Tiffany's Perfect World

Describe your perfect world. What role does (or should) sorority/fraternity life play in achieving your perfect world?

i have a picture of the artists who performed in the ORIGINAL "we are the world" video (the new one is terrible). the song was made to raise money for famine relief in africa and they succeeded....raising about 60 million dollars. it sounds cheesy and really cliche but in my perfect world people would come together to help the impoverished people of the world more often, just like this.

last year the world lost the most influential artist we have ever known. michael jackson was a humanitarian as well as an artist. this is one of my favorite michael songs and i remember watching this video when i was young. i can relate to the way michael feels in this song because i feel like i have similar hopes and dreams for the world. people seem surprised when they ask me what my major is and i say environmental policy and management...and they ask why and i say-its my passion! so my perfect world would be green..no one would club baby seals, everyone would be committed to living sustainable life...conservation would be everyone's priority, there would be no famine in africa or any other part of the world and most of all, people would CARE enough about these problems to do something.

so in my perfect world, when people joined fraternities and sororities, they wouldnt be committing to the small scale philanthropies and community service projects that they do now, but they would be committing to a lifetime of service on a grand scale. we would be in the amazon planting trees, in africa providing clean water to remote village or in asia teaching english to poor children. not only would we be doing that but we'd be recruiting and leading others in the movement. in my perfect world people would care about others more than they cared about themselves.

Dilemma and Opportunity

Describe in your own words, the dilemma--and the opportunity--facing the Fraternal Movement?

The Fraternal Movement has great opportunities. Organizations have the opportunity to really evaluate their founding principles, oath, rituals, etc., and change the way they run their chapters. In this class we've been developing skills as Greek leaders. We've been forced to really think about things like ritual and oath, why we do them, what they mean, and why its important. If every organization can begin at the beginning, the whole structure of fraternities and sororities as we know it would change, for the better. And with that would come the opportunity for members to serve the community, promote brotherhood and sisterhood, and uphold standards of academic excellence, as it was intended in the first place.

With that being said, in order for the Fraternal Movement to achieve these goals and move forward, they must have a force of members committed to making a change. The dilemma lies in getting people to move forward with the change. Once fraternities and sororities decide to redefine the way their chapters are run, and stick to their principles, they will attract new members who are committed to the cause. Too often people join fraternal organizations for the wrong reasons-to party, to be popular, to get dates, etc. Once people start joining fraternal organizations for the reasons mentioned above, the organizations can move forward, past their dilemma, and realize all their opportunities.

"Welcome every problem as an opportunity. Each moment is the great challenge, the best thing that ever happened to you . The more difficult the problem, the greater the challenge in working it out."

-Grace Speare

Strengths and Opportunities

It is better to say "opportunities" than "weaknesses" because a weakness suggests a deficiency. An opportunity is good chance for improvement. Here we go.

My Chapter

Strengths

• we have a strong history on campus. established in 1919 and doing big things ever since!
• we have amazing service programs including Christmas Wish where we provided 150 kindergarteners with coats at Cassady Elementary and Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive where we provided 26 families with complete Thanksgiving dinners this year
• we are a close knit group because many of us were friends before we even joined the chapter
• we have worked to improve our relationships that didnt exist or were damaged in the past with other chapters on campus
• we have members who are passionate about service and motivate others to give back
• we run our chapter as if it is a business-because it is!
• our members are very involved on campus, not just in greek life (RAs, Hertiage Festival, MANRRS, E4E, NABA, CBSA)
• we are role models on campus

Opportunities

• sometimes we dont priortize as well as we should
• we can always have even better relationships with other groups on campus
• we're a group of strong minded women....so we dont always see eye to eye on everything
  
  

My Council

Strengths

• we've grown more unified this year
• all Divine 9 organizations have certain things in common that bind us together
• our council has worked towards doing more programs and events as a whole, and for the benefit of the community (i.e. chartiy stroll competition)
• organizations in the council support each other's programs and events
• we are working to improve the quality of members with scholarship standards

Opportunities

• member participation in meetings/events/planning could be improved
• member's academic standing could be improved
• unity with other councils and organizations on campus could be improved
• the amout of community service we do could be improved
• the amount of programs we put on as a council could be improved

My Community

Strengths

• the ohio state greek community is huge!
• who isnt proud to be a buckeye?
• my council and my organization being a part of such a huge commuity gives us better opportunites to reach out to more people
• greeks are role models for non greeks in the community
• we all value education and are here for that one goal

Opportunities

• sometimes there is a misunderstanding of greeks in the community
• there have been greeks who have tarnished the image of organizations among the community in the past
• differences in values can cause schisms

my chapter, council, and community all have many strengths and opportunities. listing them doesnt mean anything. what i need to do is make sure myself and the people around me are constantly working to maintain and increase our list of strengths, and decrease our list of opportunities.

OATH!

the word "oath" sounds so official and so permanent. merriam-webster defines the word as:



(1) a solemn usually formal calling upon God or a god to witness to the truth of what one says or to witness that one sincerely intends to do what one says (2) : a solemn attestation of the truth or inviolability of one's words ?



so i guess everyone took an oath of some sort when they joined their frat/sorority? i did! that definition is kind of scary though...it sounds so PERMANENT and BINDING. whats even more scary is how lightly people take their oaths. in the Delta oath we promise to uphold our sororities values and be women of high moral character. i know for a fact that some people need to go back and re-learn their sorority or fraternity oath because the things they do in the name of their organization could not possibly have been part of their oath. a lot of times you have to step back and look at what your organization is doing and think "would our founders be proud of my chapter today?"



DOCTORS take the Hippocratic Oath...believed to be written by Hipocrates, a GREEK and father of western medicine. They have to swear before God to ethically practice medicine. They have to swear to treat their patients kindly, prevent illness, and remember that they too are human and are not to play God. just imagine how horrible it would be if doctors and healthcare professionals threw all the things they swore to out the window and did whatever they wanted...what kind of healthcare system would we have?!? duh, the one we have



Doesnt each president have to take an oath when they are sorn into office? I'm certain Bill Clinton did and i'm just as certain that in his oath, sleeping with interns was not inlcuded as one of the values the president should uphold.





so in conclusion, our society for some reason has thrown "oath" to the wayside and decided that it doesnt mean a damn thing. and we're all guilty of this. me too. i know i havent done everything in my power to uphold my sorority's oath. i had to really try hard to remeber all of it since its been so long since i memorized it. as i recited it to myself i realized that we all probably need to recite it at least once a day so we can be reminded of our purpose.



ARE YOUR FOUNDERS PROUD OF YOU???

Secrets & Stuff

What are your secret thoughts of ritual?

Honestly when I hear the word ritual I still think of like a cult or some something creepy. I shared in class last week that in my org we dont even really use the term ritual. I guess what people consider rituals are things that we're required to do as Deltas...but they are a labor of love. I do not consider our rituals to be a burden or an annoying obligation. And I'm still not even sure what counts as a ritual because I dont think twice about the stuff we do-I just do it!

Now with that being said, I dont have any "secret" thoughts on ritual. I shared them all in class! Typically in NPHC orgs, rituals are taken very seriously and are held near and dear to members hearts. Everyone knows this even before joining an organization. There is an air of secrecy around the Divine 9 that you quickly realize as a non-greek. Its obvious that orgs keep some things very private (grips, mottos, greetings, etc). So what is this topic really about? Am I supposed to reveal some Delta secrets? I cant! I know better than to go around telling Delta secrets. There is some stuff that ONLY Deltas should know. For example, I should be able to ask any Delta from anywhere a certain fact about my chapter, Epsilon chapter, and she should be able to tell me because my chapter had a big role in our organization's history and it is something that every single Delta learns.

I dont have any secret thoughts on rituals...my rituals are my secret thoughts.

One of these things is not like the other........

Which one is different?! Some people still dont know!



IFC
PHA
NPHC
MCGC



After Monday's NPHC general body meeting I have to blog about this topic. It really grinds my gears when people dont recognize other people's differences. Sure we're all "just fraternities and sororities" but are we all the same? Dumb question right? It is to me! I know how PHA and IFC run their recruiting process so why, why, why do I constantly get asked questions by members of PHA or IFC like "when is your rush" or "when is your formal recruitment" or something of that nature? I can only politely answer one, maybe two dumb questions before I start giving people the evil eye. If I told you I was a member of an NPHC org you should know I'm not about to answer those types of questions. And then when you go on to ask me where is Delta Sigma Theta's house, I'm just going to walk away from you. You know you have never seen that house in all your years at OSU, it doesnt exist! What is it that makes people even think that our council is run the same way as theirs?? If it was, why would we even need a separate council..wouldnt our orgs just be apart of PHA and IFC?



**disclaimer** I really appreciate when people ask questions for the sake of learning...for example, newly initiated Greeks, or non Greeks...but I should not be having these conversations with people who have been in their orgs for 2 or 3 years!



People get so comfortable in their own bubbles that they dont realize that there is sooooo much out there that they just dont know, even here at Ohio State. Seek and you shall find....but most people dont seek. Have you ever even been to an NPHC event?



**tangent** And I mean besides a step show because it REALLY pisses me off when the only thing people can associate with NPHC is stepping. When I tell you I am a part of an NPHC org the first thing out of your mouth shouldnt be a question about stepping. Dont ask me to do a step, dont ask me to teach you a step, dont aske me to show you a stroll or you will get the evil eye.



Anyways the whole point of my rant is to express my frustration with ignorance. Why not step outside your comfortable bubble and learn something new? I know, I know, instead of just being pissed off and ranting all the time why dont I do something to facilitate the change? Its a two way street right? Right. So let me just list some facts that might seem basic to me, someone else in the NPHC, but not to everyone.



☼the NPHC consists of 9 orgs, commonly known as The Alphas, The AKAs, The Kappas, The Ques, The Deltas, The Sigmas, The Zetas, The SGRhos, and The Iotas



☼no NPHC org on this campus has a house. there are a few reasons but one is historical- "back in those days" we simply werent allowed to have houses per the university. imagine that. NPHC orgs do have houses at other schools, especially HBCUs

☼NPHC orgs at OSU dont have "formal recruitment"

☼Everyone knows Dr. J right?? She's a Delta!

☼NPHC orgs have events every single week, many of which are located at the Hale Center

☼OSU's NPHC has 4 single-letter chapters: the Alphas (Kappa Chapter), the Deltas (Epsilon Chapter), the AKAs (Theta Chapter) and the Kappas (Zeta Chapter)

☼Most members of NPHC make a lifelong commitment to their orgs, and go on to join graduate or alumni chapters after undergrad. Some people choose to never even join a chapter in undergrad but instead just join a graduate chapter after completing undergrad.

There, some fun facts about NPHC. Learn something new every day. Wanna know about a particular orgs upcoming programs, service events, fundraisers, parties, etc? Just ask us! We'll ad you to our listservs because appreciate it when people come out and support our events. For example, did you know that several NPHC orgs had fundraising events to raise money for diaster relief in Haiti? **shameless plug** DST had a penny drive and raised approximately $700 in four days to donate to the Red Cross.

Its really late so in conclusion {insert philosophical quote here} and lets get to know one another.

It was cold outside but....

....last Friday's class turned out to be very interesting. Each council went out and had to survey greeks on the street. I wish I hadn't left my gloves in the car that day. Our group consisted of NPHC +Clark so when we hit the [cold] streets we split up into two groups.

So we walked around to different sorority & fraternity houses and got people's answers to the questions. In my group, no one gave us any sort of outrageous answer, which I was kind of hoping for just to make it interesting. People said the things their chapter spent the most time on were things like sisterhood/brotherhood, philanthropy, and other good stuff. They may have been lying. Or maybe not. The only eventful thing was having a door slammed in our faces as we approached a house....where another council was already inside doing their survey. What kind of community is that?! RUDE!!

When I regained feeling in my fingers, I began to ponder the purpose of this wintertime excursion we were forced to take. I suppose it was for us to all get a sense of the greek community. Like I mentioned, the chapters we talked to had pretty straight forward answers. We asked one frat what their values were and the guy recited what sounded like their official principles or mission statement. So I suppose there isnt such a HUGE difference in the councils...as some people may have thought. Everyone org has some sort of mission statement/principles/value statement related to sisterhood/brotherhood, bonding, community service, scholarship, etc. Now the only issue is bringing people together. Whats keeping us apart?? I'm familiar with the other 3 councils...have met people from each one. I can name a few orgs in each. I know that their intake processes are different from NPHC orgs. They have formal recruitment and accept huge numbers of people in their chapters. NPHC is pretty much opposite. I'm familiar with some sororities in PHA, particularly the ones with "Delta" in their name and the ones who try and throw up "The Pyramid" :)

So like I asked before, whats keeping us apart?! Nothing serious, just people's ignorance. Why would you join the greek community at OSU and not get familiar with the whole community. I can at least name the other councils....I learned about them shortly after I crossed. Some people have been greek longer that me and still cant do that. I know that other councils do membership intake differently, and they have houses on campus where some of their members live. I know for a FACT that people dont take the time to learn about anything outside their own org or council, because I cant tell you HOW MANY TIMES I've been asked by a PHA member or IFC member some odd question like "so where is you guy's house?" or "why is your chapter so small" or "did you have a lot of girls rush?" WTH?! I resist giving them a stupid look and try to answer their questions in terms they'd understand

Ok ok so what can we do to solve this nonsense? We need to talk to each other more! Duh. We're all Buckeye's right? As a class full of leaders, it's our responsibilty to initiate the changes within our chapter's...so lets do it!

African Violets.....Delta Sigma Theta's official flower. Learn something.