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wow... so i guess this is quite the headed discussion. and to be honest.. i think the largest problem here is a huge misunderstanding... and quite honestly.. a little ignorance...
to say that you can tell when a chapter is BMP and Traditional just by meeting them is ridiculous, cause i know A LOT of chapters that don't fit either mold.
the program itself is not built to tear down ur unity as a fraternity, but i think in a lot of cases it brings your fraternity closer together. there are still obvious pledge classes (no, we don't call them that, but they are guys that all come in together and go through the program at the same time), but they are not as segregated as pledge-brother. i think that this brings together the fraternity as a whole, breaking down the smaller clicks such as pledge classes.
just because you are a weak member in a BMP chapter does not mean you get a free ride through the whole program. at any time a brother can be brought to standards and kicked out. there are a lot of standards that sig eps are held accountable to, and it is the chapters responsibility to make sure those standards of membership do not drop. and, members that do not meet those standards can be kicked out by the standards board at any time. so again, it is up to the chapter to keep their members strong, and not let anyone slide through the program.
as for the respect issue, that is just ridiculous also. you want respect, win shit. let ur record speak for itself. how can another fraternity tell you that you are weak if you beat them in all sports. beat them in greek week. or whatever else your school has.
"sigma phi everyone"? again, this has nothing to do with the bmp. if you have low recruitment standards then that if your personal choice. the men you bid should be carefully evaluated and selected whether you are bmp or traditional. the best chapters, traditional or bmp, have some of the highest recruitment standards.
to say that gpa and numbers count more than brotherly love is way out of line. you are taking things way out of context. think about things this way: if a brother has "brotherly love" toward you and the chapter shouldn't he uphold the standards of the fraternity? then he should then be held accountable for the gpa levels set by the fraternity. and, in turn, a brother who does not hold another brother up to the standards set forth also does not have tru "brotherly love". and the whole numbers thing, you have to have numbers to run a fraternity. numbers are stressed by traditional and bmp. some of the largest chapters in the national are traditional. numbers is important across the board.
the bmp was introduced to sigma phi epsilon in the wrong manner. 'forcing' chapters to convert or get shut down was the worst thing the national chapter could possibly do. because with that, the bmp came with negative connotations that have stuck.
we are sigep. we have always been different. we should not be afraid of the balanced man ideal or program. if traditional works for you and your chapter than more power to you. but to say that other fraternities think we are less because of it is ridiculous. with our roots we have shown to be innovative and groundbreaking. the balanced man ideal is the next step. it is not a coincidence that tons of other fraternities have copied this model and applied it accordingly. we should be proud of who we are, and the direction we are going.
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