Another case of a Frat behaving badly

<p>This site is so anti greek. It’s never mentioned when money is raised for charity or that greeks generally have a better than average GPA. But when something bad happens it’s always posted. </p>

<p>Also, that “fraternity members are 300% more likely to rape” statistic is ridiculous. Those statistics were taken from an anonymous survey at one college. Hardly a diverse sample size. </p>

<p>If you are going to mention the negatives, please also mention the positives. A fraternity provides a great social circle, academic support, and real world experience along with raising tons of money for charity. It’s hard to find a person who regrets joining greek life. </p>

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<p>The article is titled “Frat brothers rape 300% more.” But you are saying that the study that both the article and your entire premise for wiping out fraternities is based upon, doesn’t address actual rapes, it asks freshmen men at one college to self-report whether they had committed a “sexually coercive act?” Is that right?</p>

<p>@TransferGopher‌ “Those statistics were taken from an anonymous survey at one college”</p>

<p>I read that there are three studies that support that approximate level. I am not suggesting that it is overly precise, but there seems to be a fair amount of data suggesting that the number is significant.</p>

<p>@transfergopher “If you are going to mention the negatives, please also mention the positives”</p>

<p>I hear what you are saying and I do recognize that they do some good things, but it just does not work that way. When you watch the news, you don’t hear that someone is a rapist or murderer or any other inappropriate behavior, but to be fair, they do volunteer at church.</p>

<p>@Bay “The article is titled “Frat brothers rape 300% more.” But you are saying that the study that both the article and your entire premise for wiping out fraternities is based upon, doesn’t address actual rapes, it asks freshmen men at one college to self-report whether they had committed a “sexually coercive act?” Is that right?”</p>

<p>Well, sort of. Again, if you read the study, sexual coercion is a gray area where the respondents answers are do not quite indicate rape and but are stronger than answers for attempted rape. It does not include unwanted sexual contact. </p>

<p>My understanding is that it means that they at least tried to rape, but whether they were successful may depend on the precise definition. Perhaps the title should be “Frat brothers attempt to rape 300% more but achieve ambiguous success in their attempts, depending on your definition”, but that would be an awful title. </p>

<p>Yes it would be an awful title. The odd thing about it too is, doesn’t the definition of sexual assault and rape 100% depend upon the victim’s state of mind? Why is it relevant that a college man thinks he committed a sexually coercive act? </p>

<p>@bay “your entire premise”</p>

<p>It has never been my premise that fraternities should be wiped out. I do not think you are reading the thread. All I am staying that the bad behavior needs to change. I think that Greek organizations may well be are capable of adapting to this new environment, but that remains to be seen. </p>

<p>Furthermore, there is a lot more evidence that this is a problem. There are numerous other studies on this issue. Additionally, there are the frequent headlines about rapes or deaths at fraternities. </p>

<p>Is it your opinion that the behavior of fraternities is not an issue on college campuses?</p>

<p>@bay " Why is it relevant that a college man thinks he committed a sexually coercive act?"</p>

<p>Well, that is a good question. The reason is that the primary focus of this study is to assess the efficacy of a particular education program in bringing down these rates. To assess that, the researchers are comparing assessments of men who received the training to those who did not to see whether it is having an impact.</p>

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<p>I think the behavior of some members of some fraternities on some colleges campuses cause an issue some of the time. But I haven’t seen anything convincing me that all fraternities on all campuses are causing issues. Not at all.</p>

<p>@bay I am not suggesting that “…all fraternities on all campuses are causing issues.” I am suggesting that in aggregate there are issues with their behavior and the frequency of it, and that those issues are making college campuses less safe for everyone in general and women in particular. </p>

<p>Many colleges are currently under federal investigation for failing to act in response to this type of behavior. Slowly things are changing, but many people seem to have the attitude that it is just kids having fun. In my opinion when there are rapes and deaths involved, it is no longer just kids having fun.</p>

<p>I don’t know anyone who thinks rapes and deaths are fun. Absolutely no one.</p>

<p>Just to go on record here–the the cause of death was not released, the death of the student in the UA fraternity house is a suicide.
<a href=“Fraternity brothers of UA student found dead raise more than $8,000 for suicide prevention campaign - al.com”>Fraternity brothers of UA student found dead raise more than $8,000 for suicide prevention campaign - al.com;

<p>Tragic. I hope everyone who assumed this death was due to “fraternities behaving badly” will check their biases. These young men lost a friend and their grief is palpable from their actions. </p>

<p>Repeated point above.</p>

<p>I’m waiting for an acknowledgement from the OP…</p>

<p>@Consolidation “I’m waiting for an acknowledgement from the OP…”</p>

<p>It is possible that this death was a suicide. However, I have not seen any statement to that effect other than comments posted above. Did I miss it? Why does everyone think it was a suicide? The article above says that the decedents fraternity brothers are raising money for suicide prevention, but says nothing about the students cause of death. All I have seen was that the cause of death was not released.</p>

<p>I have no problem acknowledging that some incidents may be suicide. However, that will not even begin to explain the number of rapes, deaths and various and sundry bad behaviors that continue to be associated with fraternities. I still do not understand why so many people seem to defend the actions of fraternities when it is clear that, in aggregate, their behaviors need to change for the safety of everyone including themselves.</p>

<p>Here is another article from this weekend about the bad behavior of fraternities. </p>

<p><a href=“College fraternities under fire for hazing, offensive behavior - Washington Times”>College fraternities under fire for hazing, offensive behavior - Washington Times;

<p>Much2learn, what you should acknowledge is that it’s impolite to post an example of a dead college student as proof of fraternity misbehavior when the cause of death hasn’t been revealed. What you did was to tar this fraternity (and the student who died) with an insinuation that is probably not true at all.</p>

<p>@‌ Hunt I agree that it would have been better to wait to post it until the cause of dead was announced. You are right. about that, and I do feel sorry for this young man. </p>