<p>What are they like? Are they generally looked down upon? Is it hard for an Asian to join a regular traditional frat/sorority? What are some Asian frats/sororities in Cornell?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Why would they be looked down upon…?</p>
<p>There are a lot of Asians in each house. My daughter’s sorority has good number of Asians.</p>
<p>I personally do not understand why Asians want to join Asian frat/sorority. Why should race come into play when making friends? That’s what it is all about when joining a fraternity or sorority. They should be people you would want to hang out with even without a Greek life.</p>
<p>College is time to step out one’s comfort zone. If you came from Flushing or Chinatown, try to get to know some people from CT or CA. If you came from a wealthy family from HKG or Singapore, try to make friends with some commoners.</p>
<p>If your parents expect you to study 24-7 and get straight As, I would encourage you to party a bit, date some people outside of your race, tell your parents you are at the library when you experiencing some college ECs.</p>
<p>Asian Parent</p>
<p>If you want to identify with your culture, there are always clubs for that. There’s a very big Asian Society club (the exact name escapes me) for you to reconnect with your heritage and other students with similar backgrounds.</p>
<p>I would think that an Asian frat would just be like any other frat. There wouldn’t be any focus on Asian culture, as a frat focuses on Greek life. Of course, I am an incoming student too, so don’t take my word for it.</p>
<p>I agree with oldfort in that i never really understood why some people try to cling to those who are familiar to them instead of trying to broaden their horizons when an opportunity like college presents itself. </p>
<p>Anyway, I can’t say I know exactly what they are like, they seem to function similarly to a regular fraternity or sorority. The only thing I really do know is that they haze HARD because there isn’t really an authority to answer to. I’m not sure exactly how it works but rules don’t seem to be enforced for them, they must not have a Nationals or something. I know a couple of people who joined asian houses and their hazing was much much more intense, particularly for the girls since regular frats here haze too but regular sororities don’t.<br>
They aren’t looked down upon…they just don’t tend to associate with anyone but themselves
I don’t think it’s hard at all for an Asian to join a regular frat/sorority as long as they fit in with their personality. I’ve never heard of any sort of discrimination like that.<br>
I know there’s two asian frats and two sororities, but I don’t know their names. You could probably google it.</p>
<p>Added note: I heard they haze really hard. (because they’re not in the official Cornell greek system)</p>
<p>I actually asked a couple of my Asian friends on why they want to join Asian frat/Asian interest clubs. Here’s my observation:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>traditionally, the Greek system is a white thing. The reason why Asian frats/sororities were created in the first place was because Asians felt that they did not belong in traditional houses. </p></li>
<li><p>I have noticed that (I, I HAVE NOTICED, NOT TRYING TO BE RACIST/STEREOTYPICAL HERE) that Cornell Asians tend to party less than whites. Hence a lot of them feel they dont fit in the more “wild” parties held by the white frats/sororities</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Ya, those are MY (MY) observations. Feel free to disagree with me and post your opinions.</p>
<p>Hrmm… No 420 Asians? D:</p>
<p>Well… There’ll be at least one 420 Asian next year.</p>
<p><em>High fives Nerdlings</em>
Two?</p>
<p>Having gone to Cornell and having knowledge of both Asian and traditional Greek systems, I can comment on a few things:</p>
<ol>
<li>Organizational Differences - Traditional fraternities at Cornell have large houses, with often 100+ members at any given time. Minority fraternities, Asian included, are much smaller, usually 5-25 members. That makes a difference in terms of the bonds with your brothers/sisters. Oftentimes members of traditional fraternities will have a small group of people they’re close with but barely know many of the other members. Conversely, Asian organizations are smaller so the entire group is closely knit. At the same time, Asian fraternities usually ask more of its members in terms of organizational responsibilities and leadership roles. I believe the social experience in the traditional Greek system is broader given the size of the organizations, but that absolutely does not mean members of Asian organizations cannot attend traditional Greek events and vice versa. Depending on what a person is looking for in his/her Greek life, one system will work better than the other.</li>
</ol>
<p>National/University Recognition - I don’t know about the technicalities of national recognition, but Cornell’s rules for Greek organizations apply to absolutely everyone. The Asian fraternities and sororities are governed by the Multicultural Greek Letter Council (MGLC) while the traditional Greek organizations are in the Inter-Fraternal Council (IFC) and Panhelic Council (not sure about spelling there). Fraternities and sororities must be recognized by the school to hold events and therefore must also follow the same rules.</p>
<p>I think at the end of the day, a person considering the Greek system at Cornell should look for people who he/she will be comfortable around and be able to build strong friendships with. That’s possible within any organization, and while broadening horizons is something to consider, the bottom line should be who you’re going to best share your experiences with during college, and hopefully for many years after.</p>
<p>As a current member of an Asian interest fraternity at Cornell I can tell you the following:</p>
<p>1.) The fraternity is smaller, yes, but also extremely close knit. This doesn’t mean that we are an exclusive bunch (it runs contrary, many members are in various leadership positions across campus in a variety of social clubs and activities). </p>
<p>2.) The “non-party” stigma is false. Greek life in general is extremely lively, and Asian interest greek organizations are no exception. </p>
<p>3.) It doesn’t limit your options to Asians only or anything like that. It is ‘Asian interest:’ as in we promote Asian culture. We are close with the other MGLC organizations (latino and african american interest greek organizations) and are active on campus in a myriad of different ways. That’s the key difference between a cultural greek organization and an IFC. Multicultural has the promotion and education of its culture as a core concept. All other ‘greek’ characteristics (partying, brotherhood/sisterhood, getting to know a variety of different people) are all shared.</p>
<p>But by all means keep an open mind! Go experience a bunch of different greek organizations. Honestly it boils down to who you feel most comfortable with; this could be IFC (the diversity in IFC is immense as wwell) or in MGLC or non-greek.</p>
<p>I would also like to say a few things:</p>
<p>many members of multi cultural frats/sororities claim that they do not haze, and use phrases like “our national organization prohibits hazing” and stuff like that. Its a bunch of BS. I have a few friends who “pledged” (they have a different name for it but I forgot what it is) different MGLC orgs and both of them had very poor experiences. In one case, my friends entire pledge class dropped. Now, this is not to say that all MGLC organizations haze, but PLEASE, know what you are getting into before hand. </p>
<p>Also, because they are smaller, and the communities they exist within are smaller, it is much easier to keep secrets (like hazing) and not get caught.</p>
<p>MGLC organizations do have to answer to Cornell - check Cornell’s hazing website for a list of violations and you’ll see records of past hazing incidents and the consequences sororities and fraternities had to go through (Also note that although you can only see back to Spring 2007 from the website, you can change the URL to see all the way back to Fall 2004). Recommended reading! Good for some laughs, or at least eyebrow raising…However, I do believe that Tboonepickens is right that smaller organizations means it’s easier to keep secrets. </p>
<p>Another organizational difference is that some of the MGLC organizations don’t have houses, especially the sororities. I think sisters end up living together in apartments in Collegetown anyway, but that’s something to note. You can see all the organizations on Cornell’s MGLC website, but the Asian ones are:</p>
<p>Lambda Phi Epsilon (LPhiE/Lambdas) - Spring 2006
Pi Delta Psi (PDPsi/Pis) - Spring 2009/2010
alpha Kappa Delta Phi (aKDPhi) - Fall 2007
Kappa Phi Lambda (KPL/Kappas) - Spring 2008</p>
<p>The dates are the dates of hazing incidents from the Cornell website. Regarding hazing, in the end you have to decide for yourself whether going through things like this aligns with your values and principles, and go in with your eyes wide open. I’d like to think that hazing “done right” is just “boys will be boys” stuff or rites of passage, but also always remember that your education comes first. There are ways of being tough without being stupid. Google “Asian American Fraternity NPR” for an absolutely heartbreaking story about a guy who died pledging Lambdas. Cornell was also not free of tragedy this semester with regards to Greek organizations (SAE)…</p>
<p>Of course, things can change. I know as of the 2009-2010 academic year, they haven’t really, but I’m pretty sure all of the Asian frats/sororities really need to bump up recruiting - KPL crossed 1 new sister in the last three semesters, Lambdas only crossed 1 guy this semester, and I’m not really sure about the others…I’m not in any Greek org though so I won’t presume to guess what they’re all thinking about that situation. In any case, I still wouldn’t expect any pledging process for an Asian frat/sorority to be anything less than “intense”. Really though, IFC frats are not usually easy to pledge either (Panhellenic sororities are another story).</p>
<p>On a lighter note, rush is pretty fun, so go if you’re still interested even after reading this post. :)</p>
<p>the lambda’s haven’t crossed anyone over in a while because their entire last two pledge classes dropped (due to hazing that hasn’t been uncovered). If you want the real cheese on hazing, the hazing.cornell.edu website is crap… There are TONS of unreported hazing incidents, mostly because people don’t give a crap and cornell takes it too seriously.</p>
<p>tboone, i don’t know where you get your facts from, but you should get them checked before pretending to know what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>maybe “your friend’s” bad experience has you a little bit biased against the greek system.</p>
<p>@chucknorris23</p>
<p>I’m in a frat on campus, and I guarantee you I know more about what goes on in the system than you do. If you want to question my claims, please point out specifics instead of questioning my credibility. </p>
<p>If you look at my post carefully, I stated </p>
<p>“Now, this is not to say that all MGLC organizations haze, but PLEASE, know what you are getting into before hand.”</p>
<p>MGCL orgs ON AVERAGE haze harder than IFC/Panhel orgs, that is a fact that I will stand by. That does not mean that all organizations haze though.</p>
<p>“Traditional fraternities at Cornell have large houses, with often 100+ members at any given time. Minority fraternities, Asian included, are much smaller, usually 5-25 members.”</p>
<p>Are you serious? Do you know how ridiculous you sound?</p>
<p>Everything tboone said is true.</p>