Discrimination
 

Unfourtunately I have some bad news from Kentucky. I am University of Louisville's High Alpha. Last week we had spring recruitment which was slow for everyone. Another fraternity on campus was despirate and began to badmouth our chapter to rushees. Normally this type of thing happens and it is nothing serious. However this year they revealed their nickname for us to perspective members. This name was 'Special Ed Fraternity' again normally this sounds just like the usual badmouthing, however they also made hint that the reason they had given us this nickname is because we just initiated a blind member (which was really neat to see). Just thought I would share the difficulties sometimes in dealing with the closed minded, immature and shallow actions of some of the other fraternal organizations.

I'd say be proud of the fact that you initiated someone special. If those men who went to the other house were bothered by a blind man then you didn't want them anyway.

During rush some guys become a-holes when talking about
other groups....these guys a Louisville, just a few miles down
the road from me, sound like Grade-A #1 A-holes.

I've always wondered about initiating a DEAF brother...knowing
sign language and having worked with the deaf in the past.
I believe a deaf brother was initiated at St. Mary's in Texas
a few years ago, but I'm not sure how it was done. Would
be interesting to know!

Read about our brothers at Marquette
 

MARQUETTE, Mich. -- Don Kromer moved into a fraternity house in January 1979 with a lot of help from his friends.

He needed all he could get.

Five months before the move, he had severed his spinal chord in a diving accident.

At the time, Kromer was a Northern Michigan University junior, a history and political science major, 21 years old and a quadriplegic. He was not looking forward to life in a wheelchair.

"My spirit was broken," he said. "My hope was simply gone."

The men at Lambda Chi Alpha in Marquette were his lifeline in more ways than one.

They promised to help him graduate. This was no small effort. They held fund-raisers to finance the remodeling of the fraternity house to accommodate Kromer. And they received training from Dr. Michael Coyne, then the head of Rehabilitation Medicine at Marquette General Hospital.

They had to learn to feed, shower and dress Kromer, as well as learn catheterization and bowel management.

"His fraternity brothers took that on," Coyne said. "It's a real example of what can be accomplished."

Now, 25 years later, Kromer is 46 years old and back in Marquette for surgery, and another generation of the same fraternity is again his right - and left hand men.

One member, Dave Glinsky, 19, makes time in his daily school schedule for Kromer. He shows up at 3 p.m. every day. He shaves Kromer, helps make him comfortable on pillows, writes notes for him in a journal, brings him movies and a daily dose of hope.

"Hope is very important," Kromer said. "Like: I hope Dave comes every day."

Another member of the fraternity relieves Glinsky at 5 p.m. for feeding, more care and company. Glinsky has made a seven-day schedule, and Kromer is well cared for.

"I've always wondered how someone could get through something like this," Kromer said. "It's faith, family, fraternity and friendship."

That combination enabled him to graduate from Northern Michigan in 1982. Then he went to graduate school at Arizona State University, got a teaching certificate and taught there for a couple of years.

Kromer lives in his own house in Mullett Lake, just south of the Mackinac Bridge near his parents. He's employed by Vital Care Corp., a home health care agency based in Cheboygan, and schedules nursing care for its patients.

He is also a bereavement counselor for Hospice of the Straits.

Coyne, who has remained Kromer's friend for 25 years, calls him "a unique and outstanding person."

Kromer is no less appreciative of Coyne and the men he trained - "brothers" he calls them - to carry him through his ordeal.

"I'd be proud to have them as my sons," Kromer said of the young men who visit him daily in the hospital while he's recuperating.

"We're just glad to help him any way we can," Glinsky said.

(c) 2004 The Associated Press.

A year after I was intiated, we recruted and initiated a quad. Hes a great guy and 10 years later now serves as the treasurer of the Alumni Assn.

For a quad hes always been very independent. Roomed with a brother who assisted with his care. He then moved into a single on campus and he had a netowrk of brothers who could/would come by and check on him and help him get ready for bed. I'd usually help out 1 or 2x a week. HEs now married to a great girl and is driving! I was so glad to see him take that extra step towards independence. Honestly, I have never seen him any different - just as a brother. Its been a great learning experience for me and am grateful for the opportunity to learn just how normal anyone with a disability is.

From Marquette
 

Don is currently in the hospital with complications to his tailbone. He's in Marquette General. The brothers once again are helping him by feeding him, among other tasks. Some brothers visit him every day.

Brotherhood is not about realizing disability. It is about embracing ability. Tell those doushbags at the other fraternity we stand by our brothers and even the blind can see fate.

Lambda Chi Alpha has one advantage over all fraternities. We all have a story to tell and a story that tells of changes. Without change, triumph is only in the books we read.

Do not play down their ignorance. Take them seriously and seek to make your chapter far superior than theirs. Your blind member would want nothing more than to be the cause of that!