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new fraternity on campus
hi everyone im currently a student at a school in the northeast and am a founding father of a fraternity. my fraternity is a national. although our numbers are quite large and we are already quite known, it seems to me and in some case its even been said that all the other greek chapters dont like us. can someone maybe tell me if this is common when a new greek organization comes on to campus?
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I've seen it. Make sure you are doing everything possible to encourage positive Greek relations. You could try mixers-even with fraternities, participate in Greek Week and support other chapters philanthropy efforts. Perhaps you could do community service projects with the other chapters. Habitat for Humanity could be a good guy bonding experience.
The reason why the chapter had problems when I was there is that the other Greeks thought they had a holier than though attitude. I'm not saying you do, or that they even did. That was the perception. |
Also, some may not like your fraternity because you have higher membership than the others have. While I don't know about the other fraternities on campus or their membership or how well they recruit new members but it's just a thought. The above advice is good advice, I'd take that into consideration.
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We had 2 new fraternities come on our campus in one year. When all 3 councils would meet to vote on making them part of our campus, the only big issues were, "We are already having a hard time recruiting people and they have more guys than us" (I personally thought that was a poor excuse) and "We have too many problems right now, we shouldnt add any more fraternities or sororities until we can fix all of our current problems" (This is also a lame excuse). Well they both bacame part of our greek community and did very well after all because they participated in almost everything from other orgs philantropy events to social. So basically just do everything yaw can to enhance the greek life at your school and the other fraternites/sororities will respect you more.
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When you were recruiting new members, did you blatantly or subtly put other fraternities down - slogans like "this is not your father's fraternity" or "we're about more than partying" do not engender love from the existing groups. If you really DO have something VERY different to offer, then just state what it is (i.e. you are nonsecret, you are for music majors etc). Too many groups confuse "pride" and "arrogance."
Are any of the guys in your fraternity people who depledged other fraternities on campus? Are you horning in on long-established fraternity/sorority relationships? At some schools this doesn't exist, but at some schools it's taken VERY seriously and not something you come in and mess with - i.e. if XXX fraternity and YYY sorority always do homecoming together, horning in on that is not a good idea. Have other fraternities on your campus closed recently? Are you giving bids to just anyone to get your numbers up? Just wanted to throw some ideas out there. |
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when my fraternity came on campus, we didnt impede on anyones territory, and we didnt say anything negative about anyone either. none of our brothers depledged themselves, and we havent (to my knowledge) ruined any fraternity sorority relationship. and we certainly didnt give out bids to just anyone. it just happened in such a way that there were alot of guys that were all close and this is why we started it. we didnt steel pledges from other frats. |
Then just keep doing what you're doing, and be positive. Support the Greek community as a whole.
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Evon, I've been through it too. It just takes time. In my experience it required 5 years, long enough to turn over all the original undergrad players with their hardwired mindsets and preconceptions.
Keep doing the right things and be patient. The pace of culture change is glacial. What I noticed in my fraternity and later in my companies is that culture change doesn't happen by changing people's minds. It happens by changing the people entirely. I call this process "scrabbling", like in Scrabble when you have lousy letters and can't make a word, so you lose a turn, dump your letters, and get 7 new ones. Look on the bright side, in college the scrabbling process only takes 4 years. In a corporation it can take much much longer. Hang in there. I frankly wouldn't worry too much about "horning in" - in fact I'd encourage it, to show that you're there to stay. Just stick to the high road and focus on recruiting the best people. wptw |
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wptw is absolutly correct.
They may feel that you are cutting into the pie of new members on campus and do not deserve to be there. When I started a local, there was some animosity, but having known many members of other Fraternities did help us. But, it was very hard at first and then we affiliated with a strong and big national so we were on equal footings. One thing is if the campus can handle it, which usually it can and the other thing that I always professed was that there are people on campus that do not want to join the existing GLOs. That is why we were so succesful with the local! The very best in your endevor and it will as wptw said take time, maybe three to five years. Just do not let your dream go away!:);) |
New chapters are usually really crappy and therefore don't have respect amongst the more established GLOs on campus. Just recruit the best people possible and you can be good within 5-10 years of founding.
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New row chapters are never liked. I guess it depends on where he is, but I think this would almost always be the case. |
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Otherwise build your reputation through rush and they may start respecting/not hating you Quote:
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In addition to some of the things already said, (not mixers with fraternities) I'd also recommend encouraging the brothers of your chapter to take part in organizations and activities that other Greeks take part in. For instance, I was an orientation leader for a couple of years. Not only was it a great rush tool, I also met some guys from other chapters, and had a much more positive view of their chapters (for the most part) after that. Genuine personal connections and friendships with members of other chapters are one of the best ways to improve your image, and they're usually forged in more informal settings than official Greek events. Getting some brothers on IFC committees, if your school has them, is a good thing to do, though.
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