Hazing -- Good or bad?

[adpiucf]

If you're shy, I rather think setting up a meeting with a stranger and interviewing someone is an even more daunting prospect than sitting at a table with people wearing the same letter shirt as you as a pre-set time. If I was shy and had the alternative, I'd just take a seat at the table before having to make the first move and interview someone.

Members are so over-programmed. Making people interview members in their spare time is just one more thing on an already impossibly long list.

Here is another alternative to the interviews. Make it an all-chapter activity at chapter retreat. Have all of the members interview one another and make their own personal chapter directories. I'd be willing to bet there are seniors who don't know the sophomores, in addition to the new members meeting everyone and getting to know them. It could be kind of fun and loud and a good way to bond. Everyone gets a directory with a sisters' name and contact info on a page and blank questions like favorite color/TV show/fraternity, major/year in school/hometown, big/lil, and walks around filling in the blanks. Maybe even have cameras to take photos together and print them and paste them into your books. That makes it an all-chapter event and accomplishes some good group bonding.

[33girl]

You missed my whole point, which was that some of the MEMBERS may be shy. The pledges may never get to know them if everything is shoved into the constant group, group, group and I think that's sad.

Having it be something that has a structure to it and knowing it's part of the pledge program takes a lot of the pressure off both parties, IMO.

And as far as the over-programming - I think having people feel like they have to hang out at the house or wherever constantly to even see the pledges, or be required to come to endless group activities is FAR worse than a 15 minute interview.

[shinerbock]

Hazing, Good or Bad?

Trick question, obviously the answer is "great"

[bows&toes]

Originally Posted by tallgreekalum

2. Extreme physical conditions, whether it be pushups/situps etc, temperature manipulation, or extreme sleep deprevation.

god forbid we make them do some pushups...

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Hanging out in group settings isn't always the best, especially for those who are shyer. Plus sometimes actives (especially seniors) don't come on to campus a lot except for class and to force them to, for example, go to the caf and sit with a bunch of pledges and actives to get to know the pledges just isn't feasible. Everyone has different schedules. I would have never gotten to know some of the seniors when I was pledging if I'd expected them to do that. But I'm glad I DID make the effort to go interview them. I think this is another reason why seniors become inactive sometimes - they get kind of tossed to the side if they can't do "group" things.

You're not supposed to know someone up and down the minute you finish your interview, but as busy as college students are, it's a lot easier to have things that are scheduled and open up a door to get to know someone that way than say "hang out with them, you'll get to know them eventually."

If there are members who don't want to be interviewed or are a-holes about giving their interview just to be a-holes, then that's another story. They should be disciplined, not the pledges.

I think this is easier said too in chapters at the smaller colleges up here .. like in MI and PA, where chapter sizes and new member classes are relatively small. For a senior to do 10 fifteen minute interviews doesn't seem like a big deal, but when we're talking about campuses where quota is 50-70 and that means each senior would be spending more than 10 hours on interviews.. and conversely.. each new member would have to interview 200 women at 15 minutes each, well that's just ridiculous. I definitely didn't find the interviews that I had to do to have any value at all. It all just seemed silly to me at the time.

I think it's a combination of the huge chapters and the members who a-holes about giving their interviews who led to these types of things being banned. And, although my chapter didn't do it, it was fairly commonplace for fraternities and sororities to make their new members do something for each interview they didn't get.. like do a shot, so then they were introducing forced underage drinking. While I agree it should be the members who should face the music for being jerks, when there is a "hazing attitude" growing in a chapter, that's not what happens.

An idea that I like is having a couple members match up with a couple new members for lunch or coffee once a week. The groups change week to week. It's not a huge group that would feel intimidating for anybody, but it's not one on one, which I think, in the long run, is more time consuming.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I think this is easier said too in chapters at the smaller colleges up here .. like in MI and PA, where chapter sizes and new member classes are relatively small. For a senior to do 10 fifteen minute interviews doesn't seem like a big deal, but when we're talking about campuses where quota is 50-70 and that means each senior would be spending more than 10 hours on interviews.. and conversely.. each new member would have to interview 200 women at 15 minutes each, well that's just ridiculous. I definitely didn't find the interviews that I had to do to have any value at all. It all just seemed silly to me at the time.

Oh, I agree. I can't imagine doing that many and of course if quota is that big, there are probably about 150 members as well. In that case, I think drawing names out of a hat or doing it in groups or something would be a good idea.

Believe me, if I knew who the jerks were who said "you have to do so and so to get an interview" and made them a hazing tool and ruined it for everyone else, I would have been at the chapter stringing them up. We NEVER looked at them that way and to know there are chapters who did is as offensive to me as drinking during ritual or the like.

[macallan25]

Interviews simply help finding out which pledges have their stuff together and are going to get things done when asked to. You can find out alot about pledges from interviews.

[SoCalGirl]

Unfortunately though some members take advantage of the interviews. Like the one member I knew back in the day who made a particular pledge drink so much beer that his Big Sis had to take him to the ER.

[adpiucf]

For the larger 100+ chapters, interviews wouldn't work. Too many members, too little time.

[macallan25]

Actually they work just fine, there are tons of 100+ chapters that make pledges do interviews. Too little time? If your chapter is worth a crap.....you have a semester long pledgeship.

I also realize you are in a sorority and it is completely different.

[macallan25]

Originally Posted by SoCalGirl

Unfortunately though some members take advantage of the interviews. Like the one member I knew back in the day who made a particular pledge drink so much beer that his Big Sis had to take him to the ER.

It would be bad if it was liquor. If you get sick off of beer you're a big p**sy.

[SoCalGirl]

Macallan, is it your experience that chapters that big have the pledges interview every brother/every brother meet with every pledge??? Also, what would you say the average pledge class for chapters that would require that. Plus, would the interviews absolutely have to be "one on one"?

[macallan25]

I've seen it done differently at many different chapters. Some make the pledges interview the entire chapter, some make the pledges interview just the members living in the house, sometimes it has to be one on one, sometimes it can be a group of pledges with a couple members.

There are all different sizes of pledge classes.....I can't really answer that. I'd say 30 - 50 pledges is an average size class.

[SoCalGirl]

Originally Posted by macallan25

It would be bad if it was liquor. If you get sick off of beer you're a big p**sy.

Given enough quantity anything can get you sick. The member was an a** though. Luckily the pledge got his stomach pumped but was otherwise okay.

[macallan25]

I know, I was kidding.