University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1973 Becoming a fraternity member John Henry Newman The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Newman, John Henry, "Becoming a fraternity member" (1973). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 7652. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/7652 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BECOMING A FRATERNITY MEMBER By John H. Newman B.A., University of Montana, 1970 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 1973 :PROV BY: a Trma oard of Examiners School /£ 2 J Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: EP38453 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT UMI EP38453 Published by ProQuest LLC (2013). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuestcz: ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 -1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1 BRIEF ELABORATION ON BACKGROUND WORK .......... 2 AIMS OF THE S T U D Y ............................... 5 PRIOR LITERATURE .......................... 6 CONTRIBUTIONS .................................... 9 METHODS OF OBTAINING AND HANDLING DATA .... 10 SELECTING THE SAMPLE ................................17 PROBLEMS IN THE RESEARCH ........................... 19 2. HOW IT STARTS: CONTACT ............................. 21 RECRUITS .............................................. 22 VOLUNTEERS ............................................24 3. RECRUITING THROUGH R U S H ........................... 2 9 SETTING THE S C E N E ............................... 2 9 CLOSED AND OPEN R U S H ................................30 FORMAL ADVERTISEMENTS: I.F.C ......................... 31 THE MEMBERS' OBLIGATIONS: SELLING THE HOUSE . 31 SUMMARY ........................................... 3 3 4. CHOOSING A HOUSE ....................................... 35 BID C A R D S .........................................3 5 EXTENDING A B I D .................................... 37 5. ACCEPTING THE INVITATION : PL E D G I N G .................. 41 POCKET PLEDGING ................................. 4 2 S e c r e c y ............................................43 ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter Page Pledge P i n s .......................................43 FORMAL PLEDGING ................................. 4 4 SUMMARY ........................................... 4 4 6. THE PLEDGE PERIOD: FROM INDIVIDUAL TO BROTHER ..................... 4 6 A TRIAL STAGE ................................. 4 7 Learning about the House ..................... 48 Fitting I n ......................................... 50 Voluntary Disaffiliation and Blackballing . 50 Big Brother .......................................52 Pledges and the Pledge Trainer ................. 54 Becoming More Informal ........................ 55 7. CULMINATION OF THE PROCESS: HELL WEEK, INSPIRATION, AND ACTIVATION .... 58 HELL W E E K ........... 59 FROM HELL WEEK TO INSPIRATION ....................62 ACTIVATION ........................................... 63 8. SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS OF BECOMING A FRATERNITY MEMBER .............. 66 9. TOWARD A THEORY OF MEMBER AND MEMBERSHIP .... 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY ’. ................................................ 7 9 APPENDIXES ....................................................... 81 A. G l o s s a r y .................................................. 82 B. Hell Week Accounts .......................................84 C. Transcripts .............................................. 87 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION In the course of the college career, the student is faced with many things which are new and different for him. One such experience may be that of becoming a member of a fraternity. This is an interesting point. Persons become members. By doing so, certain things take place. These things were to become the topic of this study. On the cam­ pus of the University of Montana there are over three hun­ dred men and women who are members of a fraternal system. These persons go through an "entering into" process to be­ come members of a college fraternity. Through a process of informally talking with many members of fraternal organiza­ tions, it was apparent that they were able to account for how they became members of the fraternal system. This study involved the documentation of those accounts. It was my intention to gather those data necessary to produce an accu­ rate and concise statement of the processes of entering into a fraternal organization and, from this, to find dominant themes of such a process. The topic for this study was derived largely through my experience in dealing with fraternity members in a class­ room setting. In the fall of 1971 a graduate student at the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 University of Montana organized a class to allow members of sororities and fraternities to engage in research about their own organizations. Through participating in this class, I became interested in how persons became members of a frater­ nity system. There were many matters pertaining to the pro­ cess of membership which were unclear to me, and it was at this point that I began preliminary research which guided the topic to its present state of refinement. Here I propose to describe briefly the preliminary work that took place. BRIEF ELABORATION ON BACKGROUND WORK As mentioned earlier, this work started to take form in the fall of 1971 at a class meeting, and as already men­ tioned, the students were fraternity members. The initial search started with the gathering of information about the notion of becoming a member or joining a fraternity. Nine fraternity members were interviewed and asked to tell their stories of joining the fraternity. Persons were interviewed simply because they said they were members of a fraternity. I sought simply to find out if the members could give a nar­ rative account of their experiences of entering into the fraternity. The initial interviews also served to guide the nature of the proposed research. In the process of perusing the initial interviews I noticed that their talk suggested that there was a language that the members knew and used and which was descriptive of their experiences. A glossary of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 terms and phrases was developed (Appendix A). These terms and their definitions were collected from interviews with members. While there was variation in the usage of the terms, the informants agreed that these defini­ tions were generally acceptable to them.^ The order of the terms as set forth in the glossary reflects the order of their appearance in the members' accounts of membership. The glossary is not intended to be exhaustive. It includes only the words and phrases uniquely used by the fraternity members. These and other words and phrases per­ taining to fraternities were used by members in their accounts and were words which had special meanings for the members in the context of the fraternity. It was essential to pay close attention to the meaning of the words to enable the researcher to speak the language of the informants and to make sense of their narrative ac­ counts . From the initial interviews with the members of fra­ ternities, it became apparent that there was a socially- organized way of becoming a member. Preliminary work sug­ gested that fraternity members had the ability to give a nar­ rative account of their experiences of joining the fraternity. From these initial contact interviews, questions were formu- ll gathered together my informants and had them decide on these definitions. As a group they felt that these defini­ tions adequately described the terms and phrases in question. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 lated for gaining insight into the members' accounts of mem­ bership. The general question at hand was: How did you be­ come a fraternity member? This question was asked in a way which was intended to encourage informants to talk about their history as members from their first contact with the frater­