This passion post is probably the news story that has affected me the most personally, so I’m going to take a different approach on this one and write it more as an editorial.

As many of you know, Greek life is under serious scrutiny lately. There have been a wide variety of serious incidents at fraternities all across the nation, both legal and ethical. Most notable is Oklahoma University SAE’s incident, where a video of several members chanting racial slurs was leaked, leading to the expulsion of several members and that chapter being shut down. I’m going to link a video of the video for those interested, but WARNING: This video has a lot of profanity and I recommend watching it at your own discretion.

This incident sparked a serious investigation into Greek life at Oklahoma. Not long after this, another serious incident occurred at our very own Penn State University. The fraternity Kappa Delta Rho, or KDR, got into serious trouble when a private Facebook group they had was reported to the authorities, which included things such as drug deals and pictures of girls passed out in a variety of situations. The Inter Fraternity Council, or IFC, immediately suspended their actions, and the fraternity has been on suspension since, while an investigation into the incident continues. This article on Onward State shows the extent of the information we know now: http://onwardstate.com/2015/03/20/kappa-delta-rho-what-we-know-now/

Now, this post is not a defense of their actions at all. What both of these fraternities did was wrong, and in no way should their actions be justified. The people involved should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, both from law enforcement and their respective universities. Rather, I wanted to share my personal experience with fraternity life and what it means to me.

When I originally came to Penn State, I had no intentions of joining a fraternity. I knew my classes would be tough since I was a part of the honors college, and I didn’t think I would be able to balance myself socially and academically. If anything, I was going to wait until the spring semester to rush. But my brother was in a fraternity here, and I still knew a few friends from back home who were a part of this fraternity so I stopped by a few times just to hang out. In this few trips, I met a ton of new people, a lot of whom had similar interests to me. I particularly remember spending one night talking with a brother of this fraternity about the musical RENT, and how much we both loved it. Not only did I share the same interests with a lot of the brothers, but they were all as academically oriented as I was. There were about 10 or 11 brothers that were also part of the honors college, and they told me that if I ever needed any help that they were always available and willing to help me. I just felt like I belonged here.

DKE in the Christmas spirit.

So, I decided to rush. They gave me a bid, and I ended up pledging Delta Kappa Epsilon. At the end of last semester, I was initiated as a brother. I was also recently elected as our fraternities’ THON Chair, which is a great honor to me. One thing a lot of people don’t know is that the full name of THON is the Penn State IFC/PanHell Dance Marathon. THON was originally started by Greek life here at Penn State, exemplifying one of the many positive things that Greek life does for our community (If you’re interested about the origins of THON, check out http://thon.org/about/history).

Greek life has a negative stigma against it because of the public perception of fraternity life created by movies such as Animal House, and social media sites like ImShmacked, which promote excessive partying and drinking. But the truth is, fraternities are mainly just a group of guys that really get along well, have similar goals and interests, and are trying to make the most of their four years here at Penn State just like anyone else. So please, don’t let a handful of guys ruin the reputation of everyone in Greek life. The rest of us are working hard to fight against this reputation and show the positive things we do, and on behalf of all of Greek life, I’m asking for your support to help continue to make Penn State the best university on the planet.

Forty of my best friends here at Penn State.