Sigma Alpha Epsilon Announces Historic Change for membership experience

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by sugar and spice

I think it's a brilliant idea in theory. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out in reality.

Basically, in chapters with hazing traditions, members become full brothers, but are still treated as NM's...the most recent pledge class is still hazed.

[Katmandu]

Lambda Chi Alpha does not have pledging.

[sugar and spice]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Basically, in chapters with hazing traditions, members become full brothers, but are still treated as NM's...the most recent pledge class is still hazed.

But those most recent members will now have the leverage of knowing ritual secrets, which they'll take with them if they quit and will probably be inclined to share if the older members treat them too harshly. It's possible that SAE HQ isn't too worried about this over the long run, given that everybody's ritual is probably going to end up splashed all over the internet sooner or later. For the meantime, though, for hazed new members, it's leverage.

I agree with you that it's not going to magically fix the problem of hazing, but I do think it puts the newer members on much leveler ground with the older members.

With Lambda Chi Alpha, Sig Ep, and most of the other groups that have eliminated "pledging," don't most of them still have some kind of associate member/new member period where initiation doesn't happen for the first couple months? ZBT might be the exception where initiation happens immediately, I'm not sure.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by sugar and spice

But those most recent members will now have the leverage of knowing ritual secrets, which they'll take with them if they quit and will probably be inclined to share if the older members treat them too harshly. It's possible that SAE HQ isn't too worried about this over the long run, given that everybody's ritual is probably going to end up splashed all over the internet sooner or later. For the meantime, though, for hazed new members, it's leverage.

I agree with you that it's not going to magically fix the problem of hazing, but I do think it puts the newer members on much leveler ground with the older members.

With Lambda Chi Alpha, Sig Ep, and most of the other groups that have eliminated "pledging," don't most of them still have some kind of associate member/new member period where initiation doesn't happen for the first couple months? ZBT might be the exception where initiation happens immediately, I'm not sure.

I don't really think that members who engage in hazing are going to be deterred by the fact that the NMs already know ritual secrets. In the chapters I've seen adopt a no-pledging program, nothing changed.