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I can completely understand your concerns with this. I am currently the President of my chapter, and we're having similar issues regarding our new member process. Phi Psi mandates a 6 week pledge process. My school is semester based, so we obviously can't know their grades once the pledge process is complete. To top that off, our Constitution doesn't allow for a "limbo" area between pledging and being active. You are either a pledge, or a Brother...no in-between.
One thing that has helped me to look past this is the whole idea of Fraternity Education. We have a "Fraternity Educator" vs. a Pledge Educator. I totally believe that Fraternity education should not stop with initiation. You should continue to learn about your fraternity for your entire time as an Undergrad and for the rest of your life. There are problems with initiating men who don't have the strongest of grades. Often times once they've been initiated, they have no structure to help them perform well. I'm not sure how your chapter is set up, but we continue to mandate study hours, tutoring, etc. for those Brothers that are not performing well academically.
You had mentioned that hazing wasn't an issue in your chapter. First of all, that's awesome! We are moving in that direction...and it's been a hell of a transition. One thing to think about though. All of the Brothers in your chapter right now may be on the same page when it comes to hazing, but it is vital to put safeguards into place to prevent it in the future. By having longer pledge programs, it truly opens the door to hazing. I had an entire semester of pledging, and I was hazed hard core. Something that I saw with the Brothers in my chapter when I was pledging, was that it seemed that after the pledge tests were done and the real "education" was over, they just got bored and instinctively turned to senseless hazing. That is something that we've completely turned around now, but we've put things into place to help prevent it when we're gone.
I understand the feeling sometimes that our Headquarters is kind of in this other dimension, and they don't really understand what is going on in their chapters. However, everything that they do is for the good of the Brotherhood. My challenge to you is that instead of looking at the negatives of this new program, look at how you can use it as a tool to better the chapter. If you still think that this is something that your chapter absolutely CANT use whatsoever. Then call your HQ, talk to your Executive Director, express your concerns and see what he has to say. I'm sure that they've thought about most of these things when they made this policy. Perhaps he will have some good advise, another way to see the situation.
Good luck! Change in a chapter is never easy...I know that first hand. Let me know if you've got any other questions!
Luke...
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