*shoutout to Yivkarah for the picTime for another Greek Life post.
Lately, I've been talking to my friends Charity and Brittany a lot. We believe that, too often, people pledge for the wrong reasons. One thing I was told by one of my big brothers is that I pledged Alpha Phi Alpha through the Pi Zeta chapter and not vice versa. Regardless of where I went to school, I was going to be an Alpha. Had I not been Pi Zeta, I would have tried to get down Eta O or Mu Tau or the Alpha chapter if that's where life had taken me. And if I didn't get selected for the undergraduate ranks, I would have gone grad. I didn't do it for the stepping or the jacket b/c 1 - I can't step and 2 - I don't really need a line jacket. I didn't even do it for my line brothers, though I wouldn't trade them for anything. I did it because Alpha Phi Alpha impacts the community in a way that I saw as necessary and I wanted to be apart of it. I'm thankful for the network but I don't need Alpha's network to be successful. I'm thankful for the accolades it has brought but I would have gotten them by myself. I already had a strong resumé before Alpha. I wanted that brotherhood and that service. Too many people get in, are excited until they become prophytes, and then push the work off to the neos.
Pledging has become like marriage; the term lifetime commitment means very little to most people these days. Make the necessary sacrifices to do what you must and be an effective force in your organization. All Greeks have stayed up late at night and dealt with little sleep. How do you think we got the grades to get in the organization? But when we get in, we let our grades slip, we make excuses (What are excuses?) as to why we don't have the time to do service, and/or we choose to spend our money on liquor and other vices instead of helping our frat or sorors. So did you really pledge or are you just another letter-wearing person who isn't even holding up the values for which your organization was founded? And I can say this about people from Alphas to Iotas, touching on every organization in between. Let's really take an honest inventory of ourselves and then make better decisions on the people we bring in. But you can't ask anyone else to do something that you're not doing.
Next, I want to touch on the way that we bring people in. Aside from the M.I.P. part, we don't attract people in the right way. Guys, we often stand behind our tables and don't approach the young guys to speak to them. Girls, you all always sit behind your tables. Why do people have to be treated the way you were? That's what perpetuates this cycle of slack Greeks. What makes me any better than any aspirant? Yes, I have what they want and they will still come in the way I came in, but let's at least know that we appreciate them coming by the table or coming to our programs. Let's serve as mentors to these freshmen, regardless of what organization they want to be in.
That leads me to my next point... We tell freshmen not to flip flop but who cares if someone comes to your program and then decides that they want to attend another organization's interest meeting or rush? Especially if it's early on in their collegiate life? It's one thing to come in and tell the whole campus "I'm going to be an Alpha" and then pledge Kapp but maybe the person is genuinely interested in the program you're throwing. Or maybe he is on the fence and wants to make sure his heart is in it. And maybe it's not an reflection on that aspirant but on our ability to really hold up the light of our organization (For more clarification, see Luke 6:42). Either way, we really have to stop being so judgmental because half of us were in the same boat our freshman year (not me but I know plenty of people who were).
And I'm not talking about anyone in particular. But if you think I am talking about you, maybe I am and I don't even know it.
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
