ENTITLED

Being an FSA I get the most random phone calls. I'm slowly getting used to it, but some of them just make me want to laugh at the person on the other end of the phone and then I usually question why people think the way they do. Particularly, over the past week I have gotten TWO phone calls from parents asking why their son or daughter is having to go to standards for their chapter.

My first reaction is always that I don't know why because I don't get involved with the chapters' standards meetings. That isn't my responsibility by any means. I don't ask for an update when I meet with the Presidents either. Honestly, I don't think their standards meeting are my issue at all. My next reaction is why these parents are calling me. I know why they are calling me. They want me to get the chapter to drop the meeting. But why are parents so involved in their college student's life? Never in a million years would I have ever thought to tell my mom (it's always a mom) about having to go to standards let alone letting her call someone about it.

I would be fine if that is where the conversation ended, but both times over the past week both moms have told me that their child does not pay all of this money to get in trouble...

(insert blank face here)

Now this is the part where I get a little mad. You're right. No. Your child does not pay all of that money to get in trouble. They pay that money so they can have fun chapter events that meet the sorority's values. And while we are talking about those values, your child signed up to exemplify them and that is why they are getting in trouble. They didn't make grades or stay up on their financial obligations or weren't sisterly or they got too drunk at a mixer or a thousand other things.

So after my long conversations with the moms I talked to some chapter Presidents because I wanted to know if this was an overall perception in their chapters and guess what... IT IS! I nearly died. I understand that we are a generation of millennials. We are the most entitled generation ever, but we signed up for this. We signed up to live these values when we signed up for recruitment. When we accepted our bid, we accepted these terms as a condition of membership. You can't get mad because someone else calls you out for not abiding by them. And just because this is something you pay for doesn't mean you are exempt from the the rules.

This is why people view Greek Life in a poor light. We have to hold each other accountable. Mom and dad aren't going to be around forever to bail you out of problems you get yourself into. Eventually you are going to have to take responsibility for yourself. Hearing these moms say that they don't pay to get in trouble is like saying that your child didn't pay to fail a class. You pay for a class to be a part of it and to learn the material. The same goes for our Greek organizations.

Have you had to deal with this in your chapter? How did you handle it?