<p>Another article that went through my facebook feed</p>
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<p>The lines “the presence of fraternities is seen as a threat to a safe campus” should be sent to every freshman in th the country. Every parent of teenagers bound to college should understand how true such words, and openly question the folks who are about to receive thousands of dollars why such a thing is still possible. </p>
<p>Think about it. </p>
<p>So this is like saying that we should outlaw construction workers because some of them act like pigs. Deal with the offenders harshly, but don’t paint with such a broad brush. There are thousands of fine young men who are in fraternities who are honorable and upstanding citizens. Emulate them. Honor them. Continue to weed out the problem kids and the others will thrive.</p>
<p>@Torveaux I completely agree. Not all frats are bad and they offer unparalleled networking opportunities. The way to fix the problem is to come down hard on frats that degrade women and send out emails like the one mentioned in the article. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, until those “honorable and upstanding” frat members start forcing change, it’s not going to happen. I do totally agree @Torveaux that there are thousands of great guys in the frat system. At this point though, they aren’t the ones with the power and they aren’t putting enough pressure on their peers to clean-up their behavior. They aren’t stepping in and saying “stop” when lines get crossed. </p>
<p>Group mentality is a dangerous thing. The need to fit in. The idea of “brotherhood” can be fantastic when there is a shared and noble goal. However, it can also silence those great guys putting pressure to protect each other as if college were some sort of war zone. I mean, look at your response to this one kid who decided to pull out of a frat. You seem to have a negative opinion of him for just writing that what he experienced in his frat was wrong and he regrets being part of it. That’s pretty telling.</p>
<p>The author claims to be a feminist, but is against “slut-shaming?” I thought modern-day feminists were in favor of women sleeping around indiscriminately if they want to. If feminists see such behavior as a good thing, then why is talking about it offensive? Maybe I’m missing his point.</p>
<p>Also, in my experience, girls call each other (and themselves) “sluts” all the time. Where is the outrage?</p>
<p>I’m a member of Phi Kappa Tau and we had no hazing or assault issues while I was there. I had a great time and built life-long friendships, and even more – brotherhood. Kick out the bad guys… the same as you would in any other group.</p>
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<p>Measure the progress that has been made in the last ten years in dealing with this cancer, and then look at the recurring scandals. Year after year, there are the same stories. The answer is to simply move the goal posts from binge drinking to hazing to sexual harassment and then rinse and repeat.</p>
<p>Take a close look how the colleges have dealt with incidents (a charitable term) at Dartmouth? How more spineless could Dr. Kim have been before bolting to greener pastures? It is the same everywhere. A bunch of hollow words and the hope the bad news dissipates until the next death of a student. Then “we” cry again and yap about it until a better news comes along. </p>
<p>How mant more bodybags and reports such as the ones cited in the article do our colleges really need to find the courage to impose the only measure that will take care of the most visible and tangible issues of bad behavior by students. The fraternities are not the sole culprits, but they are rarely far from where egregious behavior takes place. </p>
<p>Like it or not, enough time has been wasted for those honorable and upstanding citizens to control their own and take actions about those “few” bad apples. Time has come for those honrable citizens to show how honorable they are by … not participating in their cancerous organization. But, as history indicates, that will not happen anytime soon, and they will have to be forced out. </p>
<p>Forced out by having the colleges declaring the participation in fraternities a violation punishable by direct expulsion by the school. Without students allowed to participate, there would not be any need for buildings on campus, or in the underground. </p>
<p>Schools should be a lot more worried about the safety of their young students and their education as opposed as being so focused on their entertainment and debauchery. </p>
<p>Again, parents should think twice before trusting the schools to be able to protect their kids from toxic students on campus. </p>
<p>And everyone should stop making excuses! Colleges do NOT need the fraternities today, if they ever did! </p>
<p>I would point out how ashamed I am to have wasted my valuable time worrying about street gangs, global terrorism, and pandemic diseases instead of the obvious threat to the American way of life posed by fraternities, but the last time I disagreed with you publicly, you PMed to tell me how “bombastic” I was being, so I’ll just go have a drink instead. Cheers. </p>
<p>Pardon me, but Phi Kappa Tau is not cancerous. No fraternities or sorprities are cancerous per se.</p>
<p>You might want to look into their work in public service… such discovery might lend some mitigation. In my time on campus we worked with H4H and made several donations to local charities. Thar’s more than most students do to help those in need.</p>
<p>People die every day on campuses. They drink too much at non-Greek and Greek parties alike. Blame it on the alcohol. (Also adding “Bombastic” to my online listening library…)</p>
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<p>Yup. you are. The concept of opposing “slut-shaming” is commonly accepted by most feminists I know, especially college-age ones. Last I heard, “shaming” and “talking about” are not synonymous.</p>
<p>@Bay, I’d like to know what your definition of slut-shaming is.</p>
<p>BTW, IMO, girls calling other girls sluts (if done in a malicious manner) is pretty pathetic as well.</p>
<p>…and in my experience is much more common. Women tend to be far meaner to one another than men are.</p>
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<p>Speaking as what you’d probably call a modern day feminist, I’d say the issue is not with women being free to choose their own sexual partners but the “shaming” part of it. Also, the double standard when applied to men who do the same thing women do and are instead admired for it.</p>
<p>I have never referred to a friend as a slut and I have never been referred to as one. I’ve heard girls say it about a not-present girl which I see as internalizing a male judgement. I actually heard my daughter say something similar to that once and you bet I stopped what i was doing and sat her down and had a LONG discussion with her about that word.</p>
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<p>Who says I have not looked at the “balance” of public service and charitable work? Most rebuttals to the deaths at the hand of the thugs who are disguising themselves as “brothers” are including references to the good work done by the organizations. </p>
<p>The problem is that the “good” is a mere afterthought and hardly the raison d’etre of the fraternities. Organizations could do all that “good” without needing a Greel chapter. </p>
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<p>PB, how would you handle a case involving the same national organization whose members caused the death of at least two students? At what level does one become a bad apple? Ten deaths? Ten indictments for hazing? </p>
<p>In simple terms, when is enough really enough? For the record, it is not hard to understand that I am making references to the following – courtesy of Wikipedia and a five second search:</p>
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<p>What did I write about looking at incidents in the past decade? Well, I am just a bit off for including 2003, but the point remains the same. </p>
<p>Fwiw, I am not naive enough to expect the “death” of fraternities on campuses anytime soon. At best, and that is close to utopia, a policy of ONE DEATH and you are out permanently on that campus should exist coupled with a national ban in case of recidivism. Would two deaths at fraternities be sufficient in your book? </p>
<p>And, of course, that would mean your fraternity would have ceased to exist if “we” we serious about hitting the bad apples hard, and honoring the good ones! </p>
<p>Pretty bad when hard facts do not support the romantic views born in the past. </p>
<p>Two out of probably tens of thousands of members over the past decade. That’s actually a pretty low morbidity rate.</p>
<p>Our fraternity will handle it. Our people have spent a lot more time working in charity and donating money.</p>
<p>Let’s just do the simply math. How many fraternaties are there in the US? How many individual houses have been charged with something significant? How many have been convicted? Remember, it is very easy and safe in America to accuse a group of wrong-doing. Quite another thing to have facts to back it up. I am 100% certain that there are bad apples, but there are also bad accusers, so you have to filter for the issue.</p>
<p>Now, divide the number of bad houses by the number of houses. I am certain the number will be considerably less than 1%. </p>
<p>What if we used the same sort of criteria ^ for associations you have. If anyone associated with any organization you are with dies, your organization should be shut down. Pretty soon, there are no organizations because you are trying to hold a group of people accountable for the actions of some of its members.</p>
<p>As a side note. Do not shorten fraternity as you have been doing. It is considered as bad or worse than the word ‘slut’.</p>
<p>Look, kids shouldn’t be dying at parties. But it happens among non-Greek college populations as well. All college kids should be warned of the dangers of binge drinking.</p>
<p>I’d be more concerned about really bad hazing, like burning incidents. There was none of that in our fraternity, but we heard rumors of fire being used in some initiation ceremonies and it going very wrong.</p>
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<p>By whom??? </p>
<p><a href=“http://totalfratmove.com/”>http://totalfratmove.com/</a></p>