"Frat brothers ditch drunken student at ER with explanatory Post-it." "Surveillance video released in ASU fraternity party brawl." "ASU's Greek life marred by serious incidents."
These headlines seem to pop up every few weeks as ASU fraternities continue to make the news, even to the point of garnering national attention. We're all aware of ASU's status as a classic party school. However, the violence and negligence of some of these acts has certainly given ASU's Greek life a poor reputation.
Where there were headlines, there also were serious injuries and even death. Most recently, an underage student with a .47 blood alcohol content as and a note explaining he needed help stuck to his chest was abandoned at Tempe St. Luke's Hospital by fraternity brothers. Under even more severe circumstances, Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge Jack Culolias was found drowned in the Salt River in December 2012 after he had been kicked out of a fraternity function at Cadillac Ranch for consuming alcohol underage, among other allegations.
A fraternity is defined as a brotherhood, a camaraderie that seemingly wasn't present in either of the aforementioned unrelated incidents.
Many will point fingers at ASU's removal of Alpha Drive to explain the cause of off-campus fraternity problems, going as far as to say that the University's direct alienation of Greek life has lead to negligence in properly monitoring Greek life.
Tempe city and law enforcement officials are making moves to harness fraternities that now reside in Tempe apartments by imposing various city ordinances as well as using Tempe Police detectives to investigate fraternity-related issues.
Tempe is not equivalent to ASU, and ASU is not equivalent to Tempe. Tempe is a city where Tempe citizens reside, while ASU is a university where its students are often temporarily staying for a couple years before leaving. To be a good college town, Tempe and ASU need to cooperate in an effort to ensure that both students and residents have positive experiences in the area. This relationship can be marred when ASU chapters negatively impact the surrounding city community.
While fraternities seem to be on news media blast, ASU sororities have kept their own struggles relatively private. Rarely do headlines boast of sorority members leaving their fellow sisters behind; even more rarely are there reports of the death of a sorority sister because of an alcohol-related incident.
While surely some sorority members, as well as many students who aren't associated with Greek life, participate in heavy drinking and raucous parties, their media image differs significantly from that of fraternities.
Ultimately, fraternities will need a place to house their members, just as sororities have their designated home at Adelphi Commons.
Regardless of fraternity members' living locations, students will still throw wild parties. People will still get drunk, some of them quite barbarically. However, when fraternity members, who represent a part of ASU culture, are consistently butting heads with life and death scenarios, the community will become less trusting of the University, and the University will become less trusting of Greek life.
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