[FSUZeta]

Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth, pledge periods lasted an entire quarter/semester. Those of us who put on our best animal skins and ambled over the sorority cave for our pledge meetings feel that we were much better prepared for initiation. We had a thorough knowledge of our orgs and histories, as well as the other orgs on campus. We learned the greek alphabet, the names of the other fraternities and sororities on campus, the abbreviations of those names, their badges and pledge pins and had to be able to recognize them on sight. We even learned where each fraternity and sorority on campus was founded and each founding date. Then a couple of sororities decided to shorten their pledge periods, and the other orgs joined suit-many, or all, without consulting their constituency. So we get new members who have a "skim the surface"knowledge of his/her org's history and initiates who are surprised to find out that their chosen orgs had a distinct religious persuasion.