Oaths throughout the Greek community are beyond important. The oaths that fraternities/sororities set forth are the some of the basic “rules” that the organization sets forth for its members. Everyone takes an oath to uphold the principles that the fraternity has set forth. Many people don’t truly take into account what these oaths really mean. I think one of the biggest problems within our community is the lack of research we do when choosing our organizations, which results in some people not holding themselves accountable and making sure that they are upholding these values that they promised to when they took these “oaths”. Oaths aren’t just something to be said so that you will be allowed membership in to an organization. If you are going to take an oath then it is your duty to uphold these values to the best of your ability. Everyone makes mistakes and will slip up eventually but consistently ignoring the oath you took goes against that.
When I decided to take the oath of my fraternity and uphold their values and conduct myself in a way that would make my founders proud, I took that to heart. Since I’ve joined I have tried to make sure that anything I do regarding the fraternity is positive and in line with the oath I took. Basically in my opinion oaths shouldn’t be taken lightly. If you decide to make a promise that you will uphold these values then you need to make sure that this decision falls in line with your own beliefs and values. An oath is promise and when you join an organization sometimes you have to put the organization before yourself. Not all of the time but sometimes it is necessary to ensure that the organization is moving in the right direction. Oaths are put in place to make sure that people don't stray to far from the original goals of the founders.
The question is are you big enough to put the organizations values in front of your own? If you choose the right organization then their values should line up with your own making it even easier to uphold those values and stay in line with the oath that you/I chose to take.
I completely agree that we dont research our organizations enough before we join. During recruitment we are more preoccupied with which organization is going to be more fun instead of which organization matches my values the best. I think as a community we need to work on making values a key part of the recruitment process.
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