Pledging
 

I was wondering how everybody feels about pledging. In my fraternity, we do not pledge. Our initiation takes places over a weekend and new members are initiated within 72 hours and then endowed with the full rights and priveleges of a brother. Our national organization abolished pledging in 1989 because they felt it led to new members being treated as second class citizens, in addition to hazing. They came to the conclusion that eliminating pledging was the only way to solve this problem. What do you think?

NPC sororities do not pledge.

They have New Member Education, and the length of this period depends on the organization.

We pledge for 6 weeks, at the end of which we decide to either a) initiate the class or b) extend their pledge period to include a "plactive" period.

most NPC's have a new member period usually like 6-8 weeks long. we have a 6-week period and then 4 weeks of new initates where the new member class meets with the new member educator and they talk about the "rituals" they are now privvy to etc... and make sure all is well in their new found world.


As I tell our new members they have all the rights and privilages of initated members except attending formal chapter becuase they are learning the rituals and will all be revealed at initation... kinda like being engaged and then married almost id think.

All in all, I enjoyed the pledge period.

We also have a six week period which is new member education. I think it is better this way because if someone is initiated within 72 hours, they don't really know anything about the organization, the history, or the members that are currently a part of it. This six week period helps them feel comfortable before they fully commit. It helps them realize also, that it is a COMMITMENT because they understand how important it is to the girls that are sharing it with them. I don't think that initiating sooner is the only way to handle hazing. If it is not tolerated at all, then it will not take place. We have very strict rules as to what hazing is, and we know that breaking those rules could lead to some very serious reperussions. Also, we respect our new members as sisters and we are glad they want to be a part of our organizations, so there is no reason to have them "prove" that they should be members.
ETA: Also, it is fun and I enjoyed it!

Pledging/new member ed periods do not cause hazing. People cause hazing.

If people in a chapter want to haze badly enough, they'll just give the "newest initiated members" the second class treatment, rather than doing it while they are pledges.

I'd like to see the results. Has ZBT pledged more people since abolishing pledgeship?

Did abolishing pledgeship tick off so many undergrads that they gave up?

Can you get actual numbers of pledges/initiates in recent years, and has it gone up or down?

I think TKE did something similar, abolishing pledgeship. It hasn't done much good for them.

I can check on the numbers later, but I dont have them right now. I don't really know if it has made a difference in recruitment results or not. I probably would have joined even if we did pledge but it just so happened that wasn't the policy. I think most of my brothers would have joined either way. Since I didn't go through pledging, I'm not really at liberty to say whether I agree with it or not. I believe my chapter used to pledge kind of (not officially) but that ended long before I got initiated. From what I understand they would be initiated but still treated like "pledges" for a while.

yep. There's def. been ZBT chapters that haze. Wouldnt' be surprised at all if on the one on my campus does- they've been in trouble for everything else under the sun. There's LXA chapters that haze- they just call their new members "associates' or something. There are chapters of all of our orgs that haze. No matter what you call the new member period and whether or not they're intiated, there is still hazing going on.

Personally I hate the idea of having no new member period of all. How do the new members learn about the org? I know it's different for guys and girls, but our new member period is so much fun and they get their butts spoiled! So much love is created and so much fun is had.

Plus by initiating right away, what if the particular person doesn't work out? Either your chapter made a mistake on giving them a bid or they find out it's not right for them. Then you're both stuck b/c they're an initiated member. What if they got hazed, and want to drop, but can't join another group b/c they've already been initiated.

In my view, there are just as many, if not more, drawbacks of initiating right away intead of having a new member period.

Exactly!! I totally agree... this is like dating. You dont marry someone at the second date! You get to know them to see if you like them .... same thing here. You need time to adjust to a new commitment especially if this is your first college semester with classes etc.....

How is this possible? They are members, they know the secrets. Are you associating pledging with hazing when you say the new members are "treated like 'pledges'"?

Our pledge period is 17 days, but basically it's 24 hours a day your pledging and at any time you can have something thrown at you to do. Personally I would be much more inclined to space it out Much MUCH more, say 10 weeks only on fri/sat/sun's that would be way better, the intensity is so crazy because we had to take an 8 week program and basically condense it into 17 days

*cough* hazing anyone?

:cool:


"DITTO".

Pledging does not mean Hazing.

New Membership education should just be that. There has to be period of thime for :

1. Meeting and getting to know each other to see if the fit is really there.

2. Education for Rules of the National GLO.

3. Education of the Local Chapter, what it does.


Such short time periods can be detrimentsl for all. But on the other side of the coin, a education period that lasts to long can mean losing members who get fed up and bored.