Figured world: A social structure that is complex relies on specific standards and rules in order

to uphold and accepted an appropriate behavior.

Actors: Anybody that is part of a community that holds a certain position or roll in the
community.
Literacy Practices: Different things that are done by certain actors in a figured world such as
actions or methods of communication like writing and speaking.

Communities of Practice: Groups people, typically more than three, who interact and learn
from each other to better themselves, their figured world, and the other people in the same
figured world.
Artifacts: Physical objects, emotion, or ideas that are culturally significance to a specific figured
world.
Domain: A main goal or interest in a figured world that brings people together, everybody must
have an interest in the goal that they are pursuing for the domain to be successful.

Greek life often gets a bad reputation because of movies like Animal House and
Neighbors. These movies portray fraternities as just a group of guys who get drunk and do drugs
every night and dont care about school, grades or public image, which could not be a more
inaccurate representation of what they are actually about. Most fraternities have similar pillars in
which they base their organization off of, they are scholarship, and character, brotherhood.
Scholarship is a very important part of Greek life and is taken very seriously. There are actually
GPA requirements of 2.5 to get into a fraternity, and the fraternities GPA average must be high
enough or else they will be suspended off campus. This means that school is a very important
part of Greek life and they take their grades very seriously. Surprisingly enough, Fraternities
have some of the highest GPAs for any organizations on campus, which means they do not just
meet the requirements and barley pass their class, they go above and beyond. One way they keep
good grades is by having mandatory library hours depending on your grades to make sure that
each week you are studying for class. The second pillar is character, this is basically just doing
the right thing at the right time. When somebody is wearing their letters around campus, if they
acted like a jerk everybody would see that and stereotype the whole fraternity as rude people.
Fraternities like to keep their image up by being respectful and always trying to do the right
thing. Finally, there is brotherhood; brotherhood is having everybodys back and being there for
them no matter what happens. Calling someone else in your fraternity a brother isnt just
something you do because everybody else does, you call them your brother because you treat

them like they are. Fraternity brothers spend nearly all their time together, more often than not
they live together, and they love each other.
Observation One
A Typical Day in a Fraternity

For my first observation I decided to observe how members of a fraternity act and behave
on a typical day with no special activities to attend. Unlike most people, even though fraternity
members dont have to do anything special to do, they still have a name that they are
representing and if they mess up it will reflect poorly upon their fraternity. They dont just focus
on not messing up, they want to build up a good name and reputation for their organization. This
means that they try to be nice and respectful to people and always trying to do the right thing.
The have to show good character and be good people or else nobody would ever want to do
anything with, or be around them. There are also grade requirement for the members of a
fraternity, which means that they will be trying extra had in their classes and with studying. In
class they make sure to be paying attention and taking good notes so that they can get the best
grades that they can and also know enough to be able to help tutor any other brothers who are
struggling and in need of help in the same subject. Outside of class they try to make a good name
for themselves around campus and keep good relationships with everybody.
On a typical week day where there is no scheduled events for the fraternity there seems to
be two different groups of people and the way that they spend their days. There are the pledges
and the brothers. The pledges all know each other and are best friends with one another, but
typically dont know the brothers as well, which means that toward the beginning to the middle
of the semester most pledges will spend their free time with each other. As the semester nears the
end, the pledges and brothers get to know each other better and better, they start to spend more
time with each other. Also in order to get into a fraternity they have to vote on you, so pledges
will be trying to spend time with brothers to try and build relationships and make friends with the
brothers. Being a pledge myself helped a lot with observing what I do on a normal day and I
noticed that before I rushed and became a pledge. I would have a lot of time to spend at my dorm
doing nothing but homework, sleeping, and hanging out with my roommates; but now that I
rushed and became a pledge I am never in my room because Im either in class, the library
studying, eating, or just hanging out with other pledges or brothers. After talking to other pledges
in different fraternities I realized that it was not just me. Everybody in Greek life is so busy all
the time. Some people are more busy then others depending on which fraternity they are in, and
how much stuff they have to do for their fraternity. Even within different pledge classes there is a
range of how much time people spend with the fraternity, this has to do with what classes they
have and how involved they actually want to be in their fraternity.
Brothers in Greek life have a very similar daily schedule as pledges with class, library,
and spending time with other brothers. They will almost always be with another brother or a
pledge, Describing a day with no events going on for a brother is kind of hard because almost
everyday something is going on. You might be studying in the library when someone calls you

and says that everybody is going to a brothers house that night or meeting somewhere later in
the day. With a group of sixty guys who are all best friends on the same campus as you, there is
almost never a time when youre doing something by yourself as long as you make an effort to
meet people. There is a saying, as you sow, so shall you reap, which basically means that you get
out what you put into it, and this relates to a fraternity a lot. There are some people that I talked
to, mostly engineer majors, who do not have the time to go out and talk to the brothers or pledges
as much and they seem to not get asked to do as many things as other pledges to. Whenever there
actually is a day, or open time with nothing for someone to do, like most other college students
would do, they say that they sleep because none of us sleep enough in college.

Observation Two
Philanthropy events and Volunteering
Every Greek life organization has a charity that they work directly with, whether it be
donating money, volunteering, or raising awareness and taking donations from others to help out
the charity. Fraternities will donate their time to help for certain events like Special Olympics,
breast cancer, or autism speaks and they will also donate money or spend their time doing
fundraisers to raise money for their charities. They try to do their part and help out the
community as much as they can because it gives them a good reputation and it is what someone
with good character would do. They try to volunteer as much as they can to support local
organizations or groups in need of some assistance, some even enforce rules that require
everybody to do a certain number of hours of community service per semester. Each fraternity
will typically focus on their main charity and help them out as much as possible, while not
limiting themselves to only one organization. There are many opportunities to help out the
community nearby, which is why most fraternities have a
chair position who is in charge of all community service and charity events that the fraternity do
or could do.
Lucky for me, in the time I had to do my observations we had the chance to go out to a
special Olympics football game and help out, then we actually got to play with them after their
game. When we were volunteering everybody was in letters and happy the whole time. We were
all joking around with each other and talking to the athletes there, throwing the football, racing,
or just hanging out and just talking. Donating money is one thing, it gives you the satisfaction of
knowing that you helped out somehow is nice, but you dont know exactly where your money is
going. When you give your time to help out a group of people, there is nothing like it; I was with

my good friends having a great time, plus we were with the athletes putting smiles on their faces
and just having a great time with everybody there. It was probably one of the best times that I
had with my fraternity so far, because I knew that I was doing something good for my
community and making those kids happy. Everybody there was running around with smiles on
their faces having a great time because we were doing something that we love, helping out our
community.
On such a short notice I was not able to physically observe anybody do any fundraising
events because there was none going on, but the people that I talked to did a very good job of
describing to me what exactly they did at their events. They showed me many pictures and
videos of different things that they did such as tabling near prospector and selling bracelets, and
doing the annual phi sig polar plunge. During the annual fundraiser for Special Olympics, the phi
sig polar plunge, the brothers would get donations from other random people to jump in freezing
cold water in the middle of January. In all the videos that I saw, not only would you see someone
walk up to the pool with a smile on their face, excited to jump in, but you would also see people
in the background running around and having a great time because they knew that they were
helping a good cause. The best part about it is that through all the fun and good times that
everybody had together, a lot of money was raised for the Special Olympics. All the brothers said
that it is probably the most fun that they have all year. From what I heard about tabling, it can be
a very boring experience, or very fun, it just depends on how you make it. They would set up a
table with the phi sig flag on it and lay out all their bracelets on the table and get up and ask
people to donate to the Special Olympics and get a bracelet too. There will be a lot of people
who say no, and turn you down, but as long as you stay positive about it, it turns out to be a very
good experience and you can make a lot of money for a good cause.
Besides their national philanthropy, which is the same across any other chapter, they also
do volunteer work in the community nearby. This is not one organization, it is any small group
that needs help nearby and can be almost anything. This is very important to many of the
brothers because this one is very specific to where your chapter is located and even personal
preferences. Brothers can choose to spend their time at anywhere from a food bank, habitat for
humanity, or even an animal shelter. Everybody in the fraternity has a certain number of service
hours that they have to complete, just like how it is with philanthropy, or else they will be fined.
The atmosphere when volunteering is the exact same as doing a philanthropy event; everybody is
happy and having a great time and the best part about doing the volunteer work is that it is for a
local organization and all of your work makes your community better for you and others. I dont
think that anybody could ever have a bad time if they were with good friends doing something
helpful for people in their community.

Observation Three
Parties
Everybody thinks that all Fraternities do is party which is completely wrong. Fraternities
were first started as a studying group and have been greatly expanded to incorporate much more
than just that, while still valuing scholarship and keeping it a big part of Greek life. Not every
weekend, but some weekends college students like to blow off a little steam and escape from the
stress of college after studying hard and going to class all week. Everybody likes to have fun, but
everybody also wants to be safe too, because they have parties to release stress, not cause more.
This is why before every party a social committee gets together and plans out the party in detail.
Planning for a party is a big deal and takes a lot of time, but in the end all the hard work
pays off. First of all, there has to be a list of all the people attending the party to make sure that
everybody there is safe and no random dangerous people will be there and nobody will get hurt.
In order to make sure that only the people who are invited to the party are allowed to come in
there has to be bouncers at the door checking to make sure that everybody entering is allowed to
be there and they are not a threat to anyone. Once this is taken care of and they know everybody
will be safe at the party, they have to find a way to make sure that everybody can get there and
back home safely. In order to ensure this there have to be designated drivers to safely drive
people to and from the party if they are old enough and decide to drink. Even if they are not of
age, and they will not be drinking, many houses are close to their neighbors and having one
hundred people try to park on the side of the road would not work and would be a major safety
concern for them and the neighbors. Once all the safety concerns are taken care of, its time to
start planning what will go on at the party. There are bartenders at the bar making sure that
everybody who is of age can get a drink if they want to and also to make sure not to give
anybody too much to drink. This is a very important part of the party because they are
responsible for only serving people who are allowed to drink and not giving them too much.
Another part of planning a party is to get a DJ that will be able to play good music for the party.
Nobody wants to dance without music, so a DJ is typically hired and they are in charge of
keeping everybody happy with the music being played. Lastly, a theme is picked for the party
most of the time just to make it a little bit more fun. So, a group of people get together and come
up with ideas and vote on which one they think is best. Once one is decided, the house is
decorated, and the people on the guest list are informed of the details and rules for the party.
After all of this is planned out and a few other minor details are worked out to ensure that
everybody has as much fun as possible while still being safe and responsible, then the planning
of the party is finally over and its finally time to have fun and relax.
At the party everything looked to be going very well according to plan. People would
start showing up by the designated drivers then the drivers would go back to start picking up
more people. The people who just got dropped off will go up to the front door and be greeted by
the bouncers. The bouncers were checking to see if people were on the list before letting them
past, this went very smoothly and quickly for the most part, besides a few incidents where people
showed up and were not on the list. The bouncers quickly noticed that they were not on the list

and they unfortunately had to ask them to leave, which most of the time they would understand
and leave. Inside the party, the bartenders made drinks for many people and also had to turn
people away because they had enough already just to make sure that everybody was safe at the
party. The DJ was also doing a very good job of playing music that everybody enjoyed and
keeping them entertained and dancing. There were some games set up that people were playing
and looked like they were having a good time doing so. Everybody was dressed in the theme of
the party which made all the elements fit well together. Everything went smoothly and as it
started to get late people wanted to go home, so they started calling the drivers to come get them.
As the driver would get calls, they started to come to the house and get a car full of people and
take them home, then repeat until everybody was home safely.
The day after the party there is always a big mess but its not a big deal because when
you have almost sixty guys there to clean up and put everything back to the way it was before,
the entire place is clean very quickly. This is a good time to talk to everybody in your fraternity,
because nearly all the pledges and brothers would be there. People will make their way over to
the house as they wake up and start to clean up the house, eventually everybody is there and the
house looks presentable again. Having so many people help is very quick and efficient; the house
is typically cleaned up within an hour or two. With the proper planning and set up, a fraternity
can have a safe party where nobody gets hurt or in trouble but everybody still has fun. Having
one party every few weekends is an easy way to relax, have fun, and unwind from school while
still leaving ample time for all the important aspects of a fraternity like school and charity work.

Interview with James Young, Founding Father of Phi Sigma Kappa

1. When you started this chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa, what basic principles did you want it
to be founded upon? Why?
a. Well, I did not decide on what this chapter should be based on, we followed the
same principles as nationals and every other chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa
2. Reflect on how well your fraternity represents your 3 pillars: scholarship, character, and
brotherhood, as a whole.
a. I feel like we do a very good job of taking all three of those pillars equally
important and relevant in how we act. We have people in charge of each of those
pillars to make sure we live by them and help promote them within the fraternity.
3. Tell me what stands out to you about other fraternities on campus?
a. Something that I personally notice about some of the other large fraternities on
campus is that they get too caught up in themselves and think that they are the
best that they do not treat women, or other people with the respect that they
deserve. This is why we focus on building character in our new members so that
they know how to treat other people and respect women no matter how big and
popular we get.

4. How do you feel about the IFC rules and regulations on fraternities? Do you believe that
they should be more relaxed and allow each fraternity to make their rules, be stricter and
establish more rules, or do you like where they stand now?
a. They are a little strict with their rules on hazing, but I know that it is for a good
reason. I have visited other schools, such as Clemson, NC State, and USC and
seen first-hand how with a more relaxed IFC hazing can get out of hand. There is
a lot of separation between pledge classes because the hazing gets so bad that they
cannot build a good friendship with the new members. This is why we do not haze
our pledges, we only have them do activates that bring them closer to each other
and the brothers. This way, we all feel equal as brothers like one big happy family.
5. Looking back, what would you change about the way you started this chapter of Phi
Sigma Kappa?
a. Honestly, nothing. I love the way the way we started Phi Sigma Kappa and I
wouldnt want it to be done any other way. Im proud of what we have dont and I
am proud to be able to call myself a founding father of Phi Sig.