What do you do when a Brother makes a mistake?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by jaynu

My philosophy of a brotherhood/sisterhood is to make them better people. By kicking them out, you never really showed that unconditional love.

Actually, no. I'm sure at some point, you've heard that fraternal operations, before anything else, are businesses. Businesses do not tolerate theft.

I thought a better resolution would be to educate that person on why it is wrong and how much they've hurt the fraternity/sorority and its individual members. Lastly, I'll give a strong, but reasonable, sentence to that person. Does anyone feel this is to idealistic of a process?

If someone does not know that stealing is wrong, I'm afraid that they're well beyond the help of mortal man. They are ethically flawed. The only hope for this person is that their bad behavior lead to some real consequences -- painful ones. Otherwise, the only lesson you teach is that they'd better be more careful next time so as to not get caught.

In this case, in my opinion, you have to look out for the whole before you can look out for the parts. This person betrayed the trust of your organization in just about the worst way possible. The only way for you to respond is by booting them, getting the money back. If you want to be fraternal, fine, don't report them to the D.A.

Are you being too idealistic? Nope. An idealistic person would realize that the only way to remain true to their organization's values would be to get rid of this person.

If you feel like you don't want to be the "bad guy" here, perhaps you should convene a committee to decide the issue, so that the whole process looks a little more impartial?