Munchkin03-JAM, would your son consider remaining independent?
No doubt about it. His Dad is "almost" encouragig it...and HE was in a fraternity! He dosn't feel it's important the freshman year and could actually be a hinderance to his grades. He has heard from our daughter and some other parents how demeaning and down right brutal some of the pledge programs can be. It disgusts him. Me too for that matter. Sigma Chi, at U of Houston, never laid a hand on their pledges. Yes, they got them up early and made them run, but their pledge trainer went through EVERYTHING with them-except hell week of course. They were so close to him BECAUSE they trusted him. That's a good philosophy if you ask me...but of course no one does!
I really want him to be in a fraternity, but not at the expense of his health. At this point, I believe he would be just fine as a GDI.
I think he would kind of miss being involved.
The last thing I'm going to tell him is- whatever he decides, I will be behind him.