Steve Forbes initiated by TKE
 

I saw where Steve Forbes, capitalist & magazine editor, was to be initiated as Tau Kappa Epsilon's 250,000 member in August at their convention. I assume that it happened, although I am surprised there has been no mention of it on GC. Very clever choice. I don't think many other fraternities still initiate honorary/special members like that.

Some still do. Kappa Sigma initiated Rudy Ruettiger (Notre Dame football legend) this past summer.

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

Pi Kappa Alpha still initiates honorary/special members.

Some fraternities prefer not to bullshit their resumes with fake alumni....

Most Fraternities prefer not to initiate jerks, too! ^^^

Yes, Thank you.

I prefer to think that our fraternities pledgeship and undergrad membership played a role in our famous alumni's success. Not some guy who they chose because he was famous and didn't mind getting a degree.

Absurd.

Notre Dame does not have GLO's so the opportunity to join a Fraternity of Sorority was/is not available. Rudy met one of our past WGM's and was interested in our order. We extended the invitation to him to join our order and are honored to have him as a member.

The decision of your group to not have honorary members is a decision that I respect . You should consider the same as you do not always know the circumstances surrounding these initiates and you should not really care.

Actually, I think you and Elephant Walk are brothers.

That is fine. I will disagree with a brother when I believe they are wrong and I disagree with his statement.

I tend to agree with Elephant Walk - I feel like a lot of times special initiations are used to pad famous alumni lists in a misleading way. Special initiates like these are less likely to contribute more than financial support on the alumni level, and though that's important what we really need is alumni who plan to be actively involved on the chapter/national level. I'm not against alumnus initiation, but I think it should be utilized to add to chapter advisory boards. My chapter is inviting our financial adviser to become a member, and though he will probably never be on any famous alumni list the contribution that he makes to our chapter is profound. I think this is a much more valuable reason for alumnus initiation.

One of Pi Kappa Phi's most notable tradition is to have alumni initiates, however i believe they need to physically prove that they have served for a chapter of pi kappa phi and meet the credentials in order to be alumni initiated. I personally don't believe all famous individuals are initiated just because they are famous.