If YOU were in charge

[ISUKappa]

It's not the Fraternity who necessarily wanted to make the switch to the shorter new member program, it was the pressure from various universities and the fact most all NPC organizations had installed a shorter new member program. IIRC, Kappa was one of the last to change theirs.

I was the last pledge class in my chapter to go through the semester-long program. It did have its benefits - making sure everyone had grades, more one-on-one time with the NME, separate NM meetings - but I don't know that it necessarily made me learn more about the Fraternity or Greeks in general. A lot of that I did on my own out of personal curiosity.

I think the shorter program *can* work, but it's rarely utilized to its full potential. I think there needs to be better training for the NME and Chapter Council on how to make it more effective and fun for the new members and actives. I know officers are encouraged to come up with their own variations of the programs offered in the Leadership Guide to make them more fun, but so many of them just end up reading right off the page that it's boring and no one learns anything. Part of it depends on how good your NME is and how well her predecessor did. If you get one NME who doesn't want to put in any effort into the program and she just lets everything slide, then the next one will probably think that's how it's supposed to be done and the whole program goes out the window (this happened at the chapter I advised).

I think the new member program is something that is constantly scrutinized by the Fraternity and they're always trying to think of ways to make it more effective and let each chapter tailor it to their own specific needs.