In a few short weeks, tens of thousands of college students will undertake the ritual of fraternity and sorority recruitment at America's colleges and universities. This will provoke hand-wringing and eye-rolling among many jaded faculty, cynical social activists and concerned parents.
Yet how we see fraternities and sororities may say more about us than about the actual Greek system. In truth, the college Greek system may be one of the healthiest forms of community in our nation, and any student who refuses to consider entering the community may be doing himself or herself a disservice.
"For all the negative press about fraternities and sororities, no one else does as much as they do to raise awareness about issues that matter," says T.J. Sullivan, a nationally prominent campus speaker. "No other community on a campus comes close in learning about issues."
As a developer of innovative educational programs for college audiences, Sullivan has studied college life up close for the past two decades. A number of his observations are quite instructive. For instance, Sullivan noticed years ago that if a college women's center organizes a progressive program addressing sexual health, they may draw 20 people and the sounds of chirping crickets on a typical evening; yet that same college's fraternity and sorority system can gather 2,000 actively engaged attendees if the program is well-designed.
A college programming board can draw such a crowd only if it drops $40,000 on a national celebrity promoting a new book. But Greeks "know how to get butts in the seats," Sullivan says. Indeed, this is the case on a weekly basis, as fraternity brothers and sorority sisters are brought regularly into compelling discussions about community service, women's safety, career planning and the whole host of college concerns.
Sullivan is passionate about the ability of college Greeks to build better college communities and a better society. As the co-founder and CEO of CAMPUSPEAK, he oversees a stable of some 50 speakers and a small army of interactive workshop leaders. The college Greek system provides the most enthusiastic demand for the educational programming, and results have been profound.
Stacy Nadeau, one of Sullivan's colleagues, is a former star of Dove's "real women with real curves" advertising campaigns, who has opened up discussions at sororities around America regarding body image and "embracing real beauty." Nadeau helped Delta Delta Delta, a large national sorority, develop a "Fat-Talk"-Free Week, for which she has served as a national spokesperson.
While skeptics see the college Greek system as a few magnitudes short of enlightenment, Sullivan has seen far more positive trends. After entering Indiana University at the age of 16 and becoming active in the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, he graduated and moved on to work with the Bacchus Network, focusing on alcohol awareness and responsible decision-making.
In the early 1990s, Sullivan teamed with a friend, Joel Goldman, to develop an educational program titled "Friendship in the Age of AIDS." Goldman discussed his experiences with HIV, while Sullivan discussed oral sex and orgasms.
The program became a national sensation, and Sullivan attributes the success to the Greek system. "Who'd have thought that fraternity students would embrace it the way we did? We ended up speaking to a million students nationally, because fraternities took the lead."
More recently, Shane Windmeyer, the founder of Campus Pride and a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, has been a champion of LGBT issues within the college Greek system, developing programs such as "Out and Greek" to transform the tone of Greek community.
Yet what about that common complaint about the American fraternity and sorority system -- that it is troublingly segregated, and mostly rich and white?
Here we need some context: All close communities, from every era and every nation, have tended to self-segregate. As Bill Bishop observed in his landmark book, "The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart," the modern Christian church growth movement took off when missionaries realized that humans have a deep proclivity for homogeneous community.
In that light, the college Greeks have actually been heroic in their attempts to move beyond conformity in order to achieve diversity. Brian Johnson, an African-American professor at Bloomsburg University and Director of the Frederick Douglass Institute for Academic Excellence, is a sought-after speaker and consultant on multicultural issues among Greeks and other college audiences.
Johnson views diversity not as a bitter medicine to be forced upon others but as an opportunity to be harnessed. And he exposes the untruths about racial stereotypes as readily as he exposes untruths about college Greek stereotypes.
"As I travel the country speaking to student leaders about stereotypes," he says, "I find a great number of students who, with their national organizations, are pressing for a return to the true mission of fraternal organizations -- those being service and philanthropy, academic excellence and being good stewards to the campus community."
Like it or not, the college Greek system is not going away. But there is far more there to like than some may want to admit. A student affairs administrator told me recently that for all the growing pains that he associated with Greek life, members tend to have higher grade point averages, higher graduation rates, higher starting salaries than their less-connected counterparts, more enduring college friendships and a higher rate of giving to their alma maters.
And it goes even beyond that. When not discussing body image, Delta Delta Delta was busy raising $3.4 million dollars in the past year alone for a children's hospital in Memphis. I recently met a recent USC graduate, a Delta Gamma member, who stood every Greek stereotype on its ear, as a magna cum laude student who served blind children in her free time and who now works at the brainy Googleplex in Silicon Valley.
The stereotypes about Greeks are wrongheaded in spirit and wrong in fact, says Johnson. "They have cleaned up highways, cooked meals for the homeless, raised countless charitable dollars, and so much more." An ordained minister, he adds proudly, "Now that is what true brotherhood and sisterhood looks like!"
The genuine challenges that fraternities and sororities face are hardly unique to their communities. What may be unique is their collective commitment to addressing their challenges head on.
Can you build a better world by going Greek? There's no reason to think otherwise.
(Disclosure: I was at one time affiliated with the CAMPUSPEAK organization.)
Follow Rob Asghar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rasghar
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Fraternities and sororities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sororities and Fraternities often recruit based on characteristics such as skin color or the amount of money in parent's bank accounts. As a sorority member I have seen a girl get cut for having the last name Garcia. It is this experience and others like it that make me skeptical when I read articles like this one. The homogenitity of Greek communities hurts, not helps, Greek students. All of my friends freshman year were the same. They were white, upper middle class, and came from families with money. I had no other contact with the university and it's world of other people with different backgrounds and experiences. It wasn't until I joined other groups that I realized how limited the Greek perspective is. College is the only time in many people's lives when they are surrounded by so many people of different racial, economic, and cultural backgrounds. It seems like such a waste to spend that time in a gilded cage - a Sorority of Fraternity house where everyone talks, acts, and it seems to me, thinks the same.
I think in this case, the egg - or the potential for Greek members to do well, came before the much troubled and broken Greek chicken. We should not take these stories of outstanding individuals like Mr. Asghar cites as a hard and fast rule about Greek members. I believe that they would've achieved everything that they have even if being Greek hadn't been an option for them.
The Greek system prides itself on being selective. As a sorority member of Delta Delta Delta, I see the same qualities targeted recruitment after recruitment. The top girls are always the class presidents, the valedictorians, the National Merit Scholars. These girls would've made stellar GPA's and have graduated college even without going Greek. I have not met a single person that has said, "You know what, my going Greek is what really pushed me to want to graduate college." The fact of the matter is that the people that the Greek community recruits are already have a predisposition to do well. Seems to me that more often than not the Greek community takes credit for that.
I was in my college's marching band and we managed to keep a superior GPA than our peers, support our school, network with Alumni, get connected with job leads, and actively participate in philanthropy. Not to mention we developed life long friendship and academic support systems! I think a better concept for the article could have been "Want to Build a Better World? Get Involved in Co-Curricular Experiences in College."
As far as community service goes, each organization has their own philanthropic organization that they are affiliated with. Would most members volunteer their time/money if they weren't required to? Most likely not.
Most of the seats that are filled at campus events are by GREEKS. Why? Because they're usually required to attend these events.
I was not Greek in college and I was an exceptional student. I graduated cum laude while working and heading up several student programs year-round. I think that goes to show that going Greek is not the only way to be successful in college.
The question is whether these are exceptions or the norm, an issue that cannot be addressed purely anecdotes. This article puts a (logic-proof) blanket over all Greek houses and argues that because a few don't fit the stereotype, the stereotype is altogether dishonest. How MANY Greek houses raise charity money?; how much?; how MANY discourage an unhealthy attitude toward substance and educative priority?; what is the difference between "traditional" houses and organizational/career-based fraternities?; and, of course, the question people always seem to ignore: "How are Greek houses more equipped to aid the community than non-pledging student organizations?" (this article tried to address that question...again, with a single anecdote arguing that student clubs don't have the event organizing capability....please.).
I'm not altogether distrustful of the Greek system, but I AM rather skeptical because the only arguments I've ever heard in favor of Greek houses, including this one, begin with "Well, THIS Greek house..." or "well, MY sorority..." or "[politically correct robot voice] Stereotyping is bad!" and generally rely fully upon anecdotal and/or circular arguments.
This article and claims of philanthropy, grades, etc are explicitly social fraternities and sororities. It excludes all professional, honorary, service, or any other type of org. That results in a small percentage of college students nationally, who together raise more money and do more service than all other students combined. It is the rare and failing chapter at a school with unhealthy attitudes toward Greeks that does not do philanthropy, encourage healthy behaviors, or make better grades than the student body.
How are Greek chapters better equipped to help the community than other organizations? Despite the article, Greek org do not exist to help the community. They have a higher societal purpose beyond college, for which college is the training ground. What else they do outside that time is what like-minded friends do when they get together. What these orgs have is economies of scale and strong organization. They can do events with little effort or start-up cost. They raise millions and do many hundreds of thousands of hours of volunteer work as a result.
Nationally, every instance of the negative stereotypes are wrong. But, that same chapter that's doing everything right is still going to have loud parties with lots of drunks trying to impress women. That doesn't make them bad people, and certainly not self-destructive incapable of excelling in their obligations.
I'm certainly not a party girl or someone who is instantly comfortable in any situation (or is always outgoing), but joining my sorority was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. Yes, all greek organizations have their problems - but what societal group doesn't?
You couldn't persuade me that going Greek wasn't a good idea. I'd most likely have a few strong words for you if you did try (honestly, you'd end up insulting me). I find that the people who comment on the Greek system being a bad thing are the ones who seem more elitist.
Every single one that tried to get me to join described themselves as the one that was for people who wouldn't normally join! If you hear that 15 times, it sounds hollow.
I worked 35 hours a week through school sitll made time to get involved with charities and found my own path through school. I see a lot of former greek kids completely lost at my job--without the structure or their sisters/brothers they seem fragile and unable to make a choice without it being a group consensus.
Again, I know people who aren't like this. Who spent whole summers with their greek brothers/sisters in New Orleans cleaning up after Katrina, worked soup kitchens or networked with like majored or like minded people to accomplish their goals who are doing great now because of those connections but most of those were business, major related or service dedicated greek houses (most didn't even have physical houses) the ones from purely society greek structures don't seem to have done as well.
"members tend to have higher grade point averages, higher graduation rates, higher starting salaries than their less-connected counterparts, more enduring college friendships and a higher rate of giving to their alma maters."
You really do get so much more out of college going Greek. For anyone who disagrees look at it this way: Would you agree that getting involved on your campus makes your college experience more rewarding? I think most people would. There are few better ways to do that than through Greek Life. What is especially great is that Greek Life isn't a specialized club. You can do a thousand different things through one organization. Rec Sports? Yes. Philanthropy? Yes. Parties? Yes. Alumni Relations? Yes. Campus History? Yes. Internships/Career Advancement? Yes.
Honestly the list doesn't end. People need to have an open mind about Greek Life, which is ironic because most people chastise Greek Life for not being an open minded group. You get so much out of it. I did, and I would recommend it to any and everyone.