The primary justification for the existence of a college fraternity is its value to the positive social growth of the young men who are its members. While scholarship, leadership, and service to the community are our duty, it is the personal effect of these activities on members that is most empowering and long-lived. The fraternity helps bydeveloping personal skills, promoting mutual understanding, orientating new students, crystallizing good habits, inducing cooperative living, giving advice and counsel, encouraging scholarship, broadening outside interests, increasing social poise, providing leadership and business training, teaching skills in parlimentary procedure, overcoming provincialism, widening one's circle of friends, enhancing loyalty to college and by fostering high ideals.
Develops interpersonal skills
If you don't already have the knack, you'll quickly learn how to get along with people. You'll learn how to adjust your behavior in the give and take of chapter life. At times, you'll have to set aside your own desires for the betterment of the group, and on other occasions you'll take the lead in carrying out a special project. You'll become sensitive to the importance of supporting many activities and services sponsored by the Fraternity, regardless of any personal gain you might receive. Of course, you'll also get to enjoy many activities that fulfill your personal needs. The atmosphere of mutual helpfulness that exists in fraternity chapters assists in the development of character and personality. A man with developed interpersonal skills is an asset to the business world, so corporations often inquire about fraternity membership when interviewing to fill positions.
Promotes mutual understanding
The intimate nature of chapter life helps foster deep and lasting friendships based on mutual understanding, but such relationships require work to create and nurture. Thankfully, when Phi Psi's ideals are taken seriously, they promote tolerance of others. Chapter life teaches you to understand and appreciate your brothers - people you may not know anything about. Since you'll be living and working with these guys for years, you can't just dismiss and ignore the members you don't like. Instead, you'll be encouraged to look deeper - to find what's worthwhile and interesting about each of your brothers.
Assists in orientation
As you enter college, you are confronted with a situation utterly different from any you have previously known. There are so many new activities and faces and challenges that you may well feel lost. But never fear! Because of its history and its relatively small size, the fraternity chapter can help you orient yourself, learn about campus, and make decisions about this new life.
Crystallizes good habits
In spite of the best home training and examples set by parents, personal habits are not completely crystallized, as a rule, when a student enters college. Nevertheless, the vows you take when your initiated into Phi Kappa Psi would make any parent proud. It is the Fraternity's basic ideals of honor, truth, and service to others that influence the pattern of your and your brothers' lives.
Induces cooperative living
Chapter life is an experience in cooperative living. Fraternity members learn to respect the opinions of others, to share with them, and to assume part of the group's obligations. You'll have the opportunity to accept and discharge responsibility and acquire self-confidence by learning to stand on your own among your peers. Through Phi Psi, you'll develop poise, initiative, tact, and judgment. In addition, the Fraternity experience hopes to teach you discipline, obedience, respect, good manners, social duties, and responsibilities.
Offers advice and counsel
Throughout their college careers, students are faced with scholastic challenges, the need to carefully plan their time, and dramatic personal and emotional experiences. Phi Psi will provide advice, counsel, and support, filling the void caused by the distance between you and your family or other trusted advisors. Older Phi Psi brothers are often available and eager to help younger chapter members as they encounter the challenges and traumas of college life.
Encourages scholarship
Since scholastic achievement may be your primary goal in attending college, Phi Psis generally strive to achieve high scholarship by enforcing study rules and encouraging a serious attitude toward study. Realizing that no device can force you to study, however, chapters seek to stimulate, inspire, and support strong academic performance. Nationally, the Fraternity rewards academic excellence with scholarships and awards.
Broadens outside interests
Leisure time properly spent brings satisfaction and relaxation; improperly spent, it leads to loneliness or to self-defeating attitudes. The Fraternity offers an opportunity for wholesome companionship and constructive activities. Phi Psi encourages you to participate in worthwhile extra-curricular activities, simple because of their inherent value and your enjoyment of them. Personal growth and skills can be advanced by joining athletic, political, journalistic, or cultural organizations on campus and, often, careers or life-long hobbies flow out of such involvement.
Increases social poise
By the time you leave college, you'll be expected to possess a certain amount of social poise. In business or graduate school, you'll be judged by your level of social sophistication. Chapter life offers an excellent opportunity for constructively developing your social skills. A strong chapter, which exerts a positive influence on the develpment of its members, insists on gentlemanly behavior as a matter of chapter pride and campus reputation.
Provides leadership and business training
The chapter offers you the opportunity to polish leadership and business skills as a contributing member of a microcosm of society. The chapter is much the same as any business. The president is responsible for the operation of an organization whose members are in daily contact with each other. The treasurer has financial and business matters to supervise. The treasurer deals with thousands of dollars. Budgets, audits and financial reports to the college and Fraternity Headquarters have educational value.
Teaches skills in parliamentary procedure
The chapter's regular meetings are conducted under the rules of parliamentary law. Therefore, you will become familiar with the procedure of deliberative bodies and be ready to participate at a later time in community, political, and social organizations. At chapter meetings, members learn to express themselves effectively in debate and to advance their ideas persuasively. Chapter life is an experiment and experience in self-government.
Overcomes provincialism
When you meet Fraternity brothers from different states and areas of the world, with different interests, backgrounds and life experiences, the resulting exchange of ideas will help to break down narrow-minded prejudices. You will come to appreciate the positive aspects of the ideas, lifestyles, speech, and habits of people from all backgrounds. With regard to chapter life itself, the exchange of ideas and constant introduction of new men helps improve chapter operations by bringing creative new ideas to the organization and memership.
Widens circle of friends
There are three phases to your Fraternity membership: pledge, undergraduate member, and alumnus. In all three periods, Fraternity membership will bring new friends into your life. Particularly during the alumnus phase, because it usually lasts the longest of the three, new friends can come into your life because of the Fraternity, especially when you join a new company or organization or move to a new town. The Fraternity Headquarters can always help you get in touch with alumni near where you live, and many areas have alumni associations or clubs with regularly scheduled events.
Enhances loyalty
It's a fact: college loyalty is enhanced by fraternity membership. The link between you and your college or university is strengthened by the experiences of chapter life which become part of your memories of college days. You will have an added incentive to return to campus to meet old friends knowing that the undergraduate members of the chapter will welcome you cordially.
Fosters high ideals
Fraternities are making increased efforts to translate their ideals into practical application in the real world. The Fraternity encourages adherence to its high ideals and influences its members toward better conduct. Few other social organizations constantly remind their members to strive for improvements as fraternities do through their rituals.
