Came across this article. Thought it might interest this group
http://greycity.chicagomaroon.com/article/a-snapshot-of-uchicago-greek-life/
There is some interesting statistics and statements in the article, like
Huh, this really shows the Greek/Non-Greek divide on campus.
To put it bluntly, the 80% of students who aren’t in Greek life have serious problems with it and the greeks just put their hands over their heads and pretend there’s no problem.
A majority of students who aren’t in greek life:
-think that Greek life does not promote positive values across campus
-do not feel safe in the spaces run by Greek organization
-are uncomfortable with Greek life’s presence on campus
-thinks Greek life receives unnecessary funding
Yet majority of greeks think the opposite.
@HydeSnark The article also says Greek life is growing on campus. I think within the next ten years, the student body is going to look very very different. Once the percentage of students in Greek life reaches 40% or so, you are going to see a very different set of values and attitudes reflected in the student body.
This Maroon article (which is fairly well researched for a college news article, btw), gets at the heart of what I’ve been talking about recently. @HydeSnark said, in another post, that there still aren’t many finance bros running around. Maybe, but the greek life statistics (20% of students involved in greek life, and 40% of greeks major in econ), suggest that, you know what? It looks like some safe harbors for finance bros (and girls) are emerging, and they’re growing.
Relatedly, having 20% of students in greek life is a LOT. UPenn, largely considered to be one of the more greek life-heavy schools has about 25% of its students in greek life. Keep in mind, these stats don’t usually count the freshman interested in/involved in greek life. Given this fact, it’s feasible to say that frats play a significant role for 1 in 3 Chicago students (as freshman tend to frequent frats more often).
Chicago, all of a sudden, isn’t far away from Penn’s number, and the admins seem to be tacitly encouraging greek life to grow. Who knew Chicago would have a fratty vibe??
Cue7 - Isn’t is a leap to say that UChicago administration is encouraging Greek life to grow on the basis of an unscientific poll by the Maroon?
Could USnews be grossly under reporting the percentage of students in fraternities at UChicago? According to them only 8% of UChicago students are in fraternities. The undergrad enrollment is around 5800 at UChicago and is about 52% male. If Usnews is right, then only around 240 men and 335 women participate in Greek life at UChicago, bringing the total to less than 10% of the student population.
The maroon article on the other hand seems to suggest that the number of men in fraternities is close to 550, resulting in a 18% participation rate with the overall Greek participation at around 20% which would make it around 1,160 students.
The only way for both to be right would be if the USnews numbers are based on older data, which means that Greek life has reached a pivot point and is growing at a very rapid rate?
USnews also reports that MIT tops the list of selective universities with 48% of its students in fraternities??!!! That sounds ridiculous? That’s even higher than Dartmouth at 46%!! So not sure if USnews just has bad numbers.
Maybe the meaning of fraternity at MIT and Chicago is different from that at Dartmouth and other schools.
Some fraternities at Chicago are more academic oriented than party oriented. It could be that maroon reports all fraternities registered even some of them are remotely like those at other schools? MIT could have more non-traditional fraternities.
Numbers – The Maroon article reports, based on numbers provided by the fraternities and (I think) confirmed by their national offices, that there were 575 men in [white] fraternities last spring, including members of a banned fraternity. However, the chart they have illustrating fraternity growth shows only 525 men in the 11 fraternities covered (which was all of the fraternities active last spring, including the banned one). The article also said there were 480-something women in sororities, and 58 men and women participating in traditionally African-America subs,
Like…basically all of people like that are involved in greek life, but not everyone in greek life is like that
There are enough of them to be noticeable, but it is not an overwhelming presence at all