I want to join a fraternity!
 

Hi guys! I just joined here, so sorry if this is the wrong forum. I just had a question.

My father was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and I'm really interested in becoming a legacy. Problem is, my university doesn't have a Greek system.

I'm thinking about going to a different university for Grad school. I was just wondering if most fraternities allow people to pledge as grad students?

If anyone here is from SigEp, that would be very helpful.

From an honest stand point, you should of considered this before you decided upon going to a school without greek life and you're only way to get the typical undergraduate greek experience that many of us here enjoy would be by transfering to a school with a greek system.

Alternatively, you could go about routes which will allow greek life to come to your campus but it probably won't be successful

First of all, I'm sorry for the loss of your father. Young men need their fathers at this crucial point in their lives.

Second, you can't "become" a legacy as you already are one.

Third, yes, some chapters take grad students. You'd just have to inquire of the Greek Life office on particular campus what the norm is there.

Snark?
He probably meant that his father was a Sig Ep while in school... not many people who are greek will tell others that their mom or dad (or someone else) IS greek, when they went to school awhile ago. I wouldn't have thought to word it like that had I not joined.

Depending on what you're going to grad school for, you probably won't even have time for fraternity involvement even if you go to a school that regularly pledges grad students.

Maybe, maybe not. There is a chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon at Georgetown, which doesn't recognize Greek life. To the original poster, if you are on the younger side (freshman or sophomore), you may want to inquire directly with the fraternity about their interest in expansion to your school.

To Titchou, although the OP might not have known this, there are indeed some organizations which do not consider non-members to be legacies. It is used as a term to define a relationship between members.

I clarified your post. :)

I agree with you based on the NPC and IFC cultures, but I hope Titchou simply thought the OP lost his father and wouldn't be snarky about something like that.

And I clarified it a little more, since I think there was a negative missing in there.

Greetings, dear sir. :)

I am a SigEp. It is my understanding that only undergraduates my join SigEp. I may be wrong.

If you attend a school that has a chapter of SigEp, you might want to volunteer to help the chapter. I did that in grad school.

Swerving, but you allow non-members to get involved with chapter business? I can see an alum coming back in an advisory role, but not a random person coming around.

Interesting.

It's definitely possible.

On a related note… http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh....php?t=100210:

Quote:

NutBrnHair: How many non-member advisors are out there for NPC groups?

Quote:

azgz: There's actually a lot. Campus advisors, for one, are often not members of the organization. My chapter's campus advisor is the dean of the humanities college at Gannon. Every semester for midterms and finals she would send a huge spread to the house so we had food to eat while studying. Plus, she would come to (open) events - we even invited her to feast of roses after initiation.

Quote:

ASTalumna06: From what I understand, AST has quite a few non-member advisors. We are also able to have male advisors, one of which is David Stollman, Co-founder of CAMPUSPEAK, who advises the Delta Phi chapter at NYU. LOVE him! :)

Quote:

Blondie93:

Quote:

groovypq: I was one. The chapter I advise is pretty much geographically isolated - the nearest alumnae chapters are at least an hour away and, this not being a high population area, there just aren't a lot of alumnae nearby. When the chapter's previous advisor moved away, the chapter asked me to be its advisor - my sister was an alumna of the chapter and I also coach one of the current sisters. So I guess I was a little unusual in that I already had a connection to the chapter, but I wasn't a member when I became advisor. I am now, though.

I know that on my campus, the fraternities all had faculty advisors. I think the only one that had an actual member as an advisor was KDR, who had a faculty advisor who was also a brother.

In all of these cases (even with my own organization having non-members serve in advisory roles), I’m not sure what the requirements would be.

The faculty advisors were often non-members at my alma mater, too. Those advisors were mostly around for signing paperwork, though. That doesn't seem like the same thing that elicampbell brought up. Most (if not all) of the GLOs had organization advisors (who were members) guiding the chapters.

I read that as a "go to the chapter and help them with chapter business" thing. I wouldn't mind a non-member supporting ODPhi events, but if someone (who was ineligible for membership) wanted to come to meetings and get into chapter business, that would be an issue.

ETA: Just re-read some of the quotes you posted. It looks like many of these rural campuses had advisors serving both roles. My alma mater is in the middle of the 4th largest metro in the US, so there were plenty of GLO members to choose from.

The extent to which he would be welcome to participate will probably weigh heavily on which grad school he attends, what the fraternity's policy is when it comes to advisors, and how open the chapter members are to the idea.

And in all of the examples above, the advisors had SOME connection to the sorority and/or school... above and beyond just being a student there.

In conclusion... I wouldn't put my money on this working out.

To the OP, you really should have considered that before you picked your school. At this point, if you're serious about this, you should transfer. I don't get the grad student user name and what you're asking. If you're in grad school you may have missed your chance, but should still inquire with some chapters at schools you'd be willing to transfer to.

Regarding non-members being involved... while many things are similar about the way an undergraduate chapter operates from one org to another, the advisory/governance side is often very different.

My fraternity is an old major national and we operate with an a board system. It is primarily advisory in practice, but has significant governance powers over the overall local org (chapter, alumni assoc, & liaison function with housing corp). Within that corporate board structure, the majority of are obviously alumni. However, there is no restriction that trustees be initiates. When establishing a new chapter, we routinely pull in parents, faculty, and possibly even someone from the community. With established chapters, the faculty advisor (mostly for signing stuff) sometimes sits on that board, and about half the time they'll have a parent's club rep as a trustee. Male non-initiates who make a solid contribution after serving on such boards for a while are often honorary initiated. Obviously that is not the greek experience that everyone else had though.

That's interesting.

I disagree. There are ways of getting involved in your community and being social without being in a fraternity. I wouldn't transfer unless it was for academic reasons.

SigEp has Alumni Volunteer Corp. Some volunteers are not members. We do not let them participate in ritual, membership selection or anything that is related ritualistic. It is not as if we throw open the doors and let everyone in see our ritual. There are some volunteer positions that are only open to members of the fraternity.

I hope that this answers your question.

There are lots of great schools out there with great programs, some of which have everything one wants including a greek system and one that has the organization that one's mom/dad was/is part of. Why not choose one of them and get the entire college experience that one seeks? There is nothing wrong with this. To some people, this is important. To others, not so much and that's okay too.

I don't see transferring exclusively because of Greek Life. Just as I wouldn't get transferring for any student organization. Particularly for more life-long oriented organziations, there are ways to join later, or for others fill the desire for a social or service life in other ways. Sure, include Greek Life in your considerations when choosing a school, but transferring in/for graduate school purely for Greek Life? Nuh uh.

It does. Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drolefille (Post 2040924) I don't see transferring exclusively because of Greek Life. Just as I wouldn't get transferring for any student organization. Particularly for more life-long oriented organziations, there are ways to join later, or for others fill the desire for a social or service life in other ways. Sure, include Greek Life in your considerations when choosing a school, but transferring in/for graduate school purely for Greek Life? Nuh uh.

Exactly. I'm all for getting the total college experience, but you can get it without being Greek. If you want to transfer because the new school is better for your degree, fine -- I'd encourage it. Transferring because you want to be an XYZ doesn't make sense, though.

My dad is alive and well. It never occurred to me to say "is," but it makes sense in retrospect.

Guys, thanks for your help! I think the best course of action here would be to give a call to the chapter I'm thinking about joining, and see if they accept grads.

It's a very tough situation. The university here is really very ideal for me. Academically and cost-wise, it's a dream, so unfortunately it doesn't make much sense to transfer because there are no Greek houses.

Thanks again!

To clarify my assumption for all of you, it beat the alternative of assuming he meant his father resigned his membership - which is the other "was." However, since he didn't know he was already a legacy (that happened when he was born), I should have known he was not conversant with the proper language. I tend to take things literally when people make statements.

And I think this is your answer, especially given that even if the chapter in which you're interested is able and willing to offer a bid to grad students generally, there's no guarantee they'd offer a bid to you.

Huh? Assuming his father is dead "beats" assuming his father resigned membership? (Which, as long as you're assuming, would mean he's not a legacy because his father isn't a member.)

Sometimes it's just better to keep your assumptions to yourself.

Some clarifications should not be clarified.

Just take the charge and keep it moving.

Yeah...that's a combo of :( and LOL

Where did you get purely for greek life? Where? I said there are schools that have ALL that one wants including greek life.

It's the context of the thread. The post that they responded to stated that he should transfer if he's really serious about this (Greek Life). Therefore, if the OP were to transfer it would primarily be for Greek Life.

Especially because he (albeit) later clarified that the college he's at currently is ideal in every other way.

What Dr. Phil said. Dnall brought up the idea that if this was sooooo important the OP should have transferred purely for the purpose of joining an org.

I agreed with you about the rest of it.


---
And seriously, one assumes that someone's father is dead because they say what about 75% of non-NPHC greeks say "My parent WAS XYZ?" It's about 50/50 dumbass/asshole.

Have I been out of the loop or has Drolefille been really really really cut throat this week? LOL.

I was running on about 4-5 hours a sleep a night until Wednesday night. I was gonna let this one slide until the 'explanation' made it clear it was intentional.

Also I'm a big fat meanie-head.

Actually, it's just you look like more of a jerk when compared with sugary sweet online personalities, like mine.

o_0

You:
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6...pxy1qfhi08.gif



Me:
http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/7842/ursula.gif

GC is definitely the place to be when you're low on sleep and want a quick fuss. I'm actually a lot nicer when I'm low on sleep because I think "WWJD" before I talk and type. That's obviously relatively rare....

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...LVM3JeUd87IKOn

LOL. My clients figured out not to mess with me Wednesday, but I didn't post here then either since I know I went home and slept about 11 hours. Despite my evil ways, GC had about 36 hours without my corrupting presence. Or something.

I maintain if other people didn't post stupid shit, I wouldn't respond. I could be the better person, but we all know I'm not. ;)

How did you know the outfit I was wearing today?

Cause the cameras I had installed are HD, of course. Turn your head a bit to the left... now smile ;)

If he's so serious about joining a fraternity, then he should transfer, and whatever other factors be damned. Whatever is most important to you is what matters most. And would never classify any greek org as anything remotely close to any other student org.

Everyone has a different greek experience, but for me that was much more meaningful and educating than anything I learned in any classroom. My undergraduate degree is barely worth the paper it's printed on, and wouldn't have mattered at all what school it came from. My greek experience changed my life and shaped most of what I believe in.

If it's key to this guy, then he should transfer. That is a much higher percentage than trying to start an off-campus chapter at a school that doesn't have a greek system or anything like that. Being a grad student makes this more complicated, and he should inquire first with the chapter in question. In saying that, I do mean quite a bit more than a phone call to see if it's possible. He should start a relationship with them & be basically assured of a bid before he pulls the trigger on transferring.

Or, as mentioned earlier, he can make the best of his college experience at the school he's at.

There's no way in hell I'd give up a degree at, say, Rice and transfer to Sul Ross State University just because the former didn't have Greek Life. Let's be real.