Constructing our new, redefined American Fraternity was an inspiring and rejuvenating experience. Outlining what the ideal Greek Life should be triggered many personal thoughts and reflections. As we look to expand Greek Life in the next five to ten years at Ohio State, how can we make sure that we do so in the right way? How can we work as an entire community, rather than individual groups, to achieve this new, reformed Fraternal Movement? On another note, it was also very pleasing to see that as we "redefined" the American Fraternity, many of the changes fell in line with the current values and ideas of FIJI. To me, this speaks volumes of our Fraternity. It shows that we truly are making an impact on each other and FIJI is having an incredible impact on each of us.
Some key aspects that separate our redefined Fraternal Movement from the current one. First and foremost, as I briefly mentioned, our Fraternal Movement is a collaborative one, one that emphasizes all fraternities and sororities coming together as one to promote the growth and development of undergraduate students at this University. No chapter bashing, however, friendly competition. By friendly competition, I mean competition in the regard that we are pushing each other so that we all can get better at X, Y, and Z, not put each other down in order to raise ourselves up. Competition has the potential to truly bring out the best in everyone, so long as we can respect and honor each other as individuals, fraternities, and sororities.
Second, our Fraternal Movement puts the majority of its focus and emphasis on personal development. Greek Life proposes a tool for individuals to grow personally in many regards: it allows an undergrad to develop creativity, collaborative skills, and most importantly, leadership. The redefined American Fraternity opens doors for students to take whatever passion(s) they possess and make a real difference with the entire Greek community as their support system. In many ways, this aspect already exists in today's American Fraternity. However, in our redefined version, Greek Life promotes values-based leadership in order to assure that Greeks act with congruence and consciousness of self in leading their fellow brothers and sisters. In other words, one must understand their own values before they try to teach and lead others. Leadership is something that is difficult to teach in a classroom, but very easy and ideal to be taught through experiences in extra-curricular settings. The redefined American Fraternity provides such a setting.
Lastly, our redefined American Fraternity heavily relies on and utilizes its Men's and Women's Councils (IFC, PHA). These bodies work in conjunction with each fraternity and sorority, making sure all voices are heard. They also work collaboratively with the University to recruit, program events, and so forth. This sort of liaison role these councils play is critical to the development and reinforcement of the Greek community. In order to grow, we will need the University to have our backs, and the Men's and Women's Councils provide this.
This final project was perfect to encompass all that we've learned this quarter about the SCM and how it can apply both to FIJI and the future of Greek Life at Ohio State. It's been real guys, thanks for a great quarter.
