Citizenship

When we hear the word citizenship, often times we think of the word in relation to being a citizen of this country. We think things such as patriotism, being a member of a community, following rules, etc.. etc..
The one thing that stand out to me when thinking about citizenship, is the sense of community that comes with it. This applies to all communities and I take that to mean the greek community as well.

As we've discussed throughout this entire class, we all are members of this community meaning that the actions of one person can affect how the entire community is viewed from the outside student body. So within greek life, I think being a good citizen means always representing greek life in the highest manor and being model citizens by living our ritual and being good members of society.

We've talked about all the C's of the social change model and how each one of our missions incorporates these ideals and this is how our chapters help determine how we act as "citizens" of the greek community. Each one of our mission statements talks about how we each should live our lives inside and out of the greek system and this all strongly ties into being good members of a society, greek or not. I feel that as long as people act congruent with their values that their chapter teaches then they would have no problem acting as good citizen within our community. Then once people act as good citizens within our community then this could only make us look better to the outside world which could only help us recruit better students, and continue to improve our greek community as a whole.

What I took from the Panel

Surprisingly, I actually took a lot from this meeting with the panel. I feel it is no secret about my views on greek life are pretty set in my ways and I have a firm belief system in how things should be run. but this panel somewhat opened my eyes to what greek life should be like here at OSU. I especially took a lot from the talks about how to manage things within the single chapters. My chapter just like every chapter on campus goes through/ is going through many problems, some more significant than others, and this panel taught me that there are different ways to handle these problems than I had once thought. I'm usually the type of person that often times has the idea that it's my way or the high way. Some people might see that as a problem but for me I see it as being confident in my decision making, but I've always been open to new ideas and that's what this panel has done for me. I really enjoyed the different ideas on how to incorporate the older members of the chapter and keep them involved because I feel that's an issue that plagues every chapter. I also enjoyed when Sharrell talked about how when she was in a leadership position how hard, but necessary, it was to stand up to older members or alumni and anyone else who did not agree with what was needed to progress the chapter. It's very tough to follow all the necessary rules when you have Alumni coming to events talking about all the crazy things they would have their pledges do, or just dumb things they would do in general; it's tough to tell them that we can't do those things anymore. I know personally I've dealt with such alumni and seen their faces of disgust almost when I tell them that we don't do that kind of thing anymore. I can attest personally that it was hard for me to adjust to certain rules that OSU doesn't put up with when I hear about all the fun things other chapters get to do, but after listening to this panel it's made me realize that in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal. The stuff that matters is how you interact with your brothers and the experiences you create together.


This is a video I made to use as a rush video, but I feel like it highlights a lot of the experiences I've had with my brothers and emphasizes everything the panel opened my eyes up to.

Oath

To me, oath can be summed up with one word: promise.

Us as greeks should understand what the word oath means more than most people. Upon all of our initiations we all took an oath to live out each others' creeds, missions, ways of life etc... We made promises to not only ourselves but to our organizations that would we stand by what we believe in and what we were taught from our ritual each and every day.
   When I think of oath, not only is it a promise but it's also a commitment one makes under the premise of something bigger than themselves. Often times you take an oath on the bible, or commit to yourself to a general public or group. Like the president taking an oath on the bible and committing to the entire country to uphold his position. Or our servicemen taking an oath to uphold the laws and regulations. The main difference between a promise and an oath is that promises are made in intimate situations such as promises to yourself or to a person, but an oath is between you and something bigger than yourself.

To me oath is pretty clear cut and doesn't really need to be explored into much depth. You either live up to your oath, or you don't and can sometimes suffer the consequences.

How we're not congruent. Take: 2

So I guess none of us were honest enough in our last posts about our organizations apparently, so let's give this another go shall we?

Now, just focusing on how Pike is not congruent with the values of our mission statement is very tough because truthfully, we do not put emphasis on our mission statement. The bulk of our values come from what we're taught in ritual, our "basic obligations" as a Pike, and our motto, "once a pike, always a pike." But for the sake of this assignment I'll try to base my post off of our mission statement. Our statement is as follows,

"Pi Kappa Alpha will set the standard of integrity, intellect, and achievement for our members, host institutions, and the communities in which we live.

Now I know in the prompt about this topic it seemed the direction we were supposed to talk about was how we aren't congruent basically in how we're acting in social settings. I'd say that we all have pretty similar mission statements so I'm going to break it down like it. First Paragraph is what I feel Pike is not being congruent with and the second will be what I feel greek life isn't being congruent on.

So as far as Pike goes, there are a few simple things I think we're not doing as well as we should. 

1) Intellect. We simple aren't getting the overall chapter grades. Yes we have plenty of people that are getting awesome grades, and everyone in between but I feel we need to have more of a strive, myself included to want to better ourselves. Not for greek life, but for ourselves. I couldn't care less how people judge us based on our house grades because I don't believe are a pinnacle issue within greek life. You need good grades regardless of fraternity or sorority. When it comes down to it we're all here for the same reason...to graduate with a degree and get a job. You join a greek organization to enhance your college experience, not just so you have mandatory study hours every week.

2)Philanthropy. I think we do not have a good enough system set up that allows us to give enough back. Granted we've had some unforeseen problems that have set us back in this category, but it doesn't change the fact that we could be better. Yes we have philanthropy events but I feel they could be so much bigger and we could give back so much more.

3) Setting the standard. I feel like that's pretty self explanatory. As of right now we're the fraternity  trying to knock off the goliaths of greek life in every aspect and until we're king of the hill I will nto be satisfied. Setting the standard doesn't mean trying to match what other people do, but rather having them try to do what you're doing.

No as far as the greek community as a whole goes...

1)Grades....how many fraternity houses have terrible grades, some not even making an effort it seems. I understand there are plenty of distractions in college and certainly greek life, but there's no reason certain people should have such low grades. We're supposed to be better than the rest of the student body. (I mean that in the least asshole sounding way as possible) We're supposed to be the ones that set the bar and set ourselves apart from the rest.

2) Bashing Each Other. I know this one is a little tough because greek life is one giant competition when you think about it. Each organization is competing for the best pledges, best pairings, best TG partners. but at some point we need to realize that when it comes down to it we all have the same basic principles and while yes, some are more successful than most, there's no need to get confrontational about it.

3) Being stupid. This also needs no explanation. How many frats are on social probation/suspension this quarter? A decent amount. This is a tough thing for me to say because while I personally don't have a problem with doing some of the things that would get a group on so pro, the cold hard facts is that you can't anymore. I know it's hard to listen to alumni at tailgates talk about all the crazy stuff they'd do to pledges, or the crazy things that would happen at parties, but the reality is times have changed and OSU isn't messing around.  

This isn't greek life in the south where rich alumni rule the schools and you can get away with whatever you want. This is northern greek life at a school where around 10% student body is greek. You're not going to get any love from the administration and definitely not cut any slack when it comes to breaking rules. 
4) Get Involved. I know there are a good number of people in greek organizations that are only involved in that organization. I feel like people need to get involved more around campus. Not only does it get greek life's name out there but it gives us a better name when they see Joe Schmo frat boy as the president of some club/organization as opposed to Joe Schmo frat boy drunk as hell at the bar being obnoxious.




I think these are all good things people should work on. You'll notice I didnt focus on the social aspect of thigns too much because I don't have a problem with it. We're all in social fraternities, with the key word being SOCIAL. I don't understand how TG themes being a little racy conflict with a social organization's mission statement. It's college man, people just want to have fun. You'll also notice that I didn't say anything about not acting stereotypical because that doesn't bother me either. Not every greek organization acts in the same manner, but I would make the argument that each one has a multitude of personalities and not one stereotype like many may think. Brass tax OSU students already have a preconceived notion of what greek life is based on the media and things like that. If people chose to act in such a manner, go for it. If it attracts the type of recruits you want and it works for you then by all means continue being the stereotype. I feel like it hards to understand the stereotype here at OSU because our greek community is so diverse compared to many other communities at different schools. The stereotype comes from rich students who join greek life looking down on "GDI's" for not being them. A lot of schools' greek communities often times are more of the richer students who can afford such high dues and still have expendable cash so often times their personalities match that. Whereas here at OSU I feel many people in every organization are in extremely different financial situations and have any different kinds of personalities. So I can see where these people would get upset at people who might be looked upon as giving greek life a bad name, but I just don't think it's a huge deal. Most times people are acting stupid when their drunk anyway. Thousands of students act drunk on campus every weekend but since we're attached to national organizations we get branded. Doesn't exactly seem fair does it?