Lisa's Organization example essay topic

Term Paper The person with whom I sat and collected my data for my term paper was a woman who works in the Ethnic Studies program in the library here at school. I interviewed her not because she work in Ethnic Studies, but because she, like myself was a member of a Greek-Letter organization. For the rest of the population that does not know, she is in a sorority and I am in a fraternity. Due to the fact that we had such a common ground, certainly there was a number of direction that my paper could have taken, but I focused it on the way it was when she pledged, and the way it is now and moreover why numbers of intakes are decline so rapidly in this part of the country.

The woman I spoke with was a girl, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Delta Sigma Theta, along with eight other fraternities and sororities comprise the National Pan-Hellenic Council. This council is the housing body for these nine historically black Greek-Letter Organizations, more commonly named the "Noble Nine". The oldest of these organizations is Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

(1908) and the youngest is the fraternity that I am a member of, Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. (1963). Lisa's organization was founded in 1913, just the fifth of these organizations founded, and only the second sorority. As has been evidenced, with certain organizations having more years on others, some prejudices and stereotypes have been created and perpetuated, and this is where we began our discussion. "You guys weren't even around when I pledged" was one of the first things Lisa said to me in our interview. Although, Lisa did pledge after 1963, Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., had not yet been an officially inducted in to the NPHC.

Although Lisa takes a more pro-active and mature approach to learning about this new organization, there still remain a few that don't. "I know about your organization, although they weren't around when I was in school", Lisa said. The minority of the Greek population feels as though if you weren't around when the pledged, then you don't exist or get recognized. Also the older the organization: the larger the organization.

For instance, since Lisa's sorority was founded an entire fifty years before mine, their membership is significantly higher. Some people from the old school of thought have being enculturated to hold the disposition that an organization's worth is directly related to its size. Lisa has had to become acculturated to seeing that this is entirely untrue. Feelings of dissension among some NHP C organization have to do with their alpha chapters. An alpha chapter is the first school where a fraternity or sorority was founded.

For Delta Sigma Theta, Omega Psi Phi, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Howard University is their Alpha chapter. This being true, the largest place of influence for these organizations would be Howard University, and many surrounding schools. Since culture is shared, the promotion of these organizations over time could turn in to the lack of acknowledgement or even indifference to the remaining NPHC organizations. This is why for the other four fraternities, membership is relatively low. In talking to Lisa she also agreed that in areas where a select group of organizations are prevalent, the others more or less "die out". Lisa also talked to me about what it was like when she pledged; very different from now.

When she pledged she was one of more than fifteen girls who wanted to go "online". Today, most NPHC sororities in this area have about five to seven women interested in pledging each semester, and even less who go actually go "online". When she actually pledged, it was perfectly legal then for things to go on outside, visible to the campus community. Today, rituals and pledging activity goes on behind closed doors and not at all accessible to the public. Lisa said that they could be in class with their pledging clothes on and would have to perform certain activities on campus; any such thing mow, would land any organization on suspension or even dismissal. What has changed this rule over time is the strictness with which officials are coming down on hazing and any public showing of pledging on a college campus.

The last thing Lisa and I touched on was the declining popularity in NPHC organizations. This proved to be the most extensive of our talks. The first factor that contributed the decline in the increase in the fear factors of potential members due to the influx of hazing incidents where pledges have been either injured or killed. In a few of these NPHC organizations, people have died due to situations they were put in while pledging. This alone should speak for itself in terms of why people don't want to pledge. These instances though, have been isolated and relegated to a distinct minority of the NPHC organizations, but from the outside looking in, it seems like joining a fraternity or sorority is just not worth the risk.

Another factor is part of what I stated earlier in the paper concerning where certain organizations where founded. Since it is true that culture is indeed shared, the popularity of certain Greek-Letter Organizations is regional. There are just some areas and some schools where certain organization just don't exist, which not only affects their membership, but the membership of the other organizations, due to the lack of variety as viewed by perspective members. "A person may very well want to pledge, but the one they " re interested in may not be there, and they may never pledge", says Lisa. One more factor, which may very well come as the biggest shame to NPHC organizations, is the discord among them at college events, particularly parties. "When people see frats fight it often promotes a gang perception and they lose interest" Lisa remarked.

With sororities, it may come in the form of putting down another sorority or the lack of willingness to do joint ventures. The discord can also stem from the "assumed" links that certain fraternities hold to certain sororities and vice versa. Because the Alphas and AKA's were the first two fraternities and sororities founded, they match up. Then it's the Ques and the Deltas, Sigmas and Zeta a and the Kappa's and SGRHO's. These ties sometimes make it hard for co-sponsorships and cross section relationships.

The last point Lisa made about this phenomenon was that, it just had a lot to do with the founding dates, and not really so much as personal preferences. In summation, doing this paper served a springboard for me to delve deeper into why relations are so tight and possibly ways that I could remedy the problem on my campus. From an anthropological standpoint, I got to compare & contrast pledging in the last twenty years, see how its present state came to be such a drastic difference from its past, directly related to the culture of Greek-Life, and the people who represent these organizations. Lisa helped me out tremendously, because I got to see just how the core values & traditions have remained the same; it's just the people who have changed.