“DROP. DROP. DROP. YOU DON’T WANT THIS, YOU’RE NOT READY.”… These words are what runs through the mind of every hopeful pledge across the nation, the chance to become a Greek, have brothers for life and have a family with a bond that cannot be broken. To many this seems like the perfect way to enhance their college life and identity, for good reason. In this day in age fitting in and having friends is the norm for teenagers and many young adults, being surrounded by good friends is the dream. Many new college students that walk onto campus are worried, a new environment, new teachers, new friends. Highschool is over and done with, you have to start from the bottom. For some this is a breeze, but for others it’s a nightmare. Not everyone is confident when it comes to meeting new people and making new friends, that’s why so many people turn to Greek life when they get to college, they see it as an easy way to belong to something, they see it as a way to get unconditional support from a group of people that will stick by you not only for your four years of school but also for life. While being a Greek sounds like the perfect way to make new friends and become part of a brotherhood or sisterhood that will support and love you for life… the journey there is anything but perfect. Truth is, while every Greek talks about the benefits of joining a fraternity or sorority, not many talk about the journey that got them there. They don’t address the struggle and hard work that is pledging.
When you pledge a fraternity or sorority, you’re agreeing to commit your time and physical being to it. In some fraternities pledging is a process that can take up to a year and a half, in other fraternities this takes place over the matter of weeks. While in the process of pledging, a big part of this is becoming familiar with the fraternity you are having interest in. Bonding with other pledges, learning about every member, studying the history of the fraternity and the founding members and lastly learning about the Greek system as a whole. While learning your history and bonding with the brothers and fellow pledges is an important part of pledging, the next step is far more important, proving that you’re worthy to be made a brother. Not many pledges know just how intense this process can be, they go in hopeful and “ready” to tackle down any challenge that is being thrown at them. Not having any idea to just how hard a task may be is of course challenging in itself but for most pledges, not knowing what’s coming is what strikes the most fear into them.
Many fraternities and sororities have different ways of determining whether a pledge is fit for their organization, all organizations, male or female work differently in how they do things. Fraternity brothers often involve pledges in exercises that build and or test their loyalty and trust. Brothers in the fraternity may assign the new pledges “pledge projects” that require the new pledges to work together, for example, to build something for the fraternity house. This requires them to work together for a common goal, to build trust and show their fellow brothers they are responsible. Another example of how fraternities and sororities test the loyalty and dedication of their new pledges is by putting them through what is best described as “odd jobs”. These odd jobs include things like being the designated weekend driver for your fellow brothers/sisters, and cleaning up after house parties.
Once the fraternity brothers have decided that the new pledges have been educated well enough, they will initiate them into the brotherhood. The initiation ceremony varies from fraternity to fraternity, same with sororities. With every organization though, the initiation ceremonies are kept secret and usually take up to several hours, these ceremonies often involve chanting, robes, candlelight and blindfolds. During this initiation ceremony pledges are initiated into the secrets of the fraternity, their handshakes (grips), mottos, passwords and probably the most interesting of all, they learn the meanings behind rituals.
Following initiation is the darker side of becoming Greek, hazing. Hazing is a practice that has been around for more than two thousand years and has roots going back to the founding of Plato’s Academy back in the year of 387 B.C., at the time students considered the act of hazing to be a “natural way” to teach new students precedence. In other words, the students thought that the new incoming students had to go through hardships before they could live the sweet and comfortable life of a student. Hazing is still around today and according to StopHazing.org, It is divided into three categories which are subtle, harassing and violent. Subtle acts of hazing can leave the victim feeling extremely embarrassed and humiliated. An example of this can be social isolation. Harassing acts of hazing are more intense, this type of hazing can cause “emotional anguish and physical discomfort”. Examples of this type of hazing include not letting pledges take showers for long periods of time, extreme levels of sleep deprivation and in some cases even the performance of sexually degrading skits. Lastly, there’s violent hazing. Violent hazing is far more serious than both the subtle and harassing levels, violent hazing is the type that you would hear about in the news and or watch being portrayed in a movie. Examples of this include binge drinking, abductions, beatings and branding. Many pledges go through this every year, some handle better than others and in turn continue with the pledging process.
Universities with Greek systems and every national fraternity and sorority prohibits the act of hazing. The purpose of a fraternity, as stated by them, is to make a pledge a better man, one that strives to be better than he is already. According to Kappa Alpha, the oldest social fraternity, they refer to hazing as “the fratricide of brotherhood” (via Kappa Alpha website).