Lack of Involvement in the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity

From: Austin Danelski

To: Alec Hurst

RE: Chapter Involvement

2/25/20

Brother President,

When I came to the University of Denver, I had no intention of rushing a fraternity, but after meeting a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity through a mutual friend and hearing the good things they had to say about the organization I felt compelled to show up to a rush event. At that event, I met a group of guys that showed me what a great fraternity they had and were able to take pride in. The high upperclassmen participation at the rush events showed me that even the older guys still came around and enjoyed the brotherhood they were a part of.

It goes without saying that each and every member of our fraternity wants to build the best group of men that we can in our four years here. We want to make sure that we are one of, if not the best, ZBT chapter nationally each year as we have been the past 10 years. We want to do the most we can for the Children’s Miracle Network and donate hundreds if not thousands of hours of our time to our community. We as a chapter strive to be the best we can be, and now is a crucial time for us to look inward and examine what needs to be changed to return us to our former glory.

Since I became an initiated member, pride in our Zeta Beta Tau fraternity has been slipping. Upperclassmen participation has sharply declined; the juniors have been back from their quarter abroad for 8 weeks now and I have only met a small handful of them. Furthermore, seniors are withdrawing from the scene as the pressure mounts for them to figure out their plans for the coming year. Several sophomores living in the chapter house have moved out for a variety of reasons, and there are now 5 unoccupied beds in the house. As a freshman class, 3 of our rush class of 28 have already dropped the fraternity. In the last week, 6 more brothers have mentioned they either plan to drop the fraternity or transfer to a different university. The significance of this number cannot be understated. Our pledge class consisted of 31 at the beginning of the year, and now it looks like just ⅔ of us will make it to our sophomore year in the fraternity. That attrition rate is embarrassingly high and makes our brotherhood look like a disaster.

Though some of these losses are inescapable, the withdrawal of participation of many of the brothers has become increasingly evident this winter quarter. Chapter attendance is at an all-time low. Our former executive board imposed fines on brothers that didn’t make it to our weekly chapter meetings to boost the number of upperclassmen in attendance, a moderately efficient strategy. However, you and your new executive board have decided to erase the policy that forced at least a few people to show up to chapter. We have a chapter of 131 brothers. In the first chapter with our new executive board, we had 28 brothers in attendance. Our chapter meetings are crucial to the success of our brotherhood, as they provide an opportunity for everyone’s voice to be heard and for us to make changes and move forward as a chapter. Without a strong showing at these meetings, we cannot continue to be one of the best chapters of ZBT nationally. 

The last shortcoming I will discuss revolves around the lack of apparel provided to members, especially our newly initiated brothers. I rushed in the fall and have yet to receive any ZBT apparel of any kind. We haven’t gotten our pins, rush shirts, semiformal shirts, or hats. Our allocation of funds allows us to make shirts for every event that we have but the lack of drive from those who can design shirts is disappointing. Apparel is a great way to both represent and promote our chapter, and wearing letters certainly boosts brothers’ pride in the decision they made to rush a fraternity. 

Getting more brothers involved will indeed cost money. However, by reinstating and increasing the chapter fine policy, we can incentivize more brothers to come and if they choose not to we will generate the income we need to engage more members. I have spoken to many brothers about the lack of apparel, and many of them have expressed that they are more than willing to pay for the shirts if they are produced; we simply need to find someone talented enough to produce high-quality designs for us. As far as the lack of engagement outside of chapter, by hosting more events in off-campus satellite houses, we can grow the brotherhood that we have pledged ourselves to. You and your executive board must listen to the creative ideas brothers have to offer. We have some brilliant minds in our chapter. The ideas are out there and have been expressed time and time again by brothers of all ages, it’s time to start listening to them to make a change. 

The lack of participation within ZBT is stagnating the growth of relationships between brothers and the prosperity of the chapter as a whole. I urge you and your executive board to make a few small tweaks that will allow us to stay among the top Zeta Beta Tau chapters in the nation. The lack of pride and dedication brothers have to this brotherhood is shockingly low and swift action must be taken to keep the current members of ZBT in the fraternity and enrolled at the University of Denver. 

WRIT 1122                        WP #3 Rogerian Argument: Self Evaluation

1. Is there any contextual information that your audience knows but that your professor doesn’t know but should be aware of? The most important contextual information is that we have been an amazing chapter for the last decade. The lack of involvement came about suddenly this year and is tearing us apart as a brotherhood.
2. What was difficult about writing WP #3 and why? It wasn’t too hard for me to write this memo because this topic has been extremely frustrating to me the past quarter and I had most of the information ready in my head before the paper was even introduced.
3. What are the specific strengths of your WP #3 and why? I think the strongest part of my paper is finding common ground. We have forgotten as a fraternity our main goal: to raise money for a good cause and better our community. I think by including this I really put into perspective how far we have strayed from our purpose.
4. What could be improved in your WP #3 and why? I feel that the refutation was my weakest point. I had a hard time writing this section because I wanted to make sure that I provided some ideas but also kept it short enough to engage my audience. 
5. What constraints did you face in writing WP #3 and how did you “adapt to your audience” as a result? The main constraint I personally had writing this paper is the fact that I am only a freshman and don’t have all the background knowledge to understand all the forces at play here. I felt that by sticking to the topics and areas that pertained to me I adapted to my audience and made my argument stronger. 
6. What specific revisions did you make to your WP #3, and why? I went back and made my point about members of my pledge class dropping stronger because I felt that was my most profound point and puts the severity of this problem into perspective. I also cleaned up the refutation and added a bit to my conclusion to wrap the paper up more naturally.
7. Peyton Howell gave me the best feedback because she did well to help me understand where I may have left my audience disengaged. When I revised, I changed my point about members dropping the fraternity because it exemplified the severity of the problem. 
8. Will you mail your WP #3 memo to its intended audience? Why or why not? I don’t plan to because I have already voiced these concerns in person with Alec and his executive board.