Deliberation title:“A Nu Era of Greek Life: Can We Make Fraternities Beta? How Should They Be Delt(a) with?”
Description: Our deliberation dives into the controversies surrounding Greek life on college campuses, particularly how the university can approach the recent issues that have been hotly debated and how fraternity culture may have to adapt to the changing political, social, and moral climate.
My role: As part of Team Overview, I am required to prepare the introductory presentation for the deliberation as well as prepare the overall agenda of the discussion. I will help the Community Outreach team with event logistics and oversee as one of two leaders in the assignment. I am responsible for setting the objectives of the deliberation and categorizing the topics so that the deliberation has structure and organization.
I am currently working on preliminary research for the topics of interest as well as developing the three approaches we will take on the controversy. My current research is as follows:
We will take a levels of analysis structure (broad to narrow).
Approach 1: The frat, nationally. Matthiew and Jalani and Austin
- Organization
- Values of the fraternity; their purpose
- Historical background. Then vs. now
- Constants: psychology
- Psychology and philosophies
- Why now?
- Do we think the nature of the system have changed?
- Stigma has changed?
- The exigence of the issue
- Community service
- Problem
- Key players
- Pros and cons
- Reputation
- Stigmas stigmas stigmas
- Data
- How media, culture, movies portray frats
- Compare to business frats? Compare to athletics (GPA?)? Academics?
Approach 2: The university. Ninad & Mamadu
- We think the university isn’t doing enough
- What’s the university’s responsibility? What are the frats’ responsibility?
- How can the university deal with this?
- What do you think of the steps PSU is taking?
- Underground culture: like prohibition?
- Sanctions!
- Right to assembly
- Who’s at the table making decisions? Is everybody represented?
Approach 3: The brother, the individual. Matt & Emilio
- Survey 50 brothers… why did you join? Data
- No longer Mitch, you’re Mitch the Sigma
- Your image transforms
- What’s the brother’s responsibility? Individual responsibility
- If we do this, what’s it gonna look like?
- Binge drinking
- Decision making
- Hazing
- Death toll
- Be careful talking about Piazza. It wasn’t Beta Theta Pi that killed him. It wasn’t the party either. It was brothers
- Sexual assault and harassment
- Treatment of brothers
- Treatment of students not in frats
- Exclusivity
- Rushing
- Pledging