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On Wednesday in class, we talked about Greek Life at Penn State and how to go about providing the Greek Life Task Force with charges for beginning to reform the community. As someone who is not involved in Greek Life at all, I found our discussion to be really interesting and indicative of outsiders’ opinions of Greek Life. Our conversation focused mostly on the negatives of fraternities and sororities, and I think it would be interesting to see if the tone and ideas presented would have changed had there been somebody who is involved in Greek Life present.

Our conversation showed how polarizing Greek Life is on Penn State’s campus. As a tour guide, I give the same spiel about fraternities and sororities every time I give a tour to prospective students: “And on your left you will see South Halls, home to sorority housing on campus. 17 percent of Penn State students are involved in Greek life, but that means that 83 percent are not, so you have the best of both worlds.” Even before these students are members of the Penn State community, they are already exposed to a sharp divide between the Greek and non-Greek communities at Penn State. Even though the vast majority of students are not members of fraternities or sororities, most college students will attend social or parties hosted by frats. Therefore, the impending reform of the Greek system at Penn State will have expansive implications.

There is an undeniable stigma attached to Greek life. While the vast majority of fraternity members are wonderful, upstanding citizens, a 2007 study showed that 86 percent of fraternity house residents engaged in binge drinking, compared to 45 percent of non-fraternity members. Furthermore, members of Greek life were twice as likely to struggle academically, engage in unplanned sex, or sustain injuries as a result of their drinking. On the other hand, Greek life offers incredible networking opportunities and fosters incredibly strong bonds between members. Sorority and fraternity membership encourages the development of crucial social interaction skills and most chapters engage in philanthropy and community service. The main question is how can you bring out the good in Greek life while minimizing the negative aspects?

One idea that was briefly discussed was the proposition of ending Greek Life altogether. In the past few months, many schools have toyed with the idea of banning fraternities or severely changing the way they function. Wesleyan University announced that all of its fraternities would have to be coed after students and faculty members argued that fraternities encourage sexism and mistreatment of women. Additionally, Clemson University suspended all fraternity activity after one member died when he fell off a bridge. At Dartmouth, hundreds of students, faculty, and alumni said that they would like to see the Greek system “abolished.”

While ending Greek life may seem like an attractive short term fix of many problems that universities face today, it is infeasible and fails to fix the root problems. Additionally, if schools decide to ban Greek life on campus, they would miss out on so many benefits.

Instead, the Greek life task force should focus on the positives of fraternities and sororities on campus and work to figure out how to emphasize the good things to eliminate or curtail the binge drinking, sexual assaults, and hazing. I really liked the idea of providing students who rush fraternities or sororities with statistics about the chapter they want to join. Because rushing occurs at Penn State at the beginning of the Fall semester, many freshman are overwhelmed and do not have a chance to settle in before they make a decision that will drastically alter their experience at Penn State. By providing statistics about GPA, police encounters, drop out rates, and philanthropic involvement, pledges could make more informed decisions about if they want to participate in Greek life. Transparency is key to reforming the culture of the Greek system.

Furthermore, many fraternities and sororities at other schools have house managers or “house moms.” Incorporating these house managers into fraternities homes at Penn State may decrease the amount of drinking and hazing that occurs. These house directors would not only help oversee the day-to-day operations of frat houses, but they could act as mentors to the members as well.

I am interested to see the results of the Greek Life Task Force, because I believe that they will introduce ideas that will have a big influence in reforming the Greek system at Penn State. It will be exciting to see how people from all different backgrounds come together to tackle a problem that pervades every college campus. Hopefully the recommendations they provide can be implemented not only at Penn State but throughout the country.

Sources:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/30/should-colleges-ban-fraternities-and-sororities

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/01/29/dartmouth-plans-reforms-for-campus-safety/

http://college.usatoday.com/2012/05/08/examining-the-benefits-of-greek-life/

http://silc.ku.edu/house-directors