A MESSAGE FROM THE GRAND CONSUL - Week 8

Post date: Sep 29, 2019 3:16:55 PM

Keep up the good work. We are adding about 250 brothers a week to the SIGMA CHI INTERNATIONAL FACEBOOK PAGE. If you have the time and you are a member, you can invite anyone in your Sigma Chi friends list to join this FB page I need that as we need to reach more and more alumni and undergrad brothers. Just make sure they are in good standing with Sigma Chi. Thank you and keep it up!!

Well, I just attended my first initiation this morning. Either pledge classes are just starting or they are just about finished. The topic for this week is Pledge Education- Why is that so important within Sigma Chi?

We come to a college or university to expand our educational knowledge and base with the hope that it will be the springboard to graduate school or a professional life. That base is EDUCATION. Similarly, there is a need to become educated on what makes a Sigma Chi. What is it about our values and ideals that you want to possibly align with for the rest of your life? Is this an organization that aligns with the way a young man has been raised and educated to the point they enter higher education?

Similarly, how else can we showcase our ideals and values framed within 164 years of history and refinement without a period of a MUTUAL test fit- so to speak.

Many of our contemporaries in the fraternal world have either done away with entirely or shortened to the point of being invalid such as a 72 hour initiation. These organizations, including Sigma Chi, were confronted with universities challenging the need for a pledge period in the first place thinking it one long hazing continuum. The questioned that any relevant curriculum could possibly be presented and some even thought they could do it better than we could.

In light of this challenge, Sigma Chi developed Preparation for Brotherhood (P4B) which started at 8 weeks and was shorted to just under 5 weeks in this latest reiteration. I have had many a brother (including this morning) question how we could possibly accomplish what they had learned in just under 5 weeks. Brothers, I was a pledge for almost 5 months. I do not possibly think that these young men this morning have learned any less about the founding, history, governance and ideals of our fraternity than I did. It is not about the length of time- it is about the content. OUR CONTENT- THE P4B CONTENT is winning awards and P4B just won another national award. It is so cutting edge that other fraternal groups are coming to us to see how we do it. We do want to share- our success is the system's success and we cannot survive if the fraternal system does not survive.

If we continue to commit ourselves to let our pledge program evolve and improve based on feedback and input from our pledge classes, we will have the best product we possibly can being delivered and replicated across the Sigma Chi platform. We must make sure that chapters do not deviate from P4B and that the education that the brother at Arizona receives is the same as at Georgetown. The only difference will be the cultural differences of our chapters due to geographic location and societal norms.

We have drawn a line in the sand with our institutions. We will not abandon our pledge education. It is quite simply the building block of a Sigma Chi man. 5 weeks is just the amount of time we need to lay those initial building blocks and prepare a young man for success. There is no going back and Sigma Chi will not abandon our charge. Hopefully, others will see our success and continue to want to emulate us and ask us for help and guidance. WE WILL HELP IF ASKED.

Brothers, shortly the Fall 2019 pledge period will be behind us and a whole new generation of Sigs will take their place in all of our chapters. Another group will follow them. Join us in helping to continue to make this an experience we will remember for a lifetime. SIGMA CHI- PASS IT ON.

Addendum

After a social media interaction this morning, I thought I would tell a story of a chapter (this is a story- not a real chapter and not real brothers so do not take offense) who failed to act when hazing came up in their chapter and paid the price. This comes from my experience on the EC and on CAMAC and blends a lot of real world situations both past and present. BROTHERS- BE ON GUARD.

Chapter Alpha Zeta, was a high performance chapter in any province in the fraternity. Influential alumni, rich history and no problem with recruitment. All things going well- right? Wrong.

4 undergrads take 7 pledges to their apartment and proceed to make them do wall sits, pushups and force them them to consume alcohol. The rest of the chapter is unaware of this activity until one of the pledges tells his mother and she reports it to the university. The university starts an investigation and notifies Bill Scott at HQ. HQ notifies the EC and CAMAC and an investigation launches. A reporter with the local newspaper who wants to win the Pulitzer Prize decides to do an article about this hazing activity and it goes viral/national. Other reporters pick the story up. The Fraternity and the University place the chapter on suspended status and suspend the pledge program. Now the pledges are mad and their parents are mad. A long investigation by the University starts. The alumni catch wind of this and the Consul gets some angry emails and calls. Donors start questioning their support of the chapter.

After a long investigation, the University expels the offending undergrads and pulls recognition of the chapter for 5 years. The EC expels the offending undergrads. The university feels although it was isolated to 4 undergrads the other actives either knew about it or should have known about it or turned a blind eye to it. The fraternity is forced to be collaborative with the university and negotiates an exit strategy and tries to get back in the game in 3 years- they get 4.

Now the university is upset, the parents are upset as their pledge sons were hazed or have had their Greek experience tarnished for life, and the actives are without the Greek experience their alumni brothers worked so hard to build for decades. Everyone is mad. Donors pull their support and are mad at the International Fraternity thinking they did not do enough to support the undergrad chapter. Brothers, this is REAL WORLD. We deal with this.

All of this could have been avoided by the chapter being on guard for this type of activity. Brothers talk to each other. They feel the chapter "leadership" can and should deal with it- not them. That is what we elected them to deal with. No, all of you are LEADERS and must act when action is needed- your chapter's staying a chapter depends on it. Create a chapter culture where issues like this, drug and alcohol violations, etc. are dealt with immediately by the J Board and the chapter. Keep your University Greek Life office updated on the self-adjudication of these matters by the chapter. Demonstrate that we not only believe in the concept of personal accountability we act on it when necessary.

Be preventive- not reactive in our risk management. And If there is a problem you are not comfortable dealing with- get your Chapter Advisor and Grand Praetor involved (they should be involved immediately upon finding an infraction).

Lastly, HQ and CAMAC are not against you- they want to help you. Getting them involved on the front end and being proactive totally changes the situation and makes it easier to adjudicate. We believe in restorative justice when we can. Much harder to do or impossible on the back end.

BROTHERS, be aware, be on watch, act when action is needed and have the COURAGE to hold your brothers accountable and do what is right. It just might save your charter and your chapter.

NEXT WEEK: Mental Health Week is upon us and we will discuss what Sigma Chi is doing to advance mental health at our universities and colleges and the world in general.

See the Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/SigmaChiGrandConsul/

IN HOC,

-Steve Schuyler, ARIZONA 1979 - 71^th Grand Consul