On this episode of the Anthony Bradley show I will be having a conversation with Mr Joe KT the 2021 Academic Year president at the FI Del fraternity at the University of Arkansas fi Del is a fraternity that is known for its friendship sound learning and moral rectitude and I’ll be having a
Discussion with Mr hwit about how they apply those principles at the University of Arkansas thank you so much for joining us for for this enlightening conversation hello there and welcome again to the Anthony Bradley show I am thrilled tonight to be having a conversation about Greek life and
Fraternity life with Mr Joe huitt the 2021 president of the fight delt fraternity at the University of Arkansas Joe thank you for being on the show yeah no problem anthy thanks for having me so just give us some some background information about about your story where
Where did you where didd you grow up where you from yeah I’m from Spring to Arkansas so um just up the road from fville about my parents live about seven minutes from campus so grew up never left Arkansas went to high school in Springdale went to elementary school in Springdale every
Did everything in Springdale and what do you majoring in there at Arkansas yes so I have a major in uh marketing marketing and you’re graduating here I I heard in in a few months what are you what are you planning to do after college yeah I’m graduating in May I
Work for a toy company right now in Springdale Arkansas so they make small trucks trailers horses cows so shout out to Big Country um Big Country toys so that’s where I’m working right now but uh really just probably going to stay there that’s great that’s brilliant it’s absolutely brilliant to have something
Already already lined up that’s really really cool so did your parents go to Arkansas they did not they went to uh Arkansas Tech University which is in rustville Arkansas just a little bit in the it’s more Central it’s in the river valley so how did you end up going there
I mean did you look at any other schools in the in the region what what Drew you to Arkansas I didn’t really look at any other schools in the region I looked at the Naval Academy in Arizona State but in what yeah I know super super random
On either sides of the us but really what brought me to Arkansas is that my three older brothers all went to the University of Arkansas were in fraternities two of them were in beta theta pie here one of them was in Bucks which technically isn’t a fraternity but
Don’t tell him that I know I know but yeah that’s that’s that’s initially What drew me I mean that and it’s home and I love Arkansas it’s the best kept secret in the world I like to keep it that way so I’m kind of shooting
Myself in the foot on the podcast but it actually is I mean it’s it’s it’s home and it’s beautiful I love it and that’s ultimately what made me decide to go here that’s great and when you were in high school you mentioned that your brothers were in fraternity so you were
Not foreign to the concept of Greek life but when you were in high school were you were you pretty committed to to the idea that when I go to college I’m definitely joining fraternity or were you just kind of thinking well maybe maybe not yeah you know being so close
To the university and having friends and even my own brothers who were involved in the IFC at University of Arkansas you know it wasn’t weird for us as juniors in high school to come down to one of my best friends his brother was in Lamb
Deai I guess is a lamb deai and we would come down and play Xbox at the house hang out with them Thursday Friday Saturday that was never a a weird thing it was which was nice just coming to college it was really normal just to you
Know be on Stadium Drive which is where Fel is and lambai is right next door and so it was a really cool experience and when you when you arrived on on campus you were open to the idea of being being in fraternity but I also remember seeing in
One of the emails that we had that you were coming out from church one day and I thought oh my goodness I think this guy’s a Christian and I’m wondering how in the world do you navigate being a Christian in Greek life at a football school I know the culture I know what
Happens on Thursday night and Friday and Saturday like how how did you maintain your faith while being in a fraternity how does how does that work yeah part of it is that um you know in high school I was training up my faith whether that be surrounding with good Community
Knowledge of the scriptures a real relationship with Christ not just you know a lot of the South is you know like yeah I’m a Christian but I don’t think a lot of people necessarily have a true committed relationship and so and I didn’t I know I didn’t I I said I was a
Christian for a long time and just never I didn’t never meant anything to me it was just a word that I said because we were in the South and so through that in high school of you know having a real true relationship with the father and producing fruit and pouring into other
People younger than myself and having older people pour into me I wanted that in college too and what a better like there’s not a better place to do that than in a fraternity right I spent so much time as a freshman in this house and had people in this very room that
You know poured into me as a freshman when everyone was telling me that you know I was a piece of crap and lower than dirt you know you’re a pledge so it’s you’re hearing it from and it’s kind of tough you’re like man maybe this
Kind of sucks but you have guys that are leaders in the fraternity saying hey like I love you like I did this the lord loves you think about the impact that you can make with God guys in our fraternity that can be Eternal right if
I’m if I say I’m a Christian and I believe that Jesus is the way why would I not share that to my fraternity brothers who I am supposed to love you know one man is no man can’t leave anybody behind that’s love is to stand
Up and be like hey I love you this is the this is the right way to go and I was I’m an idiot I’m doing this wrong like let’s work together because like this is real and I think that that’s super important I think that’s what’s
Given me strength is that you know guys have been receptive of that and I have a great group of friends that were around me when I was a freshman when you know it’s not just about not drinking it’s not just about not smoking right it’s about being a light and every day guys
Noticing like I don’t know why Joe’s different but he’s different and I love that about him and why conversations of like why are you different why are you why are you happy I think even in Co and I’m sorry if I’m getting off on a tangent here a little bit but coid has
Brought up a lot of depression and just depravity like it’s shown shown me the depravity of Man Without Christ as a savior which I got to see that even before Co drinking and partying and smoking is I mean it’s all good and fun but like it leaves me empty ultimately
At the end of the day I’m not a not stick in the mud I I love the party I like to have a drink and you know that’s not that’s not bad but it leaves me empty ultimately when I put my faith in that Christ is the only thing I can put
My faith into be fulfilled and satisfied and so the friends there really help for pledge ship a freshman year and sophomore year when we were living in house and you know the Temptation there for me was never gone I you know I an 18-year-old and 19-year-old kid I want
To go drink and get drunk with everybody else but having friends there being in the word was ultimately you know how I was successful in that and so when you were in high school what were your friendships like compared to the friendships that you have had in your in your fraternity what
Are what are some of the the similarities or differences there yeah so I rushed with about four guys that I was super close with in high school and these guys were like my squad we all rushed F out obviously and then we had some guys that came in to our friend group freshman
Year that we met through F out obviously and I think the friendships are very very synonymous from High School to college I think the speed of what college did was greater than high school does that make sense what you mean by by speed yeah my my high school friends it was seemed
Like a longer period of time to get closer you know we had from ninth grade to honestly some of them like fifth grade my high school I went to was like K through 12 it was a small private school so like some of them I knew in
Fifth grade but some of them you know was ninth grade so we had a long time to get close and then I I feel like when I got to college and these guys that I was friends with became friends with our friendship grew like that it was super
Close really quick and I think it was because you know we had like values and it was kind of like us against the world in a in a non like I don’t mean anything by that but like it was it was really us that were encouraging one another to you know keep
On doing this like we we’re doing a good thing this is a just cause This Is How We Gather strength from each other and through the word like we’re reading together and all of that and there’s maturity obviously that plays in that I you know being a freshman in college but
That’s that’s what I’d say is the most different between my high school the friends that I came in with with high school and then the friends that I made in college yeah so when you got to college they got the relationships went deeper faster yeah and you all because you have
Common goal goals common aspirations common interest you want to be better men you see what you’re up against in a world that often wants to undermine the idea that you want to be better men and so you guys were able to rely on each other and to support each
Other and that that really is the you know that’s the secret sauce in making men successful you got to have a band of brothers that that that will support you and encourage you and will kind of push you to be to be a better man and and the
Fact that you guys were able to do that early on in the relationships that you had is just is super super extraordinary and as you as you spoke Beed a lot of fruit right I mean it really yeah it really Bears great great great fruit and so you know most people are probably
Thinking they hear that you’re in a fraternity and they think I don’t I don’t know fraternities are probably not not that not that great of a thing I’ve seen the movies right we’ve seen all the Zack Efron movies we’ve seen neighbors right we’ve seen all the way back to
Animal House uh fraternity guys are kind of Chads they’re terrible guys and the worst the worst thing that a college guy can be in is in a fraternity yeah and part of my project is to help people see that’s actually not true it’s the opposite and so from
Your perspective now that you’ve been in for a few years you’re about to graduate you were the president uh for 2021 how would you make the case that fraternities are actually good things and that that being that being a part of Greek life is something that’s
Good for a man to do during his college career yeah yeah no I feel like everything you hear about fraternities is just so damning like kind of makes you want to not wear letters or not do stuff around campus but I think the only only evidence I can give
To why that’s all wrong is because I think any organization you have especially now in the culture that we live in is that any bad apple you get is like the Apple that’s put on the stand right out front I’ve seen and had to deal with people that yeah they are
Tools but my fraternity brothers are some of the greatest men that I’ve ever met in my life I can confidently say that about each and every one of these guys in that house I’ve known them uh for a long time and a lot of them I was you know very involved with their
Bringing up I was either their pledge trainer I was on exec and now for a lot of them I’m they president but I think there’s something special about when you get an immature kid I know I was when I was a freshman and you put him in a room
And most 18-y old men are douches regardless of where they came from I probably didn’t think I was a douche but looking back I totally was I don’t think you could find a group of guys on campus outside of the engineering school that wouldn’t be that’s just the truth but
There’s something really special about when you get that and you get all these high testosterone like high you know sense of self in a room and you present them with a something like our manual that’s like one man is no man um and you’re going to leave this
Place better than when you found it and see how they through that of a good pledge trainer then begin to lead them through that process of this is you know this is why we have three pillars right this is why our sixf founding fathers are important because they wanted these
Three pillars to be in drilled in every single man in this fraternity um right friendship sound learning and moral rectitude that’s what we want and that’s what we do at fight out and yes it’s it’s it’s crazy because most people don’t know what goes into a fraternity
Like we’re running you know most most fraternities in the SEC I as president am running a three quarter of a million dollar business right we we make that much money through dos and stuff just because we have so many people and then you’re managing 56 18y olds that left their
Parents home so that they could go Rebel most of them and it’s really hard to control those people because you don’t pay them really they don’t have necessarily any reason to to listen to you other than you know if you give them social probation but even sometimes
That’s not a huge deterrent and so you the challenge is great and so of course you’re going to have bad apples and and honestly Big Boy decisions have big boy consequences right like this is this is also the part of time when you are a big boy and there’s been some
People in our house that have made Big Boy decisions and they probably weren’t ready for it because the consequences were very big but I don’t think that’s necessarily a reason to to shine so much bad light on a fraternity because I know that not only Fidel but every fraternity
On you know that’s outside that window right there is this like they are great for the community great for building men I I want I hope my son gets the opportunity to go through some fraternity uh organization because I do think that it it helps to have you know
Pled ship’s a sucky time and that’s also why you grow close with friends quick because it’s something like hey remember when we you know did that that three in the morning it’s like that was dumb but it’s fun now um you know and you get to
Build stuff like that and so it’s great for friendship you have to have a goal to get into the fraternity you have to to have a 275 or three-point or whichever one it is for any fraternity like you you you have goals set up for these
Freshmen that honestly if I was in a fraternity I don’t know what my GPA or Outlook as a freshman would have been like because I kind of would have just been alone right it was great to have sophomores even help me and juniors and seniors care about me which I don’t know
Why a junior senior would care about you if you weren’t in the same house as him every day and so yeah no that’s that’s that’s fantastic and so you know you had you had options in terms of in terms of the the organizations that you could
Have been a part of there at at Aransas I mean you’re you know raised in the area you know a lot about Arkansas already and and you chose you chose a fraternity and you could have you could have just gone to like college Ministries and just lived in a dorm with
Everybody else but you chose to rush a fraternity and I’m wondering what is it about a fraternity for you that you can’t get if you were just a Christian on the campus or just a student on campus just hanging out at a Wednesday night at College Ministry what
Is it about what is it about the the fraternity experience that is unique that you can’t you can’t get it unless unless you’re in a fraternity yeah I think one it’s just fun it’s more fun to be in a fraternity on in college because right I get to go to functions tailgate
That’s that was huge like I it’s probably more fun than any BBS or anything like that you can go to right the second thing is that the the problems that you encounter and the the hurt and Hang-Ups and habits that you encounter as you know being in a fraternity are very great
There are people who are really hurting and have serious struggles and issues that don’t just go away after college and for me to to even have an influence in someone’s life just one just a plan a seed even I mean I’m sure half of my fraternity Brothers think I’m
Crazy right like they probably do but I love them so much and it I whether they think I’m crazy or they think I’m I don’t know but I loved getting to one sit and listen to them when they were struggling that I I don’t think I would
Have gotten out in just like if I was doing you know dorm stuff which maybe that’s wrong I don’t know I didn’t do that but the problems and the Hang-Ups and the hurts are are so real and it helps me so much to remind me that one
The Lord’s very gracious and and two I’m I’m a sinner I’m I’m really messed up I’m not better than any of my fraternity Brothers right I struggle with the same thing they do and it’s really beautiful to walk through that with them because you know they might think that Joe’s
Just a good oui no it’s it’s it sucks I I’m I’m not a great person and so that’s been great for me also to walk through that line with like you know like how do I show Grace to people how do I do it’s it’s been it’s been great for my
Relationship with the Lord just to understand him more and understand his heart and how he deals gently and lowly with us and also just for guys to be a like we have a chaplain but like you know our chaplain supposed to say Like a Prayer out of our chapter book
And it’s like it’s great to you have like my buddy who lives right next to me is the chaplain it’s like hey you don’t have to say that prayer at chapter you can like actually pray you don’t have to say the words and like to have multiple
People on the exec staff that are like you know we didn’t have a a lot of IFC push for a mental health share to be added in but our whole exec team essentially is that for our guys and that’s that was great also to have just that build in already of just we
Actively sit and listen to our guys whenever they want to talk to us which that’s I don’t think I would have got that anywhere else other than a fraternity so you you really personally went in with a with a a mission right you wanted to support and love and care
For some some guys you wanted you you like I’m going to be in this fraternity not because of what I get out of it myself I actually want to be a part of a community because I want to invest in the lives of a of a brand new set of
Brothers and I I want to I want to make them I want to make them better men and I want to listen to them and care for them and and and really love on them which is really extraordinary and by the way I mean you say you’re crazy but
That’s probably why they elect you President right yeah because they recognize hey this guy who cares for us he wants what’s best for us he wants what’s best for for our house uh for those of my my listeners who aren’t students at the University of Arkansas can you explain how the rush
Process works there uh from the informational meeting to being initiated what what is a what is a a student likely to to experience in terms of the number weeks and and all those things from that that first info meeting to being initiated work yeah so there’s a
Big range at the UA I think um you know for me it was multiple years like I was on campus from junior year there were people rushing my group of friends just getting to hang out in high school yeah and that’s that’s the cool thing about being from Northwest Arkansas is I we
Started kind of rushing in a in an informal way junior year you know from from going to houses going to fraternity houses and hanging out with guys and guys older brothers would take us around and meet people and that’s that’s something that you get as a plus from
Living in Northwest Arkansas or close right Texas is huge at Texas kids coming to Arkansas is huge they get instate tuition if you’re from Texas and so we have a ton of Texas kids which is a little bit harder for them to do that but still we kind of go around but for
Formal wise or we’ll start still informal sorry informal starts when you’re a senior in high school you graduate in let’s say April okay so as a fraternity we’ll start Rush trips in the summer so we’ll our Rush chairs will I think fight outs or it’s been a minute
Golf tournament we have a big golf tournament in Little Rock Arkansas it’s like three hours south and a lot of our guys come from Little Rock we have a big Little Rock pool and then we do a lake Day event in Hot Springs and then we do a we’ll do some
Texas event whether it’s in Dallas or Austin some years it just determines or it’s just determined on who is the Texas Rush chair so we like Rush chairs so we’ll do three upper classmen uh we’ll do a Northwest Arkansas which is fville area Rogers or Bentonville Rogers
Springdale fville and those are like the four big towns in Northwest Arkansas so we’ll do northwest Arkansas this year we have two Northwest Arkansas which is big deal Two Little Rock one’s an upper classman one’s a freshman and then we’ll do it Texas r chair so over the summer you all are
Exposing students who haven’t even started their first day of class yet they’re already getting acquainted with you guys getting to know the brothers and so when they when they show up that first week on campus before the informational meetings start they kind of have a sense of of what a lot of the
Guys are like with the cultures before they arrive and that and that’s part of the plan is that is that fair yeah and a lot of a lot of people do pre-bids basically you hang out with this the whole summer with a guy and
You’re like hey I like you you got a bid to fight out and people will be like yeah I want that or no I don’t want that or you know some kids who are awesome like have pre-bids to every place right and it’s like they have a big decision
Coming on pref night I didn’t have that decision I just had Fel some like some guys our plge class had big decisions to make right that’s that’s a that’s a huge decision for where you’re going to spend the next four years but um that’s those are that’s Summer Rush essentially um you
Know it’s usually big events all throughout the summer and there’s smaller events too it’s just a lot just meeting people if you can meet people then you’re doing good and if people like you it’s really good so then they move back they move on to campus and there’s about two weeks where nothing
Goes on sorority Rush happens in those two weeks which then your Rush parties become just sausage fest it’s just dudes everywhere the girls are rushing and then formal recruitment starts for IFC and basically they go around from house to house you’ve got parties of like I think there’s 14 allotted parties
Throughout the day and you’ve got small groups with Rai is what they’re called they’re like rush leaders from every fraternity you just kind of get placed in one and then your rokai will be your guide essentially through the rush process and they’ll take you from house
To house and then the parties get longer each day so it’s like 15 minutes house tour 30 minute philanthropy day 45 minute something an hour and a half prep night and then you’ll only have like three parties on prep night so you you kind of get dwindled down as you go to your
Three you know and then you have prep night and then you go to the union and fill out your big card and then the next day is Bid day and we all meet in the Greek Theater and and how do you guys find out and and how how do guys find
Out if they got a bid email them they get a text they get a how do they find out you know I don’t I’m not really sure because I I know they open up like a real bid card like you have like a bid card that’s on a piece of paper but I
Don’t know how they find out that night I think maybe the rush chairs text them I know I I was texted by Rush chair just went back to F out and hung out so it wasn’t it wasn’t a bid day wasn’t as big of a a deal um but I think that’s how
Most people I know you get the bid card but I think most people are texted by a chair or somebody and so you get a bid and H how long does it take to be initiated once you get a bed well it depended a lot on what fraternity I
Think we were we would usually initiate them in February of that next year so they from September they would go till February now the universities put limits on I think they have to be an initiated like November 14th if there Falls I I’m not sure what the spring is but and and so
Is there a fall and a spring Rush fall and spring just for guys though uh girls there’s a couple houses that do it for girls but not a lot there are some universities that have that have just completely gone to Spring only uh rush so the fact that you all have a
Fall and and a spring is actually making you guys an outlier because that that’s trending that that old model is is beginning to completely completely disappear so you so you mentioned that your your brothers were all in different fraternities you went through the process yourself uh
What what was it about about Fel you know when you were when you were a freshman or sophomore you you came in as as a freshman is that right yeah so freshman so what what was it what was it about FAL that made you say you know what I’ve seen these other fraternities
I want to be specifically with this group of men what what was it about them that that made you w to pledge them yeah it was it was all about the guys the rest chair of my year his name was Jay Young he was just a a big influence in my life that
Summer like just seeing him you know he was also a Believer and there’s another guy he wasn’t a rush chair but we knew each other his name’s chase harnold older guy that was living in house that coming fall that I was coming up and you know we had met a couple times and
Really liked him and then even the pledge class of my pledge Brothers like they were awesome like they’re they’re the best I love them so much and uh even my group of friends like we were all like dang we love Fel like this is the place like you’re going here like oh
I’m I like it too and like oh we love you know Ryan Clark from Austin Texas like we met Ryan the other day he’s crazy and awesome like I love him that that really because for us it wasn’t like we didn’t care what the letters were like I didn’t I don’t care
My my brothers were betas bettas aren’t like sought like they’re not like the greatest at the UA maybe like the most sought after but I didn’t care like that’s I knew some guys I was like hey I’d go Beta And so it’s it wasn’t it wasn’t the letters for me it was all
About the people that I met that I was like man I can get poured into here and I love the people here and I can pour into them as well which that again could happen for any at any house I just tended to I was I loved the people at
Fight out they weren’t like in a box there’s some there’s some fraternities are like you got to be super country or like super hip or like super this this or this and fight El what I love most about us is that like we’ve got everything across the board
Like you name it it’s probably in the house somewhere how many guys are in your chapter think we have 200 it’s like 260 or somewhere around there and what is it about F out that that makes you all distinctive at the University of Arkansas is there is there
Anything that stands out to you that’s like yeah we’re we’re we’re pretty good at this what what would that thing be um yeah I was thinking about that on our on the question you sent me but I I think that we are good at not pigeon hoing people and I I probably shouldn’t
Say that not probably not people know pige just putting people in a box I think that’s a lot of what has made us really successful is that you know in the Southeastern Conference like there’s people hesitant to take people of color whatever whether it be black Asian Hispanic like that’s
What I loved about my pledge class too is that like Jung Han from fville was like in my pledge class and there are some houses that probably won’t take Jung you know but I love Jung so much and I’m so glad he’s in my pledge class and that’s why fight out has
Consistently been especially in my opinion the top is because we don’t we’re not afraid to take anybody for we’re looking for quality of men um and that’s what we go after and seek after it doesn’t matter we’re not we’re not um behind the ball on you know it’s not the
60s at pH don’t still you know and I don’t think a lot of houses can necessarily say that I think that that’s a lot of alumni still feel that way and I know that our alumni don’t which helps because it’s not like are you gonna take him because you know he’s black it’s
Like well I don’t ever feel that pressure it’s like hey is he a good guy uh yeah let’s take him you know so you all really care about the character of the man you all are not trying to create a homogeneous model of what the man
Should be in terms of his culture you’re open to having guys regardless of their background as long as they’re quality you just want quality guys and and you’re not trying to to to create a stereotype you’re really open to that that’s that’s really that’s really cool
You know I I read I read the the mission I went to the National website this is one of the things I love to do about these interviews is I I’ll go to to the National website and I’ll search around and and see what are some of the things that the National
Organization says and then how are those things put into practice on your particular campus and when I read the vision and the mission of of Fidel it this is this is what it reads the pillars are the cultivation of friendship among its members the the requirement individually of a high
Degree of mental culture and the attainment personally of a high standard of morality shorten uh we refer to the principles as friendship uh sound learning and rectitude when you hear that those pillars and how it’s explained which which one of those really stands out to you and why what’s your what’s your
Favorite part of that yeah I think friendship sticks out to me because out of all of those you know morality and rectitude this might be controversial but I think friendship is the most important for college students something that it might be harder for guys even
To admit that like guys a lot of the time don’t like friendship seems to be a soft characteristic and obviously there’s you know college guys that maybe don’t want to be seen as soft but I think something that we also do extremely well is our our fraternity builds friendships not like
Clicky like the Little Rock guys hang out with Little Rock guys the co Arkansas guys hang out with Little Rock guys but like some of my best friends are from Austin and Dallas Texas like that’s weird some are from Little Rock that’s not like a lot of fraternities
Can’t say that and I think that that’s something that we do really well through our fiaya program our pledge program and I think that that’s something that I’m interested to see if that lasts for you know 10 years from now like but I I think that that’s something that
We do really well and I think that that’s one of the most if not the most important thing from that one of those pillars so that that first pillar you said you all have a a program where you really really focus on on developing friendships what is what ises that what
Does that look like for you guys what’s how do you how do you all develop these these close friendships between your members yeah I think it’s I think it’s been in part to our long long pledge program and you know the university probably hates that but it’s it’s
Something that I believe in I was a pledge trainer so I care a lot I care a lot about my pledges and I’m the youngest of three or four sorry I’m the youngest and so it’s like I never got the chance to be an older brother which
I took my time as being a pledge trainer as being like 56 guys older brother which was super special and those connections I made through that pledge class have been crazy but I think it’s the length of time that we do it that makes it so good and even just having challenges through
College for that long you know even like you know a test week and it’s like man like this test week’s gonna suck I I don’t want to do it and it’s like I got 40 people that are gonna take the same bew test as me and like we’re all
Studying in a basement you know at the Walton College in Jan anuary you know it’s like and we’ve been doing it for forever we’ve been studying for the same test and so a lot of people cut off and and I understand why the university wants to do that obviously it’s to
Mitigate risk which I completely understand that you can’t get every pledge trainer and even even if you get a great pledge trainer there’s guys in the house that don’t care so I completely understand that but I think that that’s something that we’ve done really well that makes our friendships last and
Makes the friendship you know valuable so you all from the beginning because of the way that you all do the the process you guys just spend a lot of time together right and you spend a lot of time together it sounds like just doing normal stuff probably meals eating
Y and that that time that you spend together creates connection and friendship and trust and all those kind of things really I think sets you guys up to do the other aspects of your fraternity culture that makes your fraternity a great place to be right and
So I think I think you know that I think you’re absolutely right having friendship as a basis of everything else set sets the whole fraternity up for up for Success the second part there is the pursuit of academic excellence and I mean what fraternity is
Gonna be like no we we want to be academically terrible you know yeah exactly yeah so yeah you want to be academically excellent how do how do you all support each other like if if a pledge hears that this fraternity is going to focus on academic Excellence what should he
Expect to experience and receive that might help him become academically excellent yeah um I think this semester was the first semester that we didn’t get Topp in grades for the whole time I’ve been on exec I think I think I think we got second this year I think Sigma new beat
Us out but um like we that is our that’s also some of our bread and butter like because we spend time on the front end of kind of combing through guys is that we build a base of like these guys are going to do well in school and I think
The thing that all fraternities help with to give credit to everybody is that you get guys surrounded younger guys surrounded by you know sophomores who took that class they’re like hey don’t take him or don’t take her or here’s what here’s how you study for this and
Then obviously we have resources of you know we have a budget in our built in for scholarship chair to you know we don’t buy Scantron P like there’s kind of that weight lifted off uh I’ve never had to buy Scantron which is great and also like tutoring we have guys in house
To tutor and like we have a budget to pay for tutoring if you need it if you there’s a guy in if you’re you know a chemical engineer and we don’t have one of those we can help you there which I think has been nice obviously I think it’s paid
Off for our chapter um and I think even you know obviously if you ain’t first you’re last but uh second second’s pretty good one of the things that’s true about guys in college is if their grades are good they’re usually having a great time and if their grades are not good they’re
Not having a good time and it really for guys and i’ I’ve just noticed this as a college professor if if he’s able to succeed academically it’s like everything else kind of falls into place he’s struggling with his grades he’s probably thinking of transferring maybe dropping out he’s like I want to change
My major and so you know you guys focusing on academic Excellence I’m telling you right now you’re setting your guys up for Success it just makes College go so much better it reduces your anxiety and you’re stressed about your future I mean all those all those
Things just opens doors and so for you guys so focus on that for guys coming in really should encourage them to be confident that they’re going to be much better off the longer they stay in which is yeah fantastic the third one is the attainment of of the the attainment
Personally of a high standard of of morality they use the word rectitude there how is it that you all Focus or maintain or keep each other accountable Maybe with your moral virtue how does that how does that work at a football school at Arkansas on a Thursday Friday Saturday
Home game weekend what is that what does that look like yeah yeah it’s it’s hard it’s I think it’s hard too because you know all of our all of our alumni they they’re they’re the ones that are this is their main topic of accountability and you know back back in the day when
They were there Mom and Dad necessarily didn’t pick up the check for a lot fines were heavy-handed so I think that’s that’s something that we’ve been working through and this this new exec team’s going to have to make sure that they’re good about is filling their fulfilling
Their duty to to find and also you know big big time decisions I mean we we had to pull pins of you know seven members last year which you know that that catches eyes and everybody kind of works up a little bit but that was really
Sucky and and by by by pulling pins you mean what does that mean yeah sorry it’s just make they’re they’re no longer F Els to Nationals to anyone so that’s that’s yeah I was going to say in the church world we call that excommunicated yep exactly that’s that’s what it
Is and so you all are willing you all are willing to invite people to believe if they don’t live up to the standards which means that you take them seriously I mean why have them if you don’t take them seriously and and the fact that you guys are willing to hold each other
Accountable so much so that you’re willing to invite guys to to leave and go join a different kind of community because you care so much about the quality control and the consistency of your standards these pillars makes them real and it makes people take them seriously and so the fact that you guys
Have the the fortitude to make those decisions really speaks to how upstanding you guys are as a as a community of men it’s really really really outstanding so but you all also are not perfect yeah not at all and so sometimes sometimes you mess up and you guys are
Currently in a season of of suspension you mentioned that to me can you can you tell us what what happened and what your suspension means and and how do you guys come out of it yeah um so we had obviously some bumps in the road of 20 I guess that’s
Spring of 2021 and we let some members go kick them out excommunicate whatever you want to say because they had some pretty heavy-handed actions and so that led us to a suspension from our Nationals to you know get some things done we had member reviews every every member of the
Chapter had member reviews and that that was essentially just a zoom call with people on our General headquarters team and just you know ask them about a lot of the a lot of the three principles about do you still believe this do we you know is this what we’re doing everybody everybody who’s
Back said yes and we got off our general Council probation in October sometime so this was our first taste of you know reggy deer since you know 20 whenever Co happened I don’t even remember and so doing fine you know we had one incident of a halfway semi- registered function that
Was kind of registered kind of not that it was a it was a miscommunication on our social chair and the universi and then we this this last one we just initiated some members and the ambulance was called to our house for a medical Evac so obviously the police came and
You know it was a it was a a big deal so that’s why we are on social probation we’re on social probation and we didn’t take a spring pledge class and what would you say are some of the the lessons that you guys have learned from
That yeah I think you know as as this is kind of like my last Rodeo essentially this last suspension it’s always it’s always good to focus on fight out not other people I know that you know huge excuse that you know the people in the chapter and and even some alumni understand that
You know all across the university there’s people you know partying and all that good stuff but we still can’t even if they are that’s been something that we’ve been hounded in and you know that even something as little as you know a party it could turn into you know an
Ambulance gets called to the house and so it’s things like that that you know a party in and of itself is kind of that’s pretty innocent kind of um but like there’s big things that come with it’s not just the fact that you’re having a party it’s the fact that you
Know an ambulance comes it’s it’s not the fact we had a incident of someone stuck a pool que at like 2 A.M in a fire extinguisher and it like blew up like it’s not just that like those things happen it’s like we’re we’re doing some there’s some stupid things that some
People are doing that could totally be like let’s just kind of not walk by the fire extinguisher you know let’s let’s let’s be smart about some of these things and I think that’s that’s been a big learning is that we we have to focus on ourselves we can’t focus on other
People and then just you got to listen to people who know more than you you know if I’m being honest I think it was clearly communicated not to do anything and uh I think some people just kind of like oh it’s just a little party which that they’re they’re right you know it
Wasn’t very big but still you know an ambulance came and that that’s been and on me just to overcommunication on this podcast to me says a lot about the culture of humility in your fraternity and if I were a freshman at the University of Arkansas or if I’m a Junior Senior High School
I’m thinking this is the these These are the kind of men I want to be around who are not afraid to be open and honest about the fact that they’re not perfect they have humility they want to learn from their mistakes and and making mistakes is normal I mean if you’re in
College and you don’t make mist by the time you graduate you’re probably doing something wrong I mean that’s that’s sort of you know how I how I like to to frame it making mistakes is normal it’s not a big deal what really matters is whether or not you’re willing to to own
It take responsibility for your mistakes and then learn from it and what I’m hearing right now is is really some of the best practices of what it means to learn from your mistakes and so I just want to commend you for being able to for being willing to even talk about
That yeah I appreciate that it’s really it’s really not not normal and you know I I send a lot of these invitations for interviews out across several college campuses and I’m always struck by the the the president you’re willing to go on record and the fact that you’re
Willing Joe to go on record to say you know what we messed up it’s okay we’re going to learn from it and get better that’s formation that’s leadership and that is really the kind of stuff that makes a fraternity a great place to form men to make them
Better men I I just want to again commend you commend you for that I appreciate that and so you know you all really do want to build each other up one of the taglines that I often see at several chapters I’m following a bunch of chapters on on on Instagram and I see
This this this phrasing the best version of themselves you guys want to make each other the best version of themselves what what does that mean for you all to to help each other be the best version of of yourselves yeah I think that means growing up I think you know the the
Great part about college is that you come in maybe a little green and and you get to be you have the opportunity to put yourself around people who are maybe a little more seasoned than you I think that that I think that phrase the best version of yourself is you with
Experience maybe not you know the best version of yourself maybe screams Perfection but I think just like you said it’s it’s the lack of that that really makes you the best version right how to people learn best is through failures most of the time which it sucks
Because you get 18 year olds you know 56 of them and you know they tend to kind of play off the failure sometimes times but they are learning there’s been no no point in time in our history where there’s been problems pushed under the rug you know if they’re stubborn and hard-headed
That’s that’s tough for me to handle because I’m just here for a year and they’re here for you know three and but they have the opportunity and they have the reprimand that a fraternity offers and that gives them seasoning they come in green and then we help them whether that’s giv a
Helpful hand up or really just dragging them along against their will on some things of like hey you’re going to be on social probation or you’re gonna you know you got 40 community service hours to do or you’re out of here you know it’s it’s things like that that really
Help you become the best version of yourself you learn from your mistakes and so if if a man is thinking about pledging F out he’s he needs to be open to to the fact that we’re serious about making you better and there’s a there’s a proverb that says is is iron sharpens
Iron so does one man sharpen another which basically as I’ve explained to a lot of people in the past that includes some friction right there’s some Sparks there’s some heat so we’re going to we’re going to press into you not not because we we we want to shame you or
Rag on you we actually want you to be better yeah we want to refine you right we want to we want to we want to purge out all the stuff that’s getting in the way of you being the best version of yourself and and seems like you guys
Have a system of accountability that’s embedded in the structure of your fraternity that allows guys to experience that firsthand yeah now as as I’ve said before you know there is a national stereotype about about fraternities there’s a massive abolished Greek life movement going on right now yeah it is it is
Pretty rampant in the ACC in the SEC it’s not quite as bad except for the campus of Vanderbilt it’s really really bad uh Duke University their IFC is down to like four or five fraternities and and there’s a there’s a national movement there’s a national movement to purge fraternities from
College campuses because of the stereotypes right what are they they these guys just get drunk take advantage of women right uh they’re a bunch of of racist and they’re just completely irresponsible what what is it that you all have have done or or what do you all
Do to to not make those stereotypes be real in your in your fraternity’s chapter in your culture because it it exists right that stereotype exists and and you you have an opportunity and had an opportunity as president to make sure that that stereotip was not alive and well in in
Your chapter what what are some of the things that you all did to to elay or dispel that as a as a normative part of how people think of a man and Fel yeah I think there’s a couple ways we’ve done it one is there are we do
Well we do have some of those people in our fraternity the the contrary though is that we have leaders throughout the university and I think that that’s where we set ourselves apart and I think that’s what a lot of fraternities at the UA are doing well and that it’s like a
Lot of people see that right SAE lamb Kai Fel SE Manu s maai Pike cap Sig they’ve got people in ASG they’ve got people leading you know teams in the engineering buildings they’ve got people on IFC leadership there’s people leading in the community you know um it’s they’re
They’re on the football team so obviously not like cracked out bums right that’s that’s how you it’s it’s not just a fight out like oh I’m I’m a fight out like I’m cool in this house like no the these fight outs are leaders in IFC there’s fight outs that are
Leaders on ASG I think we’ve had we’ve had one ASG president this last like five year stretch I know we had a couple more older ones they’re president of the whole school right like Sigma new is the president of the whole school right now like that’s a great I mean
A great guy like that’s how you abolish those stereotypes I I think and I think that’s why the U OFA honestly I think that’s why and and it’s probably because we’re in SEC but I also think that that’s a a big reason why that there’s
Not so much of that here because a lot of our guys aren’t just fraternity NE like our our identity might not just be found in in the fraternity but it’s found in other things like you know Walton College or the engineering school or you know whatever it
Be yeah so so you all are dispelling these stereotypes by adding value to the college by Leading across the college in different organizations different spaces you’re leading academically right you’re leading in terms of organizations so you can’t have a group of terrible guys be leading things on campus you
Can’t have a group of terrible guys be academically thriving on campus that’s not the profile of a group of of losers right so you’re adding value you’re adding value to the University of Arkansas you’re making the University of Arkansas a better place for everybody and that’s one of the ways
That you all are dispelling and laying those stereotypes and candidly as you said there’s some guys that need some development right everybody’s not there yet and that’s what you guys are doing you’re working on that with each other and and making each other better now you were the president for a
Year and like I said you had this opportunity to help kind of frame and brand and and provide some boundaries for the ways in which other people encountered a Fiel Man On Campus what what is it what what is it that you want people to think about when they
Encounter someone from Fel when they hear the phrase Fel what’s what’s sort of the first or second thing that comes to your mind that you really want people to think friendly I think what we do well is we fight outs are we talk to you depend doesn’t matter who you are I want
People to say that about fight out I want people to say that about every one of our men and I think that’s a good character trait to have also I want us to be strong in a stature I I I would like to like us to
Walk around with a puff in our chest I don’t think that’s a bad thing either I think confidence is great I want to instill that in every one of our members that we’re not confident because we’re you know tools we’re confident because we’re fight out man and we we know what
We’re doing we know what direction we’re going and we’re going to go do it and so that’s what I want if if and and smart you know but our our academics do speak for themselves and so that’s that’s a that’s a good one but I think it’s it’s
If someone can someone came to me and say hey man this guy straight up had no he had no clue who I was but he treated me like I was King for the day and he wasn’t pouty or like you know like a weird like sad but he was confident in
Who he was he didn’t come up to me timid or shy he was confident that you know he was about to make a friend and so that’s what I would want from meeting our guys on campus so when you guys are doing the pled process the informational meeting you make a pitch
You say hey if if you want to if if you want this experience in college if you want this experience in in Greek life you should pledge fight out what’s the what’s the fight out pitch what what what do what do you say yeah you know I think something that
We have to our advantage is extensive alumni and I think that’s where we where we start every year we haven’t it’s been a minute since I’ve talked to anybody about it but so let me try and piece together some stuff but uh really the the the whole Spiel is that these are
The best guys on campus grades heart stature everything these are these are the guys on campus you want to be around and are alumni prove that you know the fact that we’ve got tons of alumni who are extremely successful and also still active it’s not just like a four-year
Thing and you’re done I think guys like to see that but also the Brotherhood that we have of you know during rush you look around in a room and there’s 50 maybe 40 potential new members and there’s a room full of 180 guys like that’s that’s overwhelming
Some guys like wow this is actually a Brotherhood um and so that’s the pitch it’s it’s plain and simple it is like a hey this is who we this this is what we’re about we’re the best men on campus here’s why because we have great friendships we’re smart and we’re kind
And that’s what we’re doing and that’s what that’s what you get when you come here and what kind of guys are you looking for what kind of men do you want to pledge and be initiated into into this Brotherhood yeah I think that I think
The beauty of what we do is that we just look for a base in personality because I think you know something that I loved about our pled ship and what I our pledge trainers did well and what I hope to do well as a p trainer was to influence people’s
Characters right if you have You’ got a making of a character you’ve got a you’re confident and and you you are excited like you can you can really mold someone and that’s what we’re looking for and that’s why it’s great because you know not every F out looks the same
Right it’s kind of a hodge podge but we’re the best we’re the best hodge podge so it’s really it really is based on not outside but inside are we aligned can you do basic things like look me in the eyes shake my hand have not a weird conversation with
Me but like a conversation about everything you know like if somebody’s wearing a Star Wars TIE can we can we talk about that if somebody’s wearing you know a hunter Henry Jersey can we talk about Hunter Henry moving to the Patriots like can we can we do that can
We do random things like that that help me understand that you are good conversationally that you’re not extremely awkward and that you’re confident yeah so so you all are are open to for to guys being themselves but you want them to confidently be themselves if you’re weird go ahead and
Be weird you don’t have to be a certain model there’s no there’s no like template that that that guys are need to fit into right that if you’re into sports that’s great if you’re into video games that’s great if you’re into cooking meat that’s great like whatever you’re into that’s great
Just be real and and and be confident in in the person that you are those are the kind of men that that you guys sound like you’re looking for is that is that fair yeah it’s very fair it’s exactly what we’re looking for and you’re graduating you’re graduating here in a
Few months and you’ll be looking back over the year at your time at the University of Arkansas and at your time in the fraternity when you’re you know in your mid-40s you’ve got all your kids around and you’re telling your son hey son you know when I was at University of
Arkansas I was a fight out what what do you what do you think you’re going to be telling him about that experience what what are what are some of the the memories and and more memorable attributes of your experience at at fielf that you’ll probably share with your kids
Yeah I think the first one I would share with them is and I just I had an interview yesterday and this guy who was interviewing me asked me basically the same question just kind of like what what did you learn most about like being fight like a president fraternity and I
Would say and I kind of touched on a little bit but you know leadership is hard especially when there’s not a lot of motivating factors you know uh I don’t pay any of these guys to be here and I I don’t necessarily work for me
They do in a weird way but I don’t really pay them to be here they oddly pay to stay in fight out so it’s kind of backwards almost but there’s really it’s a different leadership than like a corporate side of leadership it’s really unique because it’s peers and
Younger and I don’t think I this might not sound like a lot that I learned but I learned that asking for forgiveness and admitting wrong is takes the stick out of people’s hands when you sit in a chapter room and you are in front of 68
Guys and you’re like hey guys I I didn’t communicate this well I should have done this I should have done this and I should have done this and I’m really sorry and I’m not going to do that again right it takes this mob and turns it
Into like that’s when we come back to Brotherhood we’re like hey I I love you thank you for that and so it really does that that was a a learning for me that you know guys and I think you know nobody likes to admit that they’re wrong
I hate doing it more than anybody I hate to admit that I’m wrong I will go to my grave thinking that I’m right I’m just really strong stubborn I don’t like saying I’m wrong and that was a big learning for me this this last year was
Like who gives a who cares if you’re wrong like you got to admit that at some point or there more problems come from just burying that and it’s harder to it’s harder to get people to be on your side when you just don’t apologize for anything when no one takes blame or
Credit or when no one takes blame for what was done you just look like a bad leader period because then you don’t get the chance for people to be like hey he apologized like he knew what he did wasn’t good or right but you kind of if
You don’t do that then you’re like this guy sucks and I hate him right most of the time maybe people say about me like hey this guy sucks but I still like him with an apology which is nice but that that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learned I would also tell him
Some really funny stories that probably wouldn’t interest in any of your listeners but it would that that’d be the thing I’d tell them about that’s that’s been my biggest learning and maybe it’s just because I it’s kind of hit me all as I’m leaving this year of
Like man that I think my time here would have been a lot easier if I would have just been like hey I I did that I did do that wrong and I’m really sorry and I won’t do that again so you’ve learned that there’s no shame in taking responsibility for your
Successes and your failures and asking people to offer you some Grace when you’re committed to taking responsibility and making it better and fixing it and I think you know you’re going to need to do that as a as a husband as a father as an employee as a
Boss I think I think those those sorts of attributes are that you’ve been cultivating over these years are going to set you up for all kinds of success across your life and so your presidency your experience there at Fidel is just has just made you a much
Better person and I am certain that one thing that that you’ll be able to tell your kids because I’m hearing it in this interview is that I grew a lot and that I was a I’m a I’m a when I left and graduated because of fight out
I can tell you I was a much better man and I can I can compare my my freshman self and and compare my senior self and there’s a big difference between those two and being in fight out has a lot to do with that yeah and I think absolutely and and you you’re
You’re free to to talk about that and I I’ve been so impressed uh with you Joe just in this interview because you’ve just you’ve just expressed and demonstrated there’s so much humility and I think that’s probably something that people don’t expect to hear from a
Man in in Greek life and I think that Greek life across the country you’re one of the men that I would put on the honors list of college fraternity presidents because the level of transparency and humility and willingness to take responsibility I mean these are the things that make great leaders
And our country is desperate for for men to do that and the fact that you’re willing to do that and able to do that and did it successfully at the University of Arkansas at Fel really makes you in my opinion one of the best fraternity presidents in America so Joe
Huitt thank you so much for being on the show as I’ve said to so many of these presidents your parents should be incredibly proud proud of the man that you are I hope they listen to this and your your parents should celebrate the man that they heard on this interview
Because he is absolutely outstanding and he stands Out Among the rest I know this I teach College I travel around the world engaging students in the level of humility that I heard on this interview tonight is is worthy of an extraordinary amount of pray so thank you again for
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