Penn State Fraternity fines members for not volunteering

[hoosier]

[ Monday, Feb. 14, 2005 ]

Penn State Fraternity fines members for not going canning
For every Thon fund-raising weekend missed, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 200 E. Beaver Ave., charges $30.
By Joelle Hutcheon
Collegian Staff Writer

A chapter in the greek community has taken it upon themselves to ensure members participate in canning weekends for the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, 200 E. Beaver Ave., recently started to fine members who do not participate in canning weekends.

Fraternity President Chris Beans said a member is fined $30 for every trip missed.

A member could receive up to $120 in fines if he misses all four canning trips. "It's really a new thing I started when I took over," Beans said.

He added that the fines are there to make sure all available members participate in raising money for Thon.

"We encourage all the guys -- Thon is a very important thing," Beans said.

Evan Jacobs, Thon rules and regulations overall, said Thon is a student-run philanthropy, therefore all money raised is on the basis of volunteering.

He added that Thon organizers do not promote the fines.

Jacobs said that although raising money for Thon is not a competition, members of organizations are allowed to give out fines based on their own standards. He added that members of these organizations should be aware of the individual policies.

Interfraternity Council (IFC) Associate Vice President A.J. Jugan, the council's Thon liaison, said most of the time the fine does not come straight out of a fraternity member's pocket.

"We never want to force people to raise money by any means," he said.

Jugan added that many fraternities set a target fund-raising number to keep members on pace.

If a fraternity member misses a canning weekend, he would then be responsible for raising an extra amount of money during the next canning trip.

Colleen Briley, Panhellenic Council (PHC) president, said she has not heard of any sororities that fine their members for not attending canning trips. "I think it is up to the individual organization what they decide on," she said.

Briley added that individual sorority chapters would have to agree to a sorority giving sanctions for not canning. PHC does not force any sorority to participate in canning weekends, she added.

Scott Fortner (sophomore-supply chain management), a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said he missed the first Thon canning weekend and was threatened with a fine, but it never went through. "I think it is a good way to get people going," he said.

Fortner added that most of the members in the house attend the canning trips, but there are always a few that wind up staying behind.

Former IFC President Andy Hackett said his fraternity, Sigma Nu, 340 N. Burrowes Road, does not sanction members who do not go canning, but he has heard of other fraternities that do. "I've heard some sort of consequences for certain fraternities," he said. "But to stress on individual trips, I have not heard of that."

[33girl]

Going canning and volunteering really aren't the same thing. This is more like fining people for not showing up at meetings or events.

It's impossible to understand what a HUGE deal Thon is if you're not from around Penn State.

[Firehouse]

Typical left wing journalists. It is not enough to serve Big Brother; one must love him as well. I agree with them in that I am opposed to fines. When "service" is required, it becomes servitude. But...SAE is a private organization and they can do what they want. The newspaper's criticizim of Greeks because they compete among each other to more fully support a worthy charity just shows the depth of hatred these types have for fraternities. You can't change their minds; to change the paper, Greeks will have to become involved as staff people and take over.

[kddani]

Penn State is a few hours from Pittsburgh, yet every weekend I see Penn State greeks canning around here. I notice them b/c they're idiots sometimes and I almost end up wacking them with my car when trying to get into the shopping center.

Is canning really an efficient way to raise money???

I am happy to say that I never canned my chapter just never did it really- a coupel times I think some people went down to Steelers games and canned. Can't say that I missed it. I've always hated begging for money like that.

ETA: I love fines as discipline. Of course, that may also be because I used to be treasurer of my chapter. But with college students, nothing speaks to them like money (besides alcohol, lol)

[honeychile]

Okay, I believe in charities as one of the pillars of the Greek Society. I understand that Thon is HUGE at PSU.

BUT!! When someone supposedly smart enough to get into a college runs out into the street to beg money from people parked at lights, I question their sanity. I have never, and will never give money to anyone silly enough to risk their lives to go canning. I know that's an unpopular view, but it's one I've heard expressed by other people, too.

As for SAE fining their members for not canning, I would suggest this: Set a figure that each member needs to collect towards THON, and make it high. Let the member decide if he is stupid enough to go canning, or if he wants to raise it another way. I would also reward any brother who raises double that figure somehow.

This isn't an original idea, as this is what we did for charity. We would assess each sister $150 towards the charity, and at Pitt, each Greek was also expected to give blood within 60 days. Knowing that you can donate blood every 57 days (if healthy), and that some sisters will also go above & beyond to raise money, we had what we called "The Double Dippers" - those who gave blood twice or raised over $300 towards charity. The sister who was able to raise the most money was, of course, rewarded, too.

Just an idea or two.

[texas*princess]

Originally posted by kddani
ETA: I love fines as discipline. Of course, that may also be because I used to be treasurer of my chapter. But with college students, nothing speaks to them like money (besides alcohol, lol)

I think that really depends on the individuals as to whether or not fines is a discipline. My boyfriend for example used to hate selling things. His fraternity chapter was small, and one of the fundraisers they did was a BBQ plate selling thing. Each brother was responsible for selling maybe 10 tickets. And since the bf hated asking people for money for these tickets, he just bought all the tickets himself, and distributed them to his friends.

I guess that's one way of doing it. hehehe.

In my own experience, I've noticed that fines work for some and not others. LIke me, for example. I pretty much worked through college and paid my way through. I didn't really have the extra cash to give to the chapter for fines of any sort, so I def. tried to avoid fines. That wasn't always the case with other sisters though. Some didn't care there was a fine and just decided to not show up anyway.

I think fining is really negative... I don't know about other people, but I hate being told that something is "MANDATORY OR ELSE you will be fined". I hate it. Not all people care and not everyone is going to show up just because there is a fine involved. If they don't want to attend for whatever reason, they won't be there and will gladly fork over the cash to make up for their absence.

My school never did canning, but I can almost guarantee ya'll that is not something I would enjoy doing, and probably would have worked my budget to squeeze the money out for a fine.

I like honeychile's idea of letting the members decide how they are going to raise the money.. it's a lot less negative than "BE THERE OR YOU WILL BE FINED! BWAH HA HA!"

[33girl]

Originally posted by honeychile
This isn't an original idea, as this is what we did for charity. We would assess each sister $150 towards the charity

If we would have been assessed for something like this, we would have had nothing to show for it. Canning may not be the most efficient thing out there, but you have to be sensible about where and how you do it.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by 33girl
If we would have been assessed for something like this, we would have had nothing to show for it.

Which goes to show that what works for one chapter, doesn't work for another. We had a bunch of "Daddy's girls" whose parents would pay the money, rather than see their daughter canning.

[PSUSigKap]

we raise the majority of our $3.6 million for THON every year through canning. each canning trip i went on would raise at least $3000 usually more like $5000.

while i don't necessarily agree with fining for not going canning, i'm fairly certain each organization votes on the rules regarding participation in THON. i know we do.

most organizations set a quota of how much each member is to individually raise through solicitation, how many of the four canning trips are required, etc.

SAE got in trouble a few years ago for misappropriation of THON funds, which i think is the reason why the Collegian decided to bring up their organization. the Collegian is not really a greek friendly paper. the few times we do get good press it's usually about THON, which incidentally is this weekend.

48 hours no sitting, sleeping for the dancers. hopefully we'll beat last year's total of over $3.5 million and get back to $3.6 where we were the first 3 years i was at Penn State!

ETA: many of the places where we go canning require permits and/or special permission to be on the streets. it's up to the person hosting the canning trip to obtain the proper permission from their town/county/wherever

[BSUPhiSig'92]

We used to do canning for various philanthropies when I was in undergrad. We usually called them roadblocks. Since then many municipalities and some states have outlawed doing it on the streets. We used to raise some big $$$ during Greek Week if we were assigned a prime intersection. Now in Indiana and Illinois, I don't really see anyone doing this anymore.

[kddani]

Has anyone ever gotten hit by a car or otherwise injured during canning?

Just a random question out of curiousity.

[PSUSigKap]

not that i know of in the 4 years i was at penn state.

[madmax]

Canning is stupid. They drive over 100 miles each way to stand in a busy intersection and beg for money. It is nothing more than panhandling. They would probably be better off getting jobs at McDonalds. You could make $50 working at the McDonalds pay the $30 fine and pocket the extra $20.

[PSUSigKap]

that "panhandling" has helped raise approximately $30 million dollars over the past 30 years to help children with cancer.

i'm sorry you think canning is stupid and that getting a job at mcdonalds is better, but if standing out in the cold for a few hours and "begging" for money is going to help ease the pain of one child with cancer, it's worth it.

http://www.thon.org

[polarpink]

If canning wasn't worth the time, people wouldn't be doing it.

Trust me that canning is more lucrative than working in McDonald's- groups were known to bring an easy four figure sum in one day (sizable groups in a populated location)... in Indiana.
I don't think most McDonald's employees (at least non-corporate ones) pull down that kind of money in a couple of hours.

We would can for our Dance Marathon, and people would stop for us and most groups (sororities, fraternities, dorms, etc). You usually had a cute guy or pretty girl standing in the middle of the street with a big DM can, usually with face paint and philanthropy shirts on. Its a good draw. I found people were overwhelmingly receptive.

There may be a law against it in Indiana though because I thought we were prohibited from doing it senior year.