Personal Reflection
Delta Gamma provides a forum for personal reflection in a program titled Individual Pursuit. The purpose of the Individual Pursuit is to encourage members of all ages to achieve their fullest potential. Click here for details.

Values and Ethics
In Delta Gamma, we often find ourselves describing our Fraternity as an organization that is special because it promotes values and ethics. This, in fact, is one of the major points that we use to justify our existence to those who think that the Greek system is not a positive addition to a college or university. We know instinctively that membership in Delta Gamma is different from belonging to other organizations such as the field hockey club or student government largely because being a Delta Gamma implies living our lives according to a particular code of behavior implicit in the notion of sisterhood. However, we seldom take the time to talk about what that code of behavior entails, and this can be the source of confusion. Further, because a challenge to find a common understanding of values and ethics, believing that what's important to one person may not be important to others. This belief often leads to further confusion within the Fraternity.

One way to begin to resolve this confusion is to define what Delta Gamma means by values and ethics. If we are going to be committed to the Fraternity as we indicated in our Initiation, then we have the responsibility to understand fully what that commitment entails. While there are many definitions of values, most state that values are deeply held beliefs about what is right and wrong, good and bad, more or less important, more or less tasteful, and so on. Although each of us has our own list of what we value, we probably have many shared values including a respect for life, a disgust for murder, and the belief that lying is generally wrong.

Definitions of ethics vary as well, but most imply that being ethical means living according to a code of behavior that is consistent with your values. For instance, if you have friendship as a value, then living ethically means that you live in a way that demonstrates a concern for the well being of your friends. Perhaps the most common ethical guideline is the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Ethics, then, tell us what we ought to do, and not just what we should not do. In other words, if we value sisterhood in Delta Gamma, then we have the obligation to act in ways that actively promote sisterhood.

Sisterhood or friendship is one of the values implicit in Delta Gamma. What are the others? By examining documents in Delta Gamma including the Philosophy, the Oath of Friendship, Article II. of the Constitution, and the Statement of Obligation, we can ascertain the values of our Fraternity so that we can act ethically in accordance with those values.

Click here for information on Delta Gamma's Lectureships on Values & Ethics

Web Resources:
Ethics Resource Center, www.ethics.org
Character Counts, www.charactercounts.org

 

This page was last updated on: May 1, 2007

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