There are actually old tests available in the library for anyone to check out. There are pre-professional groups and student organizations that have test banks as well. No need to pick on Greek orgs.
It is definitely a perk of joining certain organizations, but organizations come with a variety of perks and advantages, that’s why they exist and that’s why people join them. What does the Honor Council have to do with it?
Perks and advantages? That’s just another way of saying that the people who join are sharing information not available to others (and old tests in the library, sanctioned by the professors doesn’t count) in order to gain an advantage over the unaffiliated student. That’s cheating. Of course, you argue that it is not cheating because Vanderbilt excludes it from the definition of cheating, and from the purview of the Honors Council. An oversight? I doubt it.
I personally don’t see that as cheating but you’re entitled to your opinion. Cheating entails some sort of dishonesty in order to gain an advantage. There is no dishonesty in test banks.
You’re welcome to join any non-Greek organization at your whim if you’d like to use their test bank. Further, there are websites that pay students to upload all their quizzes and tests, you’re welcome to sign up for one of those – much cheaper than Greek dues, and you’ll likely have access to more material.
This probably won’t make you feel any better, but many non-Greek students overestimate how well and frequently the test banks work. You may imagine some magical box with copies of every exam ever given at Vanderbilt.
In reality, test banks require someone to have recently taken the same course with the same professor who doesn’t regularly change exams, received their exam back, not lost it, and added it to the test bank. In a fraternity of ~50 guys, that’s not very likely. Further, if the test bank is not digital (most aren’t), it requires that no one else has taken the exam out (and also not lost it).
Within many Greek orgs, it often just turns into asking around if anyone recently took the class and might still have the test laying around – again, that is something anyone could do. Friends through Greek organizations just tend to be very willing to share these materials while other groups of friends may not be so willing.
“In reality, test banks require someone to have recently taken the same course with the same professor who doesn’t regularly change exams, received their exam back, not lost it, and added it to the test bank. In a fraternity of ~50 guys, that’s not very likely. Further, if the test bank is not digital (most aren’t), it requires that no one else has taken the exam out (and also not lost it).”
Give me a break! It’s a fraternity. No, they’re not very smart, but they do know how to cheat! By the way, it’s pretty obvious you used a test bank for your English courses.
I’m an engineer, I didn’t take any English courses 
@SandyVandy First, don’t attack other members.
This violates the Terms of Service. So does using any word that you see getting filtered out. When you see those stars show up, use the edit function and change the word. I did it for you this time.
Second, while I do understand your point of view that these people have resources available to them that others do not, it isn’t considered cheating for two reasons. The first is that having access to more resources is just part of “life is not fair” in general. If one student comes from a wealthy family and can afford a first rate tutor, or even several tutors, and most of the other students cannot, is he cheating? I don’t know anyone that thinks so.
The second is that the availability of old exams is well known to all, including the professors. This is why many do indeed put their old tests with answer keys on file either in the library or on computer. So it clearly is up to them to create new exams every year that minimize the effect of having old exams to look at. You say
Why in the world not? Just because you say that doesn’t make it true. If it is the exact same tests that are in the files at the Greek houses, what in the world is the difference? And as @Pancaked said, there are other organizations that keep exams on file. Premed groups, prelaw groups, etc. You would have to go after quite a large portion of the campus under your definition of cheating, easily more than half the students at many schools.
I would also add that when I was in school (I was not Greek) it was before the personal computer days, and often the profs would not have old exams on file. You know what I did? Well, of course I studied hard, but I also went to the library and what they did have were other textbooks on the same subject. I would work additional problems from these books as a study aid. Worked great. In fact, in one case it turned out that the prof had the same idea and took test questions from one of those other textbooks, not thinking anyone would do what I did. Would you say I cheated? He didn’t think so, he just praised me for my industriousness. In case you are wondering, no I was not that much of a saint that I felt I had to “confess”. There was nothing to confess. What happened was that one of the questions was particularly knotty and I was the only one to get it right. He asked me afterward how I saw the “trick”, and I told him the truth. I knew I had done nothing wrong.
This practice of storing and sharing old exams has been around for many, many decades at virtually every school in the country. Even the service academies do not consider using old exams as cheating in any way, shape or form, and they have the strictest honor codes of all. So while you certainly are welcome to your opinion, this particular opinion requires you to be right and virtually every institution of higher learning in the country to be wrong.