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Hey y'all - I'm the author.
Just saying thanks for sharing the post (whether you agree or disagree), and I'm happy it sparked a little conversation. A couple quick thoughts:
- I don't think alcohol is necessary, I just meant to point out that it's strange how many formal recruitment events are modeled after parties, but are sort of sterile environments. (I was a fraternity recruiter for 3 years; I've recruited hundreds w/o alcohol. I think good organizations still will & still do)
- I don't think allowing structure is bad - but the best fraternities and sororities continue recruiting throughout the year. It requires that they develop a strong brand and learn to be social and reach out to people. I think that some managed recruitment settings (particularly NPC's, which IFCs sometimes poorly copy) can prop up failing organizations. Making a small group of apathetic men who haze much larger makes their problems equally large. As someone who worked in the field, we need to be more willing to let fraternities/sororities fail.
- The single point I try to reinforce (throughout the whole blog actually) is that fraternities & sororities need to break away from focusing so intently on risk. That's why we have these unnatural settings and pledge periods and standards of excellence programs. It's not that they are bad, my concern is that many people consider them "fixes" when they are often bandaids. Having worked in the Greek Life world, I think a lot of what we do borrows old PR tactics from the 70's & 80's and it's outdated and a turn off to the incoming generation of students (Gen Z).
That's all. Thanks again for sharing and I'm happy to see people thinking and responding.
-Nik (Fraternity Man)
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