Final Day

The first session I attended on the last day of the conference was titled, “Attracting Quality People: Culturally Based Chapters.” The session leaders and participants examined the cultural divide in the Greek and collegiate community and how to break through these barriers to include more diverse students to your Greek organization. This was the encompassing focal point, but I feel that the session addressed various recruitment perspectives, and this is substantiated by the packet given out halfway through the session. This packet was approximately ten pages long, and its purpose was to address membership/recruitment conflicts by utilizing the presenters. The presenters offered their assistance to attract more worldly scholars to each of our organizations.

The second session I attended was intriguing due to my love for history and interest in psychology. The hour long presentation educated the crowd on the history and psychology of hazing, and it was quite informative. We explored the inception of hazing, which originated in the 18^th and 19^th century educational institutions. Fraternities were established in order for collegiate men to earn an education separate from the classical education taught in the collegiate classroom. Hazing was explained as a forced assimilation on college campuses that were believed to strengthen the values of the institution. The presenters showed several quotes from famous figures, including Vince Lombardi and Arthur Hadley, supporting hazing because of its valuable effects on tradition and humility. A weak and insufficient administration staff allowed for hazing to emerge on college campuses because of their inability to uphold the moral character of the institution.

We then discussed Chuck Stenzel. Stenzel was a public figure because of his commercials with Ovaltine, and he became the face of hazing in the 70’s after he rushed a fraternity in New York. His hazing consisted of him being thrown into the trunk of a car in subzero degree weather with a handle of whiskey and was told he could not come out until he finished the handle as the fraternal men drove around for a few hours. When they opened the trunk, they found that he had attempted to drink the whiskey, vomited, and died. This resulted in the first state legislation prohibiting hazing, and as of now, 48 states have laws forbidding hazing.

Following this, we examined the psychology of hazing by discussing various focal points, including the Stanford Experiment. The experiment took a group of individuals and assigned half of them the role of prison guards and the other half prisoners. They were taken to the basement of Stanford University. The prison guards were given a list of rules to uphold, but the experiment had to end after six days when the prison guards and prisoners were exhibiting emotional and psychological trauma. The experiment was supposed to last 14 days. This displayed the effects of creating a social divide/hierarchy within a group of individuals.

The presenters dove into shock-based experiments and their effects on altering perspectives to obey authority. A group of people were asked to answer a simple question regarding a bar graph. They received shocks for answering the correct answer as the experimenter conditioned them to answer incorrectly in order to corrupt their minds and conform them to the experimenter’s beliefs. These exercises were often utilized by many Greek organizations. 65% of the individuals experiencing the experiment suffered from shocks at 450 watts. The presenters elaborated on the fatality of hazing and how one one bad barrel can poison an entire batch of good apples.

The next presentation was the most influential on me. Justin Jones-Fosu was the talk of NGLA because of his enthusiastically captivating speech, and the BSU NGLA representatives are attempting to have him present at Greek Week this semester. He discussed what it means to be an ACTion H.E.R.O. by breaking down the H.E.R.O. acronym. First, it was established that you must be Humble. It is imperative to ask for help when you need it and admit your mistakes. He suggested evaluating yourself through a plus/delta chart. You take a sheet of paper, divide it into two columns (plus and delta), and then write the things you’re doing right on the plus side and the things you’re doing wrong on the delta side. The psychology of this is that you are more likely to be honest with yourself about your flaws after you write what you’re doing right.

The next letter of the acronym asked the audience to “be Empowering.” Jones-Fosu described this as simply inspiring those around you. It’s easy to say “this is going to be the best year ever” for your organization, but you never want it to be the best year ever. You want the year after that, and the year after that to be progressively better. Otherwise the organization can only decline if it has already reached its peak. Instead, empower your colleagues to take your place after you leave in order to strengthen your organization for future generations. He also encouraged each organization to develop a succession plan.

The “R” stands for “Relational.” It is instrumental to your success as a leader to be relational to your colleagues. Jones-Fosu encouraged us all to get to know each of our members and ask them two questions. 1. Why did you join our organization in the first place? 2. What does a successful experience look like to you? He also encouraged us to find some way of praising each member by catching them doing something right. It is just as valuable to show that you will metaphorically fight for your members or else they won’t fight for you.

The last letter of the acronym was the most important. It asked us to “be Optimistic,” with authentic optimism. You don’t want to be obnoxiously and unrealistically optimistic. You want to be optimistic for change that is attainable while inspiring those around you simultaneously. He used one analogy: A pirate is with his shipmates, and he has been informed that several other pirate ships plan to invade their ship the next day. The captain tells one shipmate, “When the other pirates are in sight I want you to grab my swords and my red shirt.” The shipmate replies, “Why the red shirt?” The captain says, “Because. If I am wounded, I don’t want you to see my blood and lose the momentum to hold down the ship.” The next day, the invading pirates send out an unfathomably large armada, and the captain turns to that shipmate and says, “Grab my sword and brown pants.” Lolz.

Jones-Fosu then took a full glass of water and drank half of it. He proceeded to ask the crowd if it was half full or half empty. There were obviously mixed responses. The explanation and necessity for optimism altered the mood after the pirate joke when Jones-Fosu turned the speech into a serious matter. He told the story of his best friend’s wife being diagnosed with cancer. His best friend called Justin in tears, telling him what happened. The doctor had told Justin’s best friend before his wife was informed so he could be strong for his wife. They walked into her room and told her the diagnosis. She had four months to live. She burst into tears, and her first response was, “Well, it’s a win-win. I’ll either be in heaven or here with you.” I was shocked by the response because I don’t know if I have ever heard a line so concise yet inspiring. It makes you realize how precious each hour of the day is and makes you cherish it that much more with the ones you love.