Billy,
I guess I've been away a while. I can't give you the specifics. You can look up the definition of hazing. Almost everything we do falls into hazing. NEVER physical or alcohol involved. The process has 3 phases. Breakdown, education, and build up. In the first phase the pledge can do nothing correct. Most of their social habits are broken. We change everything from the way they dress, hairstyle, eat, wipe their ass, ect. As time goes on they have less and less time to spend on outside interest and friendships. Almost all of our DE-pledges come in this phase. For the ones that stay, this is the point that they give up being an individual. They identify their success' and failures' with that of the pledge class. During education they learn all they need to know about acceptable behavior, the Fraternity, Brotherhood, ect. The build up is the most fascinating. The pledge class is placed into situations that they can deal with and succeed on a regular basis. The task become more difficult and much more personal as time goes on. Finally, they get to the point where the pledge class needs the Brothers to succeed, and the Brothers produce. When they get to the level that they are not hesitant or embarrassed by anything, they are ready to begin initiation week.
Lil_G,
We have lost pledges, mostly in the first few weeks. We try very hard not to isolate anyone that DE-pledges. The brothers go out of their way to be friendly with them. We did issue them a bid because they do posses redeeming qualities. Luckily, we have never had an ex-pledge go out of his way to expose what we do. I am sure it will happen one day. The real risk is a late pledge period Black Ball.
Any 30+ year Alumni would recognize our pledge period as his. It has not changed much. One of our highest ideals is tradition. Violating it in my Chapter can be a fatal sin. I believe that this commitment to tradition was a fundamental element to our foundation and a leading contributor to our successes. In my Chapter you reach the summit of Brotherhood as an Alumni Brother, not as an active. The active Chapter answers to the Alumni in a similar manner as the pledges answer to the Brothers. I have seen other Chapters that have strayed because they have initiated a few strong wildcats that get in and start changing things for the worse. It can't happen in my house.
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