So Close, Yet So Far Away

It is impossible to look at our new Fraternal Movement without noticing that it is strikingly similar to the Fraternal Movement today. With the exception of a few big changes – 2 Councils and major university integration – The two movements are quite alike. Yet, it is painfully obvious that the headlines and traits exhibited in our Prezi presentation are all but absent from our community today. Let’s examine those differences and similarities, and dig deeper to find the core community characteristics that lead to them.

Similarities

You might argue that we haven’t quite reinvented the American Fraternity Experience, but produced an idealized vision of what the current Greek should aspire to be. In response to that, I would say, “Well, yes….to an extent.” The current system has standards of excellence. Our system has standards of excellence. The current system has governing councils. Our system has governing councils. The current system has individual chapters. Our system has individual chapters. The current system aims to develop its membership into better persons than they were when they joined. Our system aims to develop its membership into better persons than they were when they joined. Why are these things similar? I’ll take a moment to respond to each point.

The reasoning behind keeping Standards of Excellence, and many of the areas in which we currently have standards, is that as a group we recognized that the SoE has been incredibly successful in the 10 years or so (correct me if that number is wrong) since it was adapted. Before SoE, Greek grades at OSU were lower than student body grades. Since SoE, Greek grades have been better than student body grades every single quarter. Greek performance in philanthropy and service has shown similar results. The moral here is simple: hold people accountable for performing at a certain level, and the majority will reach or even exceed that level.

Concerning governing councils and individual chapters, we see a system that works but needs adjustment. I’ll discuss the adjustments later, but there are several pros to these things that I’ll quickly hit on. Governing councils are important because they’re a place for the community to collaborate together, and they’re responsible for holding everyone accountable. For fraternities, any punishments for rule breaking are handed out and decided by IFC. It is important to have the community punishing its rule breakers, not someone outside the community. Chapters are important because each chapter’s take on what it means to be a fraternity and what values to hold is a little different. This is the source of community diversity, along with diversity of membership. It is important that the community not only keeps diverse membership, but also keeps diversity in the ways it approaches the task of developing persons. Otherwise we’d all be exactly the same.

Concerning the goal of fraternity life, personal development, this one is really simple. The stated goals of the current Fraternity Movement revolve around producing better men and women. By “better” we mean teaching individuals leadership and stressing to them the importance of the values each and every chapter holds dear.  By doing this, we can be the perfect auxiliary to a college education, because we provide individuals with the leadership power and values necessary to take their college education and better the world.

Differences

The first major difference in our community is having only two councils: Men’s & Women’s. The purpose here is encouraging diversity. As it stands now, a whole set of diverse fraternities and sororities are segregated almost by design. By eliminating the other councils and ensuring that everyone has their fair say in the combined councils, our community ensures that diverse points of view are not only considered but encouraged. Furthermore, the new Movement envisions chapters that are more diverse than the ones we have currently, and this embracement of diversity must start from the governing body level. If councils who dictate the tone for the whole community decide to be exclusive rather than inclusive, then everyone not on the “inside” will feel marginalized and lose interest / lash out at the governing body. This is a recipe for failure.

The second big difference is university integration. We believe that Greek life, though not for everyone, can be the perfect auxiliary to the college experience and education. With that in mind, we feel that a close, transparent, and proactive relationship with the university is essential to the success of the new Fraternal Movement. Put simply, we must ensure that the values and goals of our community do not oppose those of the University, rather they must embrace University values and goals while taking a step further and become complementary to those University ideals. The fraternal community must view the university as an asset and vice versa. If both entities hold this view, then they will be able to work with each other to each other’s benefit.

Finally, there are other things in our vision of a new Fraternal Movement that differ vastly from the one we see today. This boils down to a new attitude. This is the area where I believe our community can begin its change into the new fraternal movement, but I also see a lack of change in this area as the beginning of the end for the fraternity system as a whole. I know I’m getting long, so I’ll make it simple. We, everyone in this community, must change our attitudes. We must stop perpetuating the idea that the university and IFC are out to get us. We must stop believing that being Greek means abusing alcohol. We must realize that ‘fratty’ is not the image we should be portraying. We need to look at our rituals and the ideals we claim to espouse and ask whether or not we’re fulfilling those. This goes for fraternities and sororities. When we can get together, start trusting each other, start trusting the process, and work together, we can do some really amazing things. There are some 4000 of us out here. If we all got behind one idea, no one could stop us. The world has been changed by far fewer people, so why don’t we take the opportunity to do something great and create a system that will perpetuate that greatness for generations of college students afterwards.  

As you can see, this dream Fraternity Movement we’ve cooked up is not just a dream. It’s far more than that. It’s a vision statement. It is a goal. It is the community we can, and must be if we are to remain relevant on the college campuses of tomorrow and today.