<p>Great post, Rico.</p>
<p>Yeah, that was a real good post.</p>
<p>Rico, good post. Unfortunately we have some uninformed people here who insist that they know what frat life is all about because they think all stereotypes are true or that isolated incidences are justifiably extrapolated to the entire Greek universe. I must confess that prior to my son joining a frat I may have sided with them. Now I know better.</p>
<p>As to the question of what goes on during the pledge process, my son told me everything except for the final ceremony which was supposed to be kept secret. Without divulging details that he may view as something that he doesn't want the internet community to know, I can tell you that nothing happened that anyone would think is "horrible". Quite to the contrary, he would quite often call me up after a pledge-related event and I could tell from the sound of his voice that he was really excited. Several of the things that they did while pledging made me quite envious - I wish I had had that type of experience while in college. One of the things that they had to do during the pledge process was a project that improved the house. During parent's weekend, I saw the pride that they had when showing off the end result to their parents. They put their initials into the final product and it will be their legacy to the house for years to come.</p>
<p>Pledging-since many years have passed, I feel free to post what I remember. Most nights at the house it was an exercise period and testing on various frat facts--members names, hometown, major etc.This was all run by jsut the pledge staff. If you did not know the answer you got to drop and do 20 or whatever. We also cleaned the house and did other chores. During the day you had to have smokes for the brothers at all times and run errands for them such as picking up cleaning. Every two weeks or so of the six week period after the basic exercise and stuff the entire membership got to play some games with the pledges. Nothing physical but eating some weird concoctions, being the target for raw egg bombing from above to the open mouth, and other such nonsense. Generally gross but harmless. One night we had Vietcong training where we went out into the woods on a rainy night and went through lots of running and crawling through mud drills. We were done when everyone was completely covered in mud. That was fun.<br>
The only physical abuse was some paddling near the end when people still did not know all the required data. Most I can remember is someone getting two whacks but many had none. Hell night was pretty much like the general abuse nights--eating weird junk( raw liver, pickled pigs feet, hot stuff), one paddle, sitting on an ice block but it was all done blindfolded. At the end you were welcomed into the frat and a large party. I certainly remember the great parties and trips mcuh more than any pain from pledging. We had one regular bar night where we pretty much went out as a group--Thur after 10. Other than the monthly party it was pretty lowkey as far as drinking in the house. Actually in that day pot was more frequently used anyway.</p>
<p>what goes on for pledge rituals around here does involve drinking.
Even at the high school the cheer squad has a hazing process that involves drinking, blindfolds and disrobing in front of a few football players who had requested to watch ( unknown to the new girls)
The last pledge ritual at a local small u that I heard about from the parent of a recruit that was involved was diving into a swimming pool ( after drinking all night) with a catfish. Unfortunately the young man was impaled by the spikes and had to go to the hospital to get them removed, kind of a freak thing that I am sure they did not consider was a strong possiblity.</p>
<p>Wow. Frats sound like truly mature, intellectual environments. </p>
<p>What a deal: $40k a year for my kid to be pelted with raw eggs and abused by some knuckle-dragging frat boy pseudo drill sargeant.</p>
<p>Sheesh.</p>
<p>ID, no one has said that your kid should join a frat. I think it has been stated many times by those who are pro-frat that it may not be for everyone. It seems to be only those who are against frats who somehow think it is their duty to prevent people from joining. Looking at this entire thread, can you find anyone who either was in a frat/sorority or had a kid in a frat or sorority who regrets it? Likewise, in my adult life I have never come across a friend or co-worker who was a Greek who regretted the experience. That should tell you something.</p>
<p>I think it is just an artificial way to "bond".
Something about working together in stressful situations does bring people closer. Those who are working together during the current Tsunami recovery have already reported that they feel they have made connections for life.
Some fraternities may have more constructive methods of promoting bonding, like a back country trip to build trails, working together to build homes in Mexico, or hosting holiday dinners for local homeless but for some reason those don't make the papers as much.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>That should tell you something.</p> </blockquote>
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<p>It tells me that the hazing accomplishes its goal -- to break down the individual and make him believe that being accepted by the group actually has some intrinsic value.</p>
<p>Well, you hear whatever you want to hear, that's you're right.</p>
<p>Actually the idea is to have you bond with your class in the face of shared adversity. You learn how people react to stress and help each other out. Every group has its own form of hazing. I can also say that most of the guys are now your local lawyer, doctor, businessman etc. Several are professors.</p>
<p>Also there was no drinking in any of the pledge activities.</p>
<p>of course you could attend a college that doesn't have fraternities but the freshman weedout process is severe enough to reach the same result.</p>
<p>ID - then tell your kids not to join a Fraternity. It's as simple as that, although I couldn't imagine my parents telling me <em>not</em> to do something.. I'm an adult and I make my own decisions...</p>
<p>I wouldn't call it an artificial bonding process. No more so than a book club, a bowling team, a mom's group or even this forum. </p>
<p>Sure there are other ways to bond in a college environment, but those have there disadvantages as well. Not all kids have a passionate EC or interest that might provide a starting point for finding a group. And as one poster said early on, it is a great way to make a large university more manageable. Yes you can do all that on your own but why should that somehow make choosing a frat or sorority some sign of phoniness or peg you as a follower rather than independent?</p>
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It's as simple as that, although I couldn't imagine my parents telling me <em>not</em> to do something..
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<p>I have seen people do the stupidest things just to prove that nobody was going to tell "them" what to do!</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I wouldn't call it an artificial bonding process. No more so than a book club, a bowling team, a mom's group or even this forum.</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Huh? </p>
<p>I don't recall being pelted with raw eggs, paddled, forced to crawl through mud, or sit on a block of ice in order to post here.</p>
<p>I don't know about mom's groups, but my wife has never described those kinds of hazing/initiation activities, nor am I aware of her ever being forced to consume a fifth of whiskey in order to be "accepted" in a book club.</p>
<p>A frat has always struck me as a false brotherhood, or at least a questionable brotherhood built largely on the negatives of social exclusion and drink-till-you-puke partying. Which is far less admirable in nature than an organization based on a common interest in books or bowling.</p>
<p>It may well be that frats have more to offer than just that, but they've earned their reputation for themselves. No one has thrust it upon them. Until they truly clean up their acts, the public perception will be formed more by tragic headlines than by deeds of social and civic virtue.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>ID - then tell your kids not to join a Fraternity. </p> </blockquote>
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<p>Not an issue for her. At the college she chose, the women students voted to disband sororities because they were exclusionary.</p>
<p>The college does have two non-residential fraternities, after Michael Dukakis failed to rally enough student votes in a campaign to get rid of them in 1951. Participation is minimal (about 5%) and limited almost entirely to members of varsity athletic teams. The frats are widely viewed on campus as the place for kids who want to spend their college years playing beer pong. They tend to lose membership from each pledge class over the course of four years. The prevailing sentiment on her campus seems to be that, while a good game of beer pong can be an amusing diversion, a little bit of playing drinking games goes a long way.</p>
<p>The students are largely ambivalent about the two remaining frats: not much good to be said about them, but they keep the hard core drinking crowd out of people's hair so that's a plus. The frats are totally open door to any student who wants to drop by for a game of beer pong or to watch a football game and drink some beer, but the majority of the campus finds them rather boring after a visit or two. As my daughter says, "watching guys play beer pong and act stupid gets old fast...."</p>
<p>Poker games seem to be the diversion of choice in the dorms right now.</p>
<p>Ah. Why Coureur is one of the posters most worth reading: he hits the nail squarely and succinctly.</p>
<p>"No one has thrust this label on greeks?"</p>
<p>Read my post about stereotyping. Extrapolating the publicized mistakes of the few onto the many in almost every way qualifies as "thrusting this label on the greeks". Sure a handful of chapters may have earned this label, but this is no excuse to expand this to include all greek organizations.</p>