<p>This type of stories should be mandatory reading for all seniors in high school. College preparation should include the necessary warnings that with freedom from supervision comes greater responsibilities. </p>
<p>The hope remains that by 2030 some might actually addressing the problems at their real roots. It ain’t that hard! </p>
<p>I have to be honest and say I am incredulous after reading that article on the Georgia Tech fraternity. It is infuriating to me that such an organization is permitted to exist with any affiliation to the the university. Where is the outrage???
Frightening to me that these are the sorts of men that we are raising today. </p>
<p>Yes. Our best and our brightest. How incredibly gross those GATech men sound. </p>
<p>I too wish universities would collectively man up and deal with this harshly enough to make it stop. Drinking age debates aside, any university-affiliated organization that serves alcohol should have to hire a licensed bartender to do the serving. Wouldn’t completely cut down on date rape drugs, but would make it harder and would provide some level of supervision for the age of students being served. Until they start policing/enforcing the rules for university-affiliated groups, any so-called attempt to crack down on binge drinking rings hollow – the epicenter is frat parties, they know where they are, and if they’re not policing them <em>every single Thurs/Fri/Sat night</em>, then they’re not serious about dealing with the problem. </p>
<p>Once those lyrics came to light that frat should have been shut down - permanently. That is beyond the pale. And if you click on the lawsuit link there is more. </p>
<p>Do the Universities even realize how this sort of thing damages their reputation? For me, having little familiarity with Georgia Tech, after reading that article that is what I will forever associate with that school. Lyrics containing such violence have an impact.</p>
<p>I have a pretty strong stomach, but those lyrics are repulsive. Where are the parents of the fraternity members? Are they paying the dues? How does this go on once publicized?</p>
<p>@Ixnaybob “How does this go on once publicized?”</p>
<p>Change has come slowly because in the past incidents like this have been viewed as individual events and not as small pieces in a much larger puzzle. Additionally, there has been a “Boys will be boys” attitude about it.</p>
<p>As these events are reported more frequently, people are discovering that this is really a national problem. Things are changing slowly as students and parents demand action, but administrators are slow to act for a variety of reasons. Typically they call for the formation of a committee followed by a few minor changes in policy.</p>
<p>Now a few schools are implementing larger changes as public awareness grows and colleges continue to be on the receiving end of hard questions from students, parents, and alumni.</p>
<p>But @IxnayBob has a point – I’m guessing that a significant % of frat brothers are not 100% paying their own way in school. Rest assured that if my son were a part of a frat for which any such thing were ever publicized, he’d lose some significant portion of our contribution to his housing, etc., if he chose to stay in the frat. Even if he was paying his frat dues, if he was living on my dime for housing and food, there is no way I’d be making it easy for him to afford it by paying other living expenses, even if he wasn’t living in the frat house. If publicity of such incidents resulted in a significant percentage of brothers no longer in the frat because they could no longer afford it because their parents refused to support them being a part of it, they’d either die or the culture would have to change more quickly. </p>
<p>@Much2learn , “Things are changing slowly as students and parents demand action, but administrators are slow to act for a variety of reasons. Typically they call for the formation of a committee followed by a few minor changes in policy.”</p>
<p>Sorry, respectfully, too passive. @ailinsh1 gets it. Everyone with a shred of decency (ie those who “demand action”) should leave the frat, and make it clear what the remaining members are. Some sororities last year insisted that change can best be effected from within; nonsense. My kids have never joined a frat or sorority, but if they had and discovered that they were in a morally objectionable organization, I don’t think I’d have to mention that there is no moral way to remain a member. If it were necessary for me to explain it to them, I’d apologize for so obviously failing them in their upbringing, and pull all funding. </p>
<p>UC Berkeley dis-affiliated the fraternity in the latest death in 2010. Therefore it is not part of IFC. Why parents provide financial support for their sons to join these fraternities is beyond me.</p>
<p>"PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING GROUPS ARE NOT RECOGNIZED BY THE UNIVERSITY AND ARE NOT SUBJECT TO OVERSIGHT BY UNIVERSITY STAFF.</p>
<p>Some of these groups (indicated by **) are known to still undertake recruitment/rush/intake. Students are counseled against joining these groups:"</p>
<p><a href=“http://lead.berkeley.edu/greek/recognized_chapters”>http://lead.berkeley.edu/greek/recognized_chapters</a></p>
<p>Below is the link to the additional lyrics which appear in the middle of the article. Does anyone else question the mental stability of the boy or boys who wrote this stuff?? This is the definition of deviance and should be a red flag. University administrations are certainly aware of how socially dominant frats are on a college campus - especially among freshmen attempting to make friends and establish themselves. So what do you think their responsibility might be once they see this sort of verbiage directed toward close to 50% of their student body? 3 year suspension of the frat doesn’t do it for me. And what does that even mean? Is the house shut down? So now those boys are living in the co-ed dorms? How does this help?</p>
<p>I feel like there should an effort to weed these boys out. Could you imagine if verbiage of that magnitude was directed at a specific cultural or racial group? Those boys would have been expelled the next day. But somehow if it’s against women lets just leave it to them to sue once the damage has actually been done. </p>
<p><a href=“'Rapebait' Frat Encouraged Sexual Violence, Lawsuits Claim | HuffPost College”>'Rapebait' Frat Encouraged Sexual Violence, Lawsuits Claim | HuffPost College;
<p>Re: <a href=“http://lead.berkeley.edu/greek/recognized_chapters”>http://lead.berkeley.edu/greek/recognized_chapters</a></p>
<p>Looks like a lot a fraternities and a few sororities have been derecognized at Berkeley. According to the Daily Californian articles, some of them were given four year derecognition for various violations, then chose not to reapply for recognition.</p>
<p>The campus rules for recognized fraternities and sororities are rather basic, described at <a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/uga/greekguide.pdf”>http://students.berkeley.edu/uga/greekguide.pdf</a> . Not being able or willing to follow even these basic rules does not seem to say much good about the derecognized fraternities and sororities.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, at Dartmouth, the Greek organizations have put forth a significant proposal:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.movingdartmouthforward.com/”>http://www.movingdartmouthforward.com/</a></p>
<p>The Dartmouth proposal is a significant starting point, and maybe can start a nation-wide serious conversation and actual movement. But I still think they treat the supply side of underage drinking too lightly relative to the way it is handled in The Real World.</p>
<p>“Any member caught serving hard alcohol to a minor in a Greek facility will immediately be placed on a two-week social suspension for a first offense, and will be removed from the Greek system for a second offense.” </p>
<p>Sorry, not harsh enough. An adult frat member breaking the law by serving anyone underage should suffer similar consequences that an adult on the “outside” would face for the same offense. NH law says a $2000 and up to a year in jail. So at least impose the fine. Following through on a few of those would make people think twice, maybe … or at least pay for the bartenders they want the college to help subsidize… The whole thing, though, begs the question about who is policing it … what are the chances a brother turns in another brother? That is the ultimate problem … they’re making proposals about changes, but ultimately it they will be “self policing” which hasn’t proven successful in the past, so color me dubious. </p>
<p>It’s not clear to me why they think the college should pay for bouncers and bartenders so their members don’t get women drunk to rape them, and don’t get men so drunk they die. Also there is an awful lot about alcohol, considering that it’s illegal for most of the fraternity brothers and other party guests to drink it.</p>
<p>Moreover, the opening is more than a little disingenuous. “Overwhelmingly, the feedback has been anti-Greek,” yet we are to believe that there is a silent majority that supports the Greeks? Why we ought to believe that is unspecified. It seems more reasonable to me to think that the overwhelming anti-Greek feedback is representative of an overwhelming anti-Greek sentiment.</p>
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<p>So all the beer/wine that minors can swill is ok, huh?..hmmmm</p>
<p>I think the Greeks should have to pay for a campus security presence at these parties. If these are university affiliated organizations, they should not be committing crimes at their functions. They’ve repeatedly shown that their own fraternity organizations are inadequate to self-police so make them pay for outside monitoring. Our high school has security at their dances. It’s not an unprecedented thought. Perhaps that would put an end to the underage drinking and rapes.</p>
<p>A better proposal would be if the fraternities agreed that alcohol (all alcohol, not just “hard” alcohol) be served only by third parties with liquor licenses (fraternities to be responsible for any additional costs). That they do not apears to confirm that an unstated (but obvious) purpose of the fraternities is to facilitate drinking of alcohol, including by underage students.</p>
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<p>Actually, in the case of Dartmouth, about two thirds of eligible (sophomore and higher) students join fraternities and sororities, so it is a reasonable assumption that a majority of students there are pro-fraternity/sorority.</p>
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<p>Greeks have either a penchant for humor or no sense of ridicule! Unjustified measures? Do those people live on the same planet we do? </p>
<p>I agree with most of what people are saying, but I don’t agree with punishing people for entirely private speech that was never heard by people on the outside, no matter how hateful and horrible it is.</p>