Quote:
Originally posted by LXAAlum
I think that's part of the problem - there needs to be more of a spirit of cooperation between chapters, as in Benjamin Franklin's "we must all hang together, for we shall surely hang separately" famous quote. Like I've said, we either come up with our own collective solution, or, we will certainly be given a solution by the campus or legislation, that will see the end of greek organizations. I'm not pointing a finger directly at you, Rudey, btw, but your perspective is one I hear all to often - yes, we need to have pride in our own GLO, but, at least on our respective campuses, especially on our campuses where several IFC or Panhel orgs reside, we have to work together to survive and thrive. There is a fine line between a good rivalry and intransigence.
So again, my question remains - it looks as though AEPi (keep in mind this is just ONE chapter on a large campus) turned it around, but, what could the whole greek (or narrow it to IFC if you prefer) system do together to fix this problem?
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Let's look at 2 problems: Hazing and Drinking.
1) If you expand into a party school, know that these 2 problems are going to be there more throughout the student population and not just in Greek organizations. Many, many organizations just expand for the sake of expanding or want the prestige of numbers or chapters at big schools. I think this needs to be rethought since as a simple numbers game, no matter what these party school chapters will have more problems.
2) Different chapters have different policies. Some folks don't care if you drink. Some turn their heads and pretend nobody underage drinks. Some care only if you use kegs. Some are totally dry. Some are dry but drink at parties they hold at bars. I don't feel comfortable telling someone in another fraternity with a different policy how to address their problems. I don't think another chapter would just knock on my chapter's door one day and also ask for advice on how to stop their members from abusing alcohol to begin with. The same goes for hazing. Certain fraternities consider study hours hazing. Some consider scavenger hunts to be hazing. I, myself, consider anything you'd be ashamed to tell someone's mother to be hazing.
3) In a perfect world, we would all have large chapters with no problems. But it's not a perfect world. We have enough issues dealing with how to get brothers to be more active as seniors, to make sure rush goes well, that our alumni stay involved, etc. How could we possibly exert even more energy, time, and money to help? Many of us have been strong-armed into holding these workshops and you yourself think they don't work. What more can we even possibly do?
4) My solution is to concentrate more on the me and not on the we. It's not to say that fraternities shouldn't help each other out and work together, but it just says that we need to recognize that our problems are different and we can only come up with the solutions ourselves.
But again these are my thoughts. Am I right or wrong? I would think I'm right given the fact that fraternities still have not moved to the "we" approach.
-Rudey