One of my all time favorite books is The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman. If you haven't had a chance to read it and you enjoy discussions about technology and how the world is changing around us, pick it up. I can assure you it will be a fast read this summer and quite enlightening. That same author is a regular contributor for the NY Times, and he recently wrote a great opinion piece called "It's a 401(k) World". Feel free to read it here: Thomas Friedman

The article is quoted as saying "as young people rise to that challenge, the value of mentors, social networks and role models will rise. Indeed, parenting, teaching or leadership that inspires individuals to act on their own will be the most valued of all."  That's a wonderful statement for the future of Fraternities and Sororities in terms of their importance in University life. It's also exactly what Sigma Pi did for me, as my mentors within the chapter helped to guide me through my major, how to properly lead the chapter, and how to be successful once I started my first job. It's very difficult to do that without the structure and access to mentors that Greek life provides.  

Another great point that the article points out is that with all the advances in connectivity and communication today, that means there is no place to hide. What you put in will define what you get out of your experience. I encourage you to really let that define your actions. It's not acceptable to sit in the back of the room and not contribute, or just list on your resume that you were a "member" of 10 organizations at your University. What did you do for that organization? Quantify it for me and give me specific numbers and data to show what your impact was on the organization. That's the information I'm looking for when I'm making hiring decisions. Your quest for excellence starts right now.

Executive Director Mike Ayalon with the Governor of Arkansas Mike Beebe, Sigma Pi from Arkansas State University.

As I travel the country and visit various chapters, it's interesting to note the participation of our Senior year members and how that differs between groups. As an undergraduate, I had never even considered taking a step back in my Senior year to relax or take time off before entering the workforce. I was Sage my Senior year, and my chapter certainly needed the help. As a smaller chapter, we didn't have the benefit of having enough members to allow for Senior apathy. Also, our Senior members had the most institutional knowledge of University administrators, other Greek organizations, successful philanthropies and fundraisers over the years, and the most alumni connections. We would have literally been sacrificing our most valuable members had we let them take their Senior year off.

As Executive Director, I will tell you that it is critical for the roster to be 100% accurate to be sure that Seniors (and all members including pledges) are properly covered by insurance. The last thing any chapter wants to be dealing with is a major accident in which the chapter cannot pay for catastrophic injuries to a member.

From experience, I can honestly say that the "excellence" switch does not turn on and off like a light. It's impossible to coast in your Senior year in college and then suddenly perform at a high level in your first job. We build good habits throughout college, see success, and then continue those good habits in the real world. Think about your mind just like an athlete's body. In order for NFL players to perform at the top of their game, they go through a rigorous preseason workout regimen, play in preseason games, and only then are they able to play in regular season action. Imagine a player that didn't have a preseason workout plan or the ability to practice in preseason games when he tries to play for the first time in week 5 of the regular season. He would see very little success.

Here's my advice to you. Build up your successes throughout your college experience from Freshman year all the way through to Senior year. By Senior year, you will have mastered time management skills so that you are most productive and accepting the highest levels of responsibility to prepare you for life after college. You'll be operating at peak performance as you go on interviews and talk about your recent successes (such as your contributions to a great philanthropy, or how you recruited the most men on campus, or the ACE project that you coordinated and how it made a real difference on campus). Your real world job will then seem easy in comparison, and you'll quickly rise up the corporate ladder.

Your most valuable resources (the Seniors) need to help your chapter be the best it can be. It's a waste of your chapter's resources without them, and it's doing a disservice to your new graduates that are about to enter the workforce. The best chapters in the country have figured out how to keep everyone engaged and to finish strong.

 Sigma Pi at University of Rhode Island

On a recent visit to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, I was in awe of the history of Greek Life on that campus. The Miami Triad brought us Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Theta, and Sigma Chi on that campus from 1839 to 1855. Later came both Delta Zeta and Phi Kappa Tau at Miami University. It’s obviously a campus rich in fraternity tradition.

I’m all for tradition. All of our Fraternities have rituals, values, and ideals that have stood the test of time. They should all be followed closely, as they are the guiding principles that our founders developed over one hundred years ago. However, when we begin to stray from those values, are we still holding true to what our founders envisioned? Do we engage in activity that is deterimental to the Fraternal Movement only because tradition dictates our activities?

For example, if scholarship is in the creed of Sigma Pi and is one of our core values, what do we do to hold our brothers accountable? If we do nothing about it, we are doing a disservice to our fellow brother and the chapter. If his GPA is falling, do we allow him to continue to skip classes or become immersed in video games until he fails out? Do we allow him to continue to come to our social events even though we know in our hearts that he should be in the library studying? It’s imperative to not only live our values personally, but also hold our brothers accountable to those same values. A culture must be created within the chapter to hold scholarship up as a high ideal, with peer pressure amongst the brothers to perform at a high level. Otherwise that brother who is struggling might not be there the following semester to help himself or the chapter to achieve success.

Is there an expectation on campus for Greeks to throw the biggest parties on campus, even if that is detrimental to our GPA? If the University all men’s GPA is higher than the IFC average GPA, understand that the University will look at those statistics to determine if Greek Life is helping or hurting their students in pursuit of their degrees. Obviously the University is being measured in terms of their 4 year graduation rate, and they want their students to be successful. Enrollment at a University and financial support to the University from other sources depend on those 4 year graduation rates. We want to demonstrate both to the University and the students within it that being a Fraternity man means something. There are certain expectations that as a Fraternity member, you will achieve higher GPA’s, attain more leadership opportunities on campus, and be more engaged as an alumnus. If we can’t prove those things, then we place our own future on that campus in jeopardy.

Do we still engage in behavior that could be considered hazing just because it is tradition? This happened to us, so we need to continue to do it to our new members? If something doesn’t make sense, we clearly have no good reason to engage in that activity, and it could potentially stand in the way of us getting a better job in the future because it puts us personally or the chapter in danger, then stop doing it.

Those fraternities that can figure out Fraternity 2.0 will be at a distinct advantage over others that can’t achieve those goals. Values based recruitment and holding our brothers accountable to our values on a consistent basis will get us there.

Sigma Pi at Miami University (Ohio)