The Responsibility to Give Legacies an Opportunity

Photo: Todd Buchanan (Southern Mississippi ’90) with his son Ashton Buchanan (Southern Methodist) and Jack Counts (Oklahoma ’68) with his son Carter Counts (Southern Methodist)

Fraternities have always been about more than the four years a man spends as an undergraduate. They are built on relationships that span generations, brothers who share experiences, traditions, friendships, and a commitment to something larger than themselves. That is what makes the concept of a legacy so important. When a son, grandson, brother, or close family member seeks an opportunity to join the same fraternity, the decision carries a significance that goes far beyond the individual applicant.

A legacy should never be an automatic invitation or guarantee of membership. Every fraternity has a responsibility to protect its standards, culture, and future. But there is an equally important responsibility: to give a legacy a genuine opportunity to be known, considered, and welcomed into the process.

The reason is simple. Fraternities are families.

When a legacy is denied an opportunity without meaningful consideration, the impact can extend far beyond the student. It can affect the relationship between the fraternity and the alumnus who has spent decades investing his time, resources, loyalty, and heart into the organization. It can affect the relationship between that alumnus and his pledge class—the brothers with whom he has shared a lifetime of memories and who often feel a collective connection to the fraternity. It can even affect family relationships when a father or grandfather has spent years sharing stories, traditions, and experiences with a son or grandson, only to see that connection abruptly end.

Those consequences should not be dismissed as entitlement.

An alumnus who hopes his son will have the opportunity to experience the fraternity that shaped his own life is not necessarily asking for preferential treatment. More often, he is hoping to share something deeply meaningful with the next generation. He wants his son to know the friendships, traditions, mentorship, and sense of belonging that he experienced. When that opportunity is denied without empathy or understanding, the alumnus may experience something that feels much bigger than a recruitment decision: it can feel like a rejection of a part of his own history.

That is why undergraduate members must approach legacy decisions with empathy.

The question should not simply be, “Does this person meet our immediate expectations?” It should also be, “What does this decision mean to the people who have built and sustained this fraternity?” Undergraduates are temporary stewards of an organization that existed before them and, if they do their job well, will continue long after they graduate.

A legacy candidate deserves the opportunity to demonstrate who he is, not to inherit his father’s or grandfather’s place, but to earn his own. Giving that opportunity recognizes both the individual and the relationships that brought him to the fraternity.

There is also a practical consideration. Alumni engagement is built on relationships. Alumni give because they care. They volunteer because they believe in the organization. They return because they feel connected to the men and traditions that came before them. When those relationships are handled without sensitivity, the fraternity risks creating unnecessary distance between its undergraduate chapter and the very alumni community it will eventually depend upon.

Ultimately, this is not an argument for lowering standards. It is an argument for expanding our understanding of what leadership and brotherhood require.

The best fraternities understand that brotherhood includes empathy, stewardship, and respect for the generations that came before us. Giving a legacy a meaningful opportunity honors the past while allowing the individual to build his own future.

We should never promise a legacy membership simply because of his family name. But we should be willing to open the door, get to know him, and give him a fair opportunity to show us who he can become.

That is not weakness, that is Brotherhood.

Steve Mitchell (Indiana ’83)
EMINENT SUPREME RECORDER