Change starts today!

Describe in your own words, the dilemma – and the opportunity – facing the Fraternal Movement.

So I am a fourth year at Ohio State, and still the same problems that I realized existed after attending UIFI my freshman year still persist today so to me I think our biggest dilemma is that we know the problem exists, but we are not doing anything to change it. Maybe, we are doing things, but is it really working? Obviously, fraternities and sororities cannot be transformed in a day, but shouldn’t we have made more progress by now? What has changed? Hazing still exists on campuses, individuals still drink too much, we still have apathetic members, we still have members who have checked out as seniors and said that it is not their problem anymore, or there is the member that says they are too busy to change anything. Yet, how ironic that member is the one that sleeps in or that you see sitting on the couch watching tv hour after hour or has plenty of time to go out on the weekend. Isn't it crazy how time just magically appears when there is something that someone wants to do...

So I guess that means to me that the dilemma also lies in our Recruitment Process. How does that member who just wants to be a bystander always get in? Are they good at acting like they are all about the values and action? Yet, once there in the problem still persists... what about our NEW MEMBER PROCESS... Are we educating these men/women to understand what is expected of them? I do not think so. Yes, we share our philanthropies, our creed, and our founders... but I feel that sometimes it just STOPS there. Yet, this should not happen. Education should continue throughout one's fraternal experience. We should be encouraging growth, development, and maturation during one's entire experience. We should be educating our new members on our values, and we, the one’s educating them, we should be practicing those values each day, as you cannot expect something from someone when you yourself are not holding yourself to the same standards…

What would our community be like if we incorporated our values into our meetings, our conversations with potential new members or even students in our classes? What would people say if they heard a sorority woman or a fraternity man say, “last week my brothers and I went and visited elderly women at the nursing home.” Hmm… I think they would be impressed, but that won’t do it all… Friday night, these fraternity men and sorority women should remain classy and not represent our community poorly. For instance, I know we have all said this before, but I will say it again b/c these actions still occur in our community… all of our positive actions become overlooked and ignored when just one individual embarrasses him or herself by drinking too much and blacking out. I do not think that there is anything wrong with drinking, but I do think that moderation is key.

HOWEVER, the fraternal movement has such potential, and it starts today, not tomorrow or with next year’s Exec but with our community and us. I feel like we have already started to take progressive steps especially with what Panhellenic has done. I know I wrote about this in my other blog, but I really think that you can already see changes in our community by just talking about our values. Today, I went and participated in the Reading Program with the City Schools. What a cool experience! If you do not have class tomorrow, you should definitely go! Anyways, I was talking to Zach, the VP of Student Life who coordinated the event with Dr. J, and I was asking him how many participants they had. He responded, “About 200, and he proceeds to say how he is so impressed with Panhellenic and sincerely appreciated our support.” Now, a lot of the push for these participants came from women serving as Panhellenic leaders such as our delegates and directors. I think we had approximately 16 women from PHA Council reading, and I am pretty sure Kristen Darnell and Amanda Chin sent me the names of 10 Alpha Xi Delta women. My point is that we have the potential to CHANGE our COMMUNITY, and the fact that such few people generated this much support within such a short amount of time proves that ONE individual can make a DIFFERENCE. So the opportunity is there, and I think that we recognize that the problems exist, but now it is time for more ACTION and less discussion. In short, I believe the OPPORTUNITY is there for us to CHANGE and make the fraternity and sorority life the organization that EVERYONE wants to JOIN if we just focus on returning to a VALUES-BASED community that is COMMITTED to EDUCATING our members throughout the EXPERINECE and addressing the NEEDS of our community by helping others realize WHY we exist.

So another long blog... guess paraphrasing is not my forte….