[This guest post comes to us courtesy of Josh "Chappy" Blakely, VA Pi. Josh is a graduating senior in the brother mentor challenge.]
Every chapter seems to struggle with the issue of exactly how much alcohol is acceptable. Some of the more rowdy chapters end up in the Journal under "Our Very Own Frat Boys" or worse yet, in the news. What about the chapters that don't end up in these public forums? It still feels like there is an eternal struggle between brothers about the direction of our brotherhood. One group seems to feel that partying is the way to go while the other pushes for more dry events. I know from personal experience that it is easy for each side of the debate to vilify the other, after all everyone needs an enemy of some sort. The drinkers call the less wild ones "boring and uptight" while the quieter crowd tends to call the party-going brothers "wild, crazy, and a risk." But is it possible for both of these extremes to find a home in SigEp?
Can the profound truths of our Ritual be upheld through keg parties, the endless search for females, and underage drinking in the same way that it can through campus-wide events, philanthropic service, and sporting events? At what point does Virtue take a back-seat to the pursuit of entertainment? Are the high ideals found in our Ritual being forgotten in favor of having a good time? In short, is our Ritual drowning from alcoholism?
The problem I see with the entire debate comes from an issue of personal freedom. When joining Sigma Phi Epsilon we signed onto more than just a brotherhood- we signed on to promote a concept, namely the propagation of Virtue, Diligence, and Brotherly Love.
In so doing, we must at some point surrender a certain amount of our personal freedom, that is lay aside our self-aggrandizement and selfishness, to promote the common good. When it comes to Diligence and Brotherly Love this seems to be perfectly clear. It would be impossible for us to justify procrastination and poor school performance in comparison to Diligence.
Likewise it would be similarly impossible to justify abandoning a brother on the side of the road in light of Brotherly Love. For some reason though, Virtue can be more easily circumnavigated. Is it entirely Virtuous to have a party where underage drinking not only occurs but is promoted? Probably not and yet this, in many cases, seems to be promoted as the ideal fraternity environment.
A comment often heard around my chapter is the cliche "Well everyone is doing it." To that I would respond, "This fraternity will be different." In no way am I condemning alcohol nor would I ever dream of condemning my brothers, whether of age or not, that decide to drink. I am however calling for us to pull our Ritual out of the sea of beer and liquor.
There has been a new movement among the fraternities on our campus that can be summed up in one slogan, "Frat hard or go home." The "frat hard" movement is a call back to the days of wild parties and the "frat boy" image. I'm fairly certain that there is enough of that in our world today and to be truly different we should rise above any hard "fratting." As a counter slogan I've begun using the phrase, "Frat hard or go home-and my home is in Sigma Phi Epsilon." We are different, why can't we seem to remember that?
