The rise of Beta Sig, Omega chapter on Indiana University’s campus from 2014 to 2020 was implausible.
I accepted a bid to the chapter in the fall 2015. I was told they had about 30 guys. It was a small, unhoused club; most frats had a hundred or more members and a big house. Beta Sig didn’t have anything more than a rented duplex from the 1920’s and a whole lot of spirit. But that’s why I signed.
In reality, the active membership stood at 12 men, and 13 were pledging in Fall ‘15 (this technique, often employed thereafter, was dubbed the “Beta Sig round-up").
By the time I left IU in 2019, Beta Sig had a house on Greek row and around 90 active members.
I only played a minor role in that growth. I could list their names, the men who really made it happen, but they only mean something to the brothers who were there.
We faced adversity throughout my four years. We drove through social condescension from bigger, housed organizations. We navigated moral crises within the chapter. We played through endless red tape to keep in the good graces of the University. We stayed cool through uncertain housing arrangements.
We put together and trained a cycling team to compete in the traditional Little 500 bike race on campus. We fought to maintain the top GPA on campus 6 semesters running by 2019. We participated in every intramural to get the Hoosier Grail 2 years running.
Although we never managed to build a good system for washing dishes, we finally managed to close a lease on a big house in 2018. 1015 North Jordan was a victory monument to our labor. We achieved the arduous task of building a fraternity from nothing and the even more precipitous climb out of the ‘unhoused’ class. We basked in it for an entire year thereafter. It’s the last place I was before leaving Bloomington.
It took no small effort to get all those above achievements. We were different men at the end of it. The call of duty for Beta Sig formed our wide-eyed 18-year-old selves into effective, goal-oriented 22-year-old men. That is the payoff of joining a fraternity.
Participation in fraternal organizations gives young men a sense of empowerment, even if on a small scale, and arms them with skills to affect change in their post-grad careers. Since almost all ‘managerial’ and upper-class men go through the university system these days (a problematic practice the value of which I won’t treat here), the association that most of them will encounter is none other than the (in)famous Greek fraternity.
Don’t assume I’m relying fully on my unusual, anecdotal experience; of our last 27 presidents, 19 have been members of Greek fraternities. That’s about 70%. That is because fraternities teach young men how to follow and lead one another within a political structure.
That is what fraternities are meant to do. It’s not all beer, girls, boat shoes, and short shorts. They teach persuasion and political compromise. They teach public rhetoric and debate. They teach emotional connection and how to navigate disagreement with someone with whom you share a home. They fulfill one socially with good times and good humor. In short, fraternities form leaders.
First, the fraternity serves as a political microcosm. The men of the chapter hold the future of their organization in their own hands. Their actions have real effects. Girls don’t get to ‘play too’ as in almost every other historically male sphere. The environment I’m describing is one where young men learn how an unregulated world works, how power and authority really impact their social group.
To have any success in that, fraternity men must learn to convince, to speak eloquently, to get others’ hearts and minds on their side. No debate class or political science track at the university can provide the same experience, because the stakes there aren’t real. The consequences in fraternity life are all-encompassing- there is no ‘not in my backyard’.
Second, men get to form bonds through common challenges as a fraternity. Today, most fraternities face close and watchful scrutiny from their university. This pressure has the effect of drawing them together and intensifying the gravity of their responsibilities.
Moral challenges force the fraternity men to exercise power in an uncomfortable way. Deciding the fate of a brother who’s offended, the membership feels the real weight of their actions. Their decision will have an impact on the individual offender and the collective too. These situations force men to think seriously about the personal effect of exercising power.
The bonds formed in a fraternity also stem from living together. Aside from all the collective wins and losses, Greeks share a common life. In the dormitory, the fraternity delves into the intimately social. They see the best and worst of each man and are asked to love him in that. This forms real brotherhoods, real ‘tribes’ of men who support one another in a network even long after they graduate. They are in a real way a society.
Last, and certainly not least, fraternity men are taught that service and celebration is a way of life. Service is expected in a fraternity. Aside from philanthropic events, fraternity brothers spend much of their energy on the common good of the chapter. Their time and treasure are put at the disposal of the group. They sacrifice for the common good.
Fraternities famously spend a great portion of their time not serving but glorifying their commonwealth with celebration. Fraternities can and should party. After all, the primary function of a fraternity is social. Celebration is a way for the brothers to enjoy their achievements and to welcome others into it. A fraternity that doesn’t party is dead; it is not one composed of men of celebration.
That is all the good that fraternities do, but of course my reason for writing this is because public opinion is now generally unfavorable to fraternities. Like many social institutions, the fraternity is decaying. Not every fraternity is a good one, just as not every family, not every school, not every society is good. A chapter’s quality is only as high as the members fight for. As I said above, their decisions have real consequences. Some are so serious that they result in a chapter’s demise.
So some of the bad press is caricature. Much of it is not; allowing drugs in the house, excessive alcohol consumption, promiscuity, degrading and extreme initiation rites are all just criticisms levelled at the Greek system. But none of these things are the focus of a healthy fraternity. Fraternities attract as many good, strong men as they do weak men who want nothing but the parties and status without the work. Part of the challenge of maintaining a healthy fraternity is keeping those who won’t meet the high call out of the chapter.
That potential for catastrophic failure is an important condition of fraternity life. It puts pressure on the men to stay vigilant. Gatekeeping the membership is paramount. As our national advisor used to tell us, “Men. Not ONE asshole walks through that door. Got it?!”
I recently came across an article by Yuri Bezmenov discussing the unique position of college fraternities and the disapproval they meet with today. Yuri makes a few claims early on I have to agree with.
“They impart valuable life lessons, rites of passage, and tight friendships that don’t happen anywhere else except the military.”
and
“I learned more in the frat house than the classroom. Many of my closest friends today are fraternity brothers who represent all walks of life, personalities, races, religions, and nationalities. Most have become great fathers, husbands, and professionals.”
I would say the same things about my own experience at Indiana University. The Beta Sig house was an oasis of quality on an otherwise socially underwhelming and ideologically charged campus. The experience of building the chapter under pressure and against unfavorable odds with men who are still some of my closest friends was an adventure which no academic track could have hoped to offer me. I attribute much of my post-grad success to my membership in Beta Sig.
Despite the potential drawbacks, if conducted well a fraternity forms young men throughout. It forms them from the sanctum of their bunk bed all the way out to the furthest reaches of campus. The college fraternity is one of the only remaining structures in society that seriously teaches young men to become effective leaders. There are no training wheels, no HR cops. The chapter is theirs to steward to death or to glory. Fraternities provide that arena to young men- better they mess up in the chapter house than the board room or the House of Representatives. History shows they’re more likely to get to DC from Greek row anyway.