The topic of Greek life at Penn State and how it should be dealt with is a hotly contested topic and a polarizing issue. Those who support Greek life and those who feel that Greek life is detrimental to a college campus are both firmly entrenched in their beliefs. As a member of Greek life, there is a certain bias in the way I view attitudes towards fraternities and how they should be dealt with. With this in mind, I researched and found two articles, the first article deals with a negative view of Greek life and the second opinion is that there are still redeemable qualities to be found in Greek life.
The first article is an opinion piece from the source, pennlive.com. The author believes that fraternities and the service they provide society has run its course. Using the example of Harvard University, the author advocates for Penn State to implement the same measures that Harvard had implemented. Harvard’s response to fraternities? They banned all fraternities and any social club that is single gendered. Although this is extreme, and Penn State is a much different kind of school, the reasoning for the new measures is that fraternities are statistically more likely to binge drink and sexually assault women. The author cites a professor at Oklahoma University who says, “fraternity men are three times more likely to commit sexual assault than other college men,” (statistic published in the NY Times). The author reasons that when you put a large number of young men together under the same roof without any supervision that inevitably they will do wrong and therefore must be terminated.
On the flip side of the coin, an article from Business Insider advocates fro fraternities and lists several benefits for joining a fraternity. Chief among these benefits, is that nationally Greeks are 20% more likely to graduate than non Greeks. Interestingly enough, at Harvard, the school which just did away with Greek life, a study was conducted by professors who found that students in Greek life, “had a dramatically positive effect on persistence to graduation. The study showed that 90% of fraternity/sorority members compared to 70% of non-affiliated students were enrolled during their senior year.” (businessinsider.com) Aside from the business connections that being in a fraternity can bring, there is also the social aspect of it. To be clear, I do not mean social aspects in terms of parties, but in terms of being a lonely freshman who does not know anyone when he arrives on campus. The same article explains that joining a fraternity helps alleviate loneliness and helps to reduce depression rates because students instantly feel like they are a part of something when they join.
Both arguments for and against fraternities have their merits. The most difficult task of the deliberation will be to maintain a nonpartisan attitude and focus on just conducting a discussion among fellow students and community members. The truth of the matter is, however, that those who were never in a fraternity cannot condemn one because they do not know what it is truly like to be in one. All they can use as reason and judgement is the perceptions that they are given. Conversely, those who were in fraternities are arguing in favor of them, have an inherent bias that fraternities are a positive institution. It should be interesting to see where the students land when the deliberation commences.