Quote:
Originally posted by starang21
i'm not saying it's ok to beat someone to a pulp for a pledge. but pledging shouldn't be an easy process. me personally, i hated pledging. it really sucked.
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Although I'm working off the above quote and the ideas it conjures in my mind, I want to say first off that I'm not trying to put words in starang21's mouth - I'm just working off the ideas that the quote makes me think of.
I cannot imagine a battery of absurd tasks that would establish in a new member the privilege of joining my fraternity. That is to say, I can imagine no proper justification for putting new members through a series of trials. Not in light of the alternatives.
Is the new member in general a good guy? Does he show respect both to brothers and to others that he deals with in day to day life? Is he eager to contribute to life in the fraternity? Does his behavior fit with the cardinal principles of my fraternity (which during his orientation period I know, but he does not)? Does he seem to understand the significance of
our creed (
alternative link)? And of course, is he fun to be around? If so, I vote to initiate.
I don't need to lay any special tasks before a candidate to determine for myself whether he should be initiated. I also think that the argument that hazing increases bonding and commitment is outdated and absurd. I believe it is poisonous. I want a brother to feel connected to me because he respects and likes me, not because of something I did to him that he feels proud of having endured.
Perhaps it helps my argument that my college has deferred (January) rush, so that most of us knew our associate members already when we bid them; however, the fact that you don't know your new members well is no justification for putting them through extra trials, let alone physical abuse. Take the responsibility to get to know the people you would call your brothers. (And yes, that is a two-way street -- they must take that responsibility too, but the already-initated are in a better position to know what relationship needs to develop.)
During my orientation period and during the orientation periods that I and my successors in office led, we told associate members that the point of their associate membership was to let us get to know them, and to let them get to know us and what we were about, insofar as possible without learning the secrets of initiation. We planned activities for them and for the entire organization. They were expected to participate in fraternity life, and to learn our history, and they had weekly meetings. I don't think we needed anything more to make a reasonable judgment about whether a man was good for our group, and we ended up with a brotherhood founded on something much stronger than the passage of trials. I couldn't have asked for better results.
_____________________
Phi Kappa Tau
Mu Chapter, Lawrence University
init. '96, LU '99
Membership Orientation Officer, 1997-98
"Brother White Blood Cell"