This is a letter that I help wrote to promote my fraternity to upcoming Greek students. The letter encourages students to go Greek while also putting emphasis on rushing Phi Delt. The letter is reproduced in our rush booklet and distributed during Greek Discovery Day.

Dear Rushee,

Welcome to Summer Rush! This is the beginning of your college experience and will shape the course of the next four years and beyond. Deciding to become a part of Greek Community is a huge step in making your college experience something that you will look back at and be proud of and thankful for. Greek Life offers so much to students. It provides and opportunity for individual growth and as a member of an organization. The social, scholastic, athletic, philanthropic and leadership opportunities associated with the Greek System cannot be found anywhere else on Oklahoma State University’s campus. Greek Life represents only 12% of the total student population, yet over 85% of the university’s philanthropic activities, and our alumni account for over 80% of the money donated to the university. We are the elite, and we represent the best OSU has to offer. The question is: what separates one house from another?

There are 20 registered fraternities on OSU’s campus, and all of them have different qualities and characteristics. What you might ask yourself is, “What is important to me?” “What do I want out of my college experience?” and “What do I want out of a fraternity?”

Some fraternities focus solely on academics and some focus on a balanced approach to college life. Each fraternity offers something unique. The best way to discover what each truly represents is to spend time with those that interest you. Get to know their members. Ask questions. Ask them about their goals, their house, their living conditions, their values, their activities and their requirements for pledges. Seek the truth and don’t let others negatively influence your decision or opinion. It is not common for people to criticize certain fraternities, but if they do, take that as a sign of weakness on their part. The truth is a criticizing individual does not have enough good things to say about their own affiliations. We are proud to introduce you to our fraternity. Please take time to review what we have to offer. Why do we think you should consider Phi Delta Theta? Look through this booklet; the answer will speak for itself.

Respectfully,

The Men of Phi Delta Theta

Personally, I’m all about Oklahoma Sate’s Greek system. During my four years with my fraternity, I have been all about Greek life. I have served as my fraternity’s rush chairmen, where I singed 42 new members, and I served as the Interfraternity Vice President, where I was in charge of promoting Greek Life to upcoming freshmen.

I believe everyone can find their fit in a fraternity. Oklahoma State University has 19 fraternities and each one is different. If you prefer to study and to do campus involvement there is a fraternity for you. If you prefer to drink to the latest hours of the night there is a fraternity for you. Each fraternity offers something unique so each person can find their fit.

Not all fraternities on this campus have a Web site but for the ones who do I am going to list. Feel free to check out these fraternities:

1. Phi Delta Theta
2. Sigma Nu
3. FIJI
4. Alpha Gamma Rho
   
5. Chi Phi
6. Delta Tau Delta

Greeks are the leaders of Oklahoma State University’s campus involvement for the last 4 years. Greeks are not only involved in the major student campus organizations. They are the leaders of the organizations.

Since I been at this campus, greeks run the biggest student campus organizations. For the last five years, the executive director of Orange Peel has been Greek; the past 4 out 5 student executive director of Homecoming has been Greek; 90 percent of the student executive directors of Camp Cowboy have been Greek. Also, the last four Student Government Presidents have been Greek.

Greeks become leaders in there houses, leaders on campus and then leaders in American Society. This could be why all but two of the last US presidents since 1825 have been Greek.

You may have been thinking about going through rush. But there are so many different terms it becomes just confusing. Some people don’t even know the difference between a sorority or a fraternity. A fraternity is a greek organization that men join and a sorority is a organization that women join. Then there is legacies, alumni, rush, pledges, new members and the list of terms seems never ending.

I would like to guide you to a site that will further inform you on the subject of Greek life. It will give reasons why to rush such as developing leadership skills to can it be affordable. Also, it will define the terms that may at times just be confusing.

To learn a little more about going Greek check out RUSH.

Hazing happens around campuses across the nation. It happens in sororities, fraternities and athletic programs. To many, it is just stupid a sense of silly pranks with little harm. What happens when hazing goes to far?

Recently, at Chico State University, the Chi Tau fraternity took hazing to far. A future member who was being hazed did not just end up in the hospital but instead his own grave.

Matthew Carrington was going through Chi Tau hell week, this is referred to many fraternity as initation week. Carrington was forced down stairs to a basement and was made to do calisthenics in raw sewage for hours while interrogated and taunted. Carrington was forced to chug gallons of water of gallons of water while still being force to do calisthenics. Fans blasted ice cold air onto his wet body along with the other pledges. They urinated and vomited onto themselves.

Then something went wrong and Carrington started to seizure. Frighten, the fraternity members hesitated to call an ambulance. When an ambulance was called, it was too late. Carrington died from water intoxication, which caused the swelling of his brain and lungs.

Please read more about Carrignton death at the NPR.

Hazing is just not wrong but it can kill.  Every year, you hear of students who died on other campuses from hazing.  Recently, I attended a national Greek leadership development college and one of the hot topics was hazing. I heard of horror stories of other chapters hazing by forcing pledges to drink mass amounts of water with intensive physical work outs. This puts extreme amounts of stress on the pledges bodies and could kill them, which recently occurred at Chico State. Also, students have died from fraternity members forcing pledges to drink alcohol, which recently occurred at Oklahoma University.

At Oklahoma State University, we do our best to keep hazing at the minimum.  We strive to eliminate hazing as a whole and have made huge strides in the past ten years.  Today, we do random alcohol/hazing checks to make sure there is no drinking  and to ensure that there is no hazing. These checks are done weekly and on random. At Oklahoma State, we strive for exllence in our Greek community.

Check out Oklahoma State’s HAZING POLICY.

Many students see Greek letters on campus. Students see them on houses, back of cars, t-shirts and folders.  However, do all students understand what each Greek letter is?  Here is my chance to allow you to see each Greek Letter.

To see what each Greek Letters is check out OKLAHOMA STATE.

One of the biggest stereotypes in fraternity life is hazing. I’ve heard so many FALSE rumors on Oklahoma State’s campus about my fraternity and other fraternities hazing pledges. I will list so the rumors that I have heard and I know to be false. I was the external vice president of the interfraternity council; in other words, I governed over 19 of the OK State’s fraternities. My job was to make sure there was no hazing and no drinking in the fraternity houses.

1. I once heard that my own fraternity lined pledges up in a row. We then would hit golf balls at them with a driver and would hit them with the golf club. NOT TRUE. Hitting a golf ball at another person would cause serious damage to their body. I’m pretty sure the entire campus would notice that 30 plus men had severe bruises across their body. I would be willing to say that a direct blow from a golf in point blank range could almost kill someone.
2. I once heard that one fraternity would make there pledges swim across Theta pond when it snowed outside. Once when they got out of the water, they would hit them with paddles. NOT TRUE. I’m pretty sure that campus police patrol this area. Someone would notice that an entire fraternity was outside beating their pledges with paddles. Not forgetting, how sick kids would be from swimming across Theta pond.
3. I once heard that one fraternity would make their pledges have intercourse with a goat. This is just sick. I know over 300 guys in fraternities. Not one of these guys I know would ever do such a sick act.

These are rumors I have heard overtime at Oklahoma State University and I’m sure many more will come.

In the movie Animal House, Bluto, played by John Belushi, is the “obnoxious ring leader of all the crazy antics and hi-jinks of the Animal House’s Delta Fraternity.” Bluto plays a key role that is very humorous in the movie. However, the character Bluto helps give fraternity men a negative stereotype. In this post, I will describe some of the pranks Bluto pulled and briefly describe why they’re a negative stereotype.

1. Bluto grabs a ladder and spies into a sorority’s window. Great, now fraternity men are coined as perverts.
2. Bluto is upset, so he downs a entire of bottle of Jack Daniels in a matter of ten seconds. Great, now we are raging alcoholics.
3. Bluto steals the mid semester final so the entire Delta house can cheat on an exam. Great, now we have to cheat on test to make good grades.

In the movie, Bluto pulls many more stunts such as killing a horse in the dean’s office to helping wreck the entire homecoming parade. Bluto actions help enforce that fraternity men only came to college to party.

Check out some of Bulto’s quotes by clicking here.

Animal House is one of my favorite movies of all time. However, it gives fraterinty life a bad repuatation.

The movie starts off with two young college students who wish to join a fraternity, this is called rush. As the students go through rush, they struggle to find a house to pledge until they come across the Delta fraternity.  For the most part, Delta is the only fraternity who would rush these young men.  The Delta is a loud extreme party house that just plain out suck in academics. They tear apart their fraternity home, cheat on tests, kill a horse in the dean’s office, ruin the homecoming parade and spy on naked girls.  This is how fraternity life is portrayed in the movie.

Check out this movie trailer by entering the site, click on feature and view the trailer at ANIMAL HOUSE.