I want to join a fraternity!

[Cesky]

Hi guys! I just joined here, so sorry if this is the wrong forum. I just had a question.

My father was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and I'm really interested in becoming a legacy. Problem is, my university doesn't have a Greek system.

I'm thinking about going to a different university for Grad school. I was just wondering if most fraternities allow people to pledge as grad students?

If anyone here is from SigEp, that would be very helpful.

[BemoreLXA]

Originally Posted by Cesky

Hi guys! I just joined here, so sorry if this is the wrong forum. I just had a question.

My father was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and I'm really interested in becoming a legacy. Problem is, my university doesn't have a Greek system.

I'm thinking about going to a different university for Grad school. I was just wondering if most fraternities allow people to pledge as grad students?

If anyone here is from SigEp, that would be very helpful.

From an honest stand point, you should of considered this before you decided upon going to a school without greek life and you're only way to get the typical undergraduate greek experience that many of us here enjoy would be by transfering to a school with a greek system.

Alternatively, you could go about routes which will allow greek life to come to your campus but it probably won't be successful

[Titchou]

First of all, I'm sorry for the loss of your father. Young men need their fathers at this crucial point in their lives.

Second, you can't "become" a legacy as you already are one.

Third, yes, some chapters take grad students. You'd just have to inquire of the Greek Life office on particular campus what the norm is there.

[AnotherKD]

Originally Posted by Titchou

First of all, I'm sorry for the loss of your father. Young men need their fathers at this crucial point in their lives.

Second, you can't "become" a legacy as you already are one.

Third, yes, some chapters take grad students. You'd just have to inquire of the Greek Life office on particular campus what the norm is there.

Snark?
He probably meant that his father was a Sig Ep while in school... not many people who are greek will tell others that their mom or dad (or someone else) IS greek, when they went to school awhile ago. I wouldn't have thought to word it like that had I not joined.

[lucgreek]

Depending on what you're going to grad school for, you probably won't even have time for fraternity involvement even if you go to a school that regularly pledges grad students.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by BemoreLXA

Alternatively, you could go about routes which will allow greek life to come to your campus but it probably won't be successful

Maybe, maybe not. There is a chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon at Georgetown, which doesn't recognize Greek life. To the original poster, if you are on the younger side (freshman or sophomore), you may want to inquire directly with the fraternity about their interest in expansion to your school.

To Titchou, although the OP might not have known this, there are indeed some organizations which do not consider non-members to be legacies. It is used as a term to define a relationship between members.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by AnotherKD

Snark?
He probably meant that his father was a Sig Ep while in school... not many people who are NPC or NIC greeks will tell others that their mom or dad (or someone else) IS an NPC or NIC greek, when they went to school awhile ago. I wouldn't have thought to word it like that had I not joined.

I clarified your post.

I agree with you based on the NPC and IFC cultures, but I hope Titchou simply thought the OP lost his father and wouldn't be snarky about something like that.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

I clarified your post.

And I clarified it a little more, since I think there was a negative missing in there.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

And I clarified it a little more, since I think there was a negative missing in there.

Greetings, dear sir.

[elicampbell]

I am a SigEp. It is my understanding that only undergraduates my join SigEp. I may be wrong.

If you attend a school that has a chapter of SigEp, you might want to volunteer to help the chapter. I did that in grad school.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by elicampbell

If you attend a school that has a chapter of SigEp, you might want to volunteer to help the chapter. I did that in grad school.

Swerving, but you allow non-members to get involved with chapter business? I can see an alum coming back in an advisory role, but not a random person coming around.

Interesting.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Swerving, but you allow non-members to get involved with chapter business? I can see an alum coming back in an advisory role, but not a random person coming around.

Interesting.

It's definitely possible.

On a related note… http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh....php?t=100210:

NutBrnHair: How many non-member advisors are out there for NPC groups?

azgz: There's actually a lot. Campus advisors, for one, are often not members of the organization. My chapter's campus advisor is the dean of the humanities college at Gannon. Every semester for midterms and finals she would send a huge spread to the house so we had food to eat while studying. Plus, she would come to (open) events - we even invited her to feast of roses after initiation.

I know another chapter on my campus had my former boss as their campus advisor, a secretary in the new student services office. She was wonderful and extremely active in the chapter, and the chapter appreciated it. Not sure if she was ever extended membership, but honestly I think that chapter would be crazy if they didn't!

ETA: Our campus advisor was also really really helpful in finding a room big enough to do initiation - and very good at keeping it discrete and making sure that there weren't a lot of groups using those buildings when we were initiating a new member class.

ASTalumna06: From what I understand, AST has quite a few non-member advisors. We are also able to have male advisors, one of which is David Stollman, Co-founder of CAMPUSPEAK, who advises the Delta Phi chapter at NYU. LOVE him!

Blondie93:

I think it is more common on rural campuses where recruiting alumnae to serve is difficult. I went to grad school in relatively-rural Virginia, and there were quite a few chapters on that campus that had advisors who were not members of the organization. Most of the advisors were employees of the university in some regard.

There was also the poster recently who advised the ZTA chapter that her sister had been a part of. That chapter then voted to offer her membership as an AI. IIRC it was a similar situation- rural campus with no one else to help the chapter.

groovypq: I was one. The chapter I advise is pretty much geographically isolated - the nearest alumnae chapters are at least an hour away and, this not being a high population area, there just aren't a lot of alumnae nearby. When the chapter's previous advisor moved away, the chapter asked me to be its advisor - my sister was an alumna of the chapter and I also coach one of the current sisters. So I guess I was a little unusual in that I already had a connection to the chapter, but I wasn't a member when I became advisor. I am now, though.

I know that on my campus, the fraternities all had faculty advisors. I think the only one that had an actual member as an advisor was KDR, who had a faculty advisor who was also a brother.

In all of these cases (even with my own organization having non-members serve in advisory roles), I’m not sure what the requirements would be.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

It's definitely possible.

The faculty advisors were often non-members at my alma mater, too. Those advisors were mostly around for signing paperwork, though. That doesn't seem like the same thing that elicampbell brought up. Most (if not all) of the GLOs had organization advisors (who were members) guiding the chapters.

I read that as a "go to the chapter and help them with chapter business" thing. I wouldn't mind a non-member supporting ODPhi events, but if someone (who was ineligible for membership) wanted to come to meetings and get into chapter business, that would be an issue.

ETA: Just re-read some of the quotes you posted. It looks like many of these rural campuses had advisors serving both roles. My alma mater is in the middle of the 4th largest metro in the US, so there were plenty of GLO members to choose from.

[ASTalumna06]

The extent to which he would be welcome to participate will probably weigh heavily on which grad school he attends, what the fraternity's policy is when it comes to advisors, and how open the chapter members are to the idea.

And in all of the examples above, the advisors had SOME connection to the sorority and/or school... above and beyond just being a student there.

In conclusion... I wouldn't put my money on this working out.

[dnall]

To the OP, you really should have considered that before you picked your school. At this point, if you're serious about this, you should transfer. I don't get the grad student user name and what you're asking. If you're in grad school you may have missed your chance, but should still inquire with some chapters at schools you'd be willing to transfer to.

Regarding non-members being involved... while many things are similar about the way an undergraduate chapter operates from one org to another, the advisory/governance side is often very different.

My fraternity is an old major national and we operate with an a board system. It is primarily advisory in practice, but has significant governance powers over the overall local org (chapter, alumni assoc, & liaison function with housing corp). Within that corporate board structure, the majority of are obviously alumni. However, there is no restriction that trustees be initiates. When establishing a new chapter, we routinely pull in parents, faculty, and possibly even someone from the community. With established chapters, the faculty advisor (mostly for signing stuff) sometimes sits on that board, and about half the time they'll have a parent's club rep as a trustee. Male non-initiates who make a solid contribution after serving on such boards for a while are often honorary initiated. Obviously that is not the greek experience that everyone else had though.