Why a fraternity?
May. 20th, 2023 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1So. It's been 40 years since I've been initiated as a brother into the Delta Chi Fraternity. I occasionally get the question, "You're not the typical fraternity type. Why did you join one?"
The short answer: I wanted brothers.
When my sister started at UB (State Univ. of New York at Buffalo) in the fall of 1979, she knew only her classmates from high school. UB is a large school, and it's easy to feel like a number, or a cog in the machine there. She joined a sorority -- Chi Omega (ΧΩ)-- and met other young women. I saw the advantages that she was gaining from being affiliated with a group of similarly-minded young women, and when I started at UB in the fall of 1981, I wanted the same thing.
I didn't pledge my freshman year, because I hadn't turned 18 yet. (I suppose you can say I graduated from high school early. But that was more of a result of being kicked up a year in elementary school. You can thank -- or blame -- my elementary school's 'Gifted Kids with ADHD' program.) So I waited until my sophomore year to join one.
In the fall, I considered pledging for Sigma Phi Epsilon (ΣΦΕ). But since my sister recently broke up with one of their brothers, I don't think I would have gotten very far. In the spring, I pledged Delta Chi (ΔΧ). And somehow, I made a good enough impression to be accepted into full brotherhood, and was initiated on a Saturday night in April 1983.
Recently, fraternities and sororities have come under fire, especially when one of them makes the news as a result of an alcohol abuse incident, a sexual abuse incident, or a hazing incident. We've been fighting that battle since I first joined, and we're still fighting it now, 40 years later.
The short answer: I wanted brothers.
When my sister started at UB (State Univ. of New York at Buffalo) in the fall of 1979, she knew only her classmates from high school. UB is a large school, and it's easy to feel like a number, or a cog in the machine there. She joined a sorority -- Chi Omega (ΧΩ)-- and met other young women. I saw the advantages that she was gaining from being affiliated with a group of similarly-minded young women, and when I started at UB in the fall of 1981, I wanted the same thing.
I didn't pledge my freshman year, because I hadn't turned 18 yet. (I suppose you can say I graduated from high school early. But that was more of a result of being kicked up a year in elementary school. You can thank -- or blame -- my elementary school's 'Gifted Kids with ADHD' program.) So I waited until my sophomore year to join one.
In the fall, I considered pledging for Sigma Phi Epsilon (ΣΦΕ). But since my sister recently broke up with one of their brothers, I don't think I would have gotten very far. In the spring, I pledged Delta Chi (ΔΧ). And somehow, I made a good enough impression to be accepted into full brotherhood, and was initiated on a Saturday night in April 1983.
Recently, fraternities and sororities have come under fire, especially when one of them makes the news as a result of an alcohol abuse incident, a sexual abuse incident, or a hazing incident. We've been fighting that battle since I first joined, and we're still fighting it now, 40 years later.
