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This is out of my lane as a female, but unless things have changed radically in State College, I'm just jumping in as a Penn State alum.
First, I appreciate the candor and respectful way the southern brothers responded to this question. These are probably the best explanations of how southern houses run that I've read on GC.
But second, to the OP, while I understand what you're saying, again, unless Penn State has radically changed, this isn't something to strive to "go back" to, because that's not the tradition of the greek houses there. Which does not mean the houses don't have tradition, they definitely do, but it's different from the southern way. I think if you introduced anyone to Penn State's greek system that wasn't from the deep south, they'd see Penn State as the "traditional greek system" -- it's all just frame of reference.
Out of 40,000 students at PSU, 11 or 12% are greek, so right there, it's a distinct population. People wear letters (except Beta, when I was there, because they said "you just know a Beta" -- well, I knew a guy for a whole year and when he finally wore a shirt with letters right toward the end of the year, I was completely surprised to find out he was a Beta, so whatever) because it's such a large greek system and (a) they're proud to be greek and (b) they want to be associated with their house. And it's flippin' cold, so hey, when it's 20 degrees and snowing, that big letter hoodie is a good idea.
Don't hold your house or our huge northern greek system in comparison to a place like Ole Miss or Bama, they're completely different. Kids in Philly and Pittsburgh and Ohio and New York and from all over the U.S. are not "raised to be greek" like they are in the south. And that's ok because that's just not the frame of reference up there.
Trying to build your house's reputation among the chapters on campus is an admirable and attainable goal, but you need to be realistic about what will fly in Happy Valley. If you guys all start to wear boat shoes, make your pledges wear shirt and tie to football games rather than the "white out" PSU attire the student section rocks out, stop wearing letters and act like you're a "country club", my guess is that it will explode in your face. Build on the strengths of your current brothers and recruit guys that bring additional strengths you need.
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Hybrid Mode
