[PsychTau2]

I'm going to preface this by saying that this could apply to most but not all GLO members (or humans in general). This is an observation, not an absolute.

GLO members have got to STOP MAKING EXCUSES. Period.

Just like the headquarters who publicize their closed chapters and expelled members (thereby admitting that bad stuff happened), members have to acknowledge their mistakes and accept the consequences. We can't keep talking about our "no hazing, no tolerance" policies, but then keep the mistakes quiet. It damages credibility, especially when incidents are all over the media (or perhaps the rumor mill) and GLOs don't acknowledge the existence of them.

Members can't keep hiding behind "There's always some hazing going on. You can't stop it." That statement sounds like the speaker is condoning hazing just a little bit. Members can't keep turning a blind eye to situations that just seem a little bit shady. Confront that behavior. Discuss it with your Greek advisor or someone else. It's not tattling if you do that...it's taking care of each other. It's showing that you don't want a chapter to start sliding down that slippery slope into disaster. Ask someone to intervene and educate those members before it is too late.

From what I know about the two incidents at U. of Oklahoma in the fall, NO ONE on campus was talking about it. I can presume at least two reasons for this. 1. No one wanted to damage the fraternities stories by admitting they knew these traditions were happening (and thereby getting those groups into "more trouble"). or 2. They wanted to be supportive of the affected groups because "they are really good guys and an awesome fraternity." No one talked about the Sigma Chi incident and analyzed it on how it could have been avoided (which would have been a positive risk management discussion). BINGO! It happened again. In about a month's time.

(Disclaimer: I understand there is risk involved in talking about a legal case. However, you don't have to discuss all the details in order to learn something. Obviously there was a death at the Sigma Chi house related to alcohol during/after a chapter event that was tradition based. You don't have to discuss what time and where he was found and all of that. Go with the obvious stuff that you know.)

Now I'm not saying that they should have talked negatively about all of the members, etc. They probably are good guys in a lot of ways. The fact is that they had some flawed thinking and made a huge mistake. What do you think would have happened if SOMEONE from that campus talked about that tradition (drinking a bottle of whatever on Big/Lil night) when it first started...and had honest conversations about the negative consequences of it and how to make that celebration safer. Would last semester have been different? Probably.

We can't control someone else's behavior. But we can control our own, and we can speak up against someone else's behavior and refuse to condone it. I'll bet that if all of the other Greeks at Oklahoma continuously denounced that Big/Lil tradition, continuously told school officials that it was happening, and refused to take part in it or celebrate it in any way (or laugh about the drunk stories the next day), the President of the university might not have dried out all of the houses. The focus might have stayed on the houses that made the mistakes. Now we'll never know.

One pop culture definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect the same result.

I'm with DeltAlum...I'm waiting on members to do something different.

PsychTau