[23132] in APO-L
Re: [APO-L] Issue Two
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jason Risner)
Wed Nov 6 21:17:51 2002
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 20:59:41 -0500
Reply-To: Jason Risner <jason_risner@ATT.NET>
From: Jason Risner <jason_risner@ATT.NET>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
In-Reply-To: <697683E8805300941820BEC4C5115272@JayBEE.25-52.zzn.com>
Quote: "Some people think that you have to pledge hard to get dedicated
brothers, and that's what we must have been doing. That's been the extent
of most investigations. Hard to explain? No. We just know how to pledge
individuals and this pledging develops dedication. Is that the issue here?"
Well, I'll state for the record that I have no problem with stringent
pledging requirements. Some of the requirements the chapter I pledged made
of those seeking membership at the time included:
- at least 40 service hours
- at least 5 "fellowship" hours
- attendance at all chapter & pledge meetings (excepting extenuating
circumstances)
- carrying a blackbook at all times to be signed by all actives
- creating a plaque signed by every active member,
My chapter has had to defend the practice at Nationals because some saw it
as a form of hazing - we were luckily able to demonstrate otherwise. We
substantiated that we were not asking the pledges to do things that the
actives were not being asked to do.
I agree with your statement that a strenuous pledging process breeds strong
membership - my chapter produced many dedicated brothers. It's not a
practice that's exclusive to chapters at HBCU's in any way - nor is the
concern that hazing may be occuring in chapters who use such pledging
programs.
Assume for a moment that a larger proportion of chapters at HBCU's have
stringent pledging programs than other chapters (a point JayBEE has made in
the past). It would then follow that there would be more claims of hazing
associated with these chapters. Give me a group of chapters not at HBCU's
who have stringent pledging processes - I would wager those chapters also
have problems with claims of hazing.
To the point, I'm having a hard time substantiating the claim that chapters
or brothers associated with A-Phi-Que have been discriminated against by
Nationals or the general membership. It is central to EVERY debate about
A-Phi-Que that's ever appeared on this list. There's always plenty of hot
air surrounding these debates, but never any facts.
We can go around and around indefinitely with this debate, but until we can
start getting some hard facts substantiating A-Phi-Que's are being
discriminated against, there is no point continuing this debate.
In L,F,S for Life,
Jason Risner
Epsilon Lambda alum
