<p>Strtrak: Every campus and every greek organization is likely to be different (hence the repeated advice to do upfront research). However, here is a sample of the community relations activity that the greeks are involved in at Cornell:</p>
<p>Community service is a key component to the mission of a Greek-letter organization. Many chapters work on behalf of projects in Ithaca, such as the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen, at the Tompkins County Task Force for Battered Women Shelter, and also support national charities. During Daffodil Days each spring, Greeks sell cut flowers at 50 cents each for their philanthropic cause. Those involved have raised as much as $25,000 in just one long weekend. At the Crayon Carnival, Greeks students create a real-life carnival setting with educational and recreational activities held for children in the entire Greater Ithaca community. And in one single night the Greek Gods Pageant raised $4,500 for the American Cancer Society. In one year, the Cornell Greek system collectively contributed 21,000 hours of service and raised over $135,000.00 for charity. These fundraisers, chapter-wide volunteering days, and community service events are all ways that fraternities and sororities make a difference.</p>
<p>fundingfather - interesting, I am presuming that most are exclusionary but I suspect that some in NE are not. Did you say your son was at MIT? I tuned into this thread because I am from Boston, my son is going south to school - suddenly I am hearing lots of stories about frats at his school and particuilarly in the south that are upsetting. We did ask about frats when we toured but were told they were not a big presence on campus - doesn't seem to be true as I learn more. I suspect that frats in NE and frats in the south are different - from what I have been reading but I could be wrong and of course, that is a huge generalization. I would worry less about him joining a frat at MIT given the changes that have been made there.</p>
<p>Yes, fundingfather, I am aware that not every chapter is the same. I think a lot of it has to do with the culture of my campus: small, very rural, upper middleclass student body with <em>seemingly</em> nothing to do but drink and party. But I stick to my belief that in general, IFC and NPH orgs are based MORE on social activities than community service.</p>
<p>Rileydog: My son is at Cornell, but the greek life is still fairly large there. You have said, "Perhaps it is the reality of these experiences that makes me recognize the need for greater protection and oversight for newly independent young adults - really, some kids just aren't ready to be making some of these decisions and most don't have the experience to predict negative outcomes and make a protective decision." I'm not sure how you are defining "newly independent", but if you mean freshman year, I tend to agree with you. Cornell is like many of the schools that we looked at - they do not go to live at a frat house until at least the second year. This gives all students the opportunity and benefits of living in a dorm environment to be exposed to the full range of students as you espouse. </p>
<p>However, if you define newly independent to mean the full four years, I disagree. Most schools do not even have sufficient on-campus housing for the full four years. Hence the option is move off-campus to an apartment or to a frat/sorority house. If you think being in a frat house is unregulated, apartments can be much worse since there are absolutely no university rules imposed and no chapter rules mandating such things as designated non-drinkers at parties.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What is wrong with focusing on social activities, when community service and academics are still present in the organization? Do you think country clubs are bad too? Those are purely social and rarely focus on anything else.</p></li>
<li><p>To answer the previous post about why fraternities are on campus - they are there because universisites have relied on them to house many students, since there is usually not enough university housing to go around. This is why most colleges only usually guarantee housing for the first and maybe second year.</p></li>
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<p>The things I liked about the frat--better food, better rooms and common areas, daily maid service, great weekend retreats, good for intramural sports, good bunch of guys. That was plenty for an extra few hundred a year.</p>
<p>"Perhaps my reading comprehension isn't up to your standard, but I at least know that a "short amount of time" IS indeterminant. I don't rely on just the posts from this thread. I have looked at the study results ..."</p>
<p>Fundingfather, it is painfully obvious that you have NOT read the report and are simply trying to muddy the waters by playing with semantics. I have to assume that a person of your experience and intelligence should have no problem to understand the definition of "in a row". Would it be that much clearer to spell it out as "one after the other" or "in immediate succession"? From your past postings, I am quite certain that you were among the biggest critics of the attempt by President Clinton to redefine the meaning of "is". Why repeat the circus act? </p>
<p>You are entitled to discount the conclusions of the study, but others won't fail to notice that the report painted a pretty alarming picture. A bleak picture that has further deteriorated since the first publication of the report.</p>
<p>It is hard to become a part of the solution if you fail to see the problems in the first place.</p>
<ol>
<li>What is wrong with focusing on social activities, when community service and academics are still present in the organization? Do you think country clubs are bad too? Those are purely social and rarely focus on anything else.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like I said before, nothing. It's all a matter of personal preference. I just said that personally would rather be a member of an org with a focus on community service. And for me, as a black woman, it is important that an org I join is highly active in the black community. Other people have different needs and perspectives. Different strokes for different folks. </li>
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<p>As for country clubs, no I don't think they are bad... completely off-topic though.</p>
<p>I am a member of a fraternity at Yale... It is a relatively small, but growing fraternity scene here with about 15% of guys joining fraternities (there are a lot fewer sororities, mainly due to history issues). The number of fraternities have increased by 25% over the past four years.</p>
<p>There are many benefits of fraternity life... I can answer any and all questions about how fraternity life can interact with high level academics, extracurricular activities, athletics, etc. found at schools like Yale.</p>
<p>wow, i can't believe it.. i have just read all 18 pages of this thread.
i don't know if any of you have read the book "Pledged: The Secret life of Sororities" but i found it to be very interesting. Of coarse, like the rest of the media it was pretty much pointing out all the negative sides of being greek. I had never considered joining a sorority before and was completely appaled by their eating disorders, wanting to fit in, racism, etc...</p>
<p>however, i am not one to just eat up a one sided book, i have to have the overall picture.. and that is how i make my decisions. not just in joining a sorority, but in life. anyways.. i found out all i could about sororities, i researched them, actively posted questions and concerns on <a href="http://www.greekchat.com%5B/url%5D">www.greekchat.com</a>, called the panhellenic advisor at potential schools, looked at their websites. i found out what many of you have already posted: 1. community service, 2. leadership, 3. "small business," 4. life long friends, 5. connections. i thought all these were sufficient reasons to be interested in a sorority.</p>
<p>and i know you can all sit there and say "well, i can do community service on my own time, i can be a leader of another club, i can start my own business, i have many friends, and i can make connections through work: i don't need to be greek to do that." but the reality is... do you really have all that time to be involved in all those different organizations? if you do, hooray for you. but what i found so great about greek life was that it's a lot of time consuming things all built into one package... all while doing it with your friends. wouldn't you rather be with 30 friends doing a community service activity than volunteering on your own? i know i would, it would be for a good cause all while having a good time. </p>
<p>i'm almost sure i'm going to attend Florida State University and i plan to go through rush. many of the reasons are what i stated above but also because i'm not going to know one person out of 35,000 students which can be pretty daunting. anyways.. i'm pretty excited about it, and i can't wait! :)</p>
<p>By the way, I know people who:
-Were in fraternities
-Drank all four years of college (sometimes heavily)
-Did well in school GPA wide
-Applied to and went to top law, medical, and grad schools
-Applied to and got top banking/consulting/political/teaching/whatever jobs</p>
<p>I also know a few who didn't do "as well" in securing post-grad opportunities in fraternities, and I knew both sets (people who did well in school and people who didn't) outside of fraternities.</p>
<p>There is a lot to value in the fraternity experience.</p>
<p>I don't want to hate on Greek Life a lot, but there are some things that can be discussed. As with all media, unfortunately, only the negative things are shown about events and such. Even though there are a lot of things going wrong in Iraq right now, and even though I didn't think we should have gone to war (I fully support our troops however - my cousin is a marine over there), you only hear negative things going on over there. You never hear about schools that are opening and such. Basically my point is that the common person only hears negative things about fraternaties and such is because those are the stories that draw ratings. Yes, I obviously know that there are a good amount of negligent frats out there and their behavior is plain stupid, but there are ones out there that do good things. Personally, it's not for me, but I'm not gonna refuse contact toward someone just because he/she participates in Greek life.</p>
<p>Crypto, you are exactly right. You cannot base your view on frats simply by what you hear on the news or in the movies (Animal House, Old School...). Think about it, why would anything good about frats be reported? No one would want to hear about the good things because they are not interesting. It is wrong to say that all frats are bad because they encourage drinking, which isn't even true because there are many frats that, while they do drink, do not "force" their members to drink. You cannot make assumptions until you know both sides of a story. People act like boys in frats are drunk failures who care nothing about their studies. This is an absurd and baseless view because my doctor was in a frat and he is very proud of it and is he a drunk failure? NO.</p>
<p>OK, so I think we can end this conversation by agreeing:</p>
<p>1) Some frats and sororities have problems.
2) Some frats and sororities don't.
3) It is up to the individual to do research and find out the difference
4) It is just as OK to join a Greek society as it is not to join one - in fact, students can have wonderful college experiences either way.</p>
<p>I think continuing to argue about this is not going to get us anywhere.</p>