Another National Fraternity Does Away With Pledging

ItalianStallion8 years ago

Pledging is hard, but that’s the point. At the end you feel like you endured and accomplished something and became apart of something bigger than yourself, and you got to know and grow close to a group of people who’d end up being closer than just friends.

Unfortunately, some chapters take pledgeship too seriously, are reckless, ruining the tradition for everyone. Alpha Kappa Lambda became the latest fraternity to make official changes to their national pledge program. Apparently, Alpha Kappa Lambda is a small fraternity because, one, I’ve never heard of them, and two, their most famous alumnus seems to be the guy who runs Noodles and Co. Instead of just reforming and changing it, they’re doing away with it altogether.

From Alpha Kappa Lambda:

After careful research, consideration, and some emotional conversations, the Fraternity of Alpha Kappa Lambda will be eliminating our new member program in its current form effective immediately. This program, commonly referred to as pledgeship, is no longer allowed.

The decision to change our new member program does not mean joining and being a member of Alpha Kappa Lambda now becomes easier. We are resetting the expectations of our members. We will be reinstating continuous member education. Our members will not just be asked, but will be expected to prove that they are living our Five Ideals on a daily basis. We will not be afraid to separate ourselves from those that do not align with our mission or try to further themselves in our Ideals.

Translation: We don’t want your chapter to do stupid shit and someone to get hurt. Can’t blame them in light of everything that’s happened and I genuinely don’t believe they want to make it “easier” to just waltz into brotherhood.

They did have an interesting way of justifying the move, however.

A thoughtful, deliberate review of our history reminds us that our eleven Founding Fathers never had to pledge Alpha Kappa Lambda. Men that started our individual chapters never had to participate in a traditional pledge program; these Brothers have been among the most committed, involved, and loyal of our fraternity.

At my old college, we had a new fraternity colonize and eventually start a chapter when I was there. As much as we’d joke around and say that their founding fathers were pussies for not going through pledging like the rest of us, they still had to go through a lot. It takes a lot of work, commitment, and dedication to start a new chapter. It’s not as simple as showing up, getting letters, and going to mixers.

Is it still easier than pledging? Probably..

[via Alpha Kappa Lambda]

Image via Instagram/ @asu_akl