Lehigh is an acknowledged Fraternity driven campus with a huge hazing problem and rampant drug and alcohol abuse. What is not as well known is how bad things have gotten in the sororities. Recently Alpha Chi Omega was kicked off campus for a couple years for what the school’s administration referred to as “reprehensible” behavior during a “road rally” The behaviors included pressure on recruits to openly engage in narcotic use and sexual activity, often with multiple partners, in public and on campus property. Of course the administration was well aware of all of these Greek Culture problems for years and was only forced to act when documentation fell into their laps. Isn’t it time this school finally does something to create a safe environment for its students and to save its reputation? Isn’t time to finally get rid of fraternities and sororities at Lehigh?
I think every comment you have is trashing Lehigh one way or another.
A number of northeastern liberal arts colleges have gone that route, and have generally been satisfied with the results. And the President of Lehigh must be well aware of this fact, because he personally attended Williams shortly after they became one of the first LACs to strictly ban Greek organizations.
However, there is a big difference between a school like Lehigh and a school like Williams. Williams is a small school in a small town, and in that situation it’s expected that the college will provide housing for all students. Lehigh, on the other hand, is a much larger school in a good-sized city. Like most universities, Lehigh has never provided college housing for everybody. Why spend a lot money to build dorms for thousands of students, when the school is surrounded by block after block of row houses with low rents?
When students live in college-owned facilities (as at Williams or most other LACs), it gives the college a lot of control over student affairs. The college can impose any rules they like, and Security can walk into any room of any building at any time to enforce those rules. If Security suspects, for example, an unauthorized keg party in a college-owned building, they can check it out and break it up.
When thousands of students live off-campus (as at Lehigh or most other universities), it’s a different matter entirely. Suppose a student of legal drinking age is spotted carrying a keg into a private off-campus house that he legally rents. OK, so what? It’s perfectly legal for an adult to have a keg of beer in a private home, right? There is nothing that either College Security or the City Police Department can do about it.
What’s the point of banning frats or sororities, if students can evade college rules on social behavior by simply moving across the street? A ban would just push students off-campus, where the school has less control. That’s why few, if any, universities have followed the LACs in this respect.
What is frustrating is that the academics at Lehigh are solid and the Engineering School is first rate but the Greek System is a worsening malignancy. Your response is thoughtful and yes, I agree that simply pushing the problem “off campus” into drug and gang infested South Bethlehem is not the answer. The answer is to ban the fraternities, improve on campus housing options and to require students to live in them.
My impression is that problems with Greek systems have become worse nationwide, for whatever reason. Just in PA, the recent drinking-related fatalities at Penn State and Lafayette got a lot of coverage. Do you really think that Lehigh is different from other small universities in the northeast, like Dartmouth or Bucknell?
Well, Lehigh already requires freshman and sophomores to live in campus housing, and they have just broken ground on a large new dorm. But that dorm has probably been in the planning stages for years. It would take decades them to provide campus housing for everybody.
My preferred answer would be to lower the legal drinking age, at least in designated areas on campus. When I was an undergraduate (which was not recently), my college operated its own pub. Students of any age (but not outsiders) could freely go there to socialize with drinks and learn about the effects of alcohol in a well-lit, public, monitored environment, then stagger back to their dorm rooms (without driving).
In other words, there is going to be underage drinking regardless, so let’s allow it to happen in a safe, aboveground manner, instead of driving it underground into fraternity basements. Unfortunately, this would be totally illegal under current laws. So my answer is as impractical as yours.
South Bethlehem is your idea of “drug and gang infested”? Good thing you don’t go to a school in a place like Baltimore (Johns Hopkins), New Haven (Yale), Chicago (U of C), or South Central LA (USC).
South Bethlehem has long been identified as a stopping point for significant shipments of illegal drugs by the federal government.
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Link to federal government website?
The Federal DEA has 222 offices nationwide. In PA, this includes larger offices in Philly and Pittsburgh, and smaller “resident” offices in Harrisburg, Scranton, and Allentown. They don’t bother with South Bethlehem. Granted, the Allentown office isn’t far away, but it doesn’t seem too surprising that there would be an office somewhere in the Lehigh Valley, given that it is the third largest metro area in the state.
https://www.dea.gov/divisions/phi/phi-map.jpg
"gangs have been an issue in the Lehigh Valley for years-Northampton DA John Morganelli
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-allentown-bethlehem-shootings-20160201-story.html
http://www.wfmz.com/news/lehigh-valley/2-men-facing-charges-in-bethlehem-gang-related-murder/712257857
Not sure. It might have been Eastern Pennsylvania Drug and Gang assessment 2011 report.
It was considered a stopping point for drug smugglers in 2007 and subsequent years.
It seems Lehigh has banned or suspended quite a few Greek organizations recently. But still the incidents persist. It’s hard to change a student culture like that
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/03/sorority_kicked_off_university.html
These comments mostly miss the point. The Lehigh student body is no more dissolute than those of its peers. The difference at Lehigh is a toxic administration hell bent on inexorably destroying the Greek system and any aspect of school social life that involves alcohol. This may work well at Bob Jones University, but at Lehigh it is a train wreck.
More power to them. The “Greek” system is a blight on American college campuses, no matter how many good works they do. Schools like Lehigh, Bucknell, Union, Penn State, Colgate, etc. lose serious students because of their heavy “Greek” culture.
Read this from The Brown and White. Pay particular attention to the 71 comments. The “culture” revealed.
http://thebrownandwhite.com/2018/02/18/edit-desk-inequity-in-greek-life-madison-schmitt/
@foreal : curious, are you a current Lehigh undergrad?
I think the Lehigh administration is bent on improving the school. Greek Life seems to be hell-bent on testing every limit and destroying itself at Lehigh. It has been doing a good job. Frat pledge numbers are way down this year and sororities are down some.
The Greeks keep messing up and blaming the administration. They need to start taking responsibility.
I have one son who is in a fraternity (not at Lehigh) and another son who is a current applicant to Lehigh, so I am sympathetic to the benefits of Greek Life when it is run well. However, I don’t think using future foreign competition as tryingtofigureitout did is a good argument for allowing hazing and poor behavior. Students from other countries (particularly Asian) flourish because they study hard, have very involved parents, and strong social structures. Not because they are partying and hazing one another.
Students who want to be future leaders should not be supportive of activities that include having sex with Uber drivers, which I read the Lehigh sorority members had as one task on their infamous list. A mentally tough kid (Alpha), in my opinion, says no to dumb, risky behavior and focuses on succeeding in their studies. They also don’t refer to fellow classmates as “skanks”. Instead, they work to improve their community.
The administration at my older son’s university works closely with the Greek community, so I know that an appropriate balance can be achieved. However, if my younger son does get into Lehigh, I would probably discourage him from Greek Life. He wants to go there for engineering and Greek Life there sounds far too distracting.
One more point regarding building our future leaders - any evidence of risky Greek behavior (lists, photos, lawsuits) can be used against individuals in later years.
The schools have more control over the Greek system if they welcome them on campus as student groups. Many schools assign dorm wings to certain houses, and thus the dorm rules of no drugs and alcohol apply.
U of Colorado fraternities are not recognized as student organizations. Rush is done off campus. The school imposed a lot of conditions for the fraternities to return as a student group and the frats said no, they’d prefer to operate outside the school’s requirement. It’s worked just fine for 15+ years and the school has absolutely no control over them.
Harvard doesn’t allow single sex organization. There are sororities (and I believe fraternities) off campus, but as of this year no student who joins will receive Harvard’s help with scholarships and grant applications, applications for professional schools, cannot be captains of sports teams or in leadership of any Harvard student club. I think it is ridiculous that an adult Harvard felt worthy of admission cannot be trusted to make a decision to join an outside organization. These same students can join the KKK or NRA or now that the Boy Scouts are co-ed, the BSA, but not a sorority which may give them scholarship opportunities and leadership roles and civic opportunities. We wouldn’t want women exposed to those bad influences, or even give them the opportunity to decide for themselves who they want to associate with.
Greek life at MIT, Yale, Tufts, Northwestern is growing. I guess women at those schools are better at self regulating.
LOL! …
… (Left speechless )
@foreal “The answer is to ban the fraternities, improve on campus housing options and to require students to live in them.”
I don’t think Lehigh is ready to ban fraternities. However, they are requiring them to adapt to follow the rules or be shut down. The frats control the decision, but so far they seem to be deciding they would rather be shut down.
Lehigh is also increasing the amount of housing on campus.
I think I see where this is headed.