By Lillie Tretter, Staff Writer
A deck of cards is built on order. Four suits, red and black, numbered and named with precision. Every piece has its place, stacked neatly inside a box that, when sealed, promises predictability. Solitaire relies on that structure; poker dares to disrupt it. But once the shuffle begins, control loosens. The neat stack becomes uncertain, the outcome no longer guaranteed. What was once arranged by design is scattered by motion.
Traditions have a similar narrative. They follow a pattern. A rhythm. When disruption hits, the structure loses its shape. What was once carefully planned, color-coded and mapped by the hour was suddenly interrupted by sheets of ice and falling temperatures. Induction schedules stalled. Events were postponed. Students and administrators found themselves adjusting to a week that no longer looked the way it was meant to look. And in those moments, the only choice left is whether to fold or to play.
Induction week is anything but random. It is the most prepped week of the year, involving meetings with club presidents and induction chairs to ensure that the week goes smoothly for everyone involved. “We met in the fall semester a couple of times just to go over the guidelines for the week, what the expectations are, and what we, as an office, expected for clubs to communicate to us about what they were planning for their new members,” said Assistant Director of Student Life Brook Hanna. “We asked for a written plan and then met individually with each club to go over that written plan and make adjustments as needed.”
Induction week is built on preparation, communication, trust and traditions, stacked like the perfect deck. What happens when the cards are reshuffled, and preparation meets something it cannot control?
As winter weather conditions worsened throughout the week, roads iced over and temperatures continued to drop. This forced Student Life to adjust to problems quickly. Men’s rush events were moved indoors, and induction activities were cut short on Bid Day to prepare for possible weather, all in the hope that conditions would improve. Instead, classes were canceled due to dangerous driving conditions and unsafe walkways on campus. By Thursday, Student Life made the decision to cancel all remaining induction week activities for the safety of faculty sponsors and club members.
For many clubs, having to replan all events due to weather was one of the most difficult tasks they faced. “That was definitely the hardest challenge. Giving these new members the best possible week they could be given with the cards that we were dealt,” said Lane Von Dresky, Assistant Induction Chair of the Men of Beta Beta. Von Dresky emphasized the importance of trust throughout this whole process. Trusting that Student Life was fully transparent about safety concerns, and in return, he and the executive members of Beta were being fully transparent and trusting their members as well. Communication became one of the most important tools and the key to a successful week. If traditions could not happen as planned, they adjusted, prioritizing preserving traditions even if it meant shifting the time.
“Personally, this goes for me and the club, we love traditions. We are incredibly tradition based, and I just believe that if there are no traditions to fall back on, then what do you really have? What are you standing for?” said Von Dresky. For many clubs, the fear was that their new members would not be able to participate in the traditions that everyone else before them did.
While leaders of clubs worked diligently and closely with student life to ensure their traditions remained intact, new members were patiently navigating a different side of the uncertainty. “It was really obvious to us that this is not what a pledge week is supposed to look like,” said Ellen Kendrick, a new member of The Women of EEE. When induction week was canceled, Kendrick and many other new club members across campus were crushed, knowing that they would not get to do what everyone else in the club had done before them the traditional way.
For Kendrick, the disappointment had an even deeper meaning. The legacy of this club ran deep in her family as her mom, aunt, cousin and sister were all EEEs. “Before I even knew what college was, I knew what EEE was,” said Kendrick. Growing up she had heard all of the fun, goofy, and life changing memories that happened to her family members during induction week, and now she was not getting to experience the same things.
When the cancellation became official, Kendrick felt a mix of disappointment and she and her pledge class got together on their own time to bond and get to know one another. They built their relationships on their own by meeting in the dorm lobbies and intentionally spending time together. “I do not feel any less detached because we didn’t get the same pledge week as everybody else. We still got the core values and the core traditions translated to us along the way and I love the women of EEE with my entire heart,” said Kendrick. An unconventional and unforeseen induction week turned into one of the best experiences for new members, one that was centered on building bonds and making memories.
“At the end of the day, I’ll be able to describe it [pledge week] a lot like my mom has, and just say it was a really goofy week of bonding with my sisters, and I really do think the friendships that started during pledge week are going to last me a lifetime,” said Kendrick. Even though the cards were dealt differently than she expected, the game still continued. Traditions were still passed down, memories were still made and new members were truly accepted into their club. While the format of induction week may have changed this year, its purpose did not. No matter how the cards fall, the strength of tradition will always prevail.
