Pushed Under the Rug Red solo cups litter the wooden floor, stained with stale beer. The light fixture, once in tact, dangles from the ceiling, a victim of last nights party. Girls in tube tops and miniskirts lay sprawled across the couch. Red lipstick smudged across their face and clothes half on give the impression of the events that took place under their will. A boy’s face is grafiti to illicit pictures and vulgar slogans-- a mere casualty to the slew of brothers that thought it would be a funny joke to pull on the new pledgee. Fraternities, the deep roots of many American universities, have instilled the traditions of brotherhood, loyalty, and respect upon many young men entering college for the first time. Built with power, they intended …show more content…
In her article, “The Dark Power of Fraternities,” Flanagan argues that,“The also have a long, dark history of violence against their own members and visitors to their houses, which makes them in many respects at odds with the core mission of college itself.” In other words, there may be a lot of positives to fraternities; however, there are also some very serious issues that need to be dealt with and acknowledged. Because fraternities tend to get off with little punishment, it shows that the behavior is okay. Therefore, the number of injuries/deaths, assault, and rape continue to grow. For instance, a 19 year old sophomore, Amanda Andaverde, spent her first and only month at the University of Idaho. A member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority, she spent a weekday with her sisters at Sigma Chi. Getting bored of continuous “drinking games” and forced flirting with an “assigned date,” Amanda left to go to another fraternity, Sigma Alpha. This is where she would fall three stories off a “sleeping porch,” and suffer traumatic brain injury. Sleeping porches are referred to as “rack rooms”. These rooms are usually found on the top floor with huge windows that stay open around the clock (Flanagan 6). Andaverde’s family filed a lawsuit against the University of Idaho, SAE, and Tri Delta. In the end, the court dismissed the case due to a “summary judgement because there was no dispute that Andaverde fell out of an open window,” and they found no proof of threatening circumstances in her presence (Flanagan 6). In other words, the court dismissed the case before it even reached a full trial, concluding that Andaverde was aware of the open window and that the university or fraternity did not have the responsibility to protect her from her own behavior. Basically, the court claimed she initiated her own accident. How can a university or fraternity blame a victim of permanent brain damage for their accident? Especially when the
In “Examining the Benefits of Greek Life.” Nicole Glass explains why she believes that Greek life is a great opportunity for students in public universities. Nicole gives multiple examples of famous people in history that were in sororities. Nicole explains that the Greek life system gives students opportunity to make friends that will be with for life, have fun at parties, and learn leadership skills that students will use for the rest of their lives. The author points out that the sororities/ fraternities have a very bad name in the press, but the hazing is very rare throughout the Greek system.
When entering college, it can be an exciting yet stressful time for many. A majority of college freshman come into their first year with few, if any, friends from high school and it can be a difficult adjustment when beginning this new chapter in their life. A solution that a lot of first year students discover, is joining a Greek organization. Based on an article written by Peter Jacobs, “I Joined a Fraternity and it was one of the best decisions I Ever Made”, by joining a sorority or fraternity, students are able to find their place and meet people who value the same beliefs that they do. Unfortunately, with the many stereotypes Greek life has, many people are unsure on whether or not it is the right decision for them. To reach the reader
In the 1960s, there was a considerable decrease in the number of students joining fraternities and sororities on campus. The movie implemented a rejuvenation of the Greek college, party life on campus. Sperber writes “Nationwide membership in fraternities doubled from about one hundred thousand in 1970 to two hundred thousand in 1980, and doubled again to almost four hundred thousand in 1990” (16) Due to the rise of party and prank behavior attributed to membership, colleges put regulations in place to stop student drinking. These regulations do not work. The regulations also contradict the advertised Greek life used while recruiting students to pledge. My impression of this is that it still occurs today. I agree with Sperber, there are many students entering college just to be part of this
Walking around a university’s campus any day of the week, one sees an array of Greek letters worn proudly by young men and women in the Greek system. Fraternities and sororities play a big part in a university. The Greek system can also be an easy target to direct criticism. There are those who oppose the Greek system and those who embrace it. Evan Wright opposes the Greek system in his article “Sister Act” that was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine. He uses examples from students at Ohio State University in Columbus to show his disapproval of the way sororities are now days. He portrays sorority girls as catty conformists who are obsessed with partying with fraternity
The Greek communities that have risen across the country have created huge impacts on every university that they have established themselves on. Historically, fraternities were designed for students to discreetly meet to discuss issues and host debates that their members believed would be deemed inappropriate by their collegiate faculties. Since their founding, fraternities and sororities have completely revamped their focuses. They are used as social, professional, and honorary organizations that promote many different combinations of community service, leadership, and academic success. The ideas of brotherhood and sisterhood have also transcended the college experience,
According to Martin and Hummer (1989: 459), "fraternities are vitally concerned more than anything else with masculinity (cf. Kanin 1967)." This sets the paradigm that they will look into. The paradigm they look from is the eyes of a fraternity's typically nature and values and actions they take part in to decipher what really takes place in order to understand the fraternity's view as
Katie Couric, Aretha Franklin, Condoleezza Rice, Leigh Anne Tuohy, Rosa Parks, Kate Spade, Robert Frost, Steven Spielberg, John F. Kennedy, Harrison Ford, Eli Manning, George W. Bush. I could go on with this list for hours. These are all familiar names to us for what they have accomplished in the past or the present. If I told you that all of these individuals participated in Greek life during their times during college, would you be stunned? As college students, we are all given a commonly misconceived stereotype of fraternities and sororities as a whole.
When one first thinks of Greek life or a sorority the only thing that comes to mind is the social aspect. Most people don’t think of sororities as social institutions that envelop their own culture, with mannerisms, languages and customs that are unique to each individual organization. However, these institutions promote a common set of values that enable members to become connected in a way that has a more profound meaning than just social interaction. Greek organizations are good examples of how institutions can affect and be affected by social status and roles within the collegiate community. They are also a prime example of how race, class and gender can affect a social setting in both positive and negative manners.
While not trying to lose focus on the research at hand, as a graduate of a PWI and a current employee of an HBCU, it is evident that stipulations are more lenient at the HBCU institution. This study attempts to answer the question, “What impact and influences does fraternities and sororities have on individuals’ attitudes and behaviors, both undergraduate and post graduate. The research questions were given to members of a BGLO from a PWI or HBCU that were currently an undergraduate or post graduate. Members of Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Phi Beta Sigma, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, and Sigma Gamma Rho were given research questions to answer to conduct this
Fraternity membership is associated with (heterosexual) masculinity in that fraternity members are believed to attract and date more women. However, Fraternity membership serves as a medium for building fraternal bonds of brotherhood between Black males, which creates a more Afro-centric masculinity (McGuire et al., 2014). Jackson (2012) defined brotherhood as ‘‘a social construction that creates feelings of togetherness and trust while defining a code for interactions among men’’ (p. 64) that provides a physical, psychological, and social space for men to distance themselves from typical hegemonic behavior (McGuire et al., 2014). Jackson (2012) found that this bond allowed males to share an emotional bond with other members where they
Greek life plays a major role in colleges and universities all across the United States. Greek life allows men and women to join an organization and create a long lasting bond, as brothers or sisters, which they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. College campuses explore and boast about the positive impacts that Greek life has on students as well as the community around them. However, even with fraternities and sororities being on college campuses for decades, few people outside the Greek life community have discovered the real, enduring process that it takes to become a "brother" or "sister". Throughout my research, I will be focusing on the negative effects that fraternities and sororities pose upon pledges. This includes hazing
(1998). Fraternity members' perceptions of how involvement in a fraternity and involvement in student government has influenced their college experiences. 1-17. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED421956.pdf In this study, Byer interviewed four students to learn how their extracurricular activities, namely in fraternities and student government, shaped their time in college.
Long, L. D., & Snowden, A. (2011). The more you put into it, the more you get out of it: the educational gains of fraternity/sorority officers. Oracle: The Research Journal of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, 6(2), 1–14.
Fraternities and sororities have become a sizably voluminous part of the college life over the years. Here at Bloomsburg we have fourteen fraternities and thirteen sororities. This semester I had the gratification of joining the International fraternity Zeta Psi. Though I have been very incipient in my life, it has become an astronomically immense part of my life here at Bloomsburg. Zeta Psi is our only international fraternity on campus, which is what made it appeal to me over the other fraternities on campus. Fraternities are a good way for students to get involved on campus and give them something that looks on good there resume when they go out into the world and endeavor to get a job.
Recently, the idea of partaking in a fraternity has become more prevalent. Young adults are captivated with wanting to live the Greek life. The clothes and parties seem to drawn in teens like a magnet. However what these teens do not realize is the terrible things associated with fraternities. Many fraternities have a reputation for turning college students into drunks, treating women vulgarly, enacting violent hazing against other fraternity members and disrupting the true reason why students go to college. For these reasons fraternities should be banned altogether on college campuses.