[Applause] historically fraternities were The Outsiders and if not The Outsiders the enemy people have always wondered whether or not they should be here many of them had to meet and see fraternities were formed to create worlds of private pleasure advantages of a fraternity or who throws the best
Party that means who has the best music who has the best looking women I kind of felt like when I walked in there I was kind of like a trophy girl and guys were just kind of checking me out we’re geared to hang in packs like dogs and
That’s fraternity I joined a chapter that hazed one person who gets hurt is one person too many it doesn’t take a whole bunch of people to make it a big bad problem fraternities are an easy target you know to kind of knock down and all I would say is that it was a
Rich time for me it was more of a lifetime thing even in depth we have an Omega chapter because you know we don’t die we just change chapters Yeah College fraternities are as American as apple pie they’ve been a central part of campus life for almost two centuries perhaps it’s the girls and the parties or perhaps because fraternities may be the key to power and success we’re about to take a rare inside look at how this unusual world of privilege
Began and how it operates today paternity is another of the institutions that perpetuate privilege in the society there’s a vast Alumni network that you can tap into it can absolutely help shape your career for many of its members a college fraternity is much more than a good old
Boys network it is the ultimate Network 19 of the last 32 U.S presidents were members of fraternities so are many current Senators congressmen and Supreme Court Justices as well as one out of every four Fortune 500 CEOs the bonds forged among these men all begin on a college campus in a university situation
Sometimes you can get lost and to go someplace where everybody knows your name doesn’t mean you have weak character but it’s a very gratifying it’s very gratifying to go from knowing no one to having the feeling that 50 people want to know you those bonds can last Lifetime and shape our politics our
Economy our culture our future but are fraternity is really all about character leadership and Brotherhood or something a little less noble I was like oh my God they’re a fret I can go to frat parties it’ll be like in a movie or something Don’t cost nothing that’s an extreme case of fraternities people can’t live that lifestyle and and be a student they’ll come in for a semester and they’ll party like they lived in the Animal House [Applause] they soon find themselves back at home or at a community college trying to get
Their grades back in order two centuries ago fraternities bore little resemblance to the Animal House image of today there were the Greek letters secret mottos and ritualistic handshakes but the ideals of early fraternities were in truth service loyalty and love of wisdom not in parties girls in the love of a keg
One of the oldest and largest fraternal organizations in the world began in the Middle Ages by the Masons who built the Great European cathedrals by the 18th century they had evolved into social societies and admitted non-craftsmen called accepted masons they created the complex system of rituals and symbols still in use today
By the mid-18th century masonry had traveled to the new world Freemasonry took on a separate life there a colonialized and Americanized life if you will and the most prominent Americans became Freemasons including its believed George Washington Ben Franklin and other signers of the Declaration of Independence in the late 18th Century College was
Largely for upper-class young men preparing for the ministry medicine or law but for them life was anything but easy they lived in dorms no running water no no heating system it was something of a Spartan existence I think there was a basic need for togetherness there had to be something outside of the
Dreariness of the college life in the the 1800s that there was a need for friendship students endured a bleak monotonous routine of prayer study more prayer sleep and more study it was a curriculum that didn’t seem to have much bearing on their life they came to college having enjoyed a fair amount of
Independence and all at once they were forced into a role of being children students had little say about their personal and academic lives rarely was there an animated exchange of ideas in the classroom where reciting memorized text was considered the height of intellectual achievement the American universes were kind of patterned more
Like European universities where the professor is King and the idea that a student can even ask a question was not very much allowed in those days but today on college campuses students have unparalleled Freedom they come here as 18 year olds and they’re for the first time they are they have time on
Their hands the parents aren’t physically here they have money they’re dealing with a lot of different things history and tradition are deeply woven into the fabric of fraternity life nowhere is that more apparent than at the University of Mississippi founded in 1848 Ole Miss today is generally considered one of the great
Universities in the South ranking among the top in the U.S in its production of Rhodes Scholars with African Americans making up 13 of the student body Ole Miss has come a long way from the Jim Crow days of 1962 when U.S Marshals and National Guardsmen had to protect James
Meredith from a rioting mob as he enrolled as the University’s first African-American student the first fraternity was founded here two years after the university opened its doors today a third of its almost 13 000 undergraduates have joined one of the 19 fraternities in 13 sororities on campus
Many of their families have strong ties to Ole Miss that go back Generations if without question that I want to join a fraternity I want to feel like I’m part of something special you need a group of people that you can hang out with the people you can count on and trust and
You know tell everything and tell anything to them Karen Foose is a 19 year old freshman from Mobile Alabama he’s also a legacy someone whose brother father or other relative has been a member of that fraternity Karen plans to join one maybe Phi Delta Theta because
That’s just what the fooses do here my brother’s a fortune race in Fidel then my dad Don Foose was a Fidel and then his dad Sam Foos was a five dealt and then my great-grandfather Samuel Foose was a Fidel I feel proud coming from a big fish family tradition our family is
Very very close the fight out connection runs very deep in my family 21 year old Ransom Foods Curran’s brother is a junior and is following the family tradition of Phi Delta Theta he’s hoping corin will too Kearns in a unique situation I think he wants to prove to himself that he can
Get a bid somewhere else oh yeah let me throw it down and he’s not just getting a bit here because he’s my brother in high school I played a football basketball and baseball and he was on the football team was a freshman with me and he was through time Allstate
And one of them was on a broken leg and they won the state championship which is pretty much unheard of so F Prime of X is what I’m a major in business and I’m thinking about maybe going to graduate school and being an architect or I’m going to be a lawyer
And maybe I’ll work back with my dad when current win an F term pledge is here it’s going to be it’s gonna be great I think there’s a responsibility to something larger than yourself when you’re in a fraternity I like that Matt McKenzie is a senior and the president
Of this Phi Delta Theta chapter he was recently honored as the Fidel here a prestigious national award given to one member who best upholds the fraternity’s ideals Matt congratulations this chapter president in the fraternity I kind of make sure just basically everything’s running smoothly father I think they do
For Life Food and for today as you move throughout the campus you’re recognized as a Fidelity instead of an individual and I’m I like that it’s early September and Rush when fraternities Recruit new members is right around the corner Coming up at Ole Miss Rush is in full swing I told Garner that he didn’t place here I’d kill him he told me he’s going to kill me if uh if I didn’t find out so we’ll see though for both America and American fraternal organizations 1776 was the year of new beginnings on
December 5th in Williamsburg Virginia at the College of Mary the first Society using Greek letters was founded it was called Phi Beta Kappa like college literary societies of the time the members of Phi Beta Kappa would debate a range of literary and philosophical ideas over pints at the Raleigh Tavern
Those young men at William and Mary College were looking for something they could do on their own without having to get permission from their professors I’m not even sure that professors even knew that they were performing uh Phi Beta Kappa what is the nature of law what is
The good Society how should human beings treat each other uh these kinds of broader philosophical questions were not being addressed in the curriculum the young man of Phi Beta Kappa were also bound together by rituals a motto an oath of fidelity a secret handshake and membership badges
By the turn of the century Phi Beta Kappa had spread to other campuses it was part of the growing impulse by students for greater control over their own lives they were being by a president and a faculty who wanted to keep them in their place as boys who had to be
Obedient to all authority in the post-revolutionary era students were desperate to escape constricting rules and a domineering faculty the board of administrators of colleges were ministers a Fellowship of Christians was okay but a fellowship of Brothers who wanted to enjoy nothing more than a friendly debate or the company of each
Other was a threat to the way that colleges wanted things to be the young man of 1800 they’re no longer willing to tolerate the authority of presence professors tutors so what you get in in colleges and universities across the country is a wave of riots each right seems to have a specific cause
Bad butter some students being expelled but if you look at them as they happened almost universally you have to say something was in the air in 1799 and again several years later students rioted at the University of North Carolina they stoned two professors and horse whipped the president at Princeton
After students disrupted morning prayers by loudly rubbing their boots on the wooden floor they were expelled classmates went wild shooting guns in the air smashing walls and doors and rolling stone-filled barrels through hallways at Yale students bombed a residence hall and a tutor was killed as
He tried to stop a fight it would take years before colleges would come to accept student autonomy into academic life But on this autumn day at the University of Mississippi student organizations operate at the center of Campus Life with the yearly ritual of fraternity recruitment or rush just days away it’s an unbiased way of allowing a new member a potential new member a freshman or even a sophomore junior who’s not a
Member of a fraternity to see equally the different experiences Rush is a weeding out process fraternity members or actives and the freshmen or rushes size each other up over the course of several days each fraternity chapter offers invitations or bids to the rasheeds they most want and the rashids in the end
Must ultimately decide which bid to accept the greatest pressure is to bring in the quality guys spend a lot of time researching the guys that are out on campus who aren’t in houses it’s a really strange experience as each senior class graduates fraternities must Recruit new members or pledges almost 800 University
Of Mississippi freshmen are participating in this Rush process they’ll all get a bid from some fraternity but what they really want is a bid from the right one the stakes for everyone are high for the rushies it’s it’s pretty stressful being in rush for me is just
That’s the most pressure I’ve ever had and you see guys just crying literally they’re walking down the sidewalks just have no idea what they’re going to do because family could be from one fraternity the friends could be going to another fraternity and it’s just it’s one of the biggest decisions
University has devised its own Rush process at Ole Miss it takes place over several days at the end of September the process is based on three rounds and then bid day coming after the third round during the first three rounds as the rushies and actives evaluate each other the chapters can issue bids
Whenever they choose on the last day bid day rushies must decide which bid to accept this chapter of Phi Delta Theta founded 125 years ago is one of the most prominent fraternities at Ole Miss with over 100 actives who must recruit 50 rashees for the new pledge class that
Responsibility falls mainly on the shoulders of chapter president Matt McKenzie I hope you did get meet a couple guys uh good luck through us for Matt recruitment is a crucial part of running a fraternity it’s all about selling the product and keeping one step ahead of the competition first and
Foremost we’d like to introduce two ladies to you guys who are very important over here at the fight out house first is our sweetheart you can look at it as a job in a way because it’s something that has to get done to keep your fraternity afloat competition is certainly heated
Throughout the rush process usually the um most three or four prestigious fraternities that everybody’s really looking to join are rushing a lot of the same guys round one of Rush begins at the tail end of a hurricane but a storm is the last thing that will stop these determined
Young men we’re like the Postal Service Nothing Stops us freshman current Foose is feeling some family pressure to join Phi Delta Theta four generations of his family have been members there including his brother Ransom a junior has a legacy he’s virtually a lock to get a bid
It will be a great sense of Pride I would be very happy to have another one of my family members in here and plus that he’s not gonna do anything but you know anything but good for this chapter but for Curran the big question is whether he’ll accept a bid from Fidel or
Another fraternity before he left we talked a little bit about it my dad told me it’s my you know he’s not up here anymore and it’s my it’s my four years and what’s turning I’m going to be in you’ve got to decide what you want to do
And I left it at that but you know I’m sure in the back of his mind and he wants me to do find out I put it in the plug to find out the state I’ll have to admit it’s my choice in the end each chapter intent on assembling the best
Possible pledge class must make a good impression on the rushies but the pressure is a two-way street the rushies must try to stand out make a quick impression and earn a bid from their Top Choice when you get through US you’re looking for people like you you’ve got to make a
Good Impressions to make you stand out from them I hope they remember you like you hopefully at the bid session they can bring your name up in give you a bid I’m not going to get in but it’s cool I had fun oh because I was being a jackass and usually cocky people
Don’t get into the fraternities that they want it’s a forced relationship building situation which becomes very odd is this person talking to me because they want to get to know me or is this person talking to me because it’s rush so you don’t know who is Sincere and who’s not
So I guess the purpose of Rush then is to figure out who’s sincere and who who do you who do you best get along with Foreign one has come to an end we hope to see you tomorrow [Applause] Wear and tear is getting on to us a little bit current is if anything even more unsure of his choice um I’m kind of confused by what all what I want to do I want to be with the next four years both similar to the Fidel or
I’d say the out of the top three on campus fraternity wise I feel pressured to join Fidel um because of my just because of my brother because I they told me he’d shoot me if I did send me new each year tens of thousands of students Nationwide participate in fraternity
Recruitment over the last several years membership in the 83 National College fraternities has risen to around 400 000 with an Alumni network of about 4.2 million I think that students on college campuses are going to join groups it might be the gaming Club it might be a religious organization it might be the
Lacrosse team or the rugby team you have a sense that you’re part of something that’s been there forever many years decades or centuries the fraternity’s been there some people are obligated to their parents make them it’s hard enough I think for anyone to deal with being away from home for the first time
But if you join a fraternity just so much of that hard work is taking care of the formula you’re grown all the time and the best way in the world to measure yourself um is by other men that’s how we do it coming up Rush picks up speed at Ole
Miss you know the motto you know that [ __ ] huh I do I don’t be prepared I really couldn’t tell you it’s in the yearbook we can tell you about Aristotle and Plato well I know I did I know I did at 4 a.m every Wednesday Thursday Friday
Saturday night and we got called in there the fraternity motto is coach for service service for Humanity at the University of Mississippi the second round of Rush the yearly ritual to recruit new fraternity pledges is underway This is the fourth year that I’ve done this and the guys are running just a little bit better [Applause] Second round we uh invite guys who were extremely interested in who have showed interest in us as well we really don’t know how they feel and I think some of them don’t know how we feel it’s kind of trying to impress on both sides Phi Delta Theta has identified several
Students as Prime candidates and is courting them hard including current Foos for the Foos family the Phi delt connection may go back four generations but current won’t be pushed into making a choice until he’s ready it’s nice to be one I’d say I’d feel more of a connection to the people with
Five belt just because I’ve gotten to know them a lot better but you know I’ve been rushed by something new pretty hard and I you know I’ve gotten to know them and I like them a whole lot fraternities here hand out bids or invitations to join throughout the three rounds of Rush
With early bids going to those students they especially covet as round two starts chapter president Matt McKenzie invites Curran into a private room and utters the words his family first heard almost a century ago you’ve got a bid from pot Delta Theta and hope to see you here on Monday appreciate it congratulations
But Curran will wait to see if other fraternities will offer him a bid all right we’ll see you tomorrow similar bonds of Brotherhood throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries had formed among college students who were members of literary societies literary societies established libraries and let professors come and use them working in
A a kind of harmony with the existing college but in the 1820s a new Brotherhood was about to emerge that would be seen by college officials as far more treacherous it was called the fraternity literary societies starting in 1750 were created to create public man fraternities as they began in the 1820s
Were formed to create worlds of private pleasure and so they formed societies so they could enjoy The Fellowship Of Brothers enjoy the pleasures of some secret rituals and enjoy the private pleasures of drinking and gambling away from college eyes if they’ve been seen by the professors or their tutors they would have been
Expelled fraternities adopted more than their names from ancient Greece the Greeks are proclaimed to be the founders of democracy in Europe at least and they presented themselves as being concerned about values that go beyond mere survival they invented for their culture things like music and art and politics and philosophy they chose
The Greek statements and Creeds as debate the basis for their organizations to symbolize that it was about furthering knowledge and that it was something a little bit different than the literary societies that had existed beforehand at Union College in Upstate New York the first fraternities Kappa
Alpha Sigma Phi and Delta Phi founded in the mid-1820s they were called the union Triad and created the structure on which today’s fraternities are based as they spread to other campuses literary societies began their decline but Fierce opposition to fraternities grew rapidly off campus it was fueled by anti-masonic
And anti-secret Society groups they were an odd mix of religious evangelicals who saw fraternities as decadent and anti-christian and political liberals who saw these secret rituals as a threat to basic democratic values on campus college officials had their own reasons to combat fraternities administrations did not want fraternities in the early
19th century there’s no question about that would you like to have young people having a secret society in your midst devoted to goals quite opposite to the primary goals with which you’re there you’re there to teach them the ways of the mind and the ways of godliness
They’re there to have fun in 1832 the president of Union College threatened students in a speech the first Young Who joins a secret society shall not remain in college one hour colleges and universities banned the fraternities as a way of trying to keep the students in place keep the students
Attentions energies focused on the classroom and because of this ban the fraternities became more secretive in 1841 at Miami University in Oxford Ohio the Board of Trustees demanded all students resigned from fraternities the organizations did not disband but instead went underground in the winter of 1848 angry students protesting the
University president blockaded buildings and destroyed property many students including all fraternity members were expelled and the Greek system shut down but fraternities were a force that could not be stopped foreign the fraternity members at the University of Mississippi meet late into the night to vote on which other rashees to offer
Bids the next day we’ll have bid sessions that night trying to get some guys who came back that were really interested in each fraternity has its own highly ritualized voting process all right guys I’m bringing up Ryan Davis from Jackson Mississippi in unprecedented access Phi Delta Theta
Shows us a typical bid meeting that always takes place behind closed doors its actives only and they look not just for compatibility in the rush candidates but shared values as well we play Varsity soccer is freshman year varsity football is sophomore through senior year get this thing rolling and bid them
Up if you know him please stand up I know Ryan I call him Looper he’s one of the best guys I’ve ever met we do need to get back into Jackson this guy is a big old fat jolly guy if you just heard his laugh if you just heard
His laugh you would love this guy he’s come down to New Orleans with me and gone gator hunting a bunch of times it’s just as cool a kid as you can ever imagine right now we’re looking for guys that embody what we’re about and uh no
One does that better than Mr Ron Davis [Applause] after the speeches all members must vote by pushing either marbles or dice through a hole in a wooden box marble indicates a yes vote a die also referred to as a ball is a no vote to offer a bid the vote must be unanimous
[Applause] that means two no votes and so they try again let’s talk about his morals for a little while I mean this guy will help us in intramurals if Trey trust and Ransom and will like him I think this guy deserves the best [Applause] the next day round three the final round
By now all the fraternities have offered bids to the rushies they want this is their last chance to convince them to join their chapter I want them to exactly know what we’re like what you’re trying to do third round is to leave them here and not being undecided
Knowing what they want to do right when they walk out the front door that they want to be a fight the process is not without politics and maneuvering the fidelts push current hard to accept their bid my brother I mean he puts the pressure on me just because like you
Know we won’t be his good friends if I do something else and that surprise probably the main pressure because uh you know we’re pretty close now the Fidel’s believe his decision might also sway several other freshmen from his hometown of Mobile Alabama you have more in common with gas here than anywhere else
But Curran didn’t tell anyone that the day before his decision was made for him I went to see him yesterday and uh they didn’t give me a bid I was disappointed because you know I’ve had some guys rush me pretty hard over there and uh you
Know when I talked to him first round they said you know I can we can give you a bid if possible so that kind of led me on maybe thinking they were going to give me a bid but they also said we don’t want to waste the bid I wanted one
Kind of you know to just so you know I could could have a decision Curran accepted the bid from Phi Delta Theta all right let me tell you he said he’s proud of you all right good to have you here buddy by the end of round three all the
Fraternities have made their bids for the other rashids it’s now decision time Kern’s Choice turned out to be an easy one it was made for him but for other freshmen it’s a gut-wrenching decision bid day is just really a exciting time we have all these students who are going
To these new organizations and become members of these new groups and there’s just a lot of excitement in the air Phi Delta Theta issued 75 bids and 55 students accepted one thing about a pledge ceremony typically is that the secret values of the organization which are told in the
Initiation ceremony to men who are becoming brothers or many times disguised in other words or blended into the pledge ceremony somewhere so that when an individual is pledging themselves to the organization and they’re hearing the things in the pledge ceremony the new member ceremony they actually are hearing the values and the
Purpose of the organization I welcome you to a group of men whose Brotherhood you’ve chosen and desire because of the kind of men you believe them to be The Pledge ceremony is one of many rituals that distinguish one fraternity from another player that I pledge my pledge my services
My services to the fat Delta Theta fraternity I was surrounded by guys my own age and and I where I had felt disenfranchised at a school I suddenly felt like I had this immediate set of friends the same way you would feel on an athletic team where you don’t maybe
Necessarily know everyone but you have this kind of fraternal thing of being part of 50 guys and um it became the the single best experience that I had in college there’s got to be something that draws the group together something that makes the betas different than the saes the Sigma Chi is
Different than the KAS and that’s the ritual ritual should dictate and and in its Essence should dictate how the individual at the group acts these rituals whether a pledge ceremony or a secret password serve to connect members to their roots to an esoteric drama that they perform
Should be a reminder of the past but it also should be a compass or a direction for the future of course every chapter has their own handshake and secret our secret handshake was just wrapping the pinky around thinking the other day when you run into a member of your organization I know
That they went through the exact sequence of a ritual to become initiated into the society that I did it wasn’t until I began to go through it from the active side or the Brotherhood side that I began to appreciate the wisdom and the concepts and the symbolism and and the very
Strong sense of values that was inherent in the ritual coming up student deaths from hazing and alcohol abuse threatened the survival of college fraternities within a few seconds beers were being thrust into my hand and I wasn’t a drinker and within and within the hour I had passed out they want to
Get you into mind and screw around your mind a little bit to get you to think about that right there what am I doing why am I putting myself why am I let myself be susceptible to this foreign In 1861 as the Civil War began Southern college students and fraternity members were swept up in the waves of Confederate fervor on many campuses including the University of Mississippi the result was devastating the entire student body left it was all male everybody went to to fight for the
Confederacy and so thus the University closed the fraternities closed Not only was the Greek system itself depleted but we had a whole generation of young men lost in that war after the Civil War the fraternity movement reorganized itself new fraternities were being started many of them being started by students who
Had served in the Confederacy many of them wanted to hold on to what they knew before the war but change was in the air as colleges came to finally accept and even welcome students self-government you have Intercollegiate Athletics you still have the society’s residence Halls Student Life begin to expand outside of
The classroom and partly because the colleges and universities were growing larger sororities were part of that expansion Alpha Delta Pi founded in 1851 paved the way as the first secret society for college women Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta followed suit as the first fraternities for women by the late 19th century
Fraternities were flourishing chapters were small though usually with no more than 12 members and few of them had their own residences they held meetings in taverns restaurants and churches they would meet anywhere they could put 10 to 15 men to enjoy dinner smoke and great conversation but as alumni grew wealthy their
Donations allowed chapters to buy land and build houses that signaled a seismic shift in Greek life once students shared a residence the focus more than ever turned from academic Pursuits to their social life and extracurricular activities but members now also had to handle more ordinary pragmatic tasks mowing lawns fixing Plumbing paying
Taxes and feeding and housing their brothers performing household tasks is still a big part of fraternity life today especially for a pledge he is essentially on probation over a period of several months until the day of initiation he must show its dedication drive and Zeal to become a brother the
Point of a pledge program is to teach that individual about that chapter you know they teach them things about being Greek they teach them the Greek alphabet you know they teach them why fraternities reformed what the fraternity means a pledge’s responsibilities are wide-ranging you have to be here at five o’clock for
Dinner and about six pledges each week Monday through Wednesday serve dinner and every pledge after dinner cleans up dinner they can be seen around the house painting waxing floors sweeping vacuuming rooms cleaning bathrooms stuff like that so and I’m sure they’re getting tired of that as well they have
To be up here at study halls every night that’s one big thing uh you can’t get initiated unless you have a 225 GPA at least they need to know every man in the chapter no exactly exactly where they’re from they have to do a certain amount of community service before they can get
Initiated but there’s time for fun too tomorrow we’ll be having an intramural football game pledges against actors kind of gives us an opportunity to go out there and push each other around I know they’re they’re tired of us telling them what they need to do and uh right
Now they’re probably in better shape than we are so I expect them probably to run the table on us For fraternities fun has sometimes been a little hard to swallow for some of the guys they feel like it’s a Rite of path not only for the actors but for the pledges they’re proven how bad that they want it these kinds of antics have been part of college life ever since fraternities
Came into existence very early on in the history of Harvard young men were caught stealing Poultry in Cambridge young men were caught drinking and gambling our fraternity would give us give us very odd jobs that just seemed impossible at a time this is a great one and you’ve been partying all night right
You’ve had a big game that Saturday and you’ve been partying all night and it’s three in the morning you’re cleaning up and all of a sudden one of the members gets up and has wild hair and calls you all out in the yard and gives you some kind of Duty you got to
Do in eat it somewhere else scattered around town you better have it you better have all this treasure taken care of and everything back here by tomorrow night at six or you’d have them come down you’d have your your pop quiz as your trivia in the morning there’s a lot of
Other things I probably you know won’t talk about that uh that that we went through that uh that definitely needed the guy next to you you know there are some challenges you know to find out whether or not that individual has what it takes to be a member how dedicated
That person is to the group and that’s where you know a lot of the um dangers of of pledging come into play um you know where they make them do physical challenges and things like that but many believe that these mental or physical challenges are not just boys
Being boys they say it’s hazing that can mean physical violence student against student fraternity brother against brother which has led to young men dying in 1994 Michael Davis a pledge at a fraternity at Southeast Missouri State University participated in a series of hazing rituals after days of beatings and after suffering head injuries
Internal bleeding broken ribs a lacerated kidney and liver Michael Davis died seven fraternity members were convicted of involuntary manslaughter there was a difference hazing of 1960 and The Hazing that I find on the college campus today The Hazing of 1960 was a lot of buffoonery a lot of silliness phasing of this time
Much more serious much more physical hazing goes as far back as the Middle Ages when freshmen at European universities were considered uncivilized and were subjected to physical abuse and extortion it’s believed that the word hazing supposedly taken from the old French word meaning to frighten was first used in the mid-19th century but
It would soon evolve into a distinctly American phenomenon there were a number of things we would construe as hazing that were imposed on students in the 1890s if you were a freshman and you were walking along a sidewalk and a senior was coming you had to step into
The mud to get out of the way you had to wear a beanie you had to dress in a certain way but ironically as fraternities joined the campus mainstream they also became more deadly academic experts as that as many as 40 students over the last few decades have died from fraternity
Related hazing incidents I joined a chapter that haged I fell into the Trap of thinking this is how we we create good Brothers there’s things you do that you’re like give me a break it will be the one thing that will kill a chapter quicker than anything because it is so
Far away from the basic principle of what the chapter says it is but that’s where really you get a coalition group starts to come together because you do have people that go man I’ve had I quit and you rally around that guy and you say
Man if you really want to be here come on man just stick through it this is what they’re trying to get you to do is quit that will never Bond you to another human being because really what you’re what you’re talking about in life as well as a fraternity is who can you
Trust my test for hazing that I taught students about is videotaping ask yourself would you show this to your parents and say this is what your son does would you show it to the parents of the young men who pledge this is how we treat your son and would
You show it to the prospects who are coming next year and say this is how you’ll be treated and if you can’t answer yes you know don’t do it the lethal consequences can no longer be ignored National fraternities are finally taking action hazing goes out in clubs bands athletic teams high schools
But of all those groups men’s fraternities and women’s fraternities and sororities are really few that have stepped up and said not only are we opposed to it we are going to eliminate it we are going to address it some national fraternities have closed down offending chapters and many
Have stated their opposition to hazing in their Charters that’s given a measure of comfort to some students doing an anti-hazing fraternity for me was important because it allowed me to protect my dignity my personal security my personal safety I was unsure as a freshman what was going to happen
Potentially enjoying a fraternity it’s it’s somewhat questionable you don’t really know what you’re getting into hazing is a crime and is banned in 43 including Mississippi but it still goes on it’s like crabgrass it’s going to come up almost every year you can defeat it and a year later you’re going to start
Seeing it come up again the real men are those who step up and say not in my house you’re not going to do it it’s going to take similar courage to face another significant more widespread problem alcohol abuse the time that one of my fraternity Brothers chased a glass
Of vodka with a men in Speed Stick that was one of the most frightening things I’d ever seen he drank a full glass of vodka and had nothing to to chase it with he picked up a mint and speed stick that was on my desk ripped off the top and and and just
Took a big giant bite out of it and then proceeded to throw up all over the hall I didn’t even know I was in a fraternity I’m telling you I was drunk within an hour and I had passed out I mean literally I had passed out I was in
Their trophy room I had my arm around a girl and she was gone about two hours later and I was I was uh I woke up in a fog hearing voices it’s everywhere whether we want it to be or not it’s far different than coughing a brotherly Stein these days I
Mean it’s it’s abusive drinking some incidents have led to student deaths and over the last decade have drawn increased media attention today they threaten the very survival of the fraternity system if we know a brother has a drinking problem do we are we compelled by that ritual to
Confront that brother or to help him you know and in its purest sense it should be working like that unfortunately somehow it’s not a number of schools including Colby College have tackled fraternity alcohol abuse and hazing by abolishing the Greek system entirely in 2002 at Alfred University 21 year old Benjamin Klein
Was found dead after a night of drinking and being beaten by his fraternity Brothers though his death was not directly linked to the assault a university task force found the fraternity system Beyond repair and the trustees voted to eliminate fraternities and sororities but some believe that there is a better way
If they have a fraternity facility that facility must be substance free some fraternities are offering scholarships and incentives for their fraternities to be substance free so on paper it looks very good and it gets very difficult for the national chapters to be to be effective because they’re taking
On a mountain with with a little shovel coming up a lot of power does have to do with the ability to convince or intimidate others and maybe some of this is learned in the fraternity house by the 20th century the fraternity had become a dominant force on most college
Campuses dances pep rallies homecoming the editor of the paper the football team it was very hard to find something that families and sororities did not have influence or some say and how life was happening on the campus it was also the beginning of minority fraternities in 1898 in response to religious
Discrimination the first Jewish fraternity Zeta beta ta was founded at several New York city colleges in 1906 Alpha Phi Alpha the first African-American fraternity was founded at Cornell University it was a huge jump from slavery during which blacks were not even allowed to read on penalty of death to moving into a sphere
Where you finish college they wanted to do that and they not only wanted to finish college they wanted to have doctors and lawyers and politicians and fraternities actually enhanced that because that’s what they were about by The Roaring Twenties fraternities had entered mainstream pop culture cartoons movies Broadway shows all depicted
Fraternities as dedicated to the holy Pursuit fraternities and sororities become the dominant way after 1920 there’s no question about it at least up until the 1960s some campuses fraternities are somewhere between a fourth to a third of the student bodies it’s some they are in the majority
As America entered World War II young men raced to enlist in the war effort and college enrollment and fraternity membership declined dramatically in one fraternity alone Sigma Alpha Epsilon nearly 19 000 young men served in the armed forces almost 900 died after the war the GI bill allowed
Veterans to return to school in large numbers and fraternities bloomed once again but something had changed you got to remember that we left here as children and and we had an experience that would make you grow up in a hurry they’re older have a different notion of what life offers them
They’ve experienced war and for many that’s a very sobering element in their lives well I’m doing this in 1940 as a freshman and I placed out of state I volunteered in December 42 and I wound up being a navigate on the B-17 flying in Europe and I was discharged in
October of 1945 and came back to Ole Miss in February of 1946. I’d say after the war everybody was much more serious today fraternity life at Ole Miss is as strong as ever in the days before homecoming weekend the 55 pledges at Phi Delta Theta have been building their
Float for the big parade we have that hammer over here I’ve worked on some construction I I worked for an antique place two years in a row so you know I’ve hammered a good bit in my life so I kind of know what I’m doing during the pledge process which extends the entire
Semester they work on other projects that help pull them together as a team first couple of times the pledge class comes together to take on a project it’s chaos no one knows how to do what after a couple after a few times you all gather together and you say all right
You know this Builder over at so-and-so it’s this wood uh Mark you know this person who can get this for the party and all of a sudden you start coming together and people you scatter people out you delegate and you come together and all of a sudden you have a lot more
Efficient at getting a job done whether it’s building a float cramming for exams or sharing a meal the bonds these pledges forged today are ones that will last you talk about anything with anything and everything with one of your players Brothers you know it goes from classed you know I’m worried about this
You know I think I want to start dating this girl I mean I had too good of a time last night shouldn’t have done that you know these are the guys that are going to be in their weddings these are the guys that are going to be Godfathers to their children about opportunities
For jobs is unbelievable if you’ve got a child and he’s interested in something your alumni are going to find a way to get him to the very best that they can the networking is amazing guy knew vaguely my freshman year he was a senior I actually got in touch with me about
Possibly uh interning with his investment Bank from Los Angeles Last Summer went back and forth to send my resume he told me about his firm I ended up working there over the summer I ended up working there when I graduate in May so but some see networking as a
Distortion of a fraternity’s true purpose I don’t believe that a person should have an automatic access to something especially if it’s something he doesn’t deserve to have access to simply because he is related to a connection like a fraternity I would hate to go into a fraternity that way I
Mean I’m glad I found my way in face down you know I I I don’t like to be that calculating in my life after graduation many of these young Greeks like their predecessors will wield tremendous power at the top of the political corporate and social ladders a
Lot of power does have to do with the ability to convince or intimidate others and maybe some of this is learned in the fraternity house the fact that so many who are in a fraternity achieve success is a trip to those great qualities and characteristics of what a fraternity is all about
Coming up the ultimate power Network secret societies with a place like a secret society especially like Skull and Bones you have doors open to you with Supreme Court chief justices presidents of the United States business tycoons and CIA officials there are no secret societies here on Colombia from what I
Know I was convinced that there was a building over there that had no windows was a secret society but it turned out to be a Waterhouse in November the 15th and 16th we’ll be celebrating our 125th anniversary foreign Foose and the other Fidel pledges initiation is two months away the
Pledging experience has brought them all closer together you bomb through the pledge process because you get to know them a lot better than anybody else’s basically through conversation spending time together with them to be excellent you know they got a good group of friends and they said he seems to be one
Of the leaders well and I’m proud of both of them but uh and that would have been true regardless but it’s an extra sense of Pride that extra amount of pride I mean it’s it’s nice going up and see them see them together and uh
It’s funny it meant a lot to my father more so than I would have thought it was when we pledged fight episode but looking back I understand now the sense of Pride that he did he did during the 1960s and 70s the American fraternity system was on the ropes
America was in crisis the Vietnam War political assassinations civil rights struggles drug use and urban riots polarized the nation and college campuses were often the center of the storm fraternities quickly became an endangered species they seemed less and less pertinent to young people who were either involved in political protest or
With getting on with their lives it was a a relic of an earlier era the drug culture The Counter Culture they really undermined all of the appeal that the Greek system had fraternity suffered a sharp decline in enrollment and influence a common catchphrase of the day was the Greeks are dying they’re
Standing on American campuses had been seriously damaged but a network of student organizations was flourishing as they had for centuries and as they still do today secret societies give you access to a vast Network that other organizations won’t give you it’s more than just an Alumni network this is the top of the
Top with the cream of the crop here secret societies resemble fraternities in several respects they operate on college campuses though primarily for seniors some of them incorporate Masonic traditions and they are highly ritualized with secret handshakes passwords and mottos but secret societies differ significantly from Greek letter societies
Secret societies are not about doing community service are not about bettering the human they’re about bettering themselves Alexandra Robbins has written a book about secret societies including the most infamous one of all based at Yale University skull and bones unlike fraternities secret societies keep their agendas and their membership
Hidden from the rest of Campus they’re not about to hold an open party for example with with kegs for the rest of Campus most of the secret societies are specific to a campus or to a group of campuses maybe the ivy league system or something like that with a fraternity
You have you you see up front you know who’s in it you know what they’re about they’ll tell you they’re like this is what we’re going to do you’ve been to their parties you know you know what kind of people hang out there with a secret society you’re going in blind and
You’re you know you don’t know what you’re going to get and you don’t really have a way out but I think the biggest difference is that at a fraternity you might have an Alumni network where perhaps you’ll get a foot in the door at Joe schmoe’s law firm and secure an
Interview whereas with a place like a secret society especially like Skull and Bones you have open to you with Supreme Court chief justices presidents of the United States business tycoons and CIA officials George W wish his father his grandfather and many other bushes were members of skull and bones
Senator John Kerry is also a member of Skull and Bones which could make the presidential election of 2004 particularly interesting secret societies evolved from a mixture of Social and religious ideals and rituals extending back almost a thousand years to the early 12th century when the Knights Templar a mysterious monastic
Order of the Catholic church was allegedly founded in Palestine first secret society in America was fhc where the flat hat Club it was formed in 1750 at the College of William and Mary and supposedly included Thomas Jefferson as a member but throughout the centuries fhc has not been alone there are
Actually secret societies on many campuses across the country people joined secret societies for many reasons one of which is the Allure of the power Prestige and perhaps money involved both on campus and after graduation the most notorious of them all Alan bones has generated a wealth of theories about its
Broad and Sinister Powers there’s all kinds of rumors on the internet you know vast conspiracies about how it has to do with the Illuminati and you know people that rule the world skull and bones is generally believed to run a secret world government it’s rumored to be a wealthy
Landowner that guarantees its members power and Financial Security for life and people generally ascribe to Skull and Bones everything from foreign policy disasters to one of my personal favorites the horrors of the Dewey Decimal System Skull and Bones was allegedly founded in the early 1830s by William H Russell a student with
Connections to a German secret society that used similar symbols and rituals the secret societies at Yale were modeled after Skull and Bones which has a very strong death Motif inside with skeletons skulls a mummy coffins it’s an interesting structure essentially what it consists of is a group of you know
Between 10 and 20 people who get together you know once or twice a week and they get to know each other and it’s a way I think to bring closure to the college experience I mean it’s a way to get to know that you wouldn’t know otherwise and it’s when it’s framed in
That in in that way it’s hard to say that it’s a bad thing but whether the Mystique of secret societies is strong enough to keep them going remains a big question I think they’re making a comeback especially with skull and bones at the helm someone who have a political
Dynasty coming from Skull and Bones that elevates secret societies they’re simply going to thrive on that and I think that’s what’s been happening and what’s going to continue to happen for a while when we return tradition continues at Ole Miss as initiation finally arrives The growth of college fraternities in the 1980s was unprecedented between 1980 and 1986 alone the Greek population exploded from 230 000 to 400 000 but in the last decade of the 20th century membership took an equally dramatic downturn from 1990 through 1999 fraternities were in a spiral because we
Kept attracting individuals who were just in it for the party some observed believe that fewer serious candidates stemmed from a number of factors including growing media attention on hazing and alcohol abuse as the century came to a close fraternities began to seriously confront these problems and enrollment began to
Climb once again from 1999 through the present time we have enjoyed a growth of probably three percent a year the University of Mississippi fraternities have for years been a Cornerstone of student life for the last four months Karen Foose and other freshmen have been pledging at Phi Delta
Theta initiation day when they become full brothers or actives is finally at hand I’m anxious to get initiated you know only five delts can go to that so it’s a special ceremony I’m sure my dad’s pretty excited about coming up here he uh pinned my brother and he’s
Gonna pin me with my grandfather’s pen I believe it’s a total 180 going from a place if you’re just as you’re just moving in a whole different direction just just walking into the house is a different feeling from being a pleasure and active when you’re a pledge you know
You feel like you have to answer to someone when you’re an active you that this means they get to start going to chapter meetings you just feel like you’re more part of the chapter out of 55 freshmen who pledged in September only 26 have made it all the way to
Becoming initiated as brothers some dropped out of school others couldn’t make the fraternity’s minimum grade requirements for the remaining pledges they just have to make it through the last week it’s called hell week this week was uh just pretty bad you don’t go to bed until about 2 30 wake up at six
Come up here you basically you’re in the hole it’s just the room upstairs that’s designated as the whole where all pledges are and that’s where we stay all day if you’re not in class you stay in there there for 15 16 hours it’s kind of like Bittersweet like you’re going
Through pledge up you think while you’re going through that you know it’s kind of bad but then you look back on it and you’re like because you spent your time with all your pledge brothers and uh it was a little better than you thought it was it’s not coincident that those
Particular guys in my pledge class were have become best friends of mine because we went through something that was very challenging every fraternity has its own hell week rituals they have to wait on tables they’re also at the beck and call of all the brothers cleaning their rooms or ferrying them around campus
You sure you want me to yeah come on but things turn a little more solemn as the initiation ceremony rarely seen by Outsiders is about to begin at the initiation process is very serious a moment in a young man’s life he is past all tests he has gained the acceptance
Of the active Brothers the actual process usually takes place over several days guys congratulations you’ve reached the first night of initiation uh first round you’re met with a challenge when you pledged here at Phi Delta Theta and you’ve lived up to it I remember this night don’t don’t take it for granted
It’s something you’re going to remember for the rest of your lives everything has a meaning the thing is there is symbolism behind almost everything that in a fraternity is that during the initiation ceremony or celebration that the the new member has the opportunity to learn those things
Every aspect of what takes place in the initiation in plants of value that is really quite idealistic and even today I think of it in a very beautiful way this is the final and uh ending part where you’ll get some closure finally to your bloodship I’ve seen you all grow as men
In your first couple months in college here I expect that you’ll continue to grow and just make this chapter even better than it actually is so if you would please rise and follow Matt he’ll lead you upstairs the rest of the initiation process is secret only members of Phi Delta Theta
Are allowed Beyond this point sorry gentlemen can’t go any further It’s a time that the chapter comes together one last time where they all become active Brothers together and truly are do act as one the night that you know it was a pledged ship was over and the whole week was over uh was a you know very fulfilling rite of
Passage man I mean it felt great and that sense of belonging felt good you know it felt real good we just finished the final Act of initiation um of course it’s a little secret I can’t go into too much depth I was going to ask you to
Show me to see the wheelchair yeah don’t know yeah but if you knew it would you showed it I don’t know if I could do that as fraternities entered the 21st century their path is not clearly mapped out and their survival even less so yes I think
They will survive but I don’t think they’re going to survive in the manner in which they have proceeded along historically if fraternities are to be relevant in the 21st century they need to get back to their core values upon which they were founded to be more about
Scholarship to be more about service to be more about their fellow man other changes are in the wind including co-ed fraternities at schools such as Dartmouth and technology is also dramatically altering how students interact with each other in the way fraternities operate internet sites email distribution lists virtual chapter
Meetings they do not need to leave their room they do not need to visit their common space and interact with their brothers the way that they did 30 years ago when those conveniences did not exist in the fraternity facilities so I see fraternity chapters not as intimate as maybe they once were
However these organizations evolve over the next Century One Thing Remains clear the fraternity experience for many of these men young and old has changed their lives forever connection that we make here are lifelong because we’ve gone through so much together now that it will be very hard to forget
Almost impossible to forget each other I enjoyed the all-male experience that I had with guys and friends and stories with guys from different parts of the country that had different experiences and you start finding out that hey man yeah it happened to you too just like
This just different way oh y’all do the same thing in Minnesota that we’ve been doing in Texas y’all just do it a different way mostly what I think about are late night talks of being with guys your own age guys that when you actually broke it down
What they were worried about is is trying to graduate trying to find their way through life you’d look amongst the 40 or 50 guys and you could see people who are already lost you could see people who are trying to find their way you could see a whole
Life force in front of you and but what I think back on and what I think about the most are late at night talking with my fraternity Brothers the ones that are you know in certainness is still in my life foreign Thank you
source
