GLO members or younger prospective members, but the insight one puts into a decision at 17/18 years old is different (in some cases) than that put into the same decision at 20/21.

I personally can't see myself promising lifetime membership to an organization and don't know what their ideals are. I also can't see joining an organization solely based on the people in the chapter because 1) people change 2) and because when you're interacting with people as a prospective member, chapter members are trying to make a good impression on you and you are not necessarily getting 100% of who those people really are.

I don't know if that is a reference to me, but I am 21 years old and still feel the same way I did when I was 18 about where loyalty should lie.

The ideals of organization are great and mean alot to me, but as I stated earlier, had nothing to do with my decision to join.

No it was not a reference to you specifically or else I would've quoted you. It was general addition to the discussion at hand.

I read somewhere that gingers are being bred out of the human race. I think the prediction was that after 2100 there won't be any more redheads born.

I agree with Ch2tf except that age doesn't always matter. Unfortunately, there are NPHCers who have been out of college for 16, 30, or 100 (:)) years who feel that their chapter is the be-all and end-all. These are often the same people who also haven't been financial or active in the organization since they graduated and their only activity tends to be with their undergraduate chapter and/or hanging with the members they went to college with.

From an NPHC standpoint, that's lame. I can't speak for the culture of nonNPHC organizations because there's also a different process there.

I have a great deal of chapter pride and love my chapter Sorors. However, if it had not been for my undergraduate chapter, I would've pursued Delta through an alumnae chapter. To say that the organizational affiliation doesn't matter and that it's only about the members of particular chapter is ridiculous from an NPHC standpoint.

There are universities where every NPHC chapter has really cool members that are easy to get along with. That's the common denominator. The differentiating factor is the national organization and the events that the chapters are campus representations of. If not for the national entity and what it stands for, many of us would've stopped after we joined the gospel choir or SGA because the same cool students and student leaders were found there. That's if we were following people around versus pursuing lifetime membership in an organization.

This is the difference I am talking about, if I had shown up to campus and felt I meshed better with another group of guys, I would have wanted to join that group.

agree to disagree?

No but you can not respond to me, since I wasn't responding to you. I'm typing about a topic. ;)

I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it, because you're not comparing apples to apples here. I'd recommend you "agree to understand" instead.

Yep. I think we all understand and are now just sharing.

If I selected and was initiated into a chapter/organization based on their ideals and then the national organization wanted to close the chapter because of these ideals, I think that I would want to re-examine my association with said chapter/organization. Perhaps the chapter/organization is not really what you thought it was or is changing in a direction to which you no longer agree. I personally would consider de-activation and look at other camups organizations to get involved in. Why waste your time with people and organizations that no longer represent who you are or who you want to be?