Fraternities continue to follow in SigEp’s footsteps

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Fraternities continue to follow in SigEp’s footsteps:

Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the most recent fraternity to follow SigEp’s lead and replace pledging with a better fraternity experience.

On Friday, March 7, 2014, Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) became the most recent fraternity to replace pledging with single-tier membership. The news came as part of more sweeping changes that introduced a new, member development program: The True Gentleman Experience.

SAE’s True Gentleman Experience is based on “five cornerstones” that are similar to SigEp’s own philosophical tenets, elements that have been central to the Fraternity’s Balanced Man Program (BMP) since its inception in 1992.

SAE’s new program, the True Gentleman Experience, is being supported by a 43-page training manual, which introduces the program’s five cornerstones. These cornerstones, and the program at-large, mirror SigEp’s Balanced Man Program, its philosophical tenets, and its own 46-page manual, the Balanced Man Program Guide.

Recent Bloomberg and Insider Higher Education articles recognized SigEp as an early adopter of single-tier membership and continuous development. When SigEp first launched the Balanced Man Program, it represented a drastic departure from more familiar pledge programs as it sought to combat stereotypes associated with Greek life and return SigEp’s focus to its founding values. But in the two decades since the BMP’s launch, many fraternities have attempted to replicate the program.

SAE is the fifth member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference to remove pledging (along with SigEp, Lambda Chi Alpha, Alpha Gamma Rho, and Zeta Beta Tau), but several more, including Beta Theta Pi and Delta Upsilon, have adopted member development programs that share SigEp’s strong anti-hazing stance and emphasis on continuous development. Today, universities are demanding that fraternities evolve and adopt similar programs.

While SigEp’s transition was voted on by undergraduates and has been demand-driven since its inception, news of SAE’s own reform came as a surprise to many members when it was announced on Friday. Response from SAE members on their Facebook page shows that the fraternity will need to work to create buy in with alumni-volunteers and undergraduate brothers who must execute the program for it to succeed.  

One Facebook comment from an SAE alumnus expressed concern about the way the changes were rolled out, “to effectively change national policy without a vote, by effectively enacting a change by what amounts to an executive order... isn't the right way handle things, in my opinion.”

Still, other SAE alumni voiced support for the change, “I am very proud of our council. They had to know this move would be unpopular. This decision took the courage we wanted to see in the leaders of SAE when we elected them.”

SAE’s announcement that it will become the most recent fraternity to move in this direction creates new opportunities for SigEp to lead the Greek community. Many of SigEp’s chapters have already responded to SAE’s announcement with excitement, offering assistance to SAE chapters on their campuses. SigEp’s two-decade head start provides SAE with case studies and resources that will be helpful as they seek to implement a new development model.

Brothers at Southeast Missouri State spoke with a local CBS affiliate about the future of fraternities, a future that looks a lot like what SigEp has been doing for more than twenty years. Vice President of Communications T.J. Weber told reporters, “We call our guys new members as a blatant thing of respect.” He offered encouragement for other chapters on campus who might be considering a similar change, sharing that SigEp’s Balanced Man Program, and its emphasis on equal rights and responsibilities, “gives you more of that feeling of brotherhood.”

Rush Video - Washington State SigEp

This is another Rush Recruitment video I think is a fantastic example of the "Best in Class" content that our chapters can come up with.



Does your chapter have a great video to use for recruitment or other purposes? Let us hear about it.

Fraternity rush sobers up at University of Maryland and elsewhere

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Fraternity rush sobers up at University of Maryland and elsewhere - The Washington Post:

"Fraternity rush is sobering up at a number of universities, including Maryland, where administrators ordered the student organizations to overhaul their recruiting — or risk having the university do it for them.

Following incidents at the University of South Carolina and Yale and Cornell universities over the past two years, debate has arisen about the role of fraternities in higher education and whether they should continue to exist. Much of what fraternities offer — a small community at a large school, a network of alumni, community service and leadership opportunities — is now offered by universities themselves.

To survive, fraternities have to change, said Peter Smithhisler, president of the North-American Interfraternity Conference, which represents 75 fraternities with chapters on more than 800 campuses.

“Those chapters that can articulate what it means to be a fraternity man — beyond a drinking culture — are the ones making it,” he said. “Those who rely on the crutch of alcohol won’t make it.”"

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