Senior Kappa Week Reflection: 2019 How do we celebrate our Senior Kappas and senior citizens in our communities?
What story can a Kappa tell more beauti- ful than at the Delphic Shrine? A story told and heard unblemished when we had only Kappa on our mind; What happened to the meaning of the story we were told; The story of Phi Nu Pi that penetrated our Kappa soul? What happened to the brotherhood, that we shared heart to heart; Today we search for the joys of yesterday that somehow fell apart. M any Senior Kappas would reflect on years gone by and suggest that we, as members of the fraternity should pull out our Story of Kappa Alpha Psi ® and be reminded of the vision of our ten Founders, and what life was like for them in the environs of Indiana Uni- versity at Bloomington, Indiana in 1911. Somewhere in the pages of our history we will learn that when our Founders deliberated on their future, they exam- ined the differences in the experiences of non-white students and African American students, all seeking higher education at the same institution. In your research you will find that our ten Founders did not submit themselves to an initiation process that exposed them to inhumane treatment similar to or like the treatment that the Ku Klux Klan had already put in place in Indi- ana and other places in America where inhumanity to man was the order of the
day for African Americans. Our Founders decided that they needed to put in place a structure in which they could collectively improve their plight and accomplish the goals they hoped for when they enrolled at Indiana Univer- sity. These intelligent undergraduate college students understood that the journey would not be easy, and that the environment would continue to be loaded with obstacles purposely placed in their way. They knew then, that in or- der for the fraternity to grow and thrive, they would need to do what we call “vet- ting”, or being selective in who would be permitted to join the fraternity. They understood that the vision they had for the fraternity could not be achieved by further dehumanizing potential mem- bers. As a result, we have no evidence that any of our Founders were subjected to inhumane treatment during the initia- tion process to become members of the Fraternity. As time has gone by since 1911, we have witnessed what we could call a cultural change where fraternity leaders have chosen to ignore the vision and history of our Founders and adopted initiation processes that resemble survival ritu- als, intended to challenge the physical and mental survival skills of potential members. Look around this room and ask the brother next to you if he became a mem- ber free from what we call hazing. Ask the brother if he believes he’s a better Kappa because he endured more pain than our revered Founders?
My brothers, during my 64 years in the Bond, I have been able to separate the wheat from the tare in Kappa. I
know first hand the truths and fictions in our fraternity. I know that there are no words we can utter out of our mouths that can justify hazing . If this is true, then why would we be having conversa- tions about hazing ? In our beloved fraternity we are being challenged everyday by claims that are being brought by citizens alleging that Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity or one or more of its members have violated one or more laws dealing with hazing. Each time we get a notice claiming some rule has been violated, it becomes a $10,000 liability against our insurance deductible. This means that our legal and administrative team has to begin the arduous task of working to refute the claims. The bottom line is that sometimes we win – sometimes we lose. Sometimes the claim refers to hazing , some times it may be against an incident at a social event. One of our chapters had an event at a facility where the floor collapsed and people were hurt. On this occasion we had to resolve a $100,000 deductible.
10 | SPRING ISSUE THE JOURNAL
Publishing achievement for 105 years
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