Journal

Campus Life Problem: Gaining Power and Influence

Adam, a member of a campus fraternity house, is from a small farm community downstate. He joined the

fraternity to make new friends but now finds himself out of place among the “city boys.” Consequently, he

keeps to himself, and hardly mixes with his “brothers.” After trying hard to socialize him, the other members

have assumed that he likes his privacy and have allowed him to remain to himself.

Soon, he finds that he is being dumped on. He is always assigned demanding chores like gardening or

cleaning, and hardly ever gets to participate in organizing social events like the Charity Dance or the Inter-

Fraternity Basketball contest. Adam performs his work diligently, but it pains him to see members who

joined later getting to do interesting work like constructing the Homecoming Parade pageant, while he is

asked to continue with the old chores. The irony is that Adam is a Fine Arts major and a good sculptor and

can help the fraternity improve its ranking in the pageant competition.

Bob is the only member somewhat close to Adam because they are from adjacent towns. Adam tells Bob

about his feelings one day, and Bob feels concerned. When he raises the question at an informal “bull

session,” other members are surprised. Most of the new pledges hardly know him, and the others say that

they had always assumed that he enjoyed his work, as he expressed no complaints about it.