<p>I think people are equating alcohol with fraternities too much.</p>
<p>Blasphemy!</p>
<p>Like equating steroids to baseball.</p>
<p>I think the amount of alcohol in frats and sororities is dependent on how much alcohol is at the school. Some smaller schools’ Greek scenes don’t have that much alcohol, big schools’ Greek scenes are totally saturated, but so is the school, you know? I mean yes there is more alcohol in the Greek system than in the general population of the school, but in a general sense I think it’s a reflection of the campus culture.</p>
<p>Frats have been a source of partying, binge drinking, rampant sex, accidental deaths, and rape. Is brotherhood really worth these costs?</p>
<p>You guys realize that it would be impossible and unlawful for Universities, public or private, to “ban” fraternities right? The only thing schools could do would be to stop sponsoring a greek system, which would actually do nothing. It wouldn’t stop fraternities from owning huge houses and putting their letters on them, passing out rush flyers, and having a new pledge class every year. The reason there is a university sponsored greek system at most large universities is because these houses are going to exist anyways so the school wants to have at least some control over them.</p>
<p>And for the record, for all the fraternity haters, being in a fraternity teaches you skills and values that would be impossible to learn otherwise. I’m just a freshman but I can already see how being a part of a fraternity has helped me become a better man. I don’t understand how people can despise greek life when they have no exposure to it or involvement in it.</p>
<p>Banning fraternities would cause them to go underground, which provides even less oversight and supervision than there already is. Furthermore, many of the most generous alumni are often part of frats or sororities and most likely would stop contributing if their particular chapter were banned. Colleges do not want this to happen.</p>
<p>Frats will not go away, especially in the bigger schools. Even banning one troublemaking frat on campus will just cause it to go underground - that has happened several times at my school and the underground frats have really terrible hazing, rush is a free-for-all, and there’s just no accountability. I say come up with a Greek system that keeps everyone as safe as possible. Because no matter how much you all on CC hate it, it won’t go away.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the whole Greek thing. I know it works out for some people, but every person I know who rushed or is pledging is doing so for the parties. I mean, I enjoy a party as much as anyone, but I think that some of these frats make the environment unsafe and hostile with the excess of it all. Some are ok I guess, but on the whole, in my judgement, it’s just not a great influence for the average college underclassmen.</p>
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<p>Why impossible? How do you know? Maybe people who are likely to join frats are just predisposed to developing those skills faster, or stronger, because of the types of people they are. You cannot say it is “impossible” to learn those skills anywhere else in the world, or through any other experience. That’s just silly.</p>
<p>(Never call your fraternity a “frat” because you wouldn’t call your country a ----.)</p>
<p>An acquaintance in South Bend has relayed the information to me that frats don’t really exist there. Yet, I don’t think anyone at Notre Dame has trouble networking.</p>
<p>^A count? Or are we just dropping letters when convenient?</p>
<p>Fraternities provide nothing that cannot be gained elsewhere.</p>
<p>^That is false. There is absolutely no other environment in college that can provide you with the feeling of brotherhood and responsibility that you experience in a fraternity. I walk around campus not only knowing that I represent myself and my school, but also my brothers who I would never want to let down. You can’t get this anywhere else because it simply doesn’t exist. There are a few sophomores in my pledge class who can attest to the fact that life in a fraternity is so much more fulfilling and rewarding than life as a GDI. </p>
<p>And in my opinion, it is no less fair of me to judge people that hate on fraternities than for people who hate on fraternities to judge me, so here we go: For everyone on here who has come out and said all we do is party, contribute nothing to campus, are all jerks, and cause nothing but problems, I have some pretty sweeping generalizations I can make myself. People who tend to despise greek life are also people who tend to have horrible social skills and self-confidence. Why else would you go out of your way to make it known that fraternity brothers (people with good self-confidence and interpersonal skills) are people that you don’t want to associate yourself with? You’re also afraid of breaking out of your comfort zone. Lets face it, if you go to your in state school you probably still hang out with all your high school friends that you’ve known since kindergarten. Really advancing your social skills there. And even if you go to school out of state you found a group of friends that share your same disposition, so now instead of breaking out of your collective shells you can just stand in a corner together at the university sponsored friday night sober event talking about your cargo shorts. And yes, I realize I’m grossly generalizing right now and probably insulting a fair amount of people, but at the same time there have been some pretty insulting things said about members of greek life up to this point. Two can play this game. And also, for people who think we’re just all fu ck ups, greeks around the country have consistently higher GPA’s than our GDI counterparts. So yeah.</p>
<p>Too bad 66% of statistics are made up</p>
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<p>I understand the feelings of brotherhood. But responsibility can be learned in many, many ways. And members of fraternities can’t see that because they chose to go the route of the frat. If they didn’t join the frat, they would probably find in a few years that they learned many of the same things. Feelings of “brotherhood” are not necessary to have healthy, happy relationships later on, and they do not automatically lead to better job prospect or amazing skills no one else has. Experiences are what you make of them. Not everyone in a frat has those experiences.</p>
<p>And I am not insulted by anything you said about the non-Greek students because it is not accurate of me. I don’t get insulted if someone is attacking something I am not. I guess it’s called…maturity?</p>
<p>Well I guess this statistic is in the other 34%. Winter 2011 at my school - All Greek GPA: 3.279, University GPA: 3.244. Statistics are similar for schools across the country.</p>
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<p>That’s not true. There are the Knights of Columbus, Boy Scouts, Masons, etc. – all of these are strong fraternal organizations that purport (and I am sure mostly do) to promote and develop all of the skills and feelings you are describing.</p>
<p>Being in a fraternity myself, I say no, they should not be banned. Fraternities can do great things for charity. Fraternities aren’t only about partying, that is for sure.</p>
<p>@baelor It has to do with phonetics.</p>
<p>I daresay that fraternities and sororities cater to a certain type of person. It’s very superficial, very loud, very rude, very licentious, very exclusive culture. Prove me wrong. Can you not see why the general population might grow tired of some loudmouthed ******* with an extremely punchable face that comes to class wasted, causes disturbances, and acts elitist all time? Of course it’s a generalization, but explain to me what, if not this mentality, separates a fraternity from one of the other social clubs we’ve talked about.</p>
<p>My old man was in a fraternity, but was also kind of a nerd. I asked him if I should consider joining a fraternity for the social and networking benefits. He told me that those benefits were vastly overrated and that my personality probably wouldn’t mesh the the fraternity mentality. </p>
<p>Thus, A successful guy who was a member of a fraternity TOLD ME the only reason to join one was to party. Don’t kid yourselves. </p>
<p>My old man is a pretty successful guy</p>
<p>^Hahaha I meant to delete that last sentence but I guess it slipped through. You can ignore it.</p>
<p>Not everyone is meant for a fraternity. It is that simple. There are reasons for this, and it is what brings the members together better.</p>
<p>I’m joining a chemistry fraternity. Am I doing it wrong? :rolleyes:</p>