President's Message

Recently, I enjoyed the privilege of celebrating the 50th anniversary of my initiation into Phi Gamma Delta. Alas, the limitations of this column will not allow me to share with you the treasure chest of fond memories of my chapter and my brothers that I hold dear after all these years. While reflecting on those wonderful moments, I could not help but think about how much things have changed since my time as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. In days of old, we would look forward to a twice-yearly visit from our Field Secretary. This dedicated brother would drive into town and work with us for a few days to sharpen up our game before heading off to his next chapter visit, often hundreds of miles away. Today, we have video technology that enables our Field Secretaries to visit with multiple chapters during the same day. There was, of course, no internet, cell phones or personal computers; they had yet to be invented. Telephone communication was still primarily conducted by people speaking over copper wires strung across the country (“long distance” telephone calls were expensive and often required the assistance of an operator). Anybody hoping to reach a fraternity man back then was held hostage to the hope that someone would answer a pay phone, usually located in the coat room of the chapter house. Each week, we awaited the appearance in the mail of The Friday Letter, sent to us by Bill Zerman, the venerable Executive Director of our Fraternity. By the way, that communication was dispatched to us originally from Washington, D.C., as the move to Lexington and the eventual construction of our terrific headquarters building were still future events. Consider that Bill Martin, who served us for 29 years as Brother Zerman’s worthy successor, had yet, at the time of my initiation, to enlist as a pledge at Mississippi State University. The copy of The Purple Pilgrim that I received when joining Phi Gamma Delta continues to reside on my bookshelf. A slim book, it still speaks to me in volumes. In only the second paragraph of the foreword, I can read that a fraternity should exist for two fundamental purposes: service to the institution that fosters it and the development of its members. It, then, suggests that a chapter that fails “to display the potential advantages with which fraternities are endowed…is hiding its light under a bushel.” Just four pages later, we can find the Statements of Position on Hazing and Pre-initiation Activities promulgated in 1962 by the College Fraternity Secretaries Association, which expresses the Association’s “opposition to hazing and pre-initiation activities which do not contribute to the positive development and welfare of pledges and members.” Furthermore, the position paper clearly states “that one of the most damaging instruments to the fraternity system is the employment of a program of education which includes hazing, and that this unproductive, ridiculous and hazardous custom has no rightful place in the fraternity system.” All of this thinking was offered by The Purple Pilgrim well before the triumph of the space program which resulted in one of our own, Gene Cernan (Purdue 1956), setting foot on the moon. In other words, the Phi Gamma Delta policy in opposition to hazing is nothing new. The Statement of Nic Loiacono Position advocated to “recommend (Illinois 1974), Archon President to its members and their fraternities: that they continue to approach their undergraduate members with the assumption that they are mature, intelligent and self-governing men and that they alone can eradicate hazing in all varied forms; that they appeal to their alumni to bury and forget injurious practices; that they endeavor to broaden and strengthen their programs for the development in members of special talents and leadership responsibility...” This clarion call has led over time to the strengthening of the Fiji Academy and the establishment of other programs, such as Building Courageous Leaders and Foundation of Courage, intentionally designed to acquaint our undergraduates with the benefits of displaying strong leadership traits under challenging circumstances, such as those that may arise when conditions sympathetic to hazing are discovered within their chapters. At this time, we remind all members of Phi Gamma Delta, both graduate and undergraduate, to help us remove from our midst, in those places where it could potentially exist, the suffocating effects of ungentlemanly conduct and replace it with behavior that exemplifies our enduring values (Friendship, Knowledge, Service, Morality, and Excellence) so that they may be accessible to all, as they very well should be. Fraternally,