Fraternities vary on pledging rituals

Q: I am attending a private, mid-sized university in the United States. I am considering joining a fraternity, but I'm not sure if I should because I have heard some horror stories about pledging. Do you have any insight about fraternities?

A: In order to answer your question, I interviewed fraternity members who recently graduated from mid-sized private universities. Because you did not indicate what university you are attending in your question, my sources will give you a general perspective that may or may not describe fraternities at your school.

Most fraternity horror stories involve hazing during the pledging period. The fraternity members I interviewed told me that whether pledges are hazed or not or the amount of hazing they receive can greatly differ from college to college. Fraternities at College X may haze a lot, while fraternities at College Y may haze very little or not at all. The amount of hazing may even differ between different fraternities at the same college.

Some of the most egregious cases of hazing have made it into the news, most commonly when a pledge is forced to drink so much alcohol he gets alcohol poisoning and dies. However, my informants' experiences with hazing as pledges were much less serious, such as being forced to do tasks that might be considered to be "stupid" or "funny," but none that were dangerous or offensive.

Some of these tasks included driving to a city two hours away to pick up take-out food from some of the older fraternity brothers favorite restaurants and then serving it to them at the fraternity house. Another task assigned to the pledges was to do all the grunt work setting up for the big parties the fraternity would throw and then having to do all the cleanup the next morning.

I asked one recent graduate why he decided to join a fraternity and he said that Greek life is such an integral part of campus life at the university he attended that practically the entire social scene revolves around fraternities and sororities. So, you should first decide if your university is one where the social scene primarily revolves around Greek life and then decide if you are interested in that social scene. The fraternity members recommend speaking with upperclassmen at your university and asking them what the fraternities are like and specifically what the pledging period is like to help you make up your mind.

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Reprinted by permission, Palo Alto Daily News. Jason Katz ©3.15.2008 All rights reserved. This article may be printed for your personal use, but may not be reprinted in whole or in part in any publication or website without permission. www.jkatzcollegecounseling.com