A few weeks back I knew I wanted to post my semester recap as president of Sigma Alpha Mu Eta chapter at Syracuse University. I had originally planned on posting something short and sweet, a few pictures highlighting some of the important events we put on and a couple of sentences accompanying them. A simple addition to my LinkedIn account to prove to employers that I am in fact doing something during my time at college besides just going to classes. However, as I went home for Thanksgiving (a much-needed break) I began reflecting on said semester. While for all intents and purposes for a plethora of different reasons, this semester genuinely could have been terrible not only for me but also for my brotherhood. While I cannot get into the exact reasons why and the bullets I had to dodge as president, it made me realize that a simple post would not do my role, and the role of thousands of other fraternity and sorority presidents across the nation justice. I personally believe that this job, yes I said job because I genuinely believe it to be so, is the most impactful and trying experience that any college student can have. While I can recognize that Greek life only makes up a small amount of college students nationwide and is always a hot topic of conversation, mainly surrounding hazing something that shamefully plagued my university this year, I am hoping that for the sake of getting my point across you as the reader can put these factors aside and listen to what I have decided to share on this ever coveted professional platform openly.
For starters, a fraternity is a business, or at least a simulation of such. I am the CEO, and I have a Vice Chair, a treasurer, and a chairperson. While in the “real world” the issues one may discuss in weekly meetings may focus on mergers and acquisitions or layoffs, the experiences we have in ours are not altogether different. In a business there are shareholders, in my case I have a brotherhood. I can go on and on, the similarities are endless. Again, a fraternity IS a business and that’s the punchline. Though, I’d like to argue that running a fraternity has an aspect that no “real life” business ever could. A true aspect of person-ability.
Sure, in leadership roles across many different fields you have to make sure that your shareholders are happy whether that’s in regards to being the mayor of Baltimore or the CEO of Deloitte. However, the true degree of friendliness between a business leader and their constituents is so vastly different than that of a fraternity/sorority president. I currently live in my on-campus fraternity house along with 21 of my brothers. I wake up and go to bed at my place of work. When I make a decision that is perceived as poor by the brotherhood, there is no escape from that. I live and breathe by this organization and have to legitimately come home and face my issues day in and day out. This part of the job is so enduring day in and day out. I often feel trapped because my home also happens to be my place of work, my room doubles as a conference room for weekly meetings and as a therapy room for brothers to speak their mind. There is simply no escape from the hard truths as I am forced to face these problems. This makes life exceedingly uncomfortable though in the long term this is what makes the job so powerful. These uncomfortable experiences warrant a response for better or for worse, and how I’ve responded to them has shaped me throughout this semester. This aspect of the job is constantly pushing me to my wits end, forcing me to expand my horizons and think beyond what I thought possible.
On top of this, classes also exist. Oh yeah, the main reason anyone goes to university. Whereas in the past I just had my assignments to worry about, I now worry about making 80 other people happy 24/7. This job has put more on my plate than I have had in my entire life. Again, another great experience for any college student. Time management, dare I say, is probably one of the most if not the most important life skills to have. You can be the most talented worker in the world with ideas that will change life as we know it, but if you can’t make deadlines and meet the needs of your employers you will be fired without a second thought. This job will teach you better than anything to get ahead of your work so you can have the time to help out with your brotherhood/sisterhood. The two will pull at you to make both of them your number one priority, but you simply can’t. You must find a way to manage both simultaneously so that each of them can receive your strongest efforts.
