Hazing vs. Team Buliding
 

My sorority has a very strict anti hazing policy and our Offical Statement reads that;
"hazing is any situation which creates mental or physical abuse, discomfort, embarassment, ridicule or harassment weather on or away from sorority property."
We are so PC about this that even "harmless" activitys like scavenger hunts, pledge projects, and pledge books were prohibited.
Now I in no way advocate sensless drinking binges or public humilation, but I don't see the harm in sending new members on a scavenger hunt for sorority symbols or having them get stuff signed, I think these kinds of activitys could actually strengthen bonds between alpha (pledge) classmates by allowing them to work together. Which is also the principal behind pledge projects.
I kind of feel like I missed out a little by not participating in stuff like this, I mean the new member period is so short, I think stuff like this just makes it that much more memorable.
I'm just curious how everyone else feels about this I don't really see it as hazing it seems more like team buliding to me. I mean as long as it has a purpose and isn't hurting anyone why would it be considered hazing?

The purpose of activities is to integrate new members into the chapter for Chapter unity rather than new member class unity. Why would you want them to have a clique of their own instead of being part of the whole chapter?

The problem with scavenger hunts tends to be more a risk management issue than a hazing issue. People hurry to get things and are less careful. Someone might dart across a street without looking, be more likely to fall, etc. Additionally, it may start out harmless but over time, the women are being asked to find more and more outrageous things that could be embarassing. As far as signing things, again, the activity itself, if done correctly, appears harmless but it only takes one person who makes an outrageous demand for the signature to make it hazing. It's too high risk and the outrageous demands end up occurring eventually.

There are books and books of team building activities that can be done with new members and initiated members together which truly do inspire teamwork and sisterhood rather than divisiveness.

The most memorable team building and sisterhood activity I've done with a chapter was called "A letter to my sisters". The women were in groups of about 5 and each group had paper and a pencil. The first woman in each group started a letter to her sisters and each sister in the group added a line to it. Then a volunteer from the group read the letter out loud. By the time they were done reading their letters, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. They were beautiful and poignant letters about how they felt about their sisters. It was an activity that none of us will ever forget! (I had them keep their letters with a suggestion that they read them again every few months when things got stressful and busy to remind each other why they were together).

Dee

New member class unity does not a "clique" make. The point of getting the pledge class to work together is that it's easier to work with a smaller group at first than jump in with both feet to a chapter full of people you don't know. If I would have been presented with a chapter of 100 women and told I had to be "unified" with them from the get-go, it would have been overwhelming.

If pledge classes are all the same age they're likely to be a clique anyway...especially once they hit 21 and can go to the bar. I think that is due to AGE, not because of anything in the pledge program. If you have a pledge class full of music majors, they're going to all hang out together because they go to class together all the time. This whole "clique" argument is really old and tired and blames everything on a 6 week program without taking other factors into account. It's ridiculous to think that everyone can be best friends w/ everyone.

I agree that you won't end up best friends with everybody, but I still believe (as does AGD) that the focus should be integrating these women into the chapter rather than separating them as the "new member class".

Dee

It does in large chapters. It creates issues like voting along pledge class lines, which is an inefficient, and often counterproductive way to transition power.

Even without pledge class activitys, there was still a bit of a separation between the older and younger girls in my chapter. I don't think a few activitys would have hurt us that way. I understand the point about risk mangement though, I never held an E-board office so thats not something I really had to think about.

As you can see from the numerous posts in this forum, risk management has to become something that each member needs to think about! Even as alumnae our activities are restricted due to risk management issues.

Dee

But my point was that in large chapters the pledges are usually all freshmen...who would probably hang out together ANYWAY. So how can all the blame for the cliqueishness be placed on "pledge class unity"???

Do you understand what I'm saying...it's like blaming a high cancer rate on a small-town factory and then finding out that the majority of the women working there have breast cancer in their families.

I agree with you that there is some cliqueishness that naturally develops, but I don't think that it should be exagerated by organization policy.

The argument used when I was an undergrad, is the same one that you advocated; that making them operate as a team prepares them to drop right into the organization. I disagree with that. From my observations, making the pledge class operate as a team, often causes them to reinvent the wheel, and a lower grade wheel at that.

Rather than simply have a pledge class treasurer, have the pledge class treasurer, and a few other pledges, intern under the chapter treasurer. Have the pledges become functional members of the organization's committee structure, and they will operate in it better, and faster. Also, the pledges will get to know the members sooner, and in greater depth.

Another issue for many schools, FSU included, is that a minority of pledges may be freshman. My chapter has always had more sophmores and juniors combined, in a pledge class, than freshman. The natural age factor simply doesn't apply for us.

I guess it boils down to my belief that until you're initiated, you're not an active member. You're a probationary member. I don't think a probationary member should be able to do things like vote on termination of a longtime member whom they don't even know, or see things like bank account numbers. If a GLO is giving a probationary member all the same privileges as an active member, they should just eliminate pledging entirely rather than using a watered down program.

I also agree that until you are initiated, you're not an active member. I see the probationary period as a time to assimilate pledges into the organization. They should not have access to ritual, or in my opinion, the right to vote. I also don't like pledges attending actual chapter meetings. Outside of that, I see nothing wrong with a pledge knowing about the operations, including the finances, of an organization for which that pledge is paying, and training.

I see "pledge class unity" as unnecessarily dividing the organization, and strengthening cliques that may occur, rather than attempting to unify the chapter as a whole.

I guess it's that some groups just are so fanatically against any show of PC unity whatsoever...which IMO is just as dumb as pushing the "go everywhere together" type of PC unity. There should be a happy medium.

Adelphean, there was a time when I would have agreed with you 100% about scavenger hunts - and then I served as Chapter Advisor. Among the things that have happened during seemingly harmless scavenger hunts (and this is from other advisors, too, not just me):

*People surprising the opposite sex in the dorm bathrooms.
*Petty fights over petty things (points, etc).
*People straying too far away from campus, causing a LOT of worry with the time period.
*GLOs in general getting a bad reputation for sponsoring a "juvenile game" such as a scavenger hunt.
*A near-kidnapping episode.
*MANY near-car accidents.
*MANY arguements between the teams

Obviously, not a lot of these are life threatening - but some are. Are you willing to risk an entire chapter for one game? Our Executive Office's policy isn't - nor is your chapter's insurance prepared to cover any contingencies (sp?) should problems arise.

There are a lot of ways to bond, and I'm sure that you & your chapter can find some. Save the scavenger hunts for when you're on your own!

Right on Honeychile! I think many people do not understand the insurance and liability issues involved!

Scavenger Hunts are Risk Managment NIGHTMARES! At my school Scavenger Hunts were banned from our Orientation week back in the late 1990s. So we had "Havanger Scunts" (called Scunts for short) instead... but with the Scunts came many many rules:

1) No going off campus
2) No stealing, spending money, breaking the rules, nudity, sexual acts etc etc etc...
3) All plans, lists, trivia, must be approved by administration AND the local police station.
4) The full list of rules must be read to the entire group before the beginning of the scunt.

Even with all these percautions - accidents do happen. The university can get away with a lot more than a GLO ever could though.... and without these percautions very very very bad things can occur. My favourite horror story (edit: from the days before the rules, obviously) is someone on a foreign visa taking part in the drop-off event (you're blindfolded and driven somewhere and have to get back with some item from where you were). They dropped the poor block off across the border, and without his travelling papers, it was really hard to get back.

I agree... scunts are fun, but there are simplier and easier way to bond...

(ironically, after several years, scunts are now called Scavenger Hunts again mostly because Scunts sounds a lot like....)

How about a scavenger hunt in the house? Would that work?

Man, remember the scavenger hunt on MTV's Sorority Life? That episode in itself is enough reason to illustrate why they are banned now!

Only if the staircase banisters are properly greased.;)

Honeychile,
i'm actually an alum, this thought was just a general feeling that was prevasive in my chapter around the time of my initation. We survived without any of that stuff. And when I posted I really wasn't thinking from a risk management perspective.

I do agree with some of the girls from other organizations though, I think we give a little too much responsibility too soon. In my chapter at least Alphas could hold non- e-board offices and we could vote at meeting. I remember this creating some problems as we diddn't know the girls well enough or understand the issues well enough to make informed decisions. A semester in the chapter wouldn't have hurt us before extending those priveleges.

But, if you spend that semester in the chapter being separated from the rest of the group then you don't learn either. Attending meetings is a good way to learn it. No, new members don't attend ritual, that is the difference between them and the initiated members. But, there is no reason that they can't sit on committees and begin to learn the whole process. This is the perfect opportunity to begin teaching them about how we have to handle risk management, what types of activities give us a good reputation on campus, how to plan, how the budgeting works, etc. It also begins developing their leadership skills so that they are able to step into offices sooner. I also always hear study hours thrown out there as "hazing". They are only hazing if the whole chapter isn't required to do them. And why wouldn't you require study hours of the whole chapter? And why not make study hours integrated so that a new member who is struggling with a class has someone available who has taken that class already? I would say that making them do a philanthropy project on their own, without guidance and assistance from the other members gives them too much responsibility too soon. Put them on the philanthropy committee and have everybody do it together! Integrate them into the chapter as much as possible so that they see the more positive leadership role models of the juniors and seniors (if the class is mainly freshmen). Don't make it so that this is just the responsibility of the big sisters (sister-mothers in AGD) or the officer "in charge" of them.

AGDs official stance is that they become sisters when you extend a bid and they accept. If you were unsure about them, you shouldn't have extended them a bid. They are not probationary members, they are new members, who have a lot to learn about the organization in their first few weeks of their lifetime committment. And, we should strive to continue to treat each sister as we do during Recruitment. That doesn't mean you "take anybody" and it becomes just like "any other club". It means you are very selective during Recruitment.

The women who were initiated members when I was a new member knew what they were doing. They were always telling me that they saw me in big leadership positions. I think they "groomed" me to be a leader by boosting my confidence up and helping me find those skills within myself. They expected the best out of me and I gave it to them. If they had treated me like I was a lower life form, I probably would've fulfilled those expectations. We did do some of the silly things that are considered risky now (like a scavenger hunt) but I honestly can't say that it built up our unity. It was just a silly thing to do on a Friday night.

Dee

Then why aren't they initiated immediately? I'm not trying to be witchy, but why bother with a pledgeship period when apparently it doesn't matter?

It's all well and good to say you should be super careful in the bid giving process, so a pledgeship really ISN'T necessary, but when you spend a total of 4 hours time with these women before bidding them, it's really hard to never ever ever make a mistake, unless you have them spied on or are clairvoyant.

I wouldn't want a doctor who was allowed to give prescriptions his first day in med school, or a President who just registered to vote yesterday. You might think that's a little extreme, but if we keep initiating people and giving them too much responsibility before they're ready, it will harm our organizations greatly.

We always say that GLOs are a lifetime commitment. What's 6 weeks out of someone's life to spend in a learning period? That doesn't mean you are treating someone like a lower life form :rolleyes: :rolleyes: it means that you care enough about them to give them a little time to watch and learn before they have the responsibilities that an initiated member does on their shoulders. I don't know when it became a crime to say that you should know something about a group before you join it fully.

I think there's a quote along the lines of "that which is given easily is appreciated little." It would behoove us to remember that with our organizations.

I agree that new members need time to learn the organization and am not endorsing having them hold offices immediately. But, a learning period and a "probation" period are different things.

And, often, you still end up with some less than ideal members even after a 6 week new member period. Otherwise, you wouldn't be seeing all these posts about chapters being closed for hazing and alcohol violations. I believe that all sororities have some form of suspension of membership and occasionally have to use it because of those who still slip through the cracks.

In my experience, most members, by the time they are juniors and seniors have eased out of the "partying phase" of college and are more focused on academics as they realize that they are really going to graduate and will have to find something to do in the "real world". I think that new members will benefit more from having more exposure to these women, being mentored by them on committees, and interacting more with them than they will by doing things on their own.

I can see the Greek system as a whole moving to an immediate Initiation eventually, if the hazing doesn't stop. It will be a matter of survival from law suits. That doesn't mean the newly initiated members would be able to immediately hold offices or would be free from a learning period, they would have their learning period after Initiation instead of before Initiation. I don't necessarily endorse this, but see it as a potential consequence.

Dee

I wasn't saying that new members should'nt attend meeting. I just think that spending time in the chapter learning what it was all about before extending voting priveleges would have been helpful thats all.
i.e. my chapter was in a "growing" stage when I accepted my bid. We had full voting priveleges from the get go. Homecoming time came along, the alpha class had been hanging out with a small but friendly fraternity house on campus, we diddn't know anything about which houses were the top houses and how fraternity relations can affect membership. So when they asked us to do homecoming with them the whole alpha class voted in favor. Meanwhile, the older girls knew that one of the most respected houses on campus was planning on asking us too, but our votes combined with a few sisters who were dating in the smaller chapter carried the motion and they never got to ask us. These things seem silly now but at the time they were important, especially since at the time my chapter was making a jump from middle of the road chapter to prominent chapter.

This is exactly how I feel (and from the impression I've gotten, how Phi Mu feels) about the Phi program. I just wanted to state my support for your ideas. The entire point of the new member period is to create a smooth transition into the chapter. Our new members (with the exception of ritual) do everything that chapter members do. That way, when initiation comes along and it's time for their first chapter meeting as an initiated sister, there's no big surprises. I think it really aids in retention, because it is a big difference between 6-8 weeks of sugary sweetness and presents and then 'POP' the Phi Mu bubble bursts after Initiation.