Sigma Alpha Epsilon Announces Historic Change for membership experience

[Sen's Revenge]

I am all for massive, sweeping, transformative changes in theory. They excite me to no end. I immediately envisioned myself as a chapter president confronted with making this work, like Olivia Pope.

And it SHOULD work.... chapters SHOULD be picking dudes they KNOW they really want and making them their brothers. IF SAE allows for a much longer rush period and doesn't penalize chapters for becoming drastically smaller over the next five years, SAE could truly become known as an elite, exclusive, selective fraternity nationally. This is not a terrible branding decision, all things considered.

But here's the problem: Rarely, if ever, does a fraternity's culture supersede the campus culture. What is the usefulness of this sort of image if you are on a campus where "exclusive" isn't as valued as "big" or "gregarious" or whatever it is that works on a specific campus.

In NPHC world, where all of the organizations have abolished pledging since 1990, and some before that, we have certainly entered into a dark ages we are only just now emerging from. Of course the kid sought underground pledging experiences which turned them from children into men and women. That's what people under 25 do, make dumb decisions.

Sorority DEF in the NPHC had a three-day intake process. On one hand, the organization became very successful over the past 20 years in creating a culture that frowned upon the "making" of sisters and embraced the "selection" of sisters. But at what cost? Even though women are still pledging, it's now been 20 years of being called skaters, paper, weekend warriors, etc. And they don't even have a three-day process anymore, but after 20 years, the damage to the undergrad experience has been done.

Anyway, I feel like I am rambling... but my overall point is that unless SAE is prepared to not even compete for the same candidates as their peers, they are in for a lot of problems they hadn't even considered. Hazing persists in NPHC organizations and abolishing pledging hasn't saved lives.

[MysticCat]

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.

I'm not sure it's that brilliant. Personally, if it were my group doing this, I'd rather see a rehaul of how pledging is done first. I've said before that I think that pledging (called by whatever name), at least for males, plays into some important rite-of-passage archetypes—not so much in terms of weeding out, but rather in terms of being fully accepted. NB: By pledging, I do not mean hazing.

Originally Posted by Katmandu

Lambda Chi Alpha does not have pledging.

Yes, it does. It just calls it associate membership. Not having pledging means going straight from bid to full initiation. Lambda Chi goes from bid to an associate member period and then to initiation.

SAEalumnus, thanks for all of the background info. I can see why SAEs may be up in arms about this if there are questions as to the Council's authority. I hate to say it, but I think an attempted change like this is doomed if there isn't broad buy-in from collegiate members, and that's not likely to happen without extensive discussion and feedback that includes everyone.

[33girl]

Re Masons, yes, it would be marvelous if college fraternities could choose their members like that. The difference is that the window of time is a lot shorter. The Masons also don't have to worry about filling a million dollar house.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I'm not sure it's that brilliant. Personally, if it were my group doing this, I'd rather see a rehaul of how pledging is done first. I've said before that I think that pledging (called by whatever name), at least for males, plays into some important rite-of-passage archetypes—not so much in terms of weeding out, but rather in terms of being fully accepted. NB: By pledging, I do not mean hazing.

I guess this is why I am so cynical about it. The national council has told chapters they must implement this or lose their charter. Okay, but they've been telling chapters that they have to stop hazing or lose their charter for years, and hazing is still happening (and I personally have no idea how widespread it is, but obviously the council thinks it is enough of a problem to implement this change).

On an unrelated note, I go by their HQ a lot. Maybe I should look and see if people there look especially stressed out today.