[Sen's Revenge]

I am all for massive, sweeping, transformative changes in theory. They excite me to no end. I immediately envisioned myself as a chapter president confronted with making this work, like Olivia Pope.

And it SHOULD work.... chapters SHOULD be picking dudes they KNOW they really want and making them their brothers. IF SAE allows for a much longer rush period and doesn't penalize chapters for becoming drastically smaller over the next five years, SAE could truly become known as an elite, exclusive, selective fraternity nationally. This is not a terrible branding decision, all things considered.

But here's the problem: Rarely, if ever, does a fraternity's culture supersede the campus culture. What is the usefulness of this sort of image if you are on a campus where "exclusive" isn't as valued as "big" or "gregarious" or whatever it is that works on a specific campus.

In NPHC world, where all of the organizations have abolished pledging since 1990, and some before that, we have certainly entered into a dark ages we are only just now emerging from. Of course the kid sought underground pledging experiences which turned them from children into men and women. That's what people under 25 do, make dumb decisions.

Sorority DEF in the NPHC had a three-day intake process. On one hand, the organization became very successful over the past 20 years in creating a culture that frowned upon the "making" of sisters and embraced the "selection" of sisters. But at what cost? Even though women are still pledging, it's now been 20 years of being called skaters, paper, weekend warriors, etc. And they don't even have a three-day process anymore, but after 20 years, the damage to the undergrad experience has been done.

Anyway, I feel like I am rambling... but my overall point is that unless SAE is prepared to not even compete for the same candidates as their peers, they are in for a lot of problems they hadn't even considered. Hazing persists in NPHC organizations and abolishing pledging hasn't saved lives.