<p>An eating club sounds more blue blood, refined and elite, whereas a fraternity connotes Animal House. HTH!</p>
<p>Because frats are considered a bastion of white males and they are OK to treat anyway you want without repercussions.</p>
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<p>An exclusive eating club requires you to “bicker.” Very few people even know what that word means, let alone know how to do it, so as PizzaGirl says, eating clubs are much more sophisticated and refined and comport with Princeton’s “mission.” If you don’t like to bicker, then don’t bother to apply!</p>
<p>You aren’t going to find me defending them. Have at it! ;)</p>
<p>Gag, they must not have much faith in their admits! Too bad they show their students such a lack of respect. If their students aren’t smart enough to join the “right” social groups, why did they admit them in the first place? Princeton students be warned; your university thinks you are bad decision makers!</p>
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<p>Wow, that’s a recent policy. </p>
<p>My undergrad alma mater has banned fraternities/sororities and student memberships since the 1870’s. Moreover…the penalties on the book do include automatic expulsion for the first offense. </p>
<p>Not sure if they’re actually that severe in practice…but that has been one major factor in why those inclined towards joining such organizations tend to avoid my LAC like the plague.</p>
<p>The difference is my alma mater had fraternities for about 100 years, and was the founding chapter for several of them. They abolished them anyway. Every frat house sold their property to the college. Alumni contributions soared. So there!</p>
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<p>Although my college was barely 40 years old at the time the ban was instituted in the 1870’s, the reasons for the ban was a mixture of rowdy out-of-control behavior by their members, their elitist attitudes towards non-members, and how the former two was undermining the very campus community the college administration has been trying to build up to then.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t surprise me if there was a religious dimension to this considering Oberlin was quite religious and sent out missionaries as late as the early 20th century.</p>
<p>Reasons the same. And they were right.</p>
<p>Colleges that offer something for everyone are preferable, imo. My kids were not interested in colleges with no Greek system. Nearly all of the top colleges offer them in some form.</p>
<p>Re: [Princeton</a> U upholds promise to protect underclassman from exposure to alcohol | NJ.com](<a href=“http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2012/05/princeton_u_follows_through_on.html]Princeton”>Princeton U upholds promise to protect underclassman from exposure to alcohol - nj.com)</p>
<p>The article says that, despite official unfriendliness to fraternities and sororities, about 15% of Princeton students join them anyway.</p>
<p>In contrast, Berkeley, which has a long history of fraternity and sorority presence and official recognition and regulation, has only about 10% of its undergraduate students joining them.</p>
<p><a href=“http://campuslife.berkeley.edu/greek/reports[/url]”>http://campuslife.berkeley.edu/greek/reports</a></p>
<p>^I’ve always thought of Berkeley’s Greek life as “best all around.”</p>
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<p>I wonder how much of that is due to the very different campus cultures…especially during the counter-cultural era of the '60s and afterwards. </p>
<p>Berkeley has been known as a center of the counter-cultural movement and a haven for progressive radical-left hippie/anti-establishment oriented students. The very types of students who tended to reject fraternities/sororities as part of the discredited establishment they were vehemently against. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Princeton has continued to be perceived as a bastion of establishment elitism and conservatism as shown by continued strong resistance to admission/acceptance of racial minorities/women by conservative-oriented alumni groups like “Concerned Alumni of Princeton University” and the social exclusivity of their eating clubs. While much has changed within the last decade…that reputation was still quite prevalent in the '90s when my HS classmates and I were applying to colleges.</p>
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<p>I am sure human rights violations are something North Korea considered carefully, and based on their experience, came to the conclusion that they are acceptable. They know their own country’s culture better than every other country does, so we ought to defer to their judgement.</p>
<p>Oh, I think next we get Godwin’s Law.</p>
<p>Poor little adult baby freshean get sent to the Gulag if they go near a frat house.</p>
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<p>However, that was 45 years ago. Berkeley today is not even given a red light by the conservative-aligned [url=<a href=“http://www.collegeguide.org/itemdetail.aspx?item=db048245-5019-431c-b356-981e52a39753]collegeguide.org[/url”>http://www.collegeguide.org/itemdetail.aspx?item=db048245-5019-431c-b356-981e52a39753]collegeguide.org[/url</a>].</p>
<p>It’s harder to control a club, but the university typically have some say in how the undergrads are housed. If a building occupies a physical space on campus, the university has some say in what it’s purpose is. </p>
<p>But the bottom line is if they don’t want it on campus, then they can get rid of it. Most would say that frats are anti-intellectual, so it’s obvious why that would conflict with the mission of a university/college.</p>
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<p>I still strenuously disagree with the “no one has any business having an opinion” sentiment and by posting in the thread it seems like you do too.</p>
<p>If she doesn’t want to have an opinion, that’s her business, until Godwin get her.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Princeton will waterboard the poor freshies on their first foray to DKE.</p>
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<p>Yes, but it will be with tubfuls of Johnny Walker Blue, Grey Poupon, and some live exotic crustaceans. :D</p>