Frats At UT Today

[Blanton 170]

On 8/24/2018 at 10:01 PM, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

All yous hope to be Nus.
We went out on top.

You and Jon Hamm get fucked up together back in the day?

[Blanton 170]

On 8/27/2018 at 8:13 AM, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

Are Tejas the guys who get dressed in Wimbeldon white and play a protracted game of croquet on their lawn the first day of Spring or something equally queer? I never understood the whole pomp and circumstance of that whole thing if so. I thought they were a student group or something, were they more akin to a social club?

yes

[heinhorn 16]

On 8/26/2018 at 9:09 AM, Surly Bevo said:

The Jester and other comments about the top 10% are interesting....as we work to promote diversity (socio-economic background, etc) are we actually ending up with other singularities (personality types, etc).  Maybe, maybe not. Obviously anecdotal comments don't prove jack shit, but you hear these kinds of comments a lot from students and parents of students at UT these days...even from some of them who have the loner, dork savant who they were hoping would be rounded by the college experience.

 Oh and fuck the KAs....at least the mid to late 90s version.  

 

Sorry for partying bro.  

[futureman 22562]

On 9/6/2018 at 3:52 PM, LonghornJones said:

It stinks like sex in here.

fishin’ your car outta lake leblanc right now...

[txduck87 998]

Necro bump. What’s the current state up there on Greek life?

Kid just got accepted there and we taking official visit up there this week.

He thinks he might like to go through rush in fall but doesn’t know much about the whole scene .

I was in a frat there back in the mid 80s and really enjoyed it. Some of my best friends today were pledge brothers. Wasn’t my whole life up there but certainly enjoyed the experience overall.

No interest in seeing him get cattle prodded or forced to drink a gallon of whiskey and get alcohol poisoning and go to hospital.

Really haven’t stayed connected to the whole scene so just curious on the current state of Greek life on the 40 acres.

Thoughts? Comments ? Opinions?

TIA.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DalTxHornFan 3121]

1 minute ago, txduck87 said:

Necro bump. What’s the current state up there on Greek life?

Kid just got accepted there and we taking official visit up there this week.

He thinks he might like to go through rush in fall but doesn’t know much about the whole scene .

I was in a frat there back in the mid 80s and really enjoyed it. Some of my best friends today were pledge brothers. Wasn’t my whole life up there but certainly enjoyed the experience overall.

No interest in seeing him get cattle prodded or forced to drink a gallon of whiskey and get alcohol poisoning and go to hospital.

Really haven’t stayed connected to the whole scene so just curious on the current state of Greek life on the 40 acres.

Thoughts? Comments ? Opinions?

TIA.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm somewhat involved as an alum at my (non-big 6) UT frat.

My two big takeaways are that it is a hell of a lot harder to get into UT than it was in the late 1970's when I was there.  The kids take school a lot more seriously than we did.  The other is that diversity is a real thing.  The frat scene isn't nearly as WASPy as it was when I experienced it.

I wouldn't trade my UT frat experience for anything.  I talk to those guys pretty much every day.  Great friends and business partners.

 

 

[Guest Lobo]

One empirical data point:  VP for Student Affairs estimates this year, possibly due to Covid dampening rush opportunities last two years, that the greek engagement rates are at an all-time low.  She guestimates for 2022, as low as 8-10%.  Not good, bad, or indifferent.  But in the last 25 years on campus, it has gone from such a predominant feature to something I don't see or hear about for months at a time.  

[DalTxHornFan 3121]

5 minutes ago, Lobo said:

One empirical data point:  VP for Student Affairs estimates this year, possibly due to Covid dampening rush opportunities last two years, that the greek engagement rates are at an all-time low.  She guestimates for 2022, as low as 8-10%.  Not good, bad, or indifferent.  But in the last 25 years on campus, it has gone from such a predominant feature to something I don't see or hear about for months at a time.  

Yep.  That makes sense.  They have had to do virtual rush events and virtual chapter meetings during all of the nonsense we've gone through.  Difficult to get engagement through that approach.

[Guest Lobo]

It was on the decline anyway though, from 14% to 10% just in the last decade I've been tracking Dean's data.  But they think it took an even worse dip that won't show up for another couple years.  I just don't hear or see any students talk about it anymore.  Obviously I'm not there on the weekends, but you see spirit/service groups with a ton more visibility on campus these days than a handful of frats/sorrorities.  It's all a time balance as we know. 

I was in a fraternity in Florida at a small college where it made sense, I got to UT and didn't affiliate because there was thing called Austin.  I couldn't imagine wasting time and money in a greek organization when there was this massive campus and badass city in which to have fun.  At some colleges though, it's literally the only play to meet people, attend events, network, etc. 

Anecdotal-My little cousin went off to Tech 3 years ago and all she could talk about was joining a sorority.  She was convinced it was the only way to meet people and mentors.  3 years later, she has yet to meet one alumni of her sorority who majored in what she is majoring in right now.  She constantly complains of the cost and time-suck as well.  She wanted to transfer to UT last year.  I sent her the online information session for her college/school/major.  Sure enough she fucking missed it because they had some recruiting event planning meeting to talk about napkins or flowers or some shit.  So she's stuck in Lubbock.  But she knows she's dedicated way too much time and money to something that will likely have a 5% impact above and beyond what she could have done without it.  

I will say this about Fraternities at UT in this day and age.  Being at McCombs, obviously I see more greek students than most other CSU's on campus.  But these young men never lead with it.  We talk about their resumes and campus engagement and their fraternity is always one of the last things they mention.  They know it means a lot to them and their brotherhood, but it's not something you lead with anymore.  It's just this other "nice to have" on the back page.  Guys our age, they cannot shut the fuck up about their fraternity, how they pledged, their pledge brothers, how being a member of Omega House changed their life, etc.  That's fine and good, but you don't open with that in any business or mentoring setting.  But I will say the guys in UT greek life these days, they understand its place and they use it discretely as a networking tool but not a huge part of their Longhorn Identity.  It's quite admirable and will serve them well.  

[TurkeyChew 383]

If you graphed it out, I think you would see as UT has had bottom left to top right growth year over year in academics, reputation, rank and difficulty in admission, the Greek-factor (cool, powerful, influential) has gone top left to bottom right. 

The intersection was, of course, when I was at UT and we were both awesome Frat Daddy's and a regional academic logo that can put my other non-target peers to shame.

[futureman 22562]

3 hours ago, Lobo said:

Being at McCombs,

ok so you’re not a professor? I knew I’d read posts of yours alluding to being affiliated with the university. that’s why I thought you were a teacher. 

[closetohumping 17491]

I'm one of these fellas:

 

 

[Guest Lobo]

45 minutes ago, futureman said:

ok so you’re not a professor? I knew I’d read posts of yours alluding to being affiliated with the university. that’s why I thought you were a teacher. 

Adjunct Lecturer, possibly getting bumped up to Adjunct Professor (non-tenure) in a year or two.  But I can tell you really know your way around a college campus by referring to them as “teachers.”  I’ll let Supernintendo Hartzell of your endorsement of my work.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Lobo