When freshman Gary Lashryan accepted his bid this past January, he was ready to become a part of the drinking, partying, and often problematic behavior of a WashU Fraternity. The thing that surprised him, at first, was how much the brotherhood was into calculus.
“Yeah, at first, it was weird how much calc we were doing. But then all the other pledges were super into it, so I assumed it was just a part of the pledging process. I figured it was more useful than memorizing a bunch of facts about the history of a fraternity, anyway.”
When asked why he thought he was pledging a frat, Lashryan responded, “We totally had Greek letters—Pi Lambda Tau Lambda! PLTL, for short. Now I realize how stupid I was.”
Commenting on Lashryan, the PLTL coordinators said, “Yeah, it was weird when he ran around the classroom in Eads shirtless, chugging a 40, screaming ‘PI LAMBDA TAU LAMBDA!’ over and over, but he was really good at calc and at leading small groups of individuals toward a collective answer, so we kept him around anyway. Trust us, we’ve seen weirder.”
“Wait, but what about the Elephant Walk?” Lashryan asked incredulously, “We actually just did that for fun? Damn, these calc nerds are pretty fucked up.”
Lashryan was initially hesitant to accept his new position, but has decided that the approval and acceptance he has received as a part of the ‘brotherhood’ are essential to his social and emotional well-being. He will be a Calc II PLTL leader next fall.