Quote:
Originally Posted by Little32
I am hesitant to continue posting in this thread because I am not about defending the practices of my organization, which I am still learning about.
As a new member, I have been encouraged to join committees and assume leadership roles within my chapter. However, I also understand that I have a good deal to learn about the workings of my organization and sometimes the best way to do that is to observe.
fantASTic, the "neo" comments that you have observed are probably more in jest than anything else, and I would hope that you would not continue to believe that NPC orgs value their NMs more that BGLOs (the culture of our organizations just demonstrates that value differently). For all of us, new members are the life blood of our organizations, without them none of our organizations would last very long.
To Wolfman: While I agree with some of your post, I wonder how much would you suggest that NPHC organization alter about its culture and practices in order to "play on the bigger field," so to speak. PM me, if you want to continue the conversation privately.
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Per my feelings and convictions about this matter, I will post here what I have to say to combat what I've just written about. If it's not about ritualistic matters (and not just traditions which are just practices that have grown up and are respected) and matters which have to do with proprietary information and intraorganizational gossip, it's should be talked about in public forums.
To my point. There has to be real dialogue and engagement on these issues between all parties for each group to hammer out what the parameters are. It just doesn't go one way! But I do know this:this culture of secrecy, esp. as it relates to hazing has to be changed. First, we have to get into the heads and hearts of members that we have to give up this sense of entitlement about Greek life. All Greek chapters are INVITED GUESTS on every campus. We live in an extremely litigious society and every institution is about protecting their ass(ets). GLOs represent a major matter of exposure to colleges and universities. We have to understand this and realize we exist on their campuses at their behest. We don't have inalienable rights in this matter! I'm very much in favor of maintaining the richness of BGLO traditions but they have to be devoid of the physical hazing aspect. Without question, the traditionally white GLOs have done a better job in addressing alcohol abuse issues in a programmatic and real way than we have of hazing, even though there is undergraduate rebellion in their midst and non-compliance, too.
Case in point. Amongst NPHC groups, more open dialogue and transparency amongst the rank and file would have been better in crafting a better solution to the wholesale abolition of pledging in 1990. This decision had the result of making pledging a sub rosa activity and the culture of hazing more more distorted in some ways. This is the reason why my fraternity is exploring bringing pledging back. But this issue does not exist in a cultureal vacuum. We are not simply accountable to our groups and the sometime secretive cultures that exist in them at different levels (just like in police depts., the military,etc. where exposing misconduct or certain apects of its inner workings of the institution can be viewed as a betrayal of the group); we are accountable to our host educational institutions and, increasingly, the legal and penal system. This will increasingly become the case if we act as we do now.
A few random thoughts on the fly!
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