Not all Fraternities: Approach 3
After examining the first two approaches to addressing fraternity culture, it is time to discuss the final approach. It is important to note that all approaches consist of different ways to address the problems at hand, and not every approach may be as highly favored as others. In the case of our deliberation, it seemed that, after consulting with an audience, this last approach might not be the most achievable or effective.
The third approach combines policy and law enforcement, taking stronger more direct action to the issues existing within frat culture. Too many times, events go unreported, the victims go unheard, and repercussions remain unenforced. With this approach, a key element would be increasing police patrol around fraternity houses during peak times of high population events. Policies including noise level, amount of people allowed, or apparent influence of alcohol or drugs may be made stricter with harsher consequences.
Ideally, the goal of this approach is not even to directly punish fraternities more but to make the punishments more well known, in turn decreasing punishable activity. This could start by releasing an announcement to all fraternities at the university, letting them know that policies have been changed and that police patrol in the area will be increased. This could insight a “fear factor”, scaring the fraternities into keeping the parties smaller or safer, preventing incidents of higher severity from occurring. Additionally, should one of these incidents happen, police will already be in the area, ready to respond. This might even make it easier to report incidents.
While this approach may seem very straightforward and manageable, it has opportunity for backfire. For example, a few more police officers patrolling the scene will easily be outnumbered by the amount of people swarming the frat houses. One of the most chargeable offenses occurring during frat events is underage drinking. However, when officers arrive at the house, guests will run and scatter, making it impossible for every underage drinker to be caught. Another point brought up by an audience member during deliberation was that when approached, drunk fraternity members, who are angry that their party is being shut down, could cause trouble when interacting with the police. Armed persons confronting people under the influence could prove to be dangerous.
Another downfall could be that not all parties or events are obviously occurring. Many fraternities have tactics such as basements or closed curtains that prevent a party from being observed by outsiders. In this case, if there is no probable cause, a police officer has no real reason or authority to come into the house investigate, depending on if the house is owned by the university or not. Situations like these have little use for a police officer’s help, meaning that any incidents occurring would not be directly sought out. This could be an outright waste of resources, especially if fraternity activities are simply moved elsewhere once shut down.
Even if no real active enforcement is carried out due to this approach, a strict increase in policy and consequences may be just what fraternity culture needs to become safer and more well perceived by the public. It is not very common that a fraternity gets shut down, and suspensions are still rare. If higher level repercussions are set into place, it is possible that fraternity members will commit to changing their behavior for the better.
Bettering the reputation of fraternity culture would not only benefit the fraternity members themselves. People who visit fraternities would feel much safer as guests of the houses. Sorority members may feel better knowing that Greek life as a whole is safer and more reputable. Even members of the outside community would feel better knowing that the environment has increased in safety, happiness, and overall well-being.
Fraternity culture is often at the forefront of nationwide college news, and often times not for good reasons. The tragic stories of sexual assault, hazing, overdose, and even death are terrifying to hear for students, and terrifying for people like parents who have children at universities that they can no longer protect. These stories are eye-opening, but there are sadly countless more stories just like them that are not shared at a public news level.
Unfortunately, these issues are not entirely unavoidable. It is impossible to control the actions of every person. However, if we work proactively towards preventing future similar situations, many, many people will not have to experience what past people have gone through. Let’s work towards decreasing the statistics, making fraternity members less likely to rape, lowering the annual sexual assault counts and overdoses.
Fraternities can be viewed as university organizations for young men to socialize and make connections for the future. They could be known as opportunities to join a legacy of men years before them under the same name. Instead, a popular stereotype of fraternity culture is a negative one. These three approaches are just a few that could be used to improve that image, and further deliberation could prove to show which approaches are the most realistic and approachable. Here’s to working towards change.
“22”
“Bad Blood”
