Has it EVER Happened Before?
 

So, as I'm sure most of us know, there are many instances of individuals being initiated into one Fraternity, and then wanting to quit to join another Fraternity. It has to be in the "Top 10 List" of frequently asked questions on GC, and the answer is always the same:

"Probably not"

Now, I asked my National Office rep about this (For my Brothers reading this, I am not thinking about quitting, I'm just curious), and he told me that he had heard of it happening before, but never actually knew of a case where it did. I've heard three big rumors of it happening before:

1. Member is Tricked into Being Initiated: Basic story is that the Fraternity does not inform the member that what they are going through is initiation, and he is initiated, essentially, against his will. It seems like a reasonable excuse to let someone out of a Fraternity, but I can't say for sure.

2. Member is Misinformed About Important Fraternity Information: I've heard different versions of the story, but they all pretty much boil down to members of the Fraternity blatantly lying about dues, responsibilities, etc.

...and my personal favorite

3. Member Experiences a Major Religious Revelation: This sounds the least plausible of the three rumors, but I've heard it so many times I thought it warranted posting. Basically, a guy joins a Christian Fraternity and suddenly becomes Jewish (or visa-versa I suppose). He asks to leave for religious reasons to join a Fraternity of another religious affiliation.

Have any of y'all actually "witnessed" a case where someone joined one Fraternity and then quit to join another?

Wasn't there a story one time about an entire NIC chapter terminating their membership and joining a different NIC fraternity?

The closest my campus ever got to something like that happening is someone pledged SAE and a few days before initiation ends up dropping (This is pretty much unheard of at Loyola). Guy later joins the Sigma Chi colony and is now their president (By the reaction of some people you would of thought the guy got initiated and then joined another group).

Wasn't there a thread a few months ago by Irish Lake (I think) about guys in a group that got kicked off who then were pursuing membership in another organzation (all NIC)?

I think this happened a long time ago (early-mid 90's?) at UT when ZBT got its charter pulled. They just up and chartered a different fraternity.

Here's a thread on it. It was at Washington and Lee.

I have not “witnessed” one per say. However, when I was an undergrad at Kentucky, there was a guy who supposedly joined a fraternity at another state school and then transferred into UK for academic reasons. The story was he resigned his previous fraternity membership because there wasn’t a chapter of that fraternity at UK. Once at UK, he pledged and joined a so-called “top tier” chapter and was rather active. As far as I know, no one questioned it.

Why not... First off, it was not unusual for a student to transfer into UK their junior year from a “regional school” to complete their course of study. And second, there was an all-Greek party thrown by his current chapter (i.e. UK Chapter), and some of his former fraternity brothers “crashed” the event. This too was not usual. Greeks from other Kentucky colleges often “crashed” open UK all-Greek events. I remember this part because a sorority friend of mine knew one of the guys from her home time and he hung out with us for a while. (They actually married after college.) So it kind of validated the previous membership for us. Again, no one really questioned it at the time.

While not the same thing, every year or so there seemed to be a guy who signed a bid to a UK chapter only to "take it back" and pledge a different chapter. Usually this happened because they were drunk when they signed their bid card and didn’t really did not know what they were doing. This was back with UK IFC rush was wet and underclassmen could legally drink on campus. Freshmen would head over to the fraternity houses and attend the first rush party they could get into for free beer. Some would get so wasted - allegedly - that they would sign a bid card before they made it out of the house and to the next house. :rolleyes:

I've seen it happen, but only in a very specific case where a chapter was closed a few years ago. Two brothers of the closed fraternity opted to seek membership into another NIC fraternity and were accepted. The majority of them opted for early alumni status, though.

I think I know who this guy is. I remember this story from a friend who attended UK. I was one of the ones who came from another state school to crash the all greek party at UK.

I've seen it, close up. Here's how it happens. A rushee has a friend in the fraternity who goes to the rush chairman. He explains that the rushee pledged and was initiated into another fraternity on another campus. He doesn't know anyone on this campus and wants to know if there's any way he can join the house he wants. The rush chairman agrees as long as everyone keeps their mouths shut. The decision is that its best for the chapter and best for the rushee. There is no 'Panhellenic Love' among fraternities.

As far as member groups of one fraternity joining another, it's not as uncommon as you may think. Alpha Delt has been very opportunistic when they see a chapter in trouble. When SAE got kicked off at Duke the entire alumni body was initiated into ADPhi. That caused some problems when SAE came back. At FSU, the TEPs petitioned IFC to allow them to become a chapter of ADPhi, which is what happened.

I know alumni of one fraternity who were infuriated at the way their chapter had been kicked off. They petitioned to become members of their biggest rival, the fraternity that ended up buying the suspended fraternity's house. It was negotiated but was never realized.