New Member Education Process

The purpose of our new member education process is to help our prospective members acquire knowledge of the history, traditions, and ideals of the Psi Chapter and the Zeta Psi Fraternity, while developing meaningful bonds with the brothers in the house and one another. To achieve this purpose, prospective members must be willing to make a commitment to dedicate their time and effort to the new member education process. However, we also understand that as students, our new members must prioritize academic success.

Zeta Psi has been operating at Cornell since 1868 and is the oldest fraternity on campus. Our experience over this long period has helped us develop a new member education process which we believe strikes the ideal balance between being comprehensive enough to achieve its purpose and being flexible enough to allow for the academic success of each new member. In fact, in the past two years, our chapter has been recognized for having the highest average GPA in all of Zeta Psi.

During the week, prospective members eat dinner at the house with the entire brotherhood. We take advantage of this time to help prospective members get to know the brothers, which is the primary goal of the entire process. Zeta Psi does not "haze". We don't believe in it. Over the past few years, we have spent a lot of time ensuring that every aspect of the New Member Education process is constructive and ideal for creating real friendships with our perspective members. Any task that prospective new members are asked to perform will be designed to teach the pledge class about the fraternity and develop bonds between them.

The length of our new member education process is not predetermined, but is instead dictated by how long the prospective new members take to achieve certain milestones. The last three classes were initiated in approximately 6 weeks. By reaching initiation prior to spring break, these classes were each able to use the second half of the semester to concentrate on maintaining their academic performance and enjoying the benefits of being a brother. This, in addition to a prioritization of academic success that we hold true to throughout the entirety of our New Member process, results in the best New Member GPAs across campus year after year.