When I first decided to enroll
at U of I, I had no idea if I wanted to rush or not. I ended up joining one,
which I will not name, however, it is one of the most prominent fraternities on
campus. During my time before my initiation, my pledge class and I faced many
challenges that brought us together and turned us into men. From daily
cleanings to standing in front of a room of men yelling at you to going to 3
am's and having to face the challenges of reciting literature of the fraternity/reciting
"quotas" of active brothers in the chapter house, I transformed from
a boy to a man. My pledge class became a united group of real brothers who have
a strong connection that nobody can understand unless they have experienced it
themselves. We had an initiation week that lasted all week, I will not go into
details about what occurred, however, it was the most challenging week of my
life. I wanted to give up, I cried, I went through hell, but I never gave up. I
knew if I dropped out I would disappoint my best friends who I pledged with and
I knew I was becoming part of something bigger than myself. The day I initiated
was one of the happiest days of my life. I experienced my brothers cry, I
cried. It was a beautiful moment.
Two years later, nationals have
banned our pledgeship and discontinued our initiation week. Nationals believes
by instantly initiating will make us better as a chapter and closer as a
cohesive unit. They believe our pledgeship is unnecessary and has no purpose.
We as a chapter have a huge problem with this change. In our opinion, we
believe you need to earn your place in our fraternity. We all have done it and
we all are better for it. It is not hazing, it is constructive activities that
transform the immature boys we were in high school to young adults that have
priorities, goals, and ambition to be successful in life. We understand
hardship, we know that hard work is necessary for success and by depriving us
of the most beautiful moments of our lives is wrong. These are the transaction
costs in ridding of our pledgeship, we are depriving future pledges the chance
to become men and experience what hard work actually is. Another transaction
cost associated with the new system is that the relationships we build are so
strong because of what we went through together. We all share something so
special to us and we believe it is actually detrimental to the fraternity's
long term future because alumni will not donate back to the house. We have had
discussions with guys from 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013, and current chapter members
and they all are in agreement that they will not give back to the house and
will not continue relationships with the active chapter house. Donations from
alumni are huge and a large part of our financial aid for social events and
philanthropies, without it we could collapse entirely as a chapter.
I believe the transaction costs
associated with doing away with our pledgeship is not worth the risk of
allowing the house to potentially crumble and no longer be an active chapter.
We all love our fraternity, but we adore our chapter. I am proud to call myself
part of this chapter more than I am proud to be part of our fraternity. I would
hate to see one of the greatest chapters in the nation discontinue because we
decided to take away the backbone of of our house, pledgeship.
