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Thanks Tom. I know about the whole pledge v. associate thing. We always tried to use associate member and were pretty good at it. But at Umass, where the greek system is probably a good 10-15 years behind the national trend, it's just much easier to talk to other people and say you're a pledge instead of explaining everything.
When I used to sit in class with my pin on, people would ask what house I was pledging. I would nicely explain to them that I was not a pledge, was equal, etc.
So after 5 minutes and the puzzled look on their faces, they would ask again:"What house are you pledging?"
And I would frustratingly say "Lambda Chi."
I never personally thought pledge was ever a bad word. You are "pledging" your loyalty to a fraternity. You can use pledge, you can use associate member, as long as they both encompass the same ideals in the fraternity. That's just my opinion. Usually the term associate members were always used for anything within our fraternity. But if I had to clarify my status to every person that asked about what fraternity I was pledging or how I liked pledging, I would have spent half my day explaining what an associate member was.
I'm curious Tom, what were the arguments both for, and against, changing the terms? Could you tell us a little bit more about that?
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