[Wolfman]

From just reading this very interesting thread, I think that, in reaction to risk management issues, many Greek-letter orgs have gone too far afield in membership intake, new member programs, or whatever you want to call them. The raison d'etre of our organizations is brotherhood/sisterhood with a purpose. If you don't have the institutional means facilitiate the building of a certain amount of esprit de corps, your group will degenerate into a social club, which actually suits more young people today who seem to be more narcissistic. As anthropologists tell us and rites-of-passge rituals worldwide show us, these type of initiatory programs are about status transformation,drawing someone out of their previous way of being to broaden them to serve purposes that transcend their self-centered existence which characterized their age of minority. Fraternity/sorority nm programs are in the same general category.