posted
I've been toying with the idea of expanding a short story (Mu Iota Beta). I think it could have enough material for a novel.
But I keep encountering a stumbling block: The POV character's induction into the fraternity when he gets to college.
On TV, I've seen it portrayed. The first day of college, people go into this room with a bunch of boothes and sign up. They have initiation and hazing, and if approved they get to join. Is this true? Has anyone experienced this? How was it really? Is there anything more to add?
Among my various family members, we belong to probably half a dozen fraternities/sororities. But none of them involved signing up or any sort of initiation/hazing, because they're all merit based. On the other hand, extreme hazing/initiations resulting in criminal actions/deaths/etc. do take place as a matter of course pretty much every year.
Most fraternities fall somewhere in between these extremes. There are a few basic "economic" factors that determine how much hazing will be involved in an initiation. First, there is the target membership size, how many new members the fraternity is willing/able to admit, corresponding to "supply". Second, there is the number of people that would like to be a member of that fraternity, which corresponds to the "demand". Third, there are any existing requirements which applicants must meet. This can be thought of as the "market" or something like that, though it isn't really the same thing. But it serves to effectively shrink demand, since many of those who would like to join simply won't be considered at all. Or you can count it as part of the "price".
Once you have your supply and demand worked out, you can figure the "price", how much hazing you need to make it so that the number of people who want slots is reduced to the number of available slots. True, this process isn't usually rationally considered when a fraternity is deciding on the initiation of new members, but groups that fail to "price" according to the laws of economics will lose membership and be driven out of the market. There is also the consideration that having a high level of hazing can add "value", much the same way that luxury items gain appeal because they cost so much.
Anyway, there is a reason that fraternities that are the most "popular" (in terms of offering things that almost everyone wants) tend to have the worst hazing, while those which center on small minorities tend to have less hazing or none at all. If your fraternity is offering fifty spots to 200 eligible applicants, then they must wash out 75% of their applicants (or tighten eligibility requirements). If they are offering ten thousand (i.e. effectively unlimited) spots to a thousand eligibles, then they'll take them all without any hazing, even those that didn't bother to apply . The same is true if there are four spots but only three applicants (you know, like Genshiken ). If people interested in joining your fraternity are rare, you take them just as readily as if people eligible to join are rare.
posted
Hazing isn't just about balancing a fraternity's numbers, it's also supposed to be about brotherhood. It brings a pledge class together when they have to go through the same experiences, no matter how potentially embarrassing. (Not that I'm endorsing the practice, mind you.)
If I'm not mistaken, hazing's been cracked down on quite a bit. Not that it isn't still done, but it must be approached more subtley. And what hazing you go through has a lot to do with what frat you join. I had a chemistry professor who'd joined a frat mostly peopled by other chem majors. They took him out to a field, stripped him naked, and covered him in a chemical that dyes your skin blue. You probably wouldn't get THAT brand of hazing at most frats.
As far as the process of joining a frat goes, I think it varies, but at my school, you don't sign up or anything. The first week, before classes start, is rush week. Frats blow tens of thousands of dollars on rush every year. They serve steak and lobster dinners, have poker nights with prizes, go on cruises... I even went formula one racing with one frat. (It looks good to have girls around too, so we get the benefits without having to deal with recruitment. ) Rush week is also dry at my school. It's dry at a lot of schools, but usually that means you have to be more sneaky about alchohol consumption. However, we recently had a freshman die of alcohol poisoning, so the administration is strict about it.
One important point: the initiation and hazing come AFTER you join. After rush week, you get an invitation from each frat that wants you. Then, you have about a week to pick one (or none). Some frats even have special traditions for this process. A friend of mine's frat has a tradition where members are encouraged to accept their invitation by making current frat members hunt them down in a certain amount of time. My friend left clues that led his brothers to The Top of the Hub, an expensive restaurant in the tallest building in Boston, where they found him and friend cross-dressed and with a hefty bill for the brothers to pick up!
Anyway, here's the order of how the process works: 1. They love you before you join. 2. After you join you become a pledge and they walk all over you for a while. Usually this is where any hazing will come in, and you'll definitely get assigned chores and you'll have to memorize frat codes/ history/ member names/ etc. 3. If you've been a good pledge, you make it to initiation night, usually timed about halfway through the school year. Frats are very private about their initiation rituals, and the process can go on for the better part of a day. After initiation, your a full brother.
posted
It's not, at a conscious level, about balancing numbers. Few human behaviors are. But those that persist need to get the numbers right.
The (theoretical) point of hazing is to make sure that the pledges want brotherhood "enough". So it follows a price structure, even though we're more familiar with price structures that are mainly motivated by the desire of the producer to be comphensated.
I believe that the actual purpose of hazing is a lot more "comphensatory" than most fraternities would admit. But it doesn't actually matter that much, since whatever the motivation, hazing follows a price structure.
posted
It all sounds very strange and alien from this side of the pond.
One note. "Mu Iota Beta". Is there a particular reason that you've chosen these three letters? Does the fraternity in question monitor aliens living on Earth...?
Probaly what you should do is just write it, and then let people who were in fraternaties read it and tell you what works and what doesn't. Most of them won't spill their house's secrets.
[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited July 12, 2005).]
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. The same is true if there are four spots but only three applicants (you know, like Genshiken 
) Rush week is also dry at my school. It's dry at a lot of schools, but usually that means you have to be more sneaky about alchohol consumption. However, we recently had a freshman die of alcohol poisoning, so the administration is strict about it.
