Four Factors that Can Escalate Apathy

Written by: Dan Bureau, Ph.D. (University of New Hampshire, '95), National President

I heard at Officers Academy that “members are apathetic”, but I strongly believe this to not be entirely true. For the most part people are not apathetic by nature. In my experience in working with organizations, including college fraternities, I have found that four factors escalate the potential for people to demonstrate a lack of interest but environments can be created in which these factors are mitigated. Ultimately this can enhance engagement and lessen any sense of “apathy”.

First, people lose interest when they don’t understand how to achieve the goals requested. For a person in a role, it may be that the task assigned does not have clear outcomes or there is no roadmap or suggested strategies provided. Sometimes the person does not have competence to do the job. Potentially capacity can be an issue. To minimize the potential for this to happen properly train people and help them understand how the work is a priority. Help the person to know the reason the task exists in order to achieve the organization’s mission.

Second, sometimes life gets in the way. I mentioned capacity as part of lack of clear strategy to fulfill responsibilities. The issue with performance or what is displayed to us as apathy may be from the very beginning or life may just get in the way: other family, academic, work or involvement priorities may be in conflict with the limited time they have to perform the role. Capacity is challenged because doing the work expected takes time that they just don’t have. Sometimes those challenges are temporary: “I have a huge test this week that will impact whether I get into my major”, or “I had to pick up extra hours so I can afford (rent, dues, car payment, etc.) this month”. When someone isn’t doing the work, find out if there is a capacity issue and work with them to identify ways to address the delay or inadequate work if it is temporary. Have an honest conversation and potentially the capacity issue may be longer-term: figure out if this role or participating in some of the ways expected is something that is long-term realistic for this person given their other time constraints and discuss a way to gracefully bough out if needed.

Third, sometimes there is an interest issue. The person may not be interested, yet still have motivation to contribute, because it was not the job they originally wanted or when they got into it there may have been a lack of challenge or even too much challenge. It may not appeal to them because of some of the other reasons or issues already stated, but we must know that when people sign up to do something or prepare to engage in community with others, such as when they join a fraternity, it is unlikely they started with that lack of interest. To better achieve active engagement, when someone demonstrates a lack of interest, find out if there’s something else they may wish to do. Find out if someone else may be better suited for their role and see about switching it up.

Finally, if an environment is not one that challenges people,then a problem may exist. Leaders have a responsibility to create a sense of commitment to an organization while understanding that each person will bring different interests, skills, and talents to achieve the organization’s goals. Sometimes that ebbs and flows based on the time of year but providing high expectations along with the support necessary for people to meet those expectations – enhancing skillsets, providing encouragement, leading and managing when needed – can provide an environment in which people stay motivated, engaged, and interested.

In closing, there may be a person here or there who just doesn’t bring the interest in a way that may demonstrate apathy toward the organization, but this is not the norm. A good screening process to ascertain their disposition to engage, providing the trainings necessary to be successful, connecting people to opportunities to contribute that match their interests, and creating an environment in which expectations exist while also supporting members when challenges occur can help prevent challenges with motivation and help a chapter achieve its goals.

Study Hours Are Not Enough

Written by: Dan Bureau, Ph.D. (University of New Hampshire, '95), National President

Study hours are not enough (and actually may be detrimental) for your scholarship Program.

We have many expectations in the Fraternity, including the need for members to meet and maintain academic standards. This aspect of the organization may matter differently across our chapters and within individual members but on the national level we know that our members should not perform poorly academically as a result of Phi Kappa Theta AND we have a responsibility to facilitate academic success for members.

How we create environments in which members feel like they can succeed academically will impact not only the recruitment and retention of members but also their entire lives. These programs can look different per chapter but one thing for sure is:

Brothers, study hours are not enough, if they are even helpful.

Study hours provide a time during which members are “required” to study or at least be in a space where they and others are studying. Often it is for new members as if those are the only ones for whom we need to provide academic direction and support (and for whom we’d be accountable for academic success). I get that from a time management perspective, the requirement to be in a space in which you are forced to study might make sense, but I strongly believe that study hours as a primary strategy for academic success is not going to make chapters successful.

Why don’t they? Here are a few reasons:

• Different majors require different types of work. Sometimes it’s quiet to study for a test but often it’s writing papers, working on group projects, doing online course assignments, etc. Your science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related majors have different needs than your humanities or social sciences types. Everyone being in the same place prevents some of our members from doing the work they really need to do either by themselves (depending on study preferences) or with groups (likely those who do not involve Phi Kaps).

• In a world where more and more college students have learning disabilities, the need to develop self-directed and managed approaches to studying has never been more important. Many students with learning disabilities come to college with some level of management ability; however, for some where college is a new environment unmonitored by people with a specific ability to support their learning disability, it is important to figure out ways to attend to how they need to best study and conduct academic work. I am willing to bet it rarely comes in the form of the study hours environment which can sometimes be poorly managed with a well-intentioned member who may not be able to hold the people in the space accountable for doing the work they are their to do.

• Additionally, The McGraw Center at Princeton University showcases some of the ways to better manage time and energy. The world is a lot and people have so many different demands outside of Phi Kappa Theta. For many, studying from 6-9 at study hours just isn’t the best time to make it happen.

Sadly, the biggest reason I think to abolish study hours is that while academic success is a nice outcome, it isn’t about that. Chapters use it to exert influence and control over members. While I would not classify study hours as hazing, it’s done more for reasons outside of ensuring individual academic goals are met and it just is not the best way to facilitate your members’ academic achievement.

So what do you do instead? Philosophically, I think that the best approach to academic success of your members is to create communities of shared academic and career goals in which members can come together. The environment must be such that all members recognize their opportunity to contribute.

What does this look like?

First, consider creating teams to foster positive competition and connect members to those with comparable academic demands and goals. This may look two ways: you can set up teams by buckets of majors. Put all of the heavy math or science people into a team or two. Put those who are doing more writing and creative work in another. Business majors? They can have a team or two all by themselves. 

You can create challenges across the teams. For example, teams set an average GPA goal. They hit it, they get something cool. Across all teams, whomever beats their own goal the most, gets something even more awesome. You want more ideas? Reach out to me.

A second idea is to help members develop an individualized plan. What Phi Kappa Theta should do is provide the resources and connections to help members be academically and otherwise successful. What about having each member submit an academic plan in which they (1) document a minimum GPA to which they are aspiring (and is at least the minimum GPA a member needs to be active), (2) develop the plans they are going to use to manage their time to achieve, (3) identify one to two campus or other resources they will use to achieve their GPA and manage their diverse academic demands (such as attending supplemental instruction, tutoring, or other educational supports), and (4) develop a series of checkpoints to ensure progress. For the last idea of checkpoints, this may be where breaking them up by major would be most helpful. 

Finally, having one person in charge of scholarship or academic success as we are used to is not a good model either. In my chapter, the person who often held this role was an engineer with whom I had so little in common (loved the guy, one of my favorite friends eventually, but nothing in common) and he just could not help me address the demands of my social sciences and humanities disposition. 

When you consider the models I have proposed above about using a team and having individualized plans, those models take a village more than a person. You might have at least one member from each class standing or from each bucket of majors serving in a role. This person will be advisory and supportive - connecting members to what they need to be successful. 

In closing, all of our members need academic support. Using a teams model that engages more people in the oversight and attention to academic goals can help a chapter be more successful. Determining a plan for success that aligns with chapter expectations can position both the member and the chapter to achieve their goals. Study hours will not make the difference: providing an environment in which academic goals are supported, individual learning approaches are honored, and the entire chapter is committed to each member doing their best to move the chapter GPA up the rankings while also helping members excel is what matters most. 

Thoughts on Friendships

Written by: Dan Bureau, Ph.D. (University of New Hampshire, '95), National President

Recently an alum from my chapter reached out to congratulate me on serving as Phi Kappa Theta’s President. It meant a lot because this is a brother with whom I had no previous relationship. He graduated before I even joined the chapter and I had never talked to him before.

Yet, he reached out due to this bond we have as members of this Fraternity, our shared chapter affiliation, and a feeling that our chapter was (sadly, was) something very special in creating conditions that helped members commit to each other, stay connected, and in the name of the Fraternity come together around important life milestones. For example, just a little over a week before he and I spoke for the first time, he had attended the funeral of one of our brothers. For him, Phi Kappa Theta had been a bond that transcended college. 

It got me thinking a lot about the role a fraternity can play in addressing the male friendship recession, a term to describe the declining state of meaningful friendships between men. A statistic that shocked me given my involvement in Phi Kappa Theta: the percentage of men with at least six close friends has fallen by half since 1990 with one in five single men having zero close friends. 

Zero close friends….

It has led some to embark on a quest to fill their lives with male friends. I think about the consequences of this because if men do not have close male friends, it’s like they don’t have close friends period given the challenges with male/female relationships. Of course, how people display gender or their sexual orientation may influence this differently, but by and large, men are not doing well in having friendships with other men. 

 By the way, friends help you live longer, maintain better health norms, and provide a source of support when life just frankly gets really hard. However, “Men in general don’t feel particularly skillful in how to form friendships, how to maintain relationships, how to be honest and connected in a way that feels comfortable,” says Cynthia Post, a psychologist, in the previously referenced Washington Post article. 

Not everyone chooses to join a fraternity or are involved in environments in which male friendships might come easily, which made me think about the heightened responsibility our organizations have to create the relationships men need to realize our goals.

It struck me that while the fraternity is a conduit to friendships - across genders given the socialization patterns of fraternity men engaged in campus life and the way many collegiate members become actively involved in their fraternity and other civic organizations - it does not guarantee these relationships become meaningful for members at the collegiate or alumni level.

Brothers, building meaningful and value-added relationships is our charge!

If a fraternity should do anything well, it should be to teach men how to have meaningful, satisfying, and impactful relationships with each other and others. To be honest, there is little else really distinctive about our experience than the immediate ability to create intergenerational relationships that can have enormous emotional and other benefits in college and beyond. This was my experience:

• One of my best men in my wedding was my best friend from my chapter.

• When I come to convention, I have a connection with people whom I rarely interact with otherwise and it is like we see each other all the time. 

• As I serve the Fraternity, I try to build relationships that sustain my happiness and have done so in every aspect of my involvement.

• I am a better friend to other men, even outside of Phi Kappa Theta, because of the skills I learned as a member. 

(Credit, Hirsch, Vox, August 2022)

Fraternity can be what we hold up as the primary agent of change in this male friendship recession, but we have to be intentional about this and it will not be easy given all we have working against us. The Vox article (Aubrey Hirsch, 2022) referenced above references a disorder called normative male alexithymia: 

I am not going to get into a conversation about masculinity and male gender norms because while they stifle us, there is a lot of identity attached to this and much of how we show up as men has been learned over time: we cannot shame people into change. I feel like on the whole the best is for you to, “do you” as long as it does not hurt people - be the representation of a man that makes sense to you.

That said, our chapters, our organization, and our members can create conditions in which the relationships we seek with other men in college and in life are not just bought as a result of membership, but are what we spend our time improving as a result of our social interactions, service to the community, involvement in campus life, educational experiences and in many cases a shared living environment. 

So, we have work to do but it must be done. If we are intentional and thoughtful about ensuring an environment in which men can build the skills they need to be the right friends to each other while in college and to their fellow brothers and other humans in general after college, then we will be contributing to the improvement of our members in ways that really can be transformative and impactful. 

Coaching Forward: How Fraternity Mentorship Shaped Ty Hoover's Career

Ty Hoover (left) with Seth Ware (right)

Ty Hoover (Trine University, ‘22) enrolled at Trine University, energetic and excited to get involved on campus. He joined the track team and began meeting brothers from the Fraternity who also ran. He later discovered that many of the men he met on the team were a part of the Fraternity and seemed to have a strong bond. 

Between his initial involvement with the track team and the Fraternity at Trine University, Ty Hoover faced a period of introspection and self-discovery. The camaraderie and bonds he witnessed among his peers were inspiring, but he also felt an internal pull towards a different path. Ty realized that while college provided many opportunities, he desired an opportunity to discover the best version of himself and prepare for a structured lifestyle before fully committing to college. This realization led him to make a significant decision in his life. 

Ty decided to withdraw from college and join the Air Force. He began his service working in the aerospace medical field. He traveled to several medical clinics nationwide, putting his college education on hold. He later transitioned to the Air Force, doing blood draws, medical records, and physicals. While in the Air Force, he returned to college full-time. He dedicated one weekend a month to the Air Force and focused on college life during the remainder of his time. 

Although he was excited to return to school, he felt like he was starting over. Phi Kappa Theta was filled with familiar faces from his first year, and his brothers welcomed him with open arms. They encouraged him to be the best he could be and reach his goals.  

After returning to track and field, it quickly became more than just a sport. He was always curious about the purpose behind the workouts and how he could reach his fullest potential. His coach, Seth Ware (Trine University, ‘13), who serves on the Fraternity's Board of Trustees, became a big brother figure to Ty. He was a mentor, always offering advice in practice or life. Seth says he enjoys mentoring students on his team and in the Fraternity. It seems to happen naturally, and it’s part of why he loves coaching track and field and staying involved with the Fraternity.  

When Ty decided he was interested in coaching track and field, Seth was the one who guided him through applying for jobs, preparing for interviews, and building his confidence as an aspiring coach. The most memorable experience was when Seth encouraged Ty to apply for a job opening that felt out of reach. Shortly after applying for the job, he received a call inviting him in for an interview.    

The interview went well, and he received a job offer shortly after. Ty explains that if it weren’t for Seth and his brothers in the Fraternity, he might not have the same love for coaching. He may not have been confident applying for a job outside his comfort zone. He claims that the Fraternity shaped him into the person and coach he is today.   

Ty is now the head track and field coach at Adrian College. He is now able to share advice with his students. He finds joy in the fact that the Fraternity taught him leadership skills and how to share knowledge with others. He enjoys mentoring his students and is thankful for the opportunity to pay it forward, as Seth had done for him.  

Seth agrees that although Ty is coaching at a school that competes against his team, he will always be a resource to him. That is what makes the Fraternity so unique. Even when you graduate, you have a nationwide network of brothers with common interests who want to support each other.  

If Seth had one piece of advice to give regarding our brotherhood, he would say, “A brotherhood can exist in chapters and across the country. The whole point of the Fraternity is the network and the common interests we share across the country. Use the network, and don’t be afraid to reach out to other members even if they aren’t from your chapter.”  

Ty and Seth's story reminds us that those around you often play a significant role in who you become. 

Ty's journey as a college student to a military serviceman and back to academia, culminating in his track and field coach role, underscores the profound impact of mentorship. Seth (who now serves on the National Fraternity Board of Trustees) exemplifies the strength and depth of mentorship that can be forged within the Fraternity.

It's not just about the bonds formed during college years but the lifelong relationships that continue to guide, support, and inspire a fellow brother. 

Whether you're a current student or an alumnus, the opportunities to cross paths with brothers, share experiences, and grow together are endless. To further foster these connections, consider attending the upcoming Phi Kap Konnect forum online hosted by National Fraternity President Dan Bureau, Ph.D. As a member, there are countless ways to make your mark and continue the legacy of brotherhood that has shaped so many lives, just as it did for Ty and Seth.