The Challenges of Change
As we stand on the eve of 2010, you may be asking yourself, “What happened to the 'aughts' or the '00s?'"I believe we all entered the new millennium with a certain complacency, a certain sense of control, believing we had finally figured some things out. Our economy appeared strong and robust. And we continued to dominate world battles. We even waged war with hardly anyone on our side shedding blood or getting killed. We did it in forcing the last Yugoslav troops out of Kosovo in 1999. Perhaps the 20th century was really America’s century!
But, the most important question may be what lessons can we take from the ’00s?
During the ’00s we went from complacent to terror struck in one day as we watched two towers fall like blocks. We watched as a spirited and historic city was hit hard by water, and in a week lay ruined and rotting. We learned that there were not weapons of mass destruction and we entered a war where we learned that our troops bleed also. We also learned that we don’t know when the bleeding will stop! We learned that in one election season an African American could win the White House. We learned that our portfolios were not safe—that half of our retirement and college savings funds were gone in a couple of quarterly reports as Lehman Brothers folded, and Bank of America and Merrill Lynch merged. We learned we could not trust the kind grandfather-like face of investment banker Bernie Madoff. You would think that any one of these events could have come from a reel of a Hollywood movie. But it was our reality! All in one decade!
But these were just a small sample of the events from North America. What about the ’00s events of the global market place?
Well, while we were struggling to deal with our horrors, four countries were moving closer and closer together. They are referred to as “the BRICs” or “the BRIC countries.” The acronym was first coined and prominently used by Goldman Sachs in 2001 for the fast-growing developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Goldman Sachs argued that, since they are developing rapidly, by 2050 the combined economies of the BRICs could eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world. The four countries, combined, currently account for more than a quarter of the world's land area and more than 40 percent of the world's population. Goldman Sachs did not argue that the BRICs would organize themselves into an economic bloc, or a formal trading association, as the European Union has done. However, there are strong indications that the "four BRIC countries have been seeking to form a 'political club' or 'alliance,'" thereby converting "their growing economic power into greater geopolitical clout." On June 16, 2009, the leaders of the BRIC countries held their first summit in Yekaterinburg, and issued a declaration calling for the establishment of a multipolar world order.
So what does any of this have to do with me, you ask? If you are an undergraduate member of Delta Upsilon, this has everything to do with you.
According to the North-American Interfraternity Council, nine million people in the U.S. and Canada are undergraduate or alumni members of the Greek system. Over the course of American history, 48 percent of U.S. presidents, 42 percent of U.S. senators, 30 percent of congressional representatives and 40 percent of U.S. Supreme Court justices have been Greek. Thirty percent of Fortune 500 executives are Greek.
The over-indulgence of alcohol and parties, the desire to be the campus studs of intramurals, the low expectations around academic performance and other misplaced and out of balance values, will not produce “good men” who can successfully compete in the emerging global marketplace. Your average academic standing may not get you anything more than a Wendy’s managerial position. Don’t even think you can compete with undergraduates from India, China or Brazil.
I have often said to my psychology or leadership studies classes or to my college conference workshop participants, “that students are the only consumer who do not demand their monies worth.” You are being dulled into complacency by a culture of low expectations. Too many of you pay “out the butt” for tuition, room and board, and you settle for filthy houses, you compromise by having brothers around you who are literally going nowhere. You should expect your college experience to yield you a major graduate school or in a significant career position managing a company’s transition into Latin American markets.
You should similarly expect that your fraternity experience provides you an opportunity to network with some of the finest men in your particular career area, and contribute to your reaching the status of a “good man--” a man who fully and wholly understands the demands of his future and is able to integrate our principles of friendship, character, culture and justice in your adult life. You should realize today, that you are and you will become who you hang around with. You hang around with low-performing men, you become a low-performing man. You surround yourself with creative men, entrepreneurial men, men who spend the bulk of their day dreaming about designing a new cell phone, or how they can end poverty in central Africa, and you become a competitive man for the global marketplace.
The times are changing dramatically and if we want undergraduates to compete in this changing world, our organization will have to change with it.
Our Fraternity board of directors established the President’s Task Force to examine how we might redesign, reorganize, and reset our Fraternity. We had our first meeting this past October. We are not looking to change our principles. We believe they are timeless and enduring values. What I think every organization needs to do is periodically examine practices and process to see if they are relevant and meaningful in a changing culture. With the dramatic changes in our world, and if fraternities are to make better men that lead corporations and organizations, then I think we need to examine our practices in order that we maximize our efforts.
The Task Force welcomes your opinions, your concerns, your issues. We sincerely want to know and to learn from you how we might support fraternal environments that will allow all young men to grow and develop in your FULL potential, no matter your economic background, race or ethnicity, or sexual preference.
Please respond with your thoughts.
