I have been a member of the Greek life community for the last semester, and have noticed some areas where fraternities and sororities can fail— and sometimes fail miserably. Of course, I have seen areas where Greek life can be good, which is why I am still a member of a fraternity.
I also recently spent a weekend at Notre Dame, where I was lucky enough to stay in Duncan Hall. There is no Greek life there; rather the predominant social structure is the dorm system, in which students form social groups out of the people in their buildings. My trip showed me the social impact that Greek life makes on a community, and the ways in which it can be helpful or harmful.
Setting aside the admirable charity work and donations brought in by Greek life nationally, I am writing to consider the social structures within and outside of Greek life.
My first concern is that, while fraternity and sorority social life is marketed as a method for diversifying and meeting many life-long friends, Greek life often creates dangerously exclusive social circles. I noticed that I prefer the Notre Dame social life in the cafeteria, where hundreds of students know each other and sit among different groups every day, as opposed to some fraternity groups here who manage to claim a table and sit together in one sense, alone in another, every day. This may not be inherently bad, but it discourages fraternity members from branching out beyond their structured friend group, and it discourages non-Greek life students from meeting those involved with Greek life.
Of course, ASU has ten times more students than Notre Dame does, and the University cannot hope to bridge social gaps with a large dormitory structure. Greek life at ASU can play a useful role in bringing people together, but it can easily turn into a mechanism for dividing social groups rather than uniting them. Furthermore, there is inherent competition between fraternities and sororities, which can be healthy, but it carries a risk of becoming divisive.
Whether or not you agree that Greek life holds various pitfalls, students have shown a changing mentality. According to this study, you can see that interest among freshmen in joining a fraternity or sorority has declined over the last two decades. The following graph shows the percentages of college freshmen planning to join the Greek community in 1993 and 2003.
That decline could be for any number of reasons, but personally I did not plan on joining a fraternity precisely for the social reasons I mentioned above. Ultimately, I believe I found the right fraternity, one that doesn't engage in social elitism, and so I joined. A group that comes together to help integrate freshmen into the larger ASU community, and to give them a foundation of friends, but when that morphs into a small enclave of comrades who compete against all the other small enclaves, freshmen risk joining a group that will limit the social connections they'll make.
The stereotypical "frat guy guarding the door to a party" is, unfortunately, not rare or farfetched, and he may personify the risk I am articulating. If Greek life as a whole becomes a conglomerate that shuts its door on people as opposed to one that ushers them in, it ceases to provide social benefits.
Luckily, Greek life at ASU has not become entirely unwelcoming, but I worry that it could trend in that direction. I hope it will not, and my own chapter and I will do all we can to prevent such a degradation. I also believe that varying other issues with Greek life, such as hazing, irresponsible partying, sexual misconduct and the rest, may in part stem from the important distinction: inclusive versus exclusive, social versus antisocial, caring versus elitist.
It comes down to a certain mentality, and the more perverse it becomes, the more likely it is that fraternities and sororities get into trouble. I hope to see them continue working to be helpful, constructive sections of the larger ASU community, but fraternities and sororities should be very careful about keeping admissions and pledging processes clean and inclusive. Above all, they should work to give off an air of friendliness as opposed to one of exclusivity.
Related links:
Fraternities, sororities adapt to changing Greek life climate
Reach the columnist at gheiler@asu.edu or follow @heilergeorge on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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