Alpha Gamma Rho - Kappa - Vision of Kappa Chapter

VISION OF KAPPA CHAPTER

To be the premier fraternity building values, leadership, skills, and relationships for lifelong personal and professional success for men of diverse careers in a common industry.

We try at all times to stick to our vision of 'making better men.'

Letter to Kappa Alumni

Dear Brothers,

By now you have probably heard the news that a fraternity at the University of Nebraska has been suspended because of inappropriate behavior involving its new member program. While it is unfortunate that those undergraduates chose to participate in such behavior, it does serve as a reminder that we, as Kappa alumni, need to stay engaged with the Fraternity to make sure that our young men have a positive AGR experience in an effort to make them better men.

More than a decade ago, Alpha Gamma Rho as an organization made a fundamental shift in how it approaches the pledging of its new members. The Brotherhood Program has gone through continued revisions and improvement as it has been implemented across the country.

Instead of the traditional semester-long pledge period that many of you would remember (some more fondly than others), new members are now initiated during the first week of class, but their education continues throughout the first semester. New members are still required to take tests about chapter history and participate in other brotherhood-building activities. The stages for membership are still the same but the expectations of “earning” your membership is now extended beyond pledging.

We are aware that at times others on campus may misperceive our program as one that doesn’t challenge its pledges for membership. This is untrue. Simply stated, the elimination of inappropriate behavior does not mean that members are given a “free pass” into the Fraternity.

One direct benefit of this truncated pledging period is that it is now the responsibility of the Chapter members to recruit young men with good moral character, values that align with those of AGR, and who they truly believe will be good brothers. They must also make clear to the potential member what Alpha Gamma Rho, and specifically Kappa Chapter, is about and what we will offer them so they are adequately prepared for their commitment. This responsibility isn’t taken lightly by the members either, as its strong membership, campus leadership and academic performance.

In order to uphold the standards of Alpha Gamma Rho, whole-Chapter brotherhood reviews are held twice per year within. Pledge classes meet together, along with the Membership Development Chairman, to discuss the reviews. Each member is required to review all of the brothers in his pledge class to provide constructive feedback and hold one another accountable for upholding the standards Alpha Gamma Rho. Additionally, every single brother is required to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5 and do his part with house-cleanings. Holding all members accountable has lead to outstanding results. Last year's rush class of 25 was the highest in recent history, all members take pride in keeping the house clean, and we are consistently in the top third of all fraternities with a 3.25 GPA.

For more information on The Brotherhood Program, please visit http://alphagammarho.org/page.php?page_id=3172. The site walks you through the steps of membership, the reasoning for some of the changes, and how The Brotherhood Program helps our brothers live up to our values of making better men.

We hope after reading this letter you have a better understanding of how Kappa’s pledging process works, why Alpha Gamma Rho and our Chapter made the change, and how it continues to deliver positive results in an ever-changing fraternity community. While we are all disappointed in the suspension of a fraternity at Nebraska for their innapropriate behavior, it has simply renewed our resolve that a extremly positive new membership education program at Kappa is a better, safer, and more productive Chapter for today’s leaders.

If you plan to come to Lincoln for Husker games this fall, or just find yourself nearby and wish to stop by and say hi, come on by. It’s your house too. And if you have a son, brother, cousin, nephew, or if you know of a great young man headed to Nebraska this fall, we would love an opportunity to meet with him and see if Kappa might be a good fit for him and vice versa. You can contact Recruitment Chairman, Will Anderjaska, at will_anderjaska@hotmail.com or (308) 340-7458.

Fraternally,

The Kappa alumni leadership of Alpha Gamma Rho