I Take Just Pride

I Take Just Pride

I Take Just Pride: How a Fraternity Reinvented Itself, Why a Professor Joined Scott Conroe

Published by Box Grove Communications, August 2007

A fraternity much like others, except it was struggling with behavioral problems and a lack of direction. Some of the excesses had led to the fraternity losing its charter.

Scott became faculty advisor to the Cornell University chapter of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity in 2000, when the chapter was starting over as a colony with an ambitious plan: eliminate hazing problems that caused the chapter to get into trouble, create a professional mentoring program, raise the level of community involvement, promote campus leadership, raise standards of behavior.

He grew to be part of the chapter as the men dealt with crises and got their charter back, and they initiated him in December 2001, before his 46th birthday. Scott is now alumni development chair and housing corporation member for the chapter, and Empire Domain Director for the national fraternity.

Scott wrote a book about his experiences.

Hot topics:

• Stories of individual leadership -- deciding to seek office, running for it, what happens after you win
• Stories of chapter leadership -- on campus and in a national fraternity
  
• The wide reach of fraternity brotherhood and how it can change lives
• The alumni initiate as a chapter resource
• The challenges of a new member program without "hazing"
• The challenges and rewards of seeking and holding chapter office
• The building of a colony into a solid chapter that wins awards, then maintaining it through change
• The complexities of alumni relations
• The crapshoot called rush

Scott Conroe's fraternity involvement began when he was researching a book on how Greeks have needed to adapt to a changed society. At Cornell, he has been a facilitator for A.D. White Leadership Conference, the annual conference for Greek leaders; a member of the Hazing Compliance Program; a member of the Sub-Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs. For Phi Tau, he has served as a facilitator and presenter at Leadership Academy. Nationally, he has been a speaker at Delta Tau Delta fraternity's Eastern Division Conference.