I always believed that fraternities were fundamentally a platform to exclude rather than include!
1
4,300 undeage drinking deaths a year according to the CDC. Fraternity deaths get the spotlight, but the vast majority don't make the papers since they don't have a finger to point.
Give the dangers of alcoholic indulgence the same spotlight we give teenage tobacco and drug use....start at an early age, and don't let up.
3
Amen. It is long, long past time.
4
What many seem not to understand is that fraternities (cannot say this about sororities) are SECRET organizations. They were not started with the permission of the colleges or universities. And, if they are "banned", they will continue anyway, certainly not in their current visible way, but they will not be extinguished. The primary cause of too much underage drinking isn't fraternities anyway, it is the stupid 21 y/o drinking age law. It is still silly that one can fight and die for your country at age 19, but cannot walk into a bar and order a beer.
1
So if the 'eating clubs' at Princeton lost a member because of drinking too much alcohol; you would recommend closing them down as well?
So Fraternities should be judged as a whole for the actions of a few? If that even close to being logical or fair?
A hasty opinion piece by a young man who was most likely not in a fraternity, has a strong inherent bias and is not even close to suggesting a serious solution to the problem. College drinking is a problem. That is the root problem that universities, students and alumni need to address.
As a Dad with five kids, I talk to my kids about alcohol being a beverage and pint out how the Europeans drink wine with every dinner (and some lunches). We need to promote a healthier, safer approach to alcohol. Making it the 'forbidden fruit' will only continue America's unhealthy relationship with alcohol. We need better education about drinking and new social norms versus the knee jerk editorials from folks that are too far removed from the reality of the situation.
3
Tragic story. However, it is myopic to vilify fraternities. Binge drinking is rampant on college campuses, if not high schools. Membership in a fraternity or sorority is not defined by drinking, and these abuses are not unique to them. Fraternities receive the bad press as they are singled out as "exclusive". Yet this is a stereotype, likely purported by those who were not involved in the Greek system themselves. College dorms, apartments, and sports organizations are equally culpable. Such commentary would garner more respect if the author actually offered statistics relative to the entire campus lifestyle. And, the author would gain credibility if he disclosed his membership history - or lack thereof.
4
The title of this piece says it all.
2
It's the alcohol, dummies.
3
I take it Mr. Bruni didn't receive any bids.
4
Here is a story from the past: when my father returned to college he joined a fraternity for the housing. Since he was returning from flying 44 missions over Nazi held Europe, his tolerance for frat boy fun was zero. And he let them know, in no uncertain terms, he would not allow any abuse of anyone. Other returning vets did the same as he did. As I understanding, for a few years following WWII, the fraternities were full of model citizens. Joining a fraternity does not have to make you a jerk.
6
As far as initiation, hazing, and the forced use of alcohol: No contest--a very bad thing. However, some of the worst examples I have heard of have been at the clubs forced underground because of being banned on campus, adding luster to an invitation to join.
Regarding the exclusivity and inequality of fraternities, sororities, secret societies, final clubs: How far and to what lengths will you go to regulate this? Many colleges and universities have admission criteria and hurdles that perpetuate this elitism, even if only due to the academic criteria. Do we have to regulate this as well? Certainly not everyone has an equal chance of getting in as only a small percentage qualify. Let's face it: Not everyone is going to qualify or be admitted to everything. Equality may not be at play when one gets into Harvard, joins the Hasty Pudding, writes for the Lampoon, is punched for the Fly, wins a Fulbright, and graduates cum laude. Oh the horror!
Furthermore, college clubs and fraternities have always existed and have provided a forum of lifelong friendships and connections that extended a lifetime. But there will always be people who declare life unfair and are ready to
create another layer of regulation.
3
In 1981, I was gobsmacked when my new boyfriend said he’d been in a frat. I had a hard time getting past it. He was a decent fellow. I always considered it beyond the pale. I Phelta Thi!
Dear Lord the liberal New York Times is now calling for banning frats on top ot its call for bans on guns, confederate statues, and white men in general. seems the NYT is on a mission to root out anything associated with the last, the latest being fraternities (the safety issue is just a canard). My membership in a fraternity was a trasured part of my college years. If the NYT and its readership don't like them, I suugest they and their children don't join them. But you have no right to make that decision fir others. Butt out.
6
Where else are lethal activities celebrated as a rite of passage? Colleges/universities won’t do away with them until they start losing funding because of them. Such hypocracy indeed.
4
A fraternity pledge at my university was forced to drink detergent this year. Another broke an arm this month. One got a stomach ulcer from being forced to eat a ghost pepper. A few years ago, one was pushed off of a roof with mattresses strapped to him—he broke his back. Pledges are locked into fraternity basements for the night with no heating or blankets, and this is on school nights. I have witnessed the absolute inhumanity of fraternity pledging, and it makes me nauseated to think about it. To the old men defending their frats of the 70s/80s: times have changed, and people are dying. Wake up.
12
I was going to join a sorority. I spent a lot of time with the sisters partying, I really liked them. Until we went to an amusement park one day.
They spent the entire day making fun of everyone for the way they looked, what they wore, whatever stupid thing they could come up with. Laughing at people. It was horrible. I did not join in.
I was bullied when I was a kid - for being different, not athletic, shy, I cried easy - NO WAY I'm gonna treat other people like that, even behind their backs. I am not better than ANYONE else, just because some girls want me to join their club. Or because I'm a cute, middle class, white lady. My parents taught me better.
9
The associated graphic here is a travesty. Really φ for o instead of Ο or Ω? Σ instead of Ε, and don't even get me started at using a Γ! a g sound! instead of Ρ for r.
1
I didn't relate the fact of my alcoholism and my frat/soror life are connected. I was kind of a tomboy who took pride in drinking all the brothers at the frat house under the table. I've had C-level business acumen for over 20 years (and of course alcoholics rule the business world). In my conclusion, this is what makes alcohol the most dangerous SUBSTANCE ABUSE known to man....its total wide spread acceptability among the best and the brightest. ...please don't even get me started on the fact that it is the gateway drug to cocaine, weed and opioids.
2
It’s not that I necessarily have a major problem with the drinking and debauchery- that’s youth. But the institutionalized separation that this whole system promotes is good for no one. From Day 1, the Greek system promotes a culture of us vs them based on the most myopic of criteria, and I have yet to see a single instance where this beneficial.
You can’t tell me that this system promotes the adult development of the students. Or that it doesn’t promote misogyny. Or individual creativity. And the blatant homoerotic nature of it all would be hilarious if it weren’t masked in the hurtful and sad homophobia that it is.
5
The colleges and universities need to ban sororities and fraternities from campus. End of story.
2
It's ironic to read Mr. Bruni talk about our societal values, then 5 minutes later try to read another NYT article online that has an unappealing, very large ad in the middle for a channel called "Viceland" touting sex, money, and drugs. And you wonder why our society has institutions like fraternities.
2
Fraternities and sororities are lame. They have never been good, despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary. It's about time we evolve past these relics of exclusion and manufactured status. They send the wrong message.
3
Around 1965 I belonged to one of these Fraternities. A lot of booze, expensive. Early on caught the alcoholics of today (a lot of noise, talking nonsense, terrible grades, many dropped out). After one year I quit, focused on studies and interaction with male/female students and professors and never looked back.
This whole Fraternity thing is wasted time and money nonsense. Stop it.
3
I totally agree, fraternities should be eliminated. I never joined one (thank goodness they do not exists in most European Universities), my husband (American) never joined one either, and our sons, going to University in the USA, did not join one either. We are doing very well in life without need to join these organisations. Overall, they do more bad than good. Initiation rituals are barbaric acts that should be outlawed. Period.
3
Yep. An over-the-top, hysterical, close 'em all and let God sort 'em out solution is called for. Exactly the mentality that led to raising the drinking age to 21, which stands behind the reluctance of underage drinkers to call for medical assistance in alcohol-related emergencies.
1
I went to a college where Greek culture was alive and well. My boyfriend was a member of a house that even had a sweetheart. He felt compelled to apologize to the sweetheart when he discovered that she had been in the fraternity house one night when several of his brothers conducted "a train," the phrase used when a group of men have sequential sex with one woman. Of course there was never any discussion or controversy over the situation/feelings of the young woman in that room with "the brothers". Mistreatment of others at the heart of greek culture, despite all the protests that this life builds ethical, upstanding men.
5
Bad behavior, excessive drinking, drug use in college are not confined to fraternities. Individual athletes on college teams can behave badly but who calls for sports' exclusion from college campuses? When the legal drinking age returned to 21 and police departments aggressively sought to "bust parties of illegally drinking minors" things changed. Adolescents adapted. "Pregaming was the norm". Students binged drank before they went out. You want to drink and not get caught drinking? Drink all you need quickly. The attitude: get drunk to play. Parents may have stated "No drinking" rules for their kids but many teens in high school/college are working around them. Binge drinking carried into college where shots, drinks,caffiene, lack of sleep and medications for ADHD were casually consumed often together. Take a look at how the mix of ADHD meds and alcohol works. Rules for no alcohol in the fraternity house means they drink before. What do college kids not know? How to drink alcohol, how much alcohol to drink, what to do if you drink too much alcohol, what not to do when you drink alcohol. Saying "Don't drink" is like saying "Don't have sex." There are multiple conversations happening here but our laws about alcohol are ridiculous. Eighteen year olds can vote, drive, go to war, own/carry guns even engage in physical or sexual assaults on campus without being heavily sanctioned but drink and be caught by police? Curtains.
7
It is time for the fraternities and sororities to be abolished. In reality in today’s environment, it serves little.
1
Again, my experiences has been frat boys (and sorority) girls are told during college they are in a special group.
In the workplace I generally can count on former fraternity men to be the least understanding of the adult sociology around them. As a 59 year old gay man who had to socialize immediately at 18 into the work world of Los Angeles (college came later) I could not quite get a handle on the attitudes of the guys that went Greek at a place like UCLA. Really and totally unnecessary to imbue young men with that somewhat useless sense of privilege for a lifetime. It does not really achieve much but burn through their parent's cash.
2
Several highly academic institutions ban fraternities. Brandeis University has never allowed them. Oberlin College in Ohio banned them in 1847. In light of all the damage they have caused it's surprising that more colleges haven't followed suit.
4
You write "...fraternities segregate. They discriminate. They concentrate and enshrine privilege at a time when we’re ostensibly trying to be more mindful of that." What do you mean by "mindful"? The student who join fraternities and sororities are very mindful that fraternities and sororities segregate and discriminate, concentrate and enshrine privilege. That's why they want to belong to them. Breathe deeply and think entitled thoughts!
3
Mr B,
For reasons that I imagine go back to our most primitive, ingrained, survival, genetic natures, young men will find a way to to band together, bond together, form tribal units, and "party hearty". We may learn civility and the benefits of "friendship, justice and learning", but selective "clubs" of young men will endure under one name or another because they are "our nature".
If you think back far enough you too will find a time and place (perhaps even now) when you bonded with your "brothers" in a special elite tribe. It's just part of our primate existence.
Surely you cannot believe that pulling Greek letters off buildings will change human nature.
1
THE BAR FOR CLOSING DOWN FRATERNITIES Should be far lower than the waiting till someone is killed during hazing. Fraternities and sororities must be required to be completely transparent. They should be subjected to random drug and alcohol screenings and sanctioned by campus security, as well as being charged by local police. Women, especially, should be interested in advocating for such changes, since most of the uncontrolled, impulsive behavior occurs when the frat bros are drunk or high on drugs. Or both. Banning such behavior would increase the safety of female students from sexual harassment and violence. I've not read anything about the sexual harassment of frat brothers, such as those who are LGBTQIA by other members. But it's perfectly possible to have lots of fun without getting drunk or high and losing self control, endangering self and others in the process. Fraternities and Sororities should enhance the educational environment at universities, not be a blight on campus.
1
I was raped in a fraternity, and all of my friends who have been assaulted have had it happen within the doors of fraternity houses. This is no coincidence. When do eager high school grads (brothers, sons, and friends) trade in their morality to become permissive of rape and brutality against their own “brothers”? It’s a startling phenomena of desensitization not unlike the Stanford prison experiment
5
"Their Pledges Die. So Should Fraternities."
People die in alcohol-related auto accidents every day, no matter how many taxpayer-funded PSAs are shown or published about the consequences of or punishments for driving under the influence. We went through Prohibition, which was an abysmal failure. Alcohol is a part of our culture, for good or ill. So is bad behavior and the coddling we lavish on society's achievers, such as college sports figures. There are countless examples of bad behavior from alcohol, sexual assault and theft among our nation's top college athletes. Maybe Frank should talk about ending college sports in his next column.
1
We could treat frat crimes like other crimes. That seems like a good start right? A man died while being hazed (a crime) and drinking under age (a crime). Active members knew this would be happening and either activly or tacitly supported it. Frats frequently serve alcohol to minors (a crime). These crimes are not kept secret. They are advertised. They are arguably the primary appeal of frats. Police should go after frats like any other group of criminals. They should prosecute the men who serve alcohol to minors. They should prosecute the men who participate in hazing. they should prosecute the men who know of and support these crimes. They should do this not to end frats but because frats shouldn't be above the law. If we treated hazing and serving alcohol to minors as crimes BEFORE PEOPLE DIED, less people would die.
3
The fraternity/sorority problem is a universal one, recognized by anthropologists observing all cultures: it's "the in-crowd" thinking. You're in or you're out, and if you're in you can do what you want in the name of that crowd/religion/cult/club. If you're "out" you are a little suspicious, a little less, and a little "other."
A great leap in thinking happened when Jesus preached about including everyone in the Kingdom of Heaven, said "the last shall be first" and so forth. It's arguable that the central message of Christianity has been inclusivity of all. So ironic that today, while there are many sincere Christians, so many have become part of "their" church. Am not a Christian, but those who profess to be may want to examine this tenet before deciding on a fraternity or sorority, or encouraging their kids to do so.
1
Never a happier day than, 20 years ago when # 1. son said he wasn't going to pledge. When asked why he delivered this great little gem; 'They all seem to be emotionally dependent, and need to be in a group to feel secure.' Something close to that.
3
Also, calling this 'greek life' is insulting the nation of Greece. Fraternities did not originate in Greece, nor do they have anything whatsoever to do with real Greek culture or traditions.
1
Instead of ending fraternities, why not just end most colleges? The results are abysmal and the total outstanding debt is close to a trillion dollars much of which will never be paid back.
The average student loan debt per student is almost 40k. 40k!? To become at best an excel monkey or increasingly to better understand the intricacies of purveying coffee at the local cafe.
Keep the top 100 (or maybe 50 best colleges realistically) and end the rest. It takes two weeks of training to become an excel monkey not four years.
1
"...there's some evidence that students in fraternities maintain higher than average grades..." because they CHEAT. In any number of ways, from keeping past exam files, to texting answers during exams, copying and plagiarizing assignments, all the way to sending other students to take exams for them. I have taught at a major University for almost three decades. I know what I'm talking about.
7
I had two major requirements when I looked at colleges: First, that athletics were not a major part of campus culture; second, that there be virtually no Greek life. I went to a middle of nowhere high school where the popular kids got wasted at field parties and if you didn't show up to the weekly football game, you weren't ever going to be "cool." Why in the world would I want to subject myself of four more years of a social atmosphere that I already detested?
Getting to my point: There are a fair number of colleges and universities that fit those requirements. They may have sports and Greek life, but it was incredibly easy to be totally unaware of them. And they were much more seen as hobbies or extracurricular as opposed to a lifestyle. And if you didn't partake in them: Career connections? You knew people and professors in your program! Volunteerism? Among my friends, if you wanted to fight for a cause, you organized it yourselves, giving you tons of media and event planning experience as well as, of course, doing good in your community. Honestly, people who defend Greek life are kidding themselves; everything it "offers" as a positive is probably more easily and effectively accomplished without the distractions and tragedies of drunken parties and long, abusive pledging processes.
3
I do wish more of this fraternity reform work would come from people who actually engaged in Greek life. I was in a sorority, and my spouse was in a fraternity, and neither of us had experiences with hazing or really bad behavior in general (at least not behavior worse than a group of 18-22 year olds could be expected to partake in). Our campus had some issues with fraternities - we learned to avoid them, and most sororities on campus refused to hold socials with the problem organizations. Eventually, they shut down.
All that said, as much as I think these hazing incidents are nowadays the exception, not the rule, Greek life clearly has some problems. In addition to the obvious incidences of hazing, alcohol consumption, and sexual assault, Greek life can be unnecessarily elitist. As a lower-middle class student, I often felt shut out because I lacked “status” and was deemed “uncultured” because I could not afford to study abroad. While my organization was quite diverse, some explicitly search for a particular phenotype. I do not feel that a ban on Greek organizations would be feasible, but it’s time we had an open and honest conversation about all of these problems, outside of the horrendous, well-publicized hazing incidents.
1
I can respect a difference of opinion, but I cannot accept when it comes from so many without first-hand experience. I am a member of the Divine Nine, predominantly African-American fraternities and sororities, and I do not see "...drink, danger, and debauchery in their blood." Do some members drink? Of course. However, after 26 years in my organization, I can attest to the powerful impact of the members in our community. Colin Kaepernick is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, and the first African-American woman to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel, have made a difference.
Like anything else in life, you have positive and negative. We would not be able to appreciate positive without its binary opposite. With that said, we must look at each organization and each chapter. An entire organization cannot be discarded because of a renegade chapter. Bifurcate the cancer from the body and continue living. That is all we can do.
As far as segregation is concerned, racial segregation forced our organizations to form bonds along racial lines; it was not a deliberate choice. However, our organizations have always welcomed people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds.
I hope my post encourages others to research our illustrious organizations.
2
Of course they should be abolished. Of course they won't be. When was the last time this country adopted a sensible policy that wasn't watered-down to appease those who aren't sensible?
3
If fraternities and sororities want to survive, they need to reform.
The heart of the problem is a larger cultural issue. Why do so many Americans seek oblivion?
I was in college in the early 1980’s when the drinking age was 19. But kids were illegally drinking when I was in high school. Weekdays were spent in a countdown to the weekend when it would be time to get smashed or stoned. The activity of choice was “partying”--using alcohol, pot, or hard drugs to seek mental oblivion.
The drinking age didn’t seem to be connected. There was some deeper issue that drove everyone to seek ways to blot out their minds.
In college, I was part of a theater honor society, Alpha Psi Omega. We didn’t do crude hazing; new pledges went through a creative initiation rite of memorizing two monologues, one comic and one serious, that were performed in challenging environments—in a bathroom while members flushed toilets, in a busy public train station, etc.—and any breaking of character meant starting the monologue from the top. The atmosphere was fun and creative.
Members of fraternities and sororities should go back to their societies and talk about rebuilding the culture. There should be a “grab bag” of creative initiation rituals, songs, pledges, dances, games, and charitable activities that don’t require anything demeaning or dangerous. If Greek groups can do that—if they can find real fun again—they can survive. If not, they should vanish.
1
I was a student at Cal in the late '60s. The frats closed down and became rooming houses. I didn't notice any societal harm.
7
That's true. I was at Cal in the early seventies and if they weren't closed down they were literally advertising to get people. O course it was the late sixties and early seventies.
All of the positive comments about personal experience are important, but those experiences are possible without adding Greek letters to the organizations' name.
Social media enables like-minded folks to find and organize.
7
As the competition for the precious spots at our selective colleges has reached an all-time high, the fact that significant numbers of our students at these schools are drinking themselves to oblivion beginning Thursday night is most unfortunate. This is happening at schools with and without fraternities. The pre-gaming phenomenon is most unsettling and no longer has anything to do with sports games. Because the age limit is 21, the students drink hard liquor straight and fast in the dorms and then head out to parties. Ambulances are part of the weekend landscape. Fraternities certainly create an additional hazard, but we need to look at the alcohol culture more broadly.
9
Sounds like Frank Bruni didn't get into any of the fraternities at college.
4
Earnest scholars have always laughed at frats.
3
Kids die in little league and Boy Scouts. They die in summer camp, and on ski slopesget a grip
6
Rapes take place on college campuses. Perhaps we should just shut down the universities altogether.
2
Growing up in a college town most of thought fraternities were where dumb rich white boys acted out their stupidity, and they did.
11
How fascinating a people we are. While student debt builds to crushing levels and the merit of higher education is coming more and more into question,we have a pampered,feckless minority that some how thinks the purpose of college is debauched drunkenness. What a huge waste of money and precious academic slots which could otherwise be filled by real scholars, those really struggling to achieve what these Greek idiots disdain: education and greater opportunity for self improvement. The whole Greek structure is just another example of engrained social division and ostentatious displays of social condescension.
21
Frank, the only "positives" you report are the EFFECT of the privileged system, not the cause. These Greek members start with a better educational foundation from high-end schools and, of course, enjoy this "social mooring" (read "good ole' boys club") that rewards their elite members with the best jobs leading to greater wealth and life satisfaction. They start a few yards shy of the Finish Line while the rest of us are setting up the starting blocks 100 yards back. The Greek system is much like the Ivies and the Republican Party: there is no shame in perpetuating the class divide. They just slap each other on the back, promote propaganda, reward their elite tribe with greater and greater spoils achieved on the backs of the unwashed masses, and snigger all the way to the bank.
You really worried about these young men dying? Or perhaps all the women sexually assaulted in the normal course of elites' business? Go to the root cause: a culture in which inequality is not only tolerated but also celebrated and enshrined in legislation. The "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" individualistic, unfettered capitalism that is a farce perpetuated by the Republican Party and funded by the Kochs, Mercers, et al. These capitalists ensure most people don't even have boots--so much easier to keep us toiling for scraps or barefoot and pregnant.
The Greek system doesn't exist in a vacuum; it is an important lever in the elite system. So don't treat just the symptom. Cure the disease.
13
Not Bette Hanauer. I'm her husband.
I joined a fraternity 65 years ago in my third week of college. We had the second highest GPA on campus (first was an "academic" frat) and all who pledged in the third week graduated 4-5 years later. No one got raped. Some drank too much at parties but on their own. New pledges had a few rules but nothing stupid and if someone suggested over hazing on pledges, he was outvoted by me and friends. I lived in the frat house (possibly a fire trap) for my last 3 years and went to med school. Don't regret a thing and my best friends were all "brothers." With almost 400,000 undergraduates in fraternities, six deaths is too many but not quite an epidemic. It's too bad that some frats will listen to stupid people who advise stupid hazing but with 400,000 people being exposed to unhealthy pursuits like football and liquor, tragedies will occur in whatever form is available.
5
I see you are 65-years-old. The fraternities of your time are VERY different from the fraternities of today's time, and even of my time. I began college in 1986, and am 49-years-old.
It is nice to hear you and your brothers were good examples of a fine fraternity. Unfortunately, those are very few and far between in the current culture, which is far too permissive and fails to punish serious crimes.
2
Does Mr. Bruni really think that drinking, poor decisions and even worse behavior will disappear if colleges rid themselves of fraternities and sororities?
It won't but many lifelong friendships will.
I was a fraternity member in the late 70s and early 80s. In my house, there were whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, rich and poor, swimmers, gymnasts, and Ultimate frisbee players. Even a future United States Senator.
Those "brothers" were and continue to be my closest friends. We get together every few years somewhere in the US. Recently, a group of us enjoyed a reunion. Included were three physicians, a veterinarian, corporate attorney, contruction company owner, wind power executive, computer engineer and a venture capitalist.
We came from all walks of life, bonded with a variety of experiences (including some foolish and alcoholic activities), and found success after college. We would still have succeeded without our fraternity experience but our lives would have been diminished.
There are bad players everywhere and 18 to 22 year olds will do stupid and frequently dangerous things. This will continue to happen with or without fraternities.
12
I am fascinated by the number of “sour grapes” posts submitted, apparently by frat members: “You must have not gotten in.” Perhaps the greatest of all arrogance is the belief of some that others wish to be like them.
33
Mr. Bruni and others,
Which houses rejected you? I'll wait.
8
Might be a shorter list if you ask which accepted him.
As Mr. Scrooge observed, it helps to rid us of the surplus population.
1
Until about three years ago, I taught at a small University where nearly 45% of students were involved in "greek" organizations. Upon joining a frat/sorority, a student's attitude and academic performance would immediately plummet. This was a campus-wide phenomenon observed by countless colleagues. Some students recovered, but many didn't. Every sexual assault committed on that campus was tied to a fraternity activity. In an annual ritual, at least one fraternity was suspended each year for any one of a multitude of violations.
There is a reason the majority of top-tier liberal arts colleges have rejected the "Greek" system: it is antithetical to the concept of a "community of scholars."
19
A glaringly simple solution to stop the proliferation of fraternities: lower the legal drinking age to eighteen again. Bam.
Clubs come back to campuses and dancing clubs and pubs open around the campuses creating open social venues to socialize. And , surprise, most teenagers like to drink but the only place they can drink is in the privacy of private fraternity and sorority houses. Another alternative is to bring back resident supervisors. Brains aren’t fully developed until age 24. So how is it rational to allow college aged students to live together in completely unsupervised fraternity houses? It isn’t and so Lord of the Flies scenarios become possible.
7
While alcohol abuse and unfortunate deaths gets written about, I believe we should also discuss social exclusion and it’s impact on mental health. We sent a confident, intelligent, beautiful 18 year old to a top 10 US university and within months we had a depressed, suicidal sophomore, struggling in college. She attributes a large part of this to Greek life - being a person of colour and unfamiliar with the nuances of US college life, she was not accepted in sororities that she rushed for. From that point on, social life changed as all freshmen were stratified based on “status” and “ranking” of the frats and sororities. A young man she was dating was accepted into a top frat and he soon broke up with her. Even girls she was friends with now did all their activities with their sisters and would/ could not include her.
It took a big toll on her. Greek life puts labels on students which are impossible to rip off.
19
Welcome to real life.
In many primitive cultures initiation rites occurred at ages as young as six. In our culture with a significant number of twenty somethings living in their parents homes the passage from child to adult is postponed to a point of absurdity. These pledge initiations stand as a poor substitute. The lack of any other legitimate, avuncular supervised, whole community participated ritual leaves these freshman with few alternatives to prove their adulthood.
2
' “If we could create higher education from scratch, would we have organizations that divide people by race, class and gender at institutions that are supposed to be encouraging diversity?” he asked. His answer was immediate and emphatic: “No.” '
Does this perspective apply to all groups on all campuses? Or are we indulging our biases again?
4
In the 1970's. in certain areas (The West Coast where I live) fraternities lost a lot of popularity. Then they came back with the social conservatism and emphasis on conformity during the 1980's. Meanwhile, some prominent newer campuses here downplayed or did not allow their presence without certain limitations (UC San Diego, and UC Santa Cruz for starters). Other private schools never allowed them. They were considered mostly a foppish waste of time by everybody I knew when I entered college. They are more destructive than constructive.
2
If the desire is to eliminate the segregation and sense of privilege inherent in Greek life, fine, ban it. I suspect people will still segregate and seek privilege, but more subtly in college and then you will see a revival of that mid-Century institution the "lodge". But if the desire is to end drinking fatalities, banning Greek organizations is the wrong solution. I have noticed that I never hear of a sorority sister dying of alcohol poisoning, or for that matter, being accused of hosting a party, inviting men, plying them with drinks and drugs, and sexually assaulting them. The problem is not Greek life so much as it is men behaving like reindeer - jousting with their antlers seeking their place in the pecking order, the security of belonging, proving their masculinity, and doing the sorts of things that perplex women. Women of course have their own rituals to the same end, only they seem to take out their aggression in different ways and direct it mostly at members of their own gender. Greek life is merely the symptom. Once again, we have met the problem and it is us.
4
Make drinking legal at 18 and you take all the so called fun out of cruel hazing rituals. It would be interesting to see studies of drinking rates and fatalities in 18 to 21 year olds as compared to 21 year olds and older. I also suspect that the prevalence of fraternities and sororities in Southern universities is strongly linked to a culture more repressed about alcohol given the substantial numbers of fundamentalits especially Southern Baptists. When my kids were growing up we had wine on the table every evening and we let them have a taste with dinner if they wanted. I remember one of our little Baptist neighbor friends marveling at the wine bottle once saying " Wow! You guys drink booze?"
2
Imagine a world,” she said, “in which everything was the same about higher education except there have never been Greek organizations. An 18-year-old waltzes into a dean’s office and says, ‘I want to start an exclusive club on campus that doesn’t allow women and serves mostly white and privileged students and we’re going to throw parties all the time that are illegal, and at these parties, all the bad stuff that happens on campus is going to happen disproportionately. What do you think?’ ”
Nice closer, and it describes the rest of the world. Anyone consider that fraternities are uniquely American? Every other country manages to provide tertiary education for it's young and not-so-young without college-supported exclusive societies that encourage drinking and dangerous behavior by people who a few weeks before were in high school? Not one of my wildly successful kids (at least compared to me!) would have anything to do with the Greeks, to their life-long benefit. They were at school to acquire sense and sensibility, not a bad drinking habit.
8
I was a college student in the late sixties/ early seventies at a large very selective urban university. Neither my friends or myself would have been caught dead dating a frat boy. Business majors were next on the list of undesirable, but not nearly as bad. Frat boys were seen as not serious, anti intellectual and symbolic of all that we didn’t want to be a part of : entitlement, immature behavior and male privilege. I continue to hold that opinion based on what I have read these last few years.
6
All Greek life isn't equal! The author is conflating White fraternities and sororities with Black, Latino, Native American and Filipino fraternities and sororities.
I joined a historically Black sorority in college and it remains one of the best decisions of my life. Unlike the White sororities, we were constantly engaged in community service and was always the chapter with the highest GPA on campus. Many of my sorors are professors, physicians, entrepreneurs, teachers, and executives in corporate America making a difference. Our organization wasn't perfect (no organization is) but the issues that plague White Greek life generally don't plague Black Greek life. Colleges need to understand why White fraternities are prone to many of the issues discussed in this column, but please recognize that many of these issues are solely limited to White Greek life.
33
The sole black man in my pledge class endured crosses being burned on his dorm door by the "brothers." Why? Whatever the insult he very much wanted to be part of the organization and, believe it or not, enjoyed the camaraderie of the frat. We all, of course, were insulted as pledges. I have found throughout my life that this treatment toughened me up considerably for what was dished out by existence after college. Nobody can insult me. I've had it from the best and, as a result, have a very thick skin.
Even if this is true, why should we have any organizations who define or constrain membership based on skin color? What century are we in?
So you're saying its ok to ban "white" fraternities and sororities but not those belonging to blacks, Latinos, etc.? And the readership of the NYT wonders why White voters flocked to Trump over Hillary. Keep up these double standards and identity politics and you"ll ensure am eight year Trump presidency.
2
Bruni reasons as follows: Some members of fraternities die of alcohol overdoses. Ergo, we should outlaw fraternities.
If that argument is valid, then this argument is valid: Some people who go to gay bars become alcoholics, or start using drugs, or catch sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, gay bars should be outlawed.
I do not think gay bars should be outlawed. That would constitute anti gay discrimination. Similarly, fraternities should not be banned. Such a ban would, in its repudiation of robust, rowdy and rebellious behavior, constitute discrimination against heterosexual men.
Many things have both healthy and deleterious attributes. Yes, the sun can cause skin cancer. But ban the sun and life on this planet would cease to exist.
Fraternities can lead to drunken, damaging revelry. Bruni cites fewer than a dozen cases of death from intoxication. That does not justify the banishment of fraternities and the conseuqent decline in male bonding.
2
Fraternities are but a manifestation of a problem. The problem is the legality of advertising alcoholic products. Cigarettes were considered cool when tobacco advertising was ubiquitous. That's where we are at with alcohol advertising, which almost always targets young adults. Get rid of the advertising and you get rid of the cool factor. Get rid of the cool factor and you get rid of a lot of the problem.
1
why is the most obvious rarely mentioned? Drinking age is 21. So ~70% of frat members and almost all pledges are breaking the law even if they don't consume enough to get wasted. is the penalty not incentive enough to stay sober? Seems like enforcing a law already on the books could result in saving several lives>
1
I prefer liberté et égalité.
2
Fraternities
During my freshman year at Stony Brook U, the last of the fraternities was banned for a hazing incident where they dropped a blindfolded initiate in the snow outside of Syracuse. Twenty five years later as a dean I had to remove a disgustingly graphic misogynist bedsheet banner hanging from the window of a frat house. Today, as reported by the NYT, fraternities continue these misdemeanors under the guise of bonding and community service.
These kinds of sodalities reproduce their behavior through an over reliance of peer learning in what Robert Bly calls a Sibling Society. Change is inevitable, but inter generational learning must provide some guard rails for our students as their brains, bodies and behaviors develop.
It is time for the adults in the room - the professors and administrators - to take on their roles and responsibilities of mentoring students as part of the academic life of the university.
25
What I did not see in this article was the role of college administrations. College administrations are well aware of the amount of drinking of that occurs on campus - but it doesn't appear to be a priority to deal with it. On just about any Sunday morning - you can walk around a college campus and see the front lawns of fraternity houses strewn with empty alcohol bottles (usually whiskey) and plastic to-go cups. Why aren't the campus police busting up these parties - especially during Rushing?
3
"There’s some evidence that students in fraternities maintain higher-than-average grades, and the Gallup-Purdue Index... found that those who belonged to fraternities and sororities reported more career and life satisfaction later on than those who didn’t."
I would like to see these data compared to students who are not in a fraternity/sorority but in one of the many other clubs on campus, such as the ecology club, the hiking club, etc. Fraternities/Sororities provide students a mooring, important as students are leaving their families, but so do these other organizations and they do so without all the pernicious accompaniments to fraternity life.
3
I would also like to see the numbers on how many of the fraternity/sorority members never actually graduate after pledging. That would prove to be an illuminating discussion.
2
According to the NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (niaaa.nih.gov), about 1,825 college students die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries. Empirical question for Mr. Bruni: If you compare the incidence rate for such deaths (a) among fraternity members to the rate (b) among non-fraternity members (or among the college student cohort as a whole), which is higher? I don't know the answer, but it ought to be knowable. That answer could shed light on the extent to which fraternity participation increases, or simply mirrors, the dangers of a pervasive binge-drinking problem around US college campuses.
5
What these universities need is an experienced High School Principal to run these institutions. Having been one for two decades, I have become an expert on adolescent judgement: hint, there is NO JUDGEMENT, when unchaperoned adolescents gather at a party with unlimited alcohol. I will admit that the most disliked function of my job was chaperoning proms, homecomings, athletic events, etc, but, it was one of my most important functions---to make certain that the students in my charge got home safely everyday. I know, checking handbags, walking into restrooms, smelling breaths, and zero alcohol/drug tolerance seems a bit lowly for those in academia, but, as my Dean would often say to me---"no matter how big they are, they are still kids," who deserve to have an adult in the room.
5
In our fragmented society the Greek clubs provide connection. We all crave connection: we are hardwired to need it. But it's difficult to achieve. In the "Good Old Days" when schools were smaller and more local and when most folks lived on relatively isolated farms, folks actively promoted connection through organization: churches, yes, but also Elks, Odd Fellows, Masons, Eastern Star, etc. etc. etc. Families have moved away from their roots, spreading away from siblings and cousins. Families are smaller too. Jobs are less permanent. We move often. AT college where a student faces lots of strangers, a Greek society seems to offer connection. But there are sororities as well as fraternities: do sororities behave differently? Can we promote connection across racial and ethnic divides? Or are we stuck in our own fragmentation? But the big question is: why is drinking alcohol so important to young people. Why do they want to anesthetize themselves? Why do they want to impose danger and suffering on each other?
3
Being in a fraternity made my college experience so much less than it could and should have been. Most guys I knew would just hang out drinking beer at the house or some bar several nights a week for four years. Needless to say I became a lot happier as I gradually began spending more time with friends outside of the Greek system. As someone who really appreciates and enjoys politics, history, reading, hiking, spending time at the beach, eating all kinds of delicious food, art, museums, and so many other things that do not involve drinking or partying - Greek life was a complete waste of my time.
13
Adult Americans have a constitutional right to assemble. College students will experiment with drink, whether in or out of a fraternity. Lets turn our attention to something important, like helping adults-to-be learn the effect alcohol has on them. Does anyone know how many non-fraternity young men drink to dangerous excess?
3
As a freshman, age 17, at a state college, I was surprised at the rush to join the Greeks. Why on earth would I want a group of people I didn't know pass judgment on whether I was worthy? No thank you.
19
I admire your independence. I followed my mom's advice to "have a group of friends to go through college with" and it was the worst decision of my life.
2
Excellent article. You took the words right out of my mouth. Fraternities and Sororties do nothing to make their communities better. I've been saying for years that they need to be done with but I know they won't be going away anytime soon. First year college students are far too impressionable and thus will keep this vicious cycle in place. Though I ask that any college student wanting to join a fraternity or sorority really observe if the Greek life is right for them. Does "brotherhood" and "sisterhood" equate to binge drinking, dangerous hazing rituals or expensive pricing for membership? While I can agree that fraternities and sororities are exclusive, one must ask if this exclusivity is really a positive thing? Just Google all the stupid things fraternities and sororities have done to their so called brothers and sisters. The answer is obvious; they are a negative force that has no place in our collegiate education system. They. Must. Go.
8
Meanwhile, while these smug, entitled fraternity brats drink away their college years, there are many deserving others who would like to attend college but can't afford to. And there are others who can attend college only by incurring tens of thousand of dollars of debt, which they often lack the means to pay off.
Something is very wrong with this picture. College students (who, I believe, should be admitted purely on academic merit) should focus on their studies. Higher education should be free so that all good students who want to attend, can.
Is this all a pipe dream? Actually, no. This is the way university education is in the rest of the developed world. Fraternities and athletic scholarships - - more examples of American exceptionalism.
9
'I imagine the dean turns it down'. The parallel is LBJ's line 'Then why are we whispering', in response to Russel's righteous argument about preserving the Southern tradition of racial segregation.
Fraternities and sororities are essentially about preserving a class based way of life.
8
I certainly understand the concern about the deaths and I believe they should and can be virtually eliminated. What I disagree with is the methodology.
Student safety in all functions and organizations that are an official part of campus life are the responsibility of the school administration. Students die or are the victims of criminal offenses in many school organizations and also while they are just walking on campus. Whether it is a rape, a physical assault, bullying, death on a practice or playing field or in social organizations without effective supervision, it is the responsibility of the school administration to provide a safe environment.
Just because a school administration wants to avoid their supervisory responsibility for any reason is not acceptable. If they don't want to be responsible, they should resign and be replaced.
We are headed down the wrong road if we let schools off the hook.
5
Fraternities and sororities are here to stay, I’m afraid. “Group Think” is a part of our evolutionary culture. Alumni love visiting their frat houses during homecoming weekend to drink, hang out and haze the pledges who genuflect to them. The real threat of colleges doing away with frats altogether is that they then go underground and are not constrained by any form of oversight or accountability from University Panhellenic Councils. That’s where the real danger lies.
2
Please don't confuse fraternities with sororities; they are not the same. Sororities begsn about a hundred years ago so that women could band together for mutual support in a male-dominated environment. How many sorority pledges have died in hazing? I believe the number is 0.
5
Fraternities nearly died on my presigitious West Coast university campus during the Sixties, and it would haave been a good thing. They are back stronger than ever now, sad to say. Now, as then, they were tribal gatherings pandering to the basest, grossest, lowest aspects of maleness. Oh, sure, many do a lot of charitable work these days, but it's just PR and window dressing for the most part. I had a buddy who tried to get me to join his fraternity back then, took one look around, gagged, and politely begged off.
Sororities can be equally bad in their exclusivity, snobbery, and cruelty. But also can serve as islands of safety and socialization for young women away from home for the first time. So I regard them far more positively. My wife and two oldest daughers were all in sororities, and benefited from the experience. I was actually impressed when I went to some parents events at their sororities. There was a strong focus on academics, community service, and mutual support. There were no binge drinkers or drug abusers. Yes, there was an emphasis on personality and physical appearance, but I fear that is something hard-wired into human beings.
Students wlll always form interest and social groups on or off campus. I just think the Greek system should be entirely private, and receive NO support, funding or facilities from colleges or universities. At least then they would not be complicit in the egregious outrates so often part of franternity life.
4
well put, but one thing we can do as parents is avoid sending our children to schools with a prominent 'Greek' life.
3
That was a rubric that proved quite useful for both my kids when choosing colleges- the higher the percentage of Greek life, the less appealing the school became.
1
Frank - You knew this years ago when you attended UNC Chapel Hill. Franklin Street has been lined with fraternity and sorority drunken kids. What took you so long?
Many years ago, at an IVY, when I pledged, I saw upfront
the "blackballing" of Italians, Jews and Blacks. That convinced me, and though there have been decent changes over the years, this is still an Anglopheliac, Super-annuated Prep School mindset that has nothing to to with the present or future. Want to join? Join the Sierra Club. Or....
11
So, Mr. Bruni, were you in a Fraternity? Or more importantly, did you try to get in and fail? It would explain much. I notice you didn't mention that anywhere. Or will you say, as many do, "I wasn't interested"
7
Say anything you want. Defend the "Greek" college life. Talk all about the charities and the good will. Blah Blah Blah. Both fraternities and sororities are filled with insecure, uninteresting, misogynistic, bigoted, homophobic, affected wannabes that need to be surrounded and validated by there own kind on their slow and messy march to alcoholism. My college had no "Greek Life" and life went on without it. Of course there were still all of the idiotic behaviors that of the extended adolescence we call college. But the individual was ultimately responsible for their behavior. There is something intrinsically evil, and sado
-masochistic about fraternities and sororities. Secrets, and rituals and bullying and hazing. Why on earth would anyone allow their child to be subjected to this. In the real world, nobody really cares about the fraternity you where a member of. In fact, it just comes off as bourgeois, boring and a bit old.
9
Texas? Florida? Louisiana? Sounds like a "good ol' boy" problem rather than the Greek residences.
2
There is absolutely no question that drinking 18 drinks in 90 minutes is outrageously stupid and dangerous. The same goes for 9, 4.5, or even 3 drinks.
But we should ask ourselves whether the drinking is also a response to the stupid US attitude towards alcohol. Until 21 years old, after they young are allowed to buy a gun, marry, have sex, go to war, become billionaires and/or file for bancruptcy, they are finally allowed to drink. In the meanwhile, we are constantly scared by bizarre statistics.
Just recently, the NYT reported that the Head and Neck cancer risk even with one drink a day will increase. Why that is possibly true (from a very low risk, to a somewhat higher risk) overall mortality of people drinking 1 to 2 drinks a day actually is higher. Go figure.
Statistics show the tremendous damage alcohol does on the developing brain. If that was true, children in the US would all be geniuses, and in Europe dumb idiots. Not entirely sure what the statistical figures say, but I venture a guess that that hypotheses wouldn't hold water.
What we need is a reasonable dialog about alcohol with teens. Allow them to drink, if this is in your culture. Help them to become responsible with alcohol. Take off the edge that the first chance they get they might possibly believe that drinking for competitive purposes can ever be a good idea.
Alcohol can sometimes be a good servant. Alcohol can never be a good master.
2
As the mother of a very accomplished leader type son who allowed a frat member to burn his arm with a cigarette and do who knows what else to him as well allowed the frat and its time consuming stupidity to be the root cause of his academic failure.....and as the wife of a frat man.... and a sorority girl herself......and as an independent college counselor......frats need to go. As in yesterday. No good comes out of them. Waste of money. Ruinous to the point of costing lives. But......they will never be gone. Would you like to know why? This is the reason: Greek giving far eclipses non Greek giving. Straight out of the horse's mouth in the development office of my very prestigious alma mater. The development offices will never allow the abolition of fraternities for it would be very detrimental to fundraising. Sad. Very sad.
11
Yes, it is sad. College football is just as sad. Pushing these kids to train like the NFL, with zero pay. Boys getting concussions, broken bones and head injuries that can lead to brain damage down the road. All for the entertainment value of alumni and their all-mighty donations. Can’t stop the grave train...
9
I believe that in penning this particular op-ed, Mr. Bruni, full disclosure was required by you. Were you a member of a fraternity? If so, was the experience a good one? If not, why? If you did not join a fraternity, why not? Does the fact that you are a gay man and probably attended college in a time where frankness about one's sexual orientation could provoke an ugly, even violent, backlash, inform your opinions about fraternities, to any extent?
4
When I was in college in the late 1960's these organizations were going kaput. You can't paint them all with the same wide brush, but I really can't say as I knew many upstanding folks who were in social fraternities and sororities. Campus professional organizations were much better in terms of forming like and kind binds. I also believe they were better for the institution as a whole. Didn't have to worry about boozing, date rape, hazing and all of the other garbage associated with these social fraternities.
2
I can’t stand Greek organizations and I agree with Frank when he says that many of them exhibit values that are antithetical to an enlightened and educated society. However, I am hesitant to call for their abolishment. We are living in a time when people are abandoning institutions in droves. Are we now going to destroy the few institutions that are thriving? Shouldn’t we instead be pressuring the adult boards of these fraternities to reform their organizations? We are becoming a more atomized and isolated society. We shouldn’t be looking to increase this isolation by destroying fraternal societies, no matter how distasteful we find them.
3
During my undergrad years at a small college, the Greek system was the primary social system during the week and weekends.
On one very late Saturday evening, several frat boys carried my passed out roommate up the dorm stairs. We put her to bed. Her pants were unzipped. Her bra was wrapped around her neck and her underwear were missing.
I will never forget when she walked into the school cafeteria the next morning. Although her memory of the events was absent, she admitted she spent most of the evening drinking at a nearby frat house. At that point, I realized that when one lacks self-management of choices and walks into a frat house whose members lack self-governance, combined with alcohol consumption, one can expect nothing but trouble.
Anecdotal, yes, but this is a common scenario. They are dangerous places and often change the trajectory of one's life.
3
What sterling ripostes about Greek life. I joined a fraternity, early on in my college career and overall, it was a good but not diverse experience. There were excellent students in Lambda Chi Alpha that I should have emulated but did not; however, friendships have lasted and two years ago, the "brotherhood" (should be "humanhood"), gathered for 50th anniversary of its founding.
1
Please do not confuse fraternities with sororities. Sororities were originally founded to provide mutual support in an all-male environment, and they still, in part, serve that function. I share your concern about fraternity hazing, but how many *sorority* pledges have died due to injuries or alcohol poisoning? As far as I know, that number is 0.
1
alcohol-related deaths and sexual assaults connected to 'greek life' are tragic and needless. so, yes, let's close the curtain on fraternities, etc.
how about the same approach to assault weapons?
2
My own college was hardly a hotbed of enlightenment through most of its male-only, East coast elitist history. Fraternities comprised close to 80 percent of the student body, and practiced these abuses plus another one, a virulent anti Semitism. (No women or blacks to degrade.)
But even Williams disbanded this corrosive system around 1970. it's fair to say this decision ushered in a host of moves to serve a modern, meritocratic, pluralist society.
1
Fraternities - exclusive clubs for privileged white boys to bond, establish career contacts and prepare themselves for privileged life beyond college. I know that's a bit of generalization, just my perception while in college.
1
It was September of my freshman year of college over forty years ago. I read in the school newspaper about numerous fraternity parties and, being lonely and away from home for the first time, looked forward to the prospect of making new friends at the frats. So I attended a few parties. They were revolting. Their was no real socializing, but just drunken behaviour by upperclassmen touting their phoney "brotherhood" while trying to hustle co-eds up to their rooms by various smarmy tactics - from painfully trying to be suave by offering them a "tour of the house" to more painfully lecturing freshman girls that they "were not in high school anymore". Shot "parties". Grain "parties". Exotic dancers (even as a naive freshman I knew to avoid those). After going to a few of these pathetic crowded loud gatherings, each time leaving with dashed hopes and disappointed at their Neanderthal banality, I never went again.
7
We only hear the small percentage of extreme negative and sad examples of Greek life, and while there should always be awareness of the potential for some individuals to make very bad decisions with bad to fatal consequences, we should also look at the other examples that reflect the rest of the Greek system. We need to hear more of the good that takes place in our world instead of the current mentality of tearing everything down and demanding the whole system should be taken down. There are millions in this world and men, women, gay, straight, Christian or not, we are capable of many things, some bad, but more are good. Let's focus on that.
Over 800 campuses in the United States and Canada participate in Greek Life
The Greek system is the largest network of volunteers in the US, donating over 10 million hours of volunteer service each year
Over $7 million is raised each year by Greeks
850,000 hours are volunteered by greeks annually
There are 123 fraternities and sororities with 9 million members
Of the nation's 50 largest corporations, 43 are headed by Greek participants.
85% of the Fortune 500 executives belong to a fraternity.
40 of 47 U.S. Supreme Court Justices since 1910 were in a fraternity.
Every U.S. President and Vice President, except two in each office, born since the first social fraternity was founded in 1825 have been members of a fraternity.
The first Female Senator was Greek
The first Female Astronaut was Greek
5
The ancient Greeks would wonder just what we got from history.
Get these 'greek life' pledges debate Aristotle, Socrates, Epicurus and all the rest, and drinking oneself blind might feel like less of a pastime.
2
Amherst College abolished fraternities more than a generation ago. The incident that precipitated it: the wife of Amherst's President opened her door one night to find a stark naked sophomore pledge to a frat house bound and gagged. Not long after Amherst's Trustees abolished fraternities.
3
Mr. Bruni,
According to the link you included in paragraph 5 there are about 2.1 alcohol/drug related deaths annually, per 100,000 undergraduate fraternity members.
According to the CDC, there are about 9.3 drug/alcohol deaths per 100,000 American males between the ages of 15-25.
2.1 ... 9.3
You are an intelligent man. How about digging a little deeper before advocating such anti-progressive policies as guilt by association and collective punishment.
2
The fraternities are the training grounds for the country club and the rotary club. They are the basic training sites for the local 'aristocracies' who will lord it over Jugsville while never aspiring to larger things. Rah Rah. Adlai once noted that the Republicans had replaced the New Dealers with the car dealers. Onward forever to the 18th hole, fellows. But keep it off college campuses.
2
After many years not setting foot on the campus of the University of Minnesota, which I had attended in the early '70's, I had reason to meet someone on campus at 9 am on a Sunday morning. I thought it would be nice to wander the places I had known so well, so I parked on River Road and walked across campus. Of course I noticed many new buildings and re-landscaped green spaces, but I was also struck by the density of Asian students, up early, walking briskly on a cool October morning, carrying books... there had been but few Asians on campus during my time.
Then I walked "frat row." The amount of trash surrounding the Greek houses, literally piles of it, was appalling. Such fine young men.
I was not in a frat in the 70's - they had a reputation for being full of partying jerks in my time. But I don't remember piles of trash surrounding the frats then, or multiple fraternity hazing deaths either. Alas, like mass shootings in the USA, including the killing of dozens of first graders in Connecticut, fraternity hazing deaths have become acceptable in our "culture." They occur over and over and over again, and we accept them... we do nothing meaningful to prevent them.
3
One of the great mistakes I made in my early life was joining a fraternity at one of the colleges I attended. I found it to be a hothouse of sexism, racism, homophobia, alcoholism and general stupidity. The secret clubbiness of it all was also cloying.
1
Hilarious!
"There’s some evidence that students in fraternities maintain higher-than-average grades..."
Some? You'd think if they were good for education, there would be more than "some" - and it wouldn't be as a dangling question mark, as in, "Suuuuuum?"
The wonder is that their grades aren't FAR higher than average, but "they" typically do enough to get by - not to get any extra notice... Read on...
My experience with most "organizations" on campus, including ROTC, was it was a cute way to or-gan-ize cheating. The number of instant "tutors" - who took a class (exam) on Monday, "helping" the kids who took the same class (exam) on Tuesday was NOT amazing - sickening. The files full of "old" tests to "help guide study" and the notebooks full of lecture notes. The "study groups" that would split up a task, "Who's Dad does this?" and then "share" a grade - mind boggling. Over time, it's given us a "culture" of "teamwork" that really amounts to:
"There's more of us than there are of him/her/them - and if we can't figure out how to get what we want, then we'll find someway to get someone to get us what we want."
Works for them.
Change? Never gonna happen. Not now.
They - and there are lot's of "theys.." - are "City Hall" when it comes to change.
They are really good at this - (wink, wink).
And, that's bad...
7
At a time when our society is contending with (and desperately seeking to remediate) the ramifications of centuries of prejudicial thinking based on racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, etc. — all of which are fundamentally based on overgeneralizing — it is remarkable to see a opinion piece based on exactly the same fallacies, much less in a bastion of progressive discourse like the NYTimes.
Not all Greek organizati
ons, nor all their members, are guilty of such behavior—not even close. We do not tolerate wholesale attacks on entire groups due to the misconduct of a few individual members in other contexts; there is no sound basis to do so here.
One need only consider the UVA/Rolling Stone scandal, and the manner in which such prejudice lead to rampant and inaccurate predicament there to see why.
Double-Secret Probation, indeed.
2
"Animal House", the iconic film staring John Belushi, says it all.
1
I chose my college (in 1981) specifically because there was no Greek life. I applied early decision. There was always plenty of social life. I would make the same choice today. Fraternities and sororities are diametrically opposed to the purpose of higher education. Do students need to blow off steam? Absolutely. Can students be stupid without Greek life? You bet! But institutionalizing everything wrong is disgraceful. As for the social aspects (not related to partying) and community work....one can easily find other groups/associations to accomplish those goals.
4
The relevant question is why are the alumni so supportive, and the graduates more successfull? Its because the vast majority of fraternity brothers have a profoundly positive college experience and develop life long bonds with a close network / group of friends. The positive experience that 95% of fraternity brothers have is a huge part of a successful college experience. If fraternity life is not for a particular individual, fine, but why take the opportunity away from others who may thrive, prosper, and develop into a well rounded leader through the fraternity experience because of the actions of a tiny minority of college kids acting recklessly?
regarding the diversity/inclusion issue, today, their are separate dorms for athletes, dorms for kids who choose to self-segregate with those who share their beliefs (social justice, female only etc.) Some schools are even instituting separate graduations for Latinos and African Americans. So singling out fraternities as not "inclusive " is absurd.
6
I attended a “party school” in the late ‘60’s. I paid all my own expenses. Then I went to the University of Michigan for grad school. Both had fraternities and sororities.
Greek life made sense in the 1920’s until about 1965. That era saw universities as parent substitutes. After 1965, universities outside the Deep South did not advocate a strong parental role with students. College students are 90% age 18 and older. Yet fraternities regularly looked the other way regarding hazing, underage drinking, assault and sexual assault. What responsible parent does that?
Greek life should be abolished. Everywhere. If 18-22 year-old students want to be a member of a fraternity or sorority, let them create such places off-campus. Then city police can arrest people who assault and abuse their peers or underage guests. Prison or jail awaits. Much better than the current system where universities act like the Catholic Church and sweep crime under the rug.
Grow up!!!
71
The author is right on some counts, but my experience with TKE did not include forced drinking or encouraged sexual assaults or strict segregation or privileged characters. It did include a lot of opportunities for leadership, authorship, financial training and budgeting, opportunities to demonstrate and teach fairness, friendship, mutual support, community and campus service, joint events with women’s dorm like J-prom and Tekequacades, creativity and teamwork like homecoming floats, and yes some drinking at the Taphouse and Tavern. Group singing, let’s not forget that!!! Bad people exist in any environment and in most groups. What colleges have not provided is effective guidance or discipline for groups where immaturity could fester. Thank goodness most of our older fraters were decent human beings. Our “hazing” was mostly work and exercises to get a closer understanding of each other. Frankly, the only stupid thing I remember in hazing involved an olive and a block of ice. I’ve seen much worse things on reality television.
2
Women have emancipated the world from male privilege, imagine the historic opportunity for extraordinary young men to really figure it out.
So while the fraternities remain the bastions of the sophomoric crudity that will stunt their relationships when they ultimately enter the emancipated world, the young men who figured it out will be taking their friendships, men and women, beyond the college years COMPLETELY INTACT.
In a final appeal to fraternities: Fraternities, outside your walls, other young men will be 'fitting the bill' for the emancipated world, does it make sense to transform your institution at this moment?
Wow your last statement hits home!
I very recently heard of a drinking male teen very much out of control.
His fraternity brothers did what friends do when someone is in trouble...they called to police who arrived, scooped up the young man and took him to a hospital and called his parents to come get him. Excessive drinking is extremely dangerous and needs to be treated as such. BTW this was at UC Berkley in Berkeley CA.
Step by step, our freedoms are strangled. Deeply sad. To me, men like Mr. Bruni are deeply to be feared. The world is to be remade in their own image. And it's been working, for a long time.
I was a fraternity boy at University of California starting in 1966. It was a great experience. I have many friends from there after 50 years. Doesn't matter. I could go on and on. Nowadays, we do not punish wrongdoers, we punish the whole class-- like kulaks.....
3
At a time when our society is contending with ramifications of centuries of prejudicial thinking based on racism, sexism, transphobia, and homophobia, etc. — all of which are fundamentally based on overgeneralizing — it is remarkable to see a opinion piece that is based on exactly the same fallacies, much less in a bastion of progressive discourse like the NYTimes.
Not all Greek organizations are bad, nor are all members of them. We do not accept the wholesale impugnment of entire groups due to the misconduct of a few individual members in other context; there is no sound basis to do so in this one.
One need only consider the UVA/Rolling Stone scandal, and the manner in which such prejudice lead to rampant and inaccurate predicament there to see why.
3
Years ago, I asked my dad why he didn't pledge a frat when he was in college. I think he shrugged and said simply that he wasn't interested in it.
Years later I realized that my dad, who had flown 35 combat missions over WW II Germany and had spent months as a P.O.W., probably had just found the whole frat scene ridiculously sophomoric.
1
In the mid 1960s I was a member of a high school fraternity. So were many others. It was a great experience. We had fraternity parties and dances with the sororities. We had fun. There was no drinking or drugs. One summer we took a trip to Wilkes-Barre to Harvey's Lake and met with another fraternity chapter and the sorority sisters too and had lots of fun at the beach and the drive-in movies. Today, former members of Sigma Alpha Rho still stay in touch and help mentor new members and lead the chapters in social and civic affairs.
College was another, and totally different experience. I visited friends at Penn State and remember visiting some other frats on Fraternity Row. The party scene was far removed from high school. Drinking and seducing women was the primary activity. Getting a young woman drunk was raised to an art form. saw lots of women being led upstairs for private attention. The benefits of being in a fraternity were crystal clear; alcohol and women. There were no chaperones and no oversight by any national organizations. One of my friends who graduated in 1969 later told me that marijuana was bigger than alcohol and you could get anything you wanted at a frat house.
In 1966 I joined a fraternity at Indiana Institute of Technology. It was, to say the least, very loosy goosy about everything. Fortunately by October 1966 I enlisted in the army and I did not fall deeply into the frat scene. I didn't miss a thing. Shut them all down. They're just not necessary.
1
Racial and religious discrimination in public places have been outlawed for decades. Fraternities and sororities are public places because they allow non-members to enter and partake of their services. Many fraternities do discrimante illegaly. Why is their operation not challenged on that basis?
Let’s also not forget that fraternities are havens of sexual assault. A recent review of University of Missouri Greek life discovered as much. But since most frats and sororities operate on semi-autonomous legal grounds with generous funding from alumni networks, university administrations are ill-equipped to do much.
1
In my former academic career, I taught at two colleges that had strong Greek systems.
One of them, a large state university, was so into the Greek system that the students' involvement sapped energy from other extra-curricular activities. When you have a 16,000-student university with ONE 40-person vocal music ensemble and a theater program that has to recruit townspeople to cast its plays, you've got a problem.
As far as I could tell, the fraternities were mostly devoted to drinking, vandalism, and "scoring" sexually. The sororities were devoted to participating in the fraternity parties and creating caricatures of Mad Men-era womanhood by holding formal dinners and teas and placing gooey personal ads ("Delta lovies and kissies to our sister Ashley who just got engaged to DKE Ryan") in the student paper. Both the brothers and the sisters were inclined to skip classes during pledge week, and both justified the existence of their organizations by pointing to the one fundraising campaign they conducted each year for a national charity.
One colleague told me that he thought the Greek system was designed to make college tolerable for people who weren't interested in learning.
After two years at that state university, I was inclined to agree.
7
The specific reason members of fraternities and sororities manage somewhat better than average academic performance despite heavy drinking is that they have libraries of tests previously given by each professor. If you're taking Econ 101 with Jones you have the opportunity to review his past midterms, collected by brothers and sisters who previously took his class. Professors often use the same questions again and again, so you will likely see many of the same questions on the midterm Jones gives to you - you might even see the exact same test, given to you by someone who has the same class on a different schedule.
3
That was not true in my sorority. We didn’t have a test bank, but I did hear rumors that most fraternities did. The reason my sorority had a higher than average GPA was due to our Academic Leadership chair, who held mandatory study hours every Sunday. Unless you had a 3.5 GPA or greater, you were required to attend 2 study hours each week. We also celebrated our high GPAs by giving gifts to the women who earned a 4.0.
I think that most military veterans attending college are more interested in getting an education that carousing in the typical fraternity. Nor would they be much interested in participating in "brotherhood development exercises" otherwise known as hazing as they had enough of similar treatment in basic training.
As a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, I can attest first hand that the drinking culture is frequently out of control. However, the administrative response -- to ban Greek life -- ignores the realities that cause freshman boys to join fraternities, namely the strict ban on alcohol in the dorms and the lack of social life that results. I've several friends who chose not to join fraternities the first semester of their freshman year, but were subsequently forced to by the shear boredom that resulted from a lacking dorm social scene.
I contrast that with my experiences at Stanford University, in which drinking and smoking marijuana are if not encouraged at least tolerated in the freshman dorms. Greek life exists there, but it is far less prevalent and far less outrageous. The simple truth is that freshman boys (and girls) want to drink and will drink. Banning fraternities, while providing few truly fun alternates, simple forces the "fun" underground. I would know -- my fraternity was "disbanded" before I even set foot on the Ann Arbor campus and eventually lost the house due to a series of incidents many years after supposedly being defunct.
1
Anyone who is "bored" on the University of Michigan campus or at any other large university has very limited horizons. Even during the summer session I spent there in the 1980s, it had a rich program of movies, live theater, and other performing arts, including a world-famous modern dance troupe.
Believe it or not, non-Greek students make friends by joining activities ranging from intramural sports to political clubs to performing arts groups.
1
When I went to college some 30 years ago, I went to a university whose fraternities dominated "social life" on campus. I found the whole thing distasteful and refused to join one. I regarded it then, and still regard it, as primarily an insincere way to buy your "friends." And, of course, the notorious "parties" were simply excuses for everyone to get drunk and behave as obnoxiously as possible.
Has anything changed? Not really. And I certainly have no regrets. If they are ever banned, who would really miss them, and why? As far as I can tell, they promote the worst of adolescent behavior.
2
This one of those boards where everyone is right. Yes Animal House did revive fraternities. A friend of mine thinks its release was the final end of the '60s. But it is a long revival. The 21 year old drinking age is also a big driver. We have created a prohibition culture (they showed me the hidden rooms when I toured sororities) in colleges and then let the seniors drink. We have made alcohol use the defining rite of passage but cut young people off from learning how to drink responsibly. The big reason that fraternities keep going is that they provide housing in mega size state schools that were never meant to take in every mid-level high school student. The truth is that by junior year most college students are bored with these clubs but the rules make it hard to quit.
1
I was not in a sorority in college, but all the boys I dated were in a fraternity and that's where all the parties were. Both my children were Greek members and enjoyed the camaraderie tremendously.
When one looks at the statistics of how Greek life is expanding, one can't help but wonder if this is not the result of so much diversity on campuses today. Young people are away from home for the first time. They are looking for a group to which they might belong and most prefer the familiar. People feel adrift today and finding a group of people like oneself is a help, especially on a large campus. Most students who are Greeks aren't as involved with their chapter by their junior/senior years - they're now secure enough to "move on" and explore other people and ideas.
All this drinking and violence is a direct result of universities deciding many years ago to no longer operate in loco parentis. No dorm hours, no restrictions on opposite sex visits, co-ed dorms - basically next to no rules at all. And you know what, the students are NOT "young men and women" - they are still very much "children", especially in this era of helicopter parenting! A bit less freedom and stoping looking the other way might make a difference.
2
Parents and prospective students should be warned about the quasi-frat-house living arrangements, the only on-campus housing available, at the California Institute of Technology.
1
The concept of "rushing" fraternities may have a lot to do with what happens next, the hazing. When male freshmen rush a fraternity, they essentially apply to the organization they most want to join. Among a small horde, fledgling students then have to individually prove themselves worthy of membership. If the process weren't so, in essence, rushed, fraternity members couldn't force so many to perform like seals competing for a limited number of fish. Social science has spent a lot of time studying group behavior, in which the individual is often found to lose his sense of identity, personal will and mores. In a fraternity rush, many students are so desperate to lodge themselves within a group, they don't behave as they normally would and thus allow themselves to be called upon, with almost literally a moment's notice, to eagerly perform often bizarre deeds and undertake dangerous drinking. I don't know enough about Greek life to suggest how a non-rush application process would work, but I went to a vast university where I saw the homes draw in some as would an island amid the sea. If the young are not pitted against each other in a jostling, ridiculing, mindless manner, they might think twice about the soundness of what they're told to do. If the older males in fraternities can't use their minds, maybe the younger ones, not acting yet in group-think and desperation, perhaps could.
I was at Rutgers back in 1988 when James Callahan, a pledge at Lambda Chi Alpha, died from hazing related drinking. Universities instituted tougher drinking restrictions on fraternities and sororities. They offered more education on the effects of drinking. And society debated the pros and cons of fraternities and sororities, pondering the possibilities of severing their relationships with schools. Nearly thirty years later, we are still talking as if this crisis suddenly arose and caught us unaware.
1
I was a sorority pledge who turned in my house key and quit the day before initiation. Despite my mom's encouragement to join based on her own positive experience, it didn't feel right. The songs, the rituals, the holding hands and open-bathroom-door policy--not to mention the sweaty, smoky parties in the basements of frat houses--yuck. I won't encourage my own children to participate in Greek life for all the reasons pointed out in this piece. I hope they'll be engaged and involved in campus life, but not like this.
1
Ironically most of the negative comments about Greek life come from those not involved in it. I am in a social fraternity at a large university in the South and I can tell you from experience you are wrong. Many fraternities here are diverse in every way possible. My fraternity has members from all over the United States, of many different races, political beliefs, sexualities and religious views. Judging hundreds of thousands of college students in Greek life because of some people’s horrible decisions. Obviously people in fraternities have done awful things but the notion that Greek life harbors racism, sexism, and homophobia is not true. If anything, those prejudices are college and cultural problems. Things like sexual assault, alcoholism, and drug abuse are also very prominent out of Greek life, but most of the time only the cases involving fraternities make the news. These problems are societal issues that are not confined to Greek life and should not be solely attributed to those who happen to be fraternity members.
3
I would not trust any research that claims fraternities give an academic advantage. At my wife’s graduate level program, it was well known that the fraternities enabled and encouraged cheating. They had copies of all the old exams and professors rarely updated questions. I ignored and avoided them while I was in college and don’t regret it for an instant.
1
I attended a public university in the early 80s. I rushed sororities and was invited to join, but never understood the concept of paying for friends when I could make them for free. And hazing was equally prevalent and creepy among the sisterhood. These were mean girls. Attending frat parties was openly dangerous for women. The entire system should be allowed to die. I also have children in college or approaching college age. As they investigate colleges, I encourage them to find out what percentage of students are Greek. An earlier commenter said her son’s university offered little social life outside the Greek system. I would strongly discourage my children from considering that college. I’ve also spoken to my kids about dangerous group-think and stupid binge-drinking in Marching Band and athletic teams. Kids have died in those groups also.
3
Moving to Belgium for grad school, I noticed a lively "fraternity" culture that is a long standing tradition at my 200 year old school. The welcome booklet warned newcomers to not be concerned about pledges in chains and dirty robes, that it's just a hazing tradition. It prompted a comparison between here and my Alma mater state university in the US.
The first problem with the US is the binge drinking. Drinking is certainly part of fraternity hazing in the EU, but young adults have been drinking openly and legally since 15. American students' first real exposure to alcohol is being hazed with it for the first time at 18, and most importantly, ILLEGALLY.
Second, the hazing in the EU is done in the open. The pledges are on their knees in the city parks, being yelled at and having eggs thrown at them. In the US, groups will still haze. There's no changing that. But they're forced to do it clandestinely, and "illegally" (by the university.)
Now we have a doubled-down danger in the US situation- illegally inebriated young adults are performing an illegal ritual in secret, and SOMEONE has to gather up the guts to go against it all and to call the cops/ambulance for someone who might be in danger? And we wonder why there's deaths?
Change the system, but in a different way. Do away with the alcohol taboo/illegality. Bring hazing out in the open,instead of universal condemnation. And if there's danger, provide someone the opportunity to not be afraid to call for help.
1
I joined a fraternity. I didn't intend to, but I had a terrible experience in the dorm and decided to give it a try.
There are all kinds of fraternities and all kinds of guys in them, from the "big man on campus" types to the quiet, studious pre-med types. Different frats have different personalities. I found one that was right for me. It was mostly composed of engineering, business, and pre-med students, for the most part very serious about their education.
I was not hazed. Nothing dangerous or that involved alcohol. I'd call what we did "stunts." As an 18 year old, it was fun. Marines in boot camp go through way worse treatment... not even any equivalence but I mention it because everyone seems to think THAT is alright.
Most of the guys had steady girlfriends and they married them.
Yes, we consumed too much alcohol. I think alcohol consumption needs to be addressed, and it is not just a frat problem, it is a societal problem. I didn't join in order to consume alcohol, I joined to have friends.
And I made lifelong friends who are still with me today.
Frats that abuse their charters should get the death penalty. Leave the rest of us alone please. Today, frats have sober brothers who monitor the well-being of female guests, ensure there is no harassment, and that they make it safely home with a sober driver. Racial segregation remains an issue that needs to be addressed, as it does throughout society. Why pick on frats?
3
Why aren't there adults who wander through the parties from time to time to see that no one is being hurt or falling down drunk or being sexually molested? A tour by a person with authority could perhaps forestall some of the excesses. Maybe just taking a young person aside or helping them outside or asking others to hang out with people who need some oversight?
I'm not talking chaperone here, just a sense that there are people who will be around if something goes wrong. It might inhibit some of the worst activities.
1
With rare exception, all the people at a fraternity party are adults.
2
Yes I wasn't clear. Sure they are of legal age, but some even older oversight would be in order I would think, without being a party dampener. Deterrent? Reassurance for some? Especially the women?
While Franks's appeal resonates emotionally I'm not sure his inductive reasoning--ban the Greeks--is a conclusion that's fairly drawn. How many kids tragically die from alcohol poisoning on college campuses outside the Greek system? True, hazing--and forced drinking--are endemic to fraternities but is [peer-pressured] binge drinking peculiar to fraternities? And the resultant tragic fatalities as well? I would doubt it.
Went to a large Urban University that did not have frat houses...they had frat & sorority rooms. I checked out who had the largest, quietest room with the most comfortable (good to sleep on) furniture and I joined. Didn’t go to the first drunken party, nor did I go thru any humiliating pledge hazing. A lot of nice girls were in the chapter and helpful with my classes. Maybe it was the setting...or the maturity of the girls...or we just all wanted a nice safe room to crash between classes...it just seems so foreign to what is happening now...this was during the mid ‘60’s and on the edge of events that would rock our Country. And, we all worked...none of us were wealthy.
This is why my girls will be drinking in supervised fashion in high school. When they get to college and need to associate with these bozos as they explode into their unsupervised world, my daughters will already know their limits, and be mindful.
If we are serious about stopping binge drinking in college, we need to adopt sensible attitudes toward alcohol as a society. Start by lowering the drinking age to 16, and removing the mystique and naïveté. See Europe for an example.
6
Colleges could return to education if the US brought the drinking age back to 18 - as many colleges presidents have supported.
Where else are the under 21 set going to be able to go to experiment with sex, drugs and alcohol other than on a college campus? Two out of three of these will get you arrested and a record if you're not at college.
Try asking parents sometime - like I have over the last many years - why they don't let their high schoolers do A, B or C? Their number one response ...
"That's what college is for."
2
I attended an Ivy League graduate school during a period when the legal drinking age in that state was 18. I assure you that binge drinking at the social events was so prevalent that students whose religion forbade drinking often petitioned to be exempt from the social activities fee.
I grew up among largely European relatives who began serving me before-dinner cocktails and then wine with dinner when I was about 14. There was no "forbidden fruit" appeal to drinking at college when I had been allowed to do it in front of my relatives for four years.
Fraternities are supposed to give their members the tools to live a full life. Substance abuse is not one of them. Drinking responsibly and interacting responsibly with members of the opposite sex are. As is respect for oneself and others. As is studying and staying healthy.
Hazing does not respect others.
Mr. Bruni, You are absolutely right, but Trump's america, fuggedaboutit. It may be an equally ridiculous hard sell, but just as important, to end the reign of "collegiate" athletics. What other non-communist country has a professional sports system that uses high schools and colleges/universities as a farm team system. Right, none.
American loves football, basketball, and baseball, unfortunately in that order. That is the order that the pro-leagues utilize education as their training grounds. If you look at the fan base for these sports at both the college and pro level, I'm sure that you'd find the party people, I mean the Greeks, as a yuge majority.
Want a better America, get rid of both.
2
I don't necessarily blame the fraternities. I do, however, blame the kids for not allowing anyone to summon help when they saw that a young man that they purported to be "brothers" with was in peril. That is the part that must be so shattering to the grieving parents. Why no one came to the aid of their son. These kids are self centered and cruel. Heartless. That is what makes these senseless deaths so awful. The kids are awful. I hope they all go to jail.
6
Having worked at universities with fraternities and sororities, and those without, I prefer not to deal with members of Greek Life. Most of my students are female. From my observations, sorority members tried to marginalize members of "lesser sororities" and those that did not get bids had a very rough time completing the semester (they seemed to feel ostracized and shamed by the ones that got in). Every semester, a few sorority members would ask to reschedule assignments, leave class early, etc because of a conflict between course requirements and sorority requirements. I had a few sorority members tell me their sorority was more important than any classes, because they were learning leadership skills, which are far superior to the intellectual nature of most classes.
I guess if someone wants to prioritize improving their social and networking skills over their coursework, that is up to them. However, I much prefer working at a university with no Greek Life and less focus on cultivating and establishing your status in the club.
11
I don't understand what would motivate anyone to join a friend-group that requires ritual humiliation as the price of admission.
7
EvelynU:
They join frats for the promise of wine and women while they are there, and connections that sustain their position in the ruling class thereafter.
1
When I was a grad student at a university with a very large number of fraternities, I shared a house with other students in the "faculty ghetto" part of town, which was also close to several frats. Next door to us lived an elderly emeritus professor, whom we befriended. The mildest of men, whom you had to strain to hear. One day when the conversation turned to the loud partying from the nearest frat the previous night, he said "Oh, I don't mind the boys so much. But there are days when I wish the place would burn down to the ground."
To which I now say, Amen.
7
As a general matter, it’s hard for someone like me who never partook of “Greek life” to defend it or even to see any value in it. Parents might see value in their child hobnobbing with others among the privileged, remembering the lifelong contacts they made during their college years that eased entry into a privileged adult world. However, while that’s a rationalization that could appeal to the silver-spooned, it’s not one with which most would sympathize. David Brooks might understand such a life on a certain level, as it clearly fosters a type of “community”.
I’ve never begrudged the Greeksters what always struck me as a framework for socializing largely wealthy late-adolescents who should have been (but apparently weren’t) adequately socialized by parents and family, and thirteen years of public or private education. But I’ve never given it much thought, one way or another – if this means of expressing and baking-in privilege were banned, some other, off-campus version probably would be devised with even more arcane and dangerous rituals that encouraged license, since campus authorities no longer would possess the leverage necessary to barely keep the lid on.
But, now that I’m called to consider the matter by Frank’s concern, let’s really look at it.
Six died in 2014 and seven in 2012. Presumably, each year yields its similar toll due to infantile revelry.
4
Well, there are approx. 9 million student and alumni members of fraternities and sororities in North America, and about 750,000 are current members in undergraduate chapters (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternities_and_sororities#Demographics). If you assume a fatality rate of seven per year, that comes to roughly a 0.000933% fatality rate.
By way of comparison, there are approx. 2.4 million boy scouts in America. From 2005-2010, 32 died in outdoor events (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/05/nation/la-na-scouts-list-online-.... At an average of 6.4 fatalities per year over those years, that’s a fatality rate of 0.000853%, still low but about the same as for Greeksters.
One might argue that pitching a tent or canoeing a river has more social value than bonding over bourbon (and I’d agree), but those 9 million might well disagree. Seems to me that fatality numbers that low don’t argue the level of concern expressed.
Frank also asserts that Greek life contradicts “our stated values and undercut[s] our supposed goals for higher education“. Well, it contradicts mine as well. However, it obviously doesn’t contradict the values of those 9 million. Unless one can point to permanently deleterious effects more serious than the 0.000933% fatality rate given such prominence here, it seems to me that the argument is unproven in an America where we get to do pretty much whatever we want to do that isn’t illegal.
7
Well done! But factual, and that's not popular nor compelling these days.
1
The Greek system and the like, think the Porcellian at Harvard, or Skull & Bones at Yale, are a big part of the structure of privilege and corruption that runs the U.S. Club world! The drinking is a terrible sideshow, very sad for a few people, but not the worst thing by far that these organizations do to the social fabric, in the schools that host them or later on. It would be interesting to do a Greek/club map of the financial world...
5
Nice to agree with a New York Times report. These groups are throw-backs and prosper on the often intentional exclusion of others.
1
Neither my husband nor I belonged to a Greek house while in college. I had no interest in belonging to a group who could tell me what to do and when (it's spring clean-up this weekend!), make commentary on who I dated, and on and on. I had no shortage of friends, and remained completely engaged in my educational pursuits. It escaped me then and still does as to why anyone thinks this system is required to have a full and complete life during their college years.
6
Notre Dame has never had fraternities and they’re doing fine.
3
Brohibition.
5
My experience in a fraternity exposed me to privileged people who try to legitimize behaviors that should unacceptable in the real world, showed how people in closed door groups can acquire lasting extreme positions on important political issues (think race, gender, class), how pecking orders based upon family wealth and status are of great importance within the hallowed halls of the frat house, and promote sexual attitudes that were down right sick and disgusting.
The sexual deviance, abuse, and entitlement promoted within the fraternity was beyond appalling. I'll never forget the freshman year "Pig Party" hosted at the frat house, where "over weight, unattractive co-eds" were invited, and then made fun of, laughed at, and taunted by the boys. But during "rush" I was informed this was supposedly a "cool fraternity", if you wanted to be part of a larger social scene on campus, this was the place to be. Earlier on, as part of recruiting, a few sorority hotties cozied up to me to encourage me to join this one vs any other. One year was more than enough, and of course I don't keep in touch with any of "my bros".
As far as the "charitable giving and work" some do, this seems more like scoundrels who wrap themselves in a flag for cover. I don't know of any charity that would require me to join a club and then binge drink before making a donation.
11
As an undergraduate some decades ago, I loathed fraternities and their culture; as a Classics major, I laughed that their pseudo-Greekness; and even today when I see advertisements for fraternities and sororities on my campus, I still smirk at the silliness of it all. However, we also live in an age where puritans rule the roost. Sure, we can aim to eliminate fraternities, with perhaps more success than Wilson had at Princeton with eating clubs, and find myriads of genuinely good justifications. But ask yourself, Mr. Bruni, would you be replacing them with something much better, or with nothing? Or would you be knocking one more nail in the coffin of joy, freedom, and community that attracts the denizens of Alpha Omega. It may not be the sort of community that you or I would relish, but that is what puritans cannot stand, that someone may find happiness in what they don't. Regulate fraternities; harshly punish them when they act badly; most of all, provide alternatives; but also oppose the puritan parade. Life is risky, people act very stupidly, and we can enact laws to prevent them. We choose as a society how much risk will will allow and how much stupidity and bad behavior we will eschew preventing in the interests of freedom and the joy it allows. Incidentally, more college students commit suicide than die from all alcohol related causes, and many more than from fraternal idiocies.
7
Let's make the best of a bad situation. May the overpaid university présidents profit from the rise of a more muscular law enforcement policy under the Trump regime to monitor and punish these organisations of institutionalized delinquance with vigour. The number one American rival China pulls no punches in dealing with organisations which threaten the common well-being of the Chinese nation. America should not do less.
During the Wilhelmine period, Germany was filled with elitist dueling clubs, like the USA's fraternities. Only the elite gentiles could belong, if you can believe it. And to have a lurid fresh scar on one's left cheek, this was the hallmark of status among the Junker barons who amused themselves with anachronistic pursuits like fencing without masks...a reactionary aspect of higher education we could all do without and one that Germans no longer have to suffer at their schools.
4
These achronistic groups perpetuate a stratification that excludes rather than includes talented decent Americans and keeps the Old Boy And OLD WEALTHY CLASS in power. They need to go but will likely endure off campus. Power loves power and will not easily let it go.
2
I was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Eta Sigma, and Phi Kappa Phi at UW-Madison. No misbehavior whatsoever associated with these fraternities
3
During college I used to work part-time as a bouncer at a struggling bar in a small liberal arts town, favored by local frats and sororities. On a regular basis these young men and women trashed the place, causing damage to property and being an all together pain for staff. However they also where without a doubt the "best" customers, typically spending ungodly somes of money on a night. As such, we bouncers were told to "go easier" on them and had a separate "black list" policy.
I think the dilemma which the bar faced, speaks to the larger issue of frats today. On the one hand, universities need frats for their alumni donations and individuals have the rights to personal associations. On the other hand, whether it's segregation or vomit filled ashtrays, its us on the outside who have to deal with the mess.
7
I can't imagine going to my alma mater if q
Fraternities and sororities always struck me as anachronistic and cliquish. Call me a nerd, but when I applied to college in the fall of 1977, I considered only schools that met two criteria -- no football team (too many financial resources expended on non-academic concerns) and no fraternities.
I believed then, and still do, that Greek life offers nothing that can't be found elsewhere on campus. People who defend fraternities and sororities for their charitable work can't possibly believe there are no other outlets on campus for students with charitable impulses. Campuses are awash in organizations for students with a social conscience to join.
As for the assertion that students in fraternities go on to find more professional satisfaction later in life, not only does that sound like a spurious claim (how does one even go about proving that?), I would posit that if true, it might stem from fraternity members granting/receiving hiring preference to/from fellow chapter members -- which, as Mr. Bruni says throughout the piece, constitutes discrimination.
11
Great logic.
One media columnist writes a terrible column, full of willful errors, which incites violence and leads to death.
Therefore all columnists should be fired.
3
The problem lies in the "exclusivity" of fraternities and sororities. Somewhat like the military, these organizations impose "hazing" rituals- like basic training, the instillation of a team spirit, and a feeling of superiority to those who have not made it through the gauntlet for admission. Unlike the military, however, fraternities and sororities are run by a bunch of ids away from home for the first time and they let it all get out of control.
My nephew was at an underground fraternity hazing event where a 19 year old died from alcohol poisoning. they did not call for help, pulled the young man out of the house and tried to figure out how they would avoid getting into trouble while their putative "brother" turned blue.
There are other ways to make friends, network and do good things for the community.
As they exist now, fraternities and sororities do more harm than good.
4
Most surveys identify about one-third of university students as heavy drinkers to incapacitation at least once a month - so unless you can posit that the one-third are all in Frats then your basic thesis is faulty.
3
It's a mistake to put the onus on college administrators to clean this problem up. Given First Amendment protections of free association, there is nothing they can do except on the margins. The only way to really kill fraternities is a change in our alcohol laws.
In the 1970s fraternities were in decline, increasingly seen as relics of another era, but in the 1980s after the drinking age was raised to 21, they enjoyed an explosion in popularity. And the reason was simple: students who hadn't yet turned 21 went to the frats to get alcohol. This is the central reason fraternities still exist and the source of all their power on campus: they are the only organizations that are willing and able to buy drinks for the underage.
The way to take power away from fraternities is to remove their control of the spigots, and that requires a change in the law, which currently provides no legal way to give alcohol to anyone under 21. I believe we should raise the legal age to buy take-home containers of alcohol to 25 and lower the drinking age for on-premises consumption in bars and restaurants to 18. This would deny frats the ability to acquire alcohol and put undergrads who want to drink under the supervision of professionals who can cut them off when they've had too much. Do this and fraternities will wither like unwatered plants. But first, legislators have to recognize that they, and not college administrators, are the ones who need to address this.
6
Fraternities were founded, and exist, to foster exclusivity. They were, and often still are cultures of racism, sexism, antisemitism, secretiveness and exclusivity.
We express being appalled at recent exposure of sexual harassment and assault, at disregard for the common good at the expense of the few, at racism that never left. Yes, members of Greek organizations often go on to successful careers in business, politics and other professions. They also take with them the culture they pledged in college.
Alcohol abuse is a big problem but one does not have to be or have been a fraternity member to get drunk in college, to be a jerk. That happens.
The culture fostered by Greek life goes far beyond weekend benders. That culture fosters lifelong attitudes.
7
Bruni is right, we need to figure out a way to get rid of or at least stop exalting these organization ns, make the truth about them more transparent and offer meaningful alternatives, for the support and social scene they offer. When I TA’d and taught classes as part of my graduate education at the University of WA, I saw the greek system as a toxic, anti-intellectual presence in campus. The main function seemed to be to enforce dominant norms and deliver young women to men who wanted sex from them. The Greek houses helped students cheat and plagiarize with their term paper files. When several students from the same sorority or fraternity were in class together, their worries abiut conformity and each others’ approval tamped down free ranging discussion and critical thinking. I had several male students seek me out after taking women’s studies classes to tell me they decided to get out of their fraternity because it was all sexism and homophobia and toxic masculinity all the time and they realized they didn’t want to enact homophobia and they wanted to have respectful work and personal relationships with women, and frat life ran diectoy counter to that. Colleges need to create vital and interesting residential life, and forbid Greek houses from rushing and recruiting first year students. It is much better for students to experience campus life OUTSIDE the greek system before they decide to join it.
2
Too many college students are incapable of the self-discipline and wisdom to avoid dangerous indulgences.
Forcing a pledge to drink to excess sounds like typical rather than rare irresponsible behavior.
Add peer pressure from those whose judgment is already impaired by alcohol and you have a predictable result.
If Greek organizations are allowed to remain under university auspices, it's up to the latter to provide 24/7 adult supervision, who prevent the infraction of rules before they happen.
4
I went to a small, arts-based college in a major city in the late 1980's. There were no sports teams that competed in the collegiate system, and the Greek system was thought of as highly uncool. In our dorm building, each floor had gender-based rooms, but there were rooms for both females and males on each floor, and there were small, home-style bathrooms that had a door that could lock for everyone to share. There were never, ever any problems with kids getting wasted to the point of severe debilitation, and no sexual harassment, despite the presence of an array of genders and sexual preferences. Mainstream colleges could do well to follow this type of culture.
5
I have to wonder how one would know if sexual harassment existed in any particular situation or living arrangement, especially given the quantity of episodes of which we're currently learning. Covert harassment, abuse and assault don't need fraternities and sororities to flourish, and both incidents perpetrators are usually like cockroaches that scurry away as you turn on the light.
I went to a small, arts-based college in a major city in the late 1980's. There were no sports teams that competed in the collegiate system, and the Greek system was thought of as highly uncool. In our dorm building, each floor had gender-based rooms, but there were rooms for both females and males on each floor, and there were small, home-style bathrooms that had a door that could lock for everyone to share. There were never, ever any problems with kids getting wasted to the point of severe debilitation, and no sexual harassment, despite the presence of an array of genders and sexual preferences. Mainstream colleges could do well to follow this type of culture.
I attended college in the early 70s; at the time, almost nothing was more dull, boring and unfashionable than a fraternity. This was the era of Vietnam protest marches and students taking over the dean's office. The fraternities and sororities represented the most staid, conservative, boring kids on campus. It was nerdy and nothing anyone I knew aspired to join.
Of those who DID join...it was often because one of their parents had belonged, and they were pushed into it reluctantly.
And then, in 1978 came....the film, "Animal House". This is completely underrated as the seed of the problem. I am amazed nobody else has mentioned it so far.
"Animal House" (set in 1963, an era viewed as nerdy and lame in 1978) depicted frat life as THE most fun, hilarious, rebellious and over the top experience a college student could have. And honestly, it looked like fun even to me -- and I was already graduated by then, and working, and had never had even the remotest interest in Greek life. The film is hysterically funny, and launched a half dozen careers for its stars.
Over the decades, many more films have been made and a legend was built, and countless millions of people now view Greek life as a continuous, rebellious, drunken, drug-addled party that never ends. For a certain type of young person, this is irresistible. It is what they want and aspire to.
The cat was thus out of the bag, and good luck stuffing it back in.
17
And who are the biggest enablers of the fraternity culture? Young women. Fraternity is a major part of the social culture of our universities. At the university my son attends, if you don't join one you don't have a social life. You are excluded from the social functions if you don't belong. Young women? All are welcome (though some may end up feeling unwelcome) and free and open access to the fraternity pools and parties is their major social outlet. If the girls took a stand against fraternity mayhem, fraternities would be ancient history.
5
Sure. Men behave badly: blame the women. A natural, logical argument.
I must say, though: It is an argument with a long, sad tradition.
Typically absurd. The men behave badly... so women must be the problem. Let me throw out a wild alternative: Let’s teach our young (and old) men to behave decently, instead of making lame excuses for them.
1
Jim
You are blaming women for the bad action of men. You need to take responsibility for your own reprehensible actions. I was in a sorority for my freshman year and I know for a fact it wasn't women raping their peers and torturing pledges, it was men. I was so disgusted by the Greek life that I switched universities but what really scares me then and now is that these degenerated men are running the country.
1
I’ve it were legal to drink at age 18, the young men in the story would have called an ambulance. Making alcohol illegal in college just drives it underground.
26
That's not the problem. The problem is institutionalized, competitive, alcohol abuse.
1
Most of the comments seem to be from people that could not get into fraternities and are jealous that others did. Colleges are experiences best survived with a tight circle of friends. Fraternities and sororities provide that group for many students via a systematic and successful process. It is why they will always exist in some form. My school did not allow fraternities, but created similar groups of 25-30 students that spent the four years together. I personally realized the benefits of that kind of group at school and during the 40 years since graduation. We did not network or hand out secret job opportunities. We did and do support each other, reveling in each others’ victories and commiserating over disappointments.
If you could not have that experience, I feel sorry for you. Do not try to take it away from other men and women.
16
My husband was a Beta Theta Pi member at Wabash College (Indiana) in the early 60's (may he now Rest In Peace.) From listening to him and attending reunions, he and his fellow Betas did credit the successes in their lives to both the fraternity and the college. They surely engaged in hazing rituals for their Pledges, but it must have been different all those years ago. (Wabash was, and still is, a private, all-men's college.)
It'll be sad if we lose them, but if they're killing young men, they've gotta go!
Good lord, some of us can make friend groups without having them "ready-made."
1
You'll find that college campuses are filled with students who have no interest in these clubs and look on them with disgust. We're not jealous.
4
I think reforming fraternities and other specialized student groups is far preferable to abolishing them.
13
I was never in a fraternity in college, just not interested. Lived in dorms and apartments. Had friends in fraternities and dated some sorority members. Far more drinking, drugs and sex in the dorm than in the Greek houses. I knew 2 guys expelled for bad grades because they drank/smoked dope too much. Both dorm residents. We had to take one friend to the hospital for too much alchohol after a dorm party. Guy on the floor below me in the dorm regularly hosted group sex parties in his room. Ban dorms and apartments too. Ban college kids while you are at it.
19
Your personal experience does not invalidate the facts of what has occurred at other universities.
You might as well say that you never killed anyone, so murder must not exist.
I attended Boston University in the late 60's and was grateful that the fraternities were all located in the same area with members arranged in self segregated cliques, conveniently letting everyone else know where the (pick your derogative term here) lay.
7
Is every single person involved in these instances in jail for negligent homicide? If not, why not? Start actually punishing people and you won't need to shut everything down.
15
We tiptoe around sexuality, forbid teens to drink and expect as little as possible from them in the way of effort and maturity. Then we drop them into a high-pressure full-time work environment with zero supervision and expect them to just maintain? Sure, Jan.
At my campus, every fraternity, including mine, put on frequent, alcohol-soaked parties that were conceived and executed as bait to lure teen and pre-teen girls who cruised the district on weekend nights. I was drunk all the time. My brothers and I harassed college women and broke every law we could, every chance we got. I failed most of my classes the first year, as did half my pledge class. We had important things to do, like worry about being blackballed by a bunch of bigots.
Anybody who thinks fraternities and sororities have any useful social function needs to check out any sorority's annual first night pledge mixer, at which teenaged girls are stuffed full of alcohol in an off-campus location away from home and the house (many sororities still forbid alcohol service). Community service is the lip service that binge drinking pays to university administrators. No college that truly wishes to turn responsible, thoughtful adults loose on society should support "Greek" life.
43
Eventually parents will decide that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their children to a four year party isn't a good investment - and then the colleges will find a way to get rid of this inanity.
The Ivies should follow some of the better private high schools, like Hotchkiss, and institute and enforce a zero tolerance policy for underage drinking. One infraction and you are gone.
8
We sent our sons off to college with a caveat: If you attempt to join a fraternity you can pay your own way through college. We attended a college in the late 1960s where everyone knew what went on in fraternities - sadistic hazing, rape, alcohol abuse - and guess what, it's no different today. Only difference is that college administrators can no longer ignore the reality - fraternities imperil lives.
25
Sororities, in the meantime, remain the calm little center of a respectable college social life for women...
7
You can't "ban" all Greek life and all of the good things that come from bonding in fraternities and sororities just because of the crimes of a few, anymore than you can confiscate the guns of all Americans that are used defensively and legally because of the crimes committed by the few, no matter how egregious those crimes are...
You're looking for a simple solution, the "quick fix" pill to ail what woes us. It's just not that easy. You have to slowly focus on specifics, by prosecuting those men who helped kill their classmates via their actions, and committed crimes that led to death. Collective punishment of all the good brothers and sisters will not work. Duh.
3
M
I never saw any good only bad, offensive, disgusting, vile and criminal. Look at all the men who harass women every day and this behavior is not only condone by fraternities but fostered and grown.
Cut out the cancer by getting rid of all fraternities. We should have gotten rid of them decades ago.
Punishment after the fact will not work.
Prevention is the best cure.
Should we also tally the numbers of sexual assaults and predators by fraternity members against women? How about the attempts by fraternity members to cover for the sexual abusers in their midst? Many years ago, a member of my fraternity, now a high school teacher was caught having sex with one of his underage students. Later, the man was again caught hiding in the girls house. Fraternity brothers rallied around the man and protected him. Today, he's still in the community - thankfully no longer a teacher. But he essentially got away with it.
I no longer have anything to do with that fraternity (or any fraternity, for that matter). Fraternities, like their members, are dinosaurs. It's time for them to end.
9
Why? Because it's a basic training ground for business and country clubs.
7
Bingo. Fraternities are incubators of ruthless materialism. Sororities groom the future trophy wives. Gotta have them both.
2
I'm afraid that the children of Helicopter Parents are less prepared for self control than us old boomers.
10
State College, Pa., home of Penn State University, likes to think of itself as the "Happy Valley." It could more accurately be called the "Valley of Denial."
2
Do we really need to keep a sons-of-the-rich exclusive club that enables future networking between lobbyists and elected politicians?
5
Newell—fraternities are not exclusively for the rich. Lots of blue collar kids join fraternities. Lots. They exist to allow drinking and sex. Period. Golf? Lobbiests? Give me a break! These party animals are too hungover to golf or discuss PAC issues.
1
And how many such deaths of college students occurred outside fraternities? Without such a comparison Mr. Bruni's piece comes off as just another objection to something he doesn't like. Maybe he didn't get pledged?
8
These deaths are senseless and entirely preventable. As a mother of two boys, these tragedies are harrowing and should be a wake-up call to parents. Affluent parents who micro-manage every aspect of their child's upbringing, do not ask a single question about the safety or regulation of Greek organizations their children join. This is especially imperative if your child is living in Greek housing. A recent study showed that most deaths at fraternities are not even directly caused by alcohol--they are from falls off balconies (no doubt related to intoxication) and other preventable ridiculous nonsense. Binge drinking culture is not harmless.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/04/17/colleges-consider-why-stu...
2
So many problems here. I know I appreciate it when Mr. Bruni decides with whom one should associate, but why stop with fraternities. Let's eliminate women's groups, Young Republicans, African American houses, and PETA. While there is no doubt campus stupidity exists, evidence culled from news media represents ascertainment bias at its best. We've no idea of the denominator here - rates of violence across all students, geographies etc. Finally, has it ever occurred to Mr. Bruni that all people tend to congregate with the like-minded. Diversity efforts run afoul of this so why the surprise that while colleges and columnists espouse diversity, that diversity does not lead to community.
12
these groups do not foster the abuses. But you knew that.
Why do these deaths only happens at frats and sororities? I don’t hear of them at regular college parties. Just Greek parties.
2
Also, can we stop insulting the Greeks by calling this immature, buffoonish behavior "Greek Culture" or "Greek Life"? Any actual Greek person would be very surprised to learn that this is supposedly their culture--as surprised as Irish people (or any European people) are when they come to this country expecting to meet Americans, and when they get off the plane, one of the first person they meet will probably tell them, in thick American accents they are "Irish" (or "French" or "English" or whatever). Never been to Ireland, no Irish culture references, no Irish humor, no knowledge of Irish geography or current events. But somehow they are "Irish." It's always very surprising--and laughable--to Europeans when they come over here and experience this kind of thing.
Call it what it is: American college life. Leave actual Greek people out of this shambles.
9
I am a college student and am disgusted by the amount of dangerously high drinking and drunk driving that goes on with the Greek life. People can make friends like normal people without having to pay thousands and get drunk.
7
Bell curve. Does every fraternity drink alcohol like it's water? No. Are all of them exclusively male? Since thirty years ago at Columbia there were several co-ed frats, I'm guessing no.
GPA? If the Greeks have better numbers than the rest of the student body, you can bet it's complicated. There are Asian fraternities which presumably boost the numbers. There are also ones closer to Animal House. Some lean towards a STEM affiliation with lots of engineering majors- Revenge of the Nerds. Some are favored by members of the swimming team who tend to excel academically. Others are bastions of scholarship football and basketball players, many of whom arrive on campus barely literate and don't leave in much better shape.
This paints far too broad a brush when the number of students dying is relatively low in comparison to the denominator. More people die from lightning strikes or being bitten by a poisonous snake every year. The real shocker would be how many students become regular problem drinkers through the fraternity's drinking culture- exponentially more than the number of fatalities during hazing.
On the list of problems facing America and our colleges, this one is so far down the list it's staggering.
The drinking we did freshman year at Columbia without any Greek help would put most frat brothers in a coma. One of our group had to go to the hospital to have his stomach pumped when he failed to wake up for a fire alarm prank. No coercion, he insisted on keeping pace.
5
"I don't care to belong to a club that would have me as a member"
many many thanks to Mr. Groucho Marx
5
I went to an elite, private, Catholic university in New York City wherein Greek life was officially banned (Jesuit protocol). Absent of fraternities, the "drink, danger and debauchery" still manifested itself in our school's off-campus sports houses--namely the men's sports houses. I think this fatal behavior is indicative of a larger college-drinking issue, and banning fraternities is only temporarily treating the symptoms--not curing the disease.
6
My experience in a fraternity in the mid-70's was not very good. There were some good people there, but there was also a sexual predator there who abused a number of naive pledges. Fortunately I escaped. Originally founded as a Christian fraternity, with the ideal of becoming true followers of Christ, it was often a place of drunkenness. Looking back on it, I am saddened by it all. I agree completely with the article, and that in our current time, where people are without values, that the entire Greek system should be banned from campus life, root and branch.
7
Sorry, Mr.Bruni, banning fraternities will not change anything.
This is symbolic at best.
College students are going to party. What happens at fraternity and sorority parties happens and random house parties as well.
Just because you take away Greek letters does not mean that groups of college students won't live together and party.
I'm still surprised that after centuries of lessons, people still refuse to take the lesson from history that prohibition is usually worse than oversight and regulation.
Fraternities and Sororities started out as secret societies. By affiliating with the school the school can regulate them. If they are banned then they will just go back to being secret and the school will hold no power over them.
While fraternities seem to be the least safe place to drink and party on campus, none of this, to be fair, would be an issue if college kids could drink at bars.
Honestly, it baffles me that the drinking age is 21 in the US; that means that most university students are breaking the law constantly.
It used to be 18 around the Vietnam war. If an 18 year old is ready to go to war, they should be entitled to have a drink.
So an 18 year old is supposedly responsible enough to vote for leaders who could start a war and kill him and thousands of other people in the process, but not enough to have a beer.
Really makes no sense.
The federal incentive (highway funding) requirements for 21 could be changed overnight.
6
College presidents are ‘stuck’ with fraternities and sororities? That’s a far too charitable reading of the situation. Many of the members of these houses are the sons and daughters of well-heeled Greek alumni, who would be absolutely livid if their and their progeny’s houses were shut down. So outraged, in fact, that the university might never see another dollar donated to the university’s endowment. University presidents are complicit because to take a stand on this issue would be financial suicide.
7
Maybe at OU....but not at other more enlightened places. Norman is so Greek-ified, the University might lose big donors. But as an alumna of OU, I can say, the other universities outside the Bible Belt might be more daring. It’s an IQ test...OU doesn’t score too high. Party, party is the big business at OU and always will be. Check your acceptance rate!!!! It’s a joke.
With two sons in frats, I worry incessantly and always send them articles such as this. However, to be a cynic, if I was designing higher education from scratch, I would 1) eliminate frats 2) have separate boys and girls schools to eliminate sexual assault issues and 3) eliminate all hard grading professors to reduce suicide rates (Yale has already done this with an average grade of A- versus a B 60 years ago).
It is a shame that parents now have to have such anxiety about their children's "best four years of your life".
3
First, most of you commenting were/are not a member of a fraternity, so that makes a lot of the comments uneducated and based off of stereotypes. Second, Bruni made a major mistake in classifying all Greek organizations as the same. That shows his lack of basic research/understanding. Anyone in a Black Greek organization will tell you that they are 180 degrees different from historically White Greek organizations. The main reason for this is because of why each was started. Black Greek organizations were NOT started to segregate or exclude. More importantly, alcohol is NOT part of the pledge process. That said, Black Greek orgs have had considerable problems with physical abuse in the pledge process stemming from old school pledge practices. This has been largely eradicated, but still rears it's head from time to time.
The other large fail with this piece, is it acts like binge drinking is some kind of fraternity only phenomenon. Which any person on a campus (or off it for that matter) can tell you is 100% not true.
The piece was lazily written.
7
Frats and sororities go contrary to the intended community of university life. Most exist for purposes of exclusion, mysterious clubbing and generalized debauchery.
3
From its facile headline and sophomoric (and illiterate) graphic to its dubious and tortured conclusions, this article displays Mr. Bruni's unrivaled status as the glib master of outrage and ressentiment.
Does he honestly suppose that college students are totally uninformed and naive about fraternities and sororities and that they are seduced into joining them rather than choosing to do so? If these organizations didn't fulfill some sort of personal aspiration or social need that students seek to satisfy, they'd disappear on their own. Banish them, and they'll only re-emerge in some new, less public form. The argument that they can't be regulated or reformed is unsubstantiated hyperbole and utterly without merit.
4
Fraternities and Sororities provide a benefit to those who join, as even Bruni concedes. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean you should have the ability to ban them. Personally, I don't much like left-leaning latte-sipping, iPhone-carrying journalists. Can I ban them please?
7
Ok, here's my evolutionary biologic analysis of high risk behavior amongst fraternity men: Risk taking (with survival) raises status amongst other males seeking alpha male status which, if achieved, is believed to convey first choice mating rights with phenotypic high value females ( aka babes). While these females may consider such behavior as foolish and unwise, they still may be able to pick out the alpha male in a crowd of beta males. In this way, the party animal fraternity member enters the alpha male realm of the football team captain.Normally, females of all mammal species do not engage in this high risk behavior as often as males. As Robert Frost proclaimed " the secret of life is that life goes on. " The corrolary of this statement is that the secret of life going on is libido.
4
Cars, guns, cocaine, triple cheeseburgers, and broccoli have all killed more than binge drinking.
The issue is sending adults into the world unprepared for the world, and the MSM frenzy around any issue that affects 0.001% of the population.
4
There's an elephant in the room that no one wants to "see": the fact that in the US, one can't really have fun; one can't really be popular' one can't really be "an American" if you don't DRINK! These young men have been raised to think that it is only when one drinks to excess that one achieves access to fraternities, parties, golf outings and tailgateactivities! Ultimately, we cannot blame these young men: everyday they are indoctrinated by the media, often parents, and their peers!
6
Why? To make campus life attractive for the party crowd and for the money.
2
Mr. Bruni, you are proposing guilt by association.
Alcohol abuse is rampant among college students, even those who are not in frats. Provide strong statistical evidence that alcohol abuse is worse among frat students and you will start to have a basis for your case. But until then your argument has no foundation.
According to the link you provided in paragraph 5 there are some 7-8 frat deaths annually. "There have been more than 60 fraternity-related deaths since 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."
Do you know what the rate is among college students as a whole? If not, then I suggest you find out before writing another article like this.
For a good place to start, I suggest this analysis of CDC data by the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/01/15/the-often...
6
College fraternities, traditions that have been kept alive, but should never have been born.
"I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member"
OH Groucho- We need you more than ever!
1
As usual (see: Harvard) every one wants to shut down these organizations, as long as you give exceptions for women-only organizations (sororities), race-based organizations (black fraternities), and ethnic organizations (Latino/Asian clubs). But heaven forbid the organization be male (a modern sin), or worse, majority white (even if just by because of class).
Only then does it become intolerable and worth the effort of trying to shut down.
2
There is something seriously wrong with the lack of humanity, or even good common sense, of these young men who think it necessary to join these organizations. Obviously, alcohol has no place--it can only lead to regrets or worse. Why are there no adults around? Why is there no emphasis on good works? Scholasticism? Becoming good people, with no memories of silly cruelties to mourn, repent, be ashamed of, or defend for the rest of their lives? It seems that for too many, the culture they learn in fraternities shoehorns them into lives of bad habits and less-than-adult rationalizations. They could do better, but trained personnel/supervisors are required.
2
A lot of students in fraternities simply couldn’t qualify for scholarship halls, if that’s where you lived.
Yeah, all their vaunted charity work gives these organizations cover for their unsavory cultures. I was a legacy to my mom's, grandmother's, and great aunt's sorority at the University of Oklahoma, and it was the worst 18 months of my life. It was a real bait-and-switch, too: rush was fun and downright wholesome. Then real life set in: all the "women" seemed to talk about was parties, how much they could drink, and men. As a theatre major, I got grief every time I couldn't go to some dumb party because I had rehearsal. When a lone black woman--beautiful and brilliant--dared to rush the next year, everyone--except my friend and I--voted against her because "she's just doing it to make a statement" and "she's just not ________ material." It was telling that, in an effort to encourage higher grades, the chapter had an end-of-the-year banquet to honor members with a high grade point. If you had an A average, you could wear whatever you wanted (my friend wore cut-offs and flip flops). If you had a B, you could wear jeans or slacks; a C, a street-length dress, a D, a long, fancy dress and opera gloves. Most of the women, according to my friend, were in fancy attire. They thought it hilarious. I had the highest GPA (which was a 3.5--no great shakes), but I didn't attend--had rehearsal, of course. I was so happy when I got out. My mom and grandmother understood. My great aunt stopped speaking to me
3
It would be foolish to deny that unacceptable behavior takes place within some fraternity houses but anyone who thinks eliminating fraternities will eliminate such behavior is also foolish. Undergraduates have been occasionally acting badly ever since there first were such beings. Oxford University was in part founded by English students who were driven out of Paris by irate citizens in 1167, reportedly for riotous behavior. Eliminate fraternities and drinking too much, elitism and other bad behaviors will simply take other forms.It could easily move off campus where it would be entirely unregulated. No college has nor should have the authority to regulate an organization existing off-campus. Further, whether one likes it or not, the rituals of hazing do produce a bond of brotherhood that can last a lifetime. The solution is the setting of standards and rules a fraternity is contractually obligated to follow, coupled with careful monitoring by impartial authority. This is a lot of work - work that can be intrusive and annoying and few college administrations would welcome the task. However, it is a better way than washing one's hands of the problem by driving it off-campus.
2
In all seriousness, what even is the point of fraternities? They were created to exclude people from exclusive WASPy men's clubs, so they're a relic of another time. And all we ever hear is terrible things about them. So why do we still allow these institutions to exist? Probably b/c of the fact that they're still so heavily WASPy.
4
Keep your perspective here.
It's a small handful of students that die in fraternities out of hundreds of thousands a year.
While we're at it lays ban bikes on campus, they probably kill more kids than frats.
5
I specifically picked Kalamazoo College in part because it did not have fraternities or sororities. I always felt they were archaic and lame.
Today, frats (at least) are the equivalent of gangs in the projects. Lost kids who come to college need a group to join so they feel safe. The sorority or frat will “protect” them, supposedly, but in reality, as is true in gangs in bad neighborhoods, death can come from participating in this group, in the worst case scenario.
For sorority girls, perhaps their worst case scenario isn’t drinking to death so much as being raped by their fellow frat boys.
3
When our frat went national, the national organization told us we could keep our five Jews but couldn't pledge any more. Though not Jewish, I dropped out and moved off campus. That was 68 years ago, and I have never regretted the decision.
9
They tolerate fraternities for the same reason they tolerate criminal athletes: money. Alumni of frats give more to the colleges than non-frat alumni. In the pursuit of the almighty dollar, our schools have lost their way.
2
National Fraternities have shown time and again they support hazing. The ongoing "nothing to see here" attitude is killing young people. Shameful that university leadership continues to support the organized killing of students.
1
Two aspects of 'college life' that should be relegated to the ash can of history: 'Greek' fraternities and sororities; and football.
Our institutions of higher learning should not be bastions of the gladiatorial combat inexorably leading to brain damage known as 'football' in America, and the bullying and mob behavior akin to Lord of the Flies we call 'Greek life.'
5
Kids don't go to college to learn anymore they go to party and drink. Parents must be proud of their progeny and how their hard earned dollars are going to a worthy cause. All fraternities should indeed be banned until this children grow up.
2
As you wrote it just emphasizes the hypocrisy of the American life. Society that proud itself of being open have mainly segregated neighborhoods and hardly any interracial relationships. In some ways It’s easier for Americans to discriminate because they leave in their dream of open and equal society. A country that have the most incarcerated people in he world and which the chances of African American between ages of 20-30 to be one time in jail is one third calls itself open and equal. American need to wake up from their sweet dreams about how nice they are to all. They should try and open a profile in a dating site of and put themselves as minority. The chances white woman will approach them is almost 0 percent. Sweet dreams.
1
The National Safety Council estimates 40,000 Americans died in motor vehicle accidents last year, the deadliest year since 2007. Enough is enough - motor vehicles should be banned.
There are rougly 350,000 young men who currently belong to an undergraduate fraternity chapter. In 2017, six of them have been killed in hazing rituals.
Without remotely condoning the circumstances under which they died, or fraternity life itself (I never joined, and thought the whole concept was infantile) there are men I know and respect who feel it was a fulfilling experience which aided their professional careers later in life.
What should die is the current wave of self-righteous opprobrium which seeks to inform us how the world “should” or “should not” be.
5
As usual (see: Harvard) every one wants to shut down these organizations, as long as you give exceptions for women-only organizations (sororities), race-based organizations (black fraternities), and ethnic organizations (Latino/Asian clubs). But heaven forbid the organization be male (a modern sin), or worse, majority white (even if just by because of class).
Only then does it become intolerable and worth the effort of trying to shut down.
For sure! Any fraternity or sorority at a college or university campus should by banned if one of its residents is killed because of some social event! Absolutely! And, all of its residents should also be banned from continuing their education at the college or university. Period! End of story!
Bill M.
4
"Hechinger said that campus websites and tours have presented gauzy propaganda extolling Greek life."
There's the rub. Universities need students to balance their financial books. Many "students" just want to party every night. So the Universities accommodate them. Follow the money.
1
Yes, abolish them. This is obvious! What is worth more to us, lives or clubs?
3
Because these behaviors are not exclusive to "greek life."
2
As a student in the late sixties on a campus with no fraternities I'm surprised they still exist. They were more often as not conservative enclaves and a reliable way to narrow the field of dating opportunities. Who would want to live with just another bunch of jerks in what amounts to a glorified dormitory?
Oh my gosh thank you for writing this. It's a disgrace what's happening. I remember back in the day when my experience pledging a sorority was the sort of lighthearted ritual girls do. But we all heard stories about fraternity pledge nights that were absolutely horrifying.
These organizations satisfy a student's desperate need for belonging. But their hedonism has become so egregious it's not worth whatever small benefits they afford.
1
*Universities* discriminate based on academic ability, which is itself usually tightly correlated with privilege, race, and sex. Should we abolish colleges of engineering because they are predominantly white and male?
Of course drunkenness, violence, and sexual assault at fraternities is unacceptable. Frank Bruni does a classic hit piece... taking the worst behavior and tainting all fraternities with it. Throws in a few good things fraternities do but his overwhelming idea is to taint every fraternity with the worst.
Do we taint every military unit with My Lai or Srebrenica?
1
I am a member of a historically Black Greek letter sorority (one of the Divine Nine) and I beg to differ.
The author needs to do more research before banning all Greek letter organizations.
3
I see a shift in our culture and it's that people are way less embarrassed to be alcoholics or to drink to excess. No doubt the Recession, combined with a lack living-wage jobs only fuels the problem. I see a lot of parents buying alcohol in front of their kids, and it's obvious the goal is to get buzzed or drunk.
European teens have higher rates of binge drinking and lower drinking ages, according to WHO.
agehttp://resources.prev.org/documents/ESPAD.pdf
https://www.vox.com/2016/1/26/10833208/europe-lower-drinking-age
1
“If we could create higher education from scratch, would we have organizations that divide people by race, class and gender at institutions that are supposed to be encouraging diversity?” he asked. -- Of course we would, because it's not just the frats doing it. Go through the directory of student groups at any university and you will see many organizations that explicitly self-segregate by race, class, and or/gender: everything from the religious orgs (Hillels, Newman Centers, Muslim/Buddhist/Hindu student associations, etc) to race-based orgs (Black/Asian/Lantinx student associations, etc). By all means, ban the frats because they drink themselves to death. That's more than enough of a reason on its own. But don't selectively weaponize 'diversity' to target only those organizations on campus you don't like. That just cheapens the concept, and opens up universities to accusations of liberal intolerance.
1
Fraternities serve only to further instill a sense of entitlement in the children of wealth.
4
The blurb on Mr. Bruni's article asks "why do we indulge fraternities?" The answer is simple: networks of wealthy alumni who emerged from fraternities. That's much the same reason colleges indulge football despite mounting evidence of permanent, irreversible damage to the same brains colleges profess to cultivate. Yes, Mr. Bruni, fraternities breed a culture of privilege and often of sexual harassment and bullying. Why is it surprising that we cultivate them? Have you noticed who we elected president?
159
I think you have somewhat of a misappropriated view of fraternities and their level of wealth and networking...First of all, wealth and networking is not somehow exclusive to a fraternity, as evidenced by ivy league schools that have various "private" club organizations.
In any school with a Greek System, there are different levels of Fraternities, as there are in life. Some are known for academics, some for being the "Animal House" , some for athletes, some are jewish and some are African American. Do you somehow believe that every fraternity has some level of wealth and power above and beyond the normal university system, or the alumni system.
Bill Gates said "Life is not fair, get used to it"...not everyone can be the QB, or get a job at Google or Goldman Sachs...Universities offer a wide array of options for students to live and socialize...the Greek system is just one part of that...there is little evidence that it gives anybody a advantage or privilege on life....I not sure where James gets the idea that fraternities breed a culture of privilege and bullying any different from say...attending Harvard (privilege and exclusive) or playing on the University Sport Team.
1
College football should die before fraternities do. At least the Greeks participate in and encourage community service.
2
Allow me to remind Mr. Bruni of the following:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,..."
When it comes to "assembling," and its longstanding correlate, "associating," there is no criterion of safety that students or anyone else must satisfy, beyond the obvious: that they ought not riot as they assemble and associate.
The above Constitutional guarantees devolve to the States and their various governments, so state universities, at any rate, must not be in the business of deciding who does and doesn't get to assemble and associate.
It's sad, damnably so, when a pledge dies. The answer, though, is education, and enforcement of existing laws against underage drinking; not yet one more interference by the state in who gets to associate with whom.
Furthermore, if Mr. Bruni cared to actually dig rather than settle for the lazy work of feminist advocacy research, he would quickly realize the good news: That the prevalence of rape and sexual assault are not only at 40 year lows, and through the U.S. at historic lows, but that on college campuses their prevalence is actually lower by one-quarter to one-third than off-campus.
If his worry is the increase in sex crimes that come with drinking, he will perhaps be reassured by plain facts. In sum, worry all you like, but stay out of what adults freely do.
1
We need fraternities because most of the bad things mentioned in the article are training for life after the university for those many frat members inclined to drink, abuse women, cheat, discriminate and treat badly those who are not like themselves.
1
Every year these tragic stories are in the news, with lots of hand wringing about what to do.
But what are the statistical FACTS behind these stories?
Advocating the destruction of the fraternity system is to declare guilt by association.
Mr. Bruni, do you feel guilt by association is correct?
According to the link you provided in your 5th paragraph, "There have been more than 60 fraternity-related deaths since 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg", 5 per year. That is out of an estimated population of 750,000 undergraduate fraternity/sorority members.
The individual stories make great headlines (which sells papers), and unquestionably every incident is a tragedy in which THOSE RESPONSIBLE should be punished.
But banning fraternities is an irrational reaction which will do nothing to stop alcohol abuse on college campuses.
The actual rate of alcohol-related deaths among college students is hard to pin down. See the WAPO link below. But it is clear that it is high among students who do NOT belong to fraternities.
In fact, the suicide rate among college students is some 5x higher than alcohol-related deaths. So perhaps we should simply ban universities? Then there would be no college student deaths at all.
Mr. Bruni, you are intelligent. Please exhibit it in your analysis of the problem.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/01/15/the-often...
1
@J. Jenks: Are you saying 5 fraternity-related deaths a year is acceptable? Would you feel that way if the person who died was a friend or loved one of yours? Is life really that cheap on college campuses? And is this why parents spend $50,000 - $100,000/year on college?
Fraternities exist mainly to allow immature young men to stay immature, and to brag about it. I see frat behavior in my neighborhood every single weekend, and it's ALL about boozing and misogyny.
2
A great deal of sexual assault occurs at Fraternities as well. Gathering testosterone, drugs and alcohol all in one place in young, immature men is a recipe for disaster. The exclusion and lack of diversity, broadening oneself, is a horrible side effect as well.
1
If we can’t ban assault weapons, I don’t hold out much hope for banning frats.
Maybe get rid of boot camp while we're at it. Extreme examples should not be extrapolated to a remedy for all. Diversity for all. Please.
Why?
So people can live as they choose
"a far-reaching survey of American college graduates, found that those who belonged to fraternities and sororities reported more career and life satisfaction later on than those who didn’t."
Considering that belonging to those orgaizations open the doors to interviews and plum corporation positions, what's the surprise in that?....
It's not an indulgence when millions of young men (and women in sororities) gain a lifelong association with their brothers for mutual benefit. Killing fraternities is like gun control, it's not the institutions it's the individuals who are in them. Garbage in, garbage out but I'd contend that the majority of greek institutions do it right. However I'm guessing the majority of NYT readers are looking to make them feel bad about more American institutions that are geared to helping young men and women prepare for the world. Mistakes happen, they do in every community but to condemn the whole system is another mindless overreaction by liberals always looking to blame someone or something they don't fundamentally understand.
1
Fraternities generate rich alumni. 'Nuff said.
1
Oddly, the young generation Z is also one of the most conservative. And normally, conservative youth flock to fraternities and sororities. These places channel a mean, club mentality, giving exclusivity to a handful of people who are not old enough to understand neither the profound effects of alcohol, or the fine line between sex and rape. I'm sad to say we will see much more to come.
1
Mr. Bruni, you've got it backwards. People don't drink and hang out in homogenous groups (there are black and gay frats as well) because of fraternities and sororities. There are fraternities and sororities because people like to drink and hang out in homogenous groups.
1
Yes, I agree, there are many Americans unwilling to cross identity divides.
This is one New York Times headline that truly resonates for a great article that rocks and is, yep, awesome - I cringe using this overused, effete adjective but there are times when awesome is truly awesome. Yet, this is one of the bleakest and gloomiest NYT op ed opinion pieces I've read in years. The Greek System as it is today will be there tomorrow and to the end of days, making its toxic contribution to all things bad eating away at what could make this democracy truly Democratic.
2
i wish that people of greek descent could wrest the word 'greek' and 'hellenic' from these sordid people...especially in this age of political correctness and litigation!
1
The Greek system serves primarily as job referral and a social introduction system that pairs college youth from privileged families. It's more popular than ever. The deaths, rapes and alcoholism that result are considered part of the cost of doing business in this warped collegiate world, but as long as your Chi Omega daughter marries a Sigma Chi with good earning prospects and all their friends make similar matches, it's all worth it. Right?
1
How many other types of free association does the author oppose?
2
Yes, fraternities should go. They seem to promote immaturity and alcoholism.
1
The same broken family belief system that pushes the fraternity of football - sacrificing the body for a brotherhood and illusory roar of approval - underlies fraternities. They provide easy, unearned brotherhoods based on a willingness to participate in destructive, stupid and cruel activities that can cause death.
Parents, this starts with you - put aside your own need for conformism and unearned adulation - and start the conversation about being safe and smart early.
1
"Brothers"? "SIsters"? So isn't hazing a form of domestic violence? Starts somewhere.
1
Why do colleges indulge Greek life? Follow the money, Frank. Everything's for sale in this ever more corrupt culture.
1
As a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against The War, the ACLU, & identification as a Socialist, my credentials as a progressive liberal are set in stone. However let me share my college experience with you. It was the early 60s. The big Pennsylvania university I attended was then known as a "Teachers College". No fraternities or sororities allowed. Girls had to wear skirts, boys wore button down shirts & slacks & shoes. Girl's dorms were as secure as a gulag. Any hazing, or other torment of any student resulted in expulsion (that meant you were on your way to Vietnam.) The tuition was $125.00 per semester. Sending your kid to college was a safe thing to do. Now, if you can afford it, he/she has a good chance of being hazed, raped, or victimized by a crazed gunman. Sometimes my conservative, reactionary friends have a point!
1
Mr. Bruni, how about providing us with some relevant facts.
For example: how many alcohol-related deaths are there among non-frat college students annually?
If you don't know the answer to that then what is the basis for the opinions expressed in your column?
1
Speaking of the positive and negative aspects of Greek life on American campuses, reminds me of an acquaintance who was shunned after he said it was not right to entirely villify Hitler's Germany, because "in all fairness," the trains ran on time.
A sense of community, a mooring for kids away from home for the first time?
These things can be provided by universities through differents housing offerings, clubs, and social events. This can be accomplished without the hazing deaths, and rapes, and sexual assaults that go hand in hand with fraternities, and which universities have no real power to curtail.
That is, in fact, the point -- to live in a labyrinth of sexual, and social freedom away from the prying eyes of grownups. The problem being that universities are charged with educating and protecting kids. They have safey patrols, and blue light call stations which are on display to prospective families, but if your drunk son dies after having shots forced on him all night, or your drunk daughter is raped at a fraternity where that was the M.O., and an open secret, too bad -- maybe the offending fraternity loses its charter, maybe for a year, and as wealthy alumni clamor for its reinstatement and withhold contributions.
Another reason to get them out is that sexual assault is a regular occurrence. Putting all that testosterone in young men in one place with lots of drugs and alcohol is a recipe for awful stuff to happen.
2
I very briefly dated a frat boy in university and was struck by the peculiar irony of their Neanderthal mind set and behavior that didn't seem to hamper their rise to the highest echelons of society. In fact it seemed a requirement, a rite of passage.
At an engagement party for one exceptionally promising young man and his gorgeous demure fiance, I met the parents of this fine young man and was hard pressed to keep my cool - dying to congratulate them on their son's most recent award presented to him the prior week when he won The Pig Party trophy. He had apparently brought the most ugly girl anyone had ever seen. What a winner! These are the people who rise to their entitled lives, sons after fathers, daughters after mothers. Stepford Wives and Stepford husbands.
In Germany they still slash each other's cheeks with swords. Curiously, that seems more civilized. At least it's honest.
These are the Frat boys and the Sorority girls who go on to become the
Fraternities aren't the problem, but a generation of adults who are treated like infants may be. The recent spat of sexual assaults has boldly allowed women to frame themselves not only as victims but as children whom are not capable of decisions to protect one's integrity and honor. Men are now being treated as sex starved hoodlums preying on innocent helpless women. This is not accurate and the wrong way to deal with unruly, and at times illegal behavior. When young women drink excessively and get into trouble, they are victims. When young men do it, they are thugs or predators. When a man drinks and makes mistakes, he's told to learn and live by his choices. When a woman regrets choices made, she simply says she was victimized and everyone sides with her. I've many many times as a young man been touched by women who are drunk in public. Unwanted touching. When I said stop, they get aggressive and yell, call you gay, or act out in anger. I've seen my share of men behaving badly, but no fewer than I have young women. Parents coddling their kids into middle age has created much of this. Gender segregation is called discrimination when it's Men Only. Women routinely want their own spaces and it's called a "community" The double standards are glaring. The coming backlash will now make everything far worse before things improve.
2
When I read Frank Bruni's articles on education I often wondered what about college was so traumatizing for him. Nothing about the college experience is ever fair or egalitarian enough for him.
Fraternities and sororities are a matter of choice. You can join one or not. You can associate with members or not. You can attend their parties or not. Yet, Bruni and other progressives find this type of free association utterly objectionable. How does he square this with his demands for tolerance with respect to his personal choices and associations? I thought tolerance was about respecting other peoples' choices; not forcing others to adopt yours. Seems a bit duplicitous to me.
1
A great deal of sexual assault occurs at Fraternities as well. Gathering testosterone, drugs and alcohol all in one place in young, immature men is a recipe for disaster. The exclusion and lack of diversity, broadening oneself, is a horrible outcome as well.
1
Come on.
Young men of this age don't necessarily need "Greek Life" to engage in stupid and ill advised drinking binges and "debauched" behavior.
Plenty of us managed to engage in completely idiotic behavior on campus without the helping hand of fraternities. Shutting them down is not only completely unrealistic, it's a knee jerk, P.C overreaction that encapsulates the worst instincts of liberal thinking.
And as far as encouraging "discrimination", I don't think the front for the new war on racism is going to be fought in the halls of Delta House.
1
Seems the problems found in the frat system mirrors real life: too much booze, sexual harassment and just plain harassment in general, and segregation. What's not to love???
1
Teach your school-age children to avoid them, and shun any such children in college who you learn have joined one. Anything less prolongs haze-houses.
Students everywhere have a duty to end bullying, rape, and peer pressure to drink to death—not pursue them!
The only proper response to "Hey I just joined Alpha Beta Gamma!" is "Sorry, wrong number. *click*"
1
Time for the end. And if they continue off campus. Expel and get the authorites involved.
1
When you have groups of young males together, they do stupid things, Greek or not. Look up the Florida A&M band, Wheaton College football, all branches of the military, mammoths (as reported by the Times) and the Darwin Awards. This doesn't justify the unforgivable acts Bruni cites, but let's acknowledge that terrible actions will simply occur elsewhere. (And also that universities are just as flawed, if not more so, than our other institutions.)
1
Males in general are dangerous creatures. Your males in particular are the most dangerous, not even possessing the calming effect of maturity. Fraternities basically reproduce Lord of the Flies. Is a civilized society really willing to condone this?
1
I briefly "dated" a fraternity vice president in college and spent a lot of time at the house hanging out. He almost never had time for me because he was with his brothers, so I hung out with the other girlfriends. We girls were low priority and knew it.
I got drunk a lot to pass the time. One night, I got black out drunk and woke up in some random brother's bed--alone, clothed, and covered up. His roommate, who was studying, said that this brother grew very concerned for my welfare because I was so drunk. He strongly believed someone was going to rape me. He took me to his room and let me pass out on his bed while he made sure no one came in to mess with me.
I don't even remember his name, but I want to say THANK YOU decent person for looking out for me and showing maturity and commitment to humanity over "brotherhood". I never partied there again. I learned frats are not safe places.
1
Nonsense.
Not all fraternities are white miscreants.
I pledged Me Phi Me when I was in college. But I did not disparage nor despise fraternities. Black fraternities have a history of human social and civil rights service that arose during the separate and unequal Jim Crow era during which they were born. Black sororities have a similar heritage. Most continue that tradition today.
Whether or not fraternities live or die should be an individual life, liberty and pursuit of happiness choice.
27
That is my experience with Black frats and sororities as well: That long after college, the tradition of service (which facilitates opportunities to socialize) is strong. I wasn't involved in Greek life in uni days, but every negative word about partying frats was about white ones. I wonder what the data shows.
1
I'm not a "joiner." In fact, I'm something of a loner. When I chose a college, over 35 years ago, I didn't even think about fraternities. I had no older siblings or friends in college, and I was never exposed to them. I ended up joining a small one, whose academic reputation was pretty good, which engaged in charitable activities, and which provided a social circle for get-togethers and activities of all kinds, extending beyond campus into summer fun and beyond graduation into reunions. I remember binge drinking once in four years under their roof, and it's conceivable that I could have ended up a casualty, but there was never an emphasis on pushing people, even pledges, into doing things they found objectionable. People will always band together into social clubs, regardless of label. Banning one class of them isn't going to change anything. Youth is stupid. The inability to think fully about consequences is hard-wired into the developing brain, and has probably contributes a hell of a lot of exploration, discovery, and invention over the years, as intrepid forward-thinkers refused to limit themselves to what can or should be attempted.
1
Fraternities, in particular, have a very negative reputation in my college town. I'm sure some of them are fine. If a gay couple is attacked downtown, if a building is vandalized, yard art stolen, your car vomited in on a game night... we blame frat boys. There's a reason for this - decades of terrible behavior perpetuated by fraternities. Many of them promote a culture of entitlement, destructiveness and disregard for others. They push the boundaries to see what they can get away with, and find that, protected by their "brothers", the university, their families and their white skin, they can get away with a lot. They have a blast in college, make life-long friends and business partners, and go on to become the entitled, smug, destructive, selfish, wealthy businessmen and politicians we see today. Some are caught and tried for white-collar crimes, but they very rarely do any jail time.
161
There are many suspect aspects about the social life of my alma mater, but one policy has reduced the impact of frat life, namely all freshman live in a dormitory for a full year and have no contact with frats during that time. They meet a diverse population, and (hopefully) develop a little maturity that could give them the capacity to resist the worst excesses of hazing. In addition, during that year, they are allowed to join purpose-driven organizations, such as the campus newspaper and drama groups. That way, frats are not the primary groups available to overcome the anonymity of campus life. Policies such as these can do a lot to reverse the cultural impact of frats and sororities, and perhaps campuses should experiment with them before banning frats or giving up.
PS. Legalizing marijuana would be helpful, too. It can have bad effects, but dying of an overdose is extremely rare.
1
When I went to college, if there were any fraternities or sororities, they were so far under the radar as to be undetectable. Which is good, b/c college should be about meeting a LOT of DIFFERENT kinds of people, and not just immediately joining a clique that insulates you and determines your priorities.
I wouldn't have been caught dead belonging to one of these creepy groups. I value MYSELF and my own ability to make my own way in life - my independent decision-making - too much to submit and subordinate MY judgment to the judgment of the puppeteers who dominate frats & sororities.
And I sure as hell never wanted to live a life centered on drinking beer and getting wasted.
2
One of our local frats was engaging in "butt chugging," basically bypassing the stomach and connecting the wine box to the intestine via catheter. Of course they almost killed someone. Local chapter suspended from campus for a couple years.
Please stop calling it Greek!! It's a 100% stupid American tradition.
Hazing, binge drinking, criminal behavior et al are part of the American college culture. In other countries' colleges this type of custom is almost unknown. People go there to study.
And then we wonder about all the criminal behavior , greed, and sexual predators in corporate America!
6
Not 100% American - similar organizations in German universities have been associated with right-wing extremism. But, yes, not Greek.
Give generously so that we can find a cure for SBDS (Sudden Bro Death Syndrome). Or not, because, really, do we need these privileged, entitled idiots running the planet?
1
The NY Times has become so puritan, especially towards any activity enjoyed by white males.
1
Like hazing to death and sexual assaults?
1
Why does the NYT always have to do this:
"...an exclusive club on campus that doesn’t allow women and serves mostly white and privileged students..."
"mostly white"; of course fraternities are mostly white US society is mostly white. Why gloss over black only or even Asian only fraternities.
"doesn’t allow women". Really! fraternities should allow women, is that what you are saying? So assume by NYT logic sororities should allow men. Ya that'll work real fine!
Why always the PC BS by the NYT. Stop it and you might just get more paid up readers.
I had a friend during my sophomore year at a fraternity who refused to participate in so-called Hell Week activities. He became a "brother" anyway. We need more pledges like this.
My friend claimed that hazing was infantile and derived from military service hazing during WWII and after. He may have been right.
The effect of his protestation was nil.
A Penn State alumnus.
The issue isn't fraternities or sororities.
The issue is the apprentice adults and their lack of adult supervision.
When you concentrate thousands of apprentice adults in one relatively constrained geography, cater to their "consumer" demands, and basically endorse their exploration of personal "freedoms," you get what you should expect. The Greek houses simply give them more license to pursue what they want to pursue. Put these same apprentice adults in any other unsupervised dorm setting and the results will not be dissimilar.
Colleges long ago gave up any pretense to monitor, let alone supervise their students. When colleges became consumed with marketing to promote a "life style," when they diluted academic standards with automatic Bs and As, when they made a mockery of student athletes, they basically abandoned any pretense to their historic charter.
There's no question that Greek life has its attractions and results in sometimes lifelong bonds. Among my siblings, one of them was / is a Greek whose friendships with his Greek brothers persists after nearly five decades. Both now successful professionals and currently teaching engineering in major universities. So its not all bad.
Myself, I could never figure the attraction and would never under any circumstances tolerate the hazing. But then, I spent three years in the army before attending college, so I had an unfair advantage over the typical incoming freshman.
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I believe that high quality college for all should be tuition-free at state institutions, and an equal subsidy provided for qualified private universities.
HOWEVER, a "college education" is one that requires 3 hours of work, minimum, per week, per credit, outside of class, meaning that the MINIMUM 15 credit semester or quarter load should require a pure 45 hours per week of study. And tests should be closed-book, essay exams, requiring application of knowledge from the class (which I required in the 16 years I taught college).
Too many departments simply suck up funding (FTE) with patty-cake classes (even patty-cake majors) that leave students time to drink and get into trouble. They turn colleges into anti-intellectual "holding tanks" that sustain adolescence and stunt student growth. "Politically correct" views (and I am "leftish," lest you think this is a right-wing lament) are the "sign" of college -- a sentiment to certify a diploma, not knowledge to certify a diploma.
Of course, there are serious majors, that require serious study from the start of the freshman year, but far, far, far too many classes have no measures at all of how much work is required (as it would be humiliating to the universities as to how little is required) and the tests are often multiple-choice (and fraternities and sororities smuggle out copies to keep on file).
Make college attendance serious for all, and you would have more serious students, whose behavior would be different.
The only time I've had anything at all to do with fraternities came when I worked at a rape crisis center. I heard many stories from coeds at the local university about the sports teams and fraternities. These organizations encourage domination over women, though of course they would deny that charge. But it's everywhere, on the cellular level. There's no need for any of it.
Parents of boys need to do the very difficult job of raising them to respect women, not denigrate and use them. If you say you've done that, I say no, you haven't, because almost NO parents talk about the culture we live in. If you don't talk to boys constantly to counteract the culture, we'll always be having these discussions.
I heard a three year old boy tell my three year old daughter that she couldn't climb a big rock because she didn't have a penis. That was in 1990. His mother's jaw dropped along with mine, we turned to each other with the same expression on our faces, wondering where in the world he got that idea because the mother didn't give him that notion. Probably the father didn't either, overtly. But the culture did. At the age of 3 he had it figured out, 'Penis better than no-penis'.
Three years old.
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Apparently now you go to college to binge drink. A long time ago you went there to get an education.
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Many seem quasi white supremacist to me. If not that then louts and and vicious drunken jocks. No good.
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How many young people have died of the same causes outside of the Greek system, many many more I'm sure. How many instances of sexual assault happen outside of the Greek system, many many more I'm sure. What you have here is the behavior of young people - not the behavior of the Greek system. The Chess club segregates, discriminates. The six friends who rent the house off campus segregate and discriminate. Enshrining privilege is an unmeasurable crime dejure you pile on with. Hypocrisy may be a sin of middle age but it can not be laid on young people who are forming as adult social creatures. Want to wag your finger at a campus group today; try Antifa.
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Somebody invent a #metoo counterpart to end the killings that must be the tip of a very big iceberg.
Only-Never in Sweden.Blogspot.com
Ban Doric columns.
Ah hell if we can all carry guns around, why are we kvetching about Greek Life? Clearly these poor sods did not "make the grade". (The dead will truly never lead the Fortune 500 companies etc as they may have imagined, this is unarguable fact.) Why don't these kids stand up for themselves? Isn't victim blaming fun? Try being a woman in the gaslit universe called Human Life On Earth. Men! Your gender has some Big Time atoning to do. Let's start seeing it already!
The New York Times is unamerican! Who cares if one out of every 50,000 students dies! (the numbers cited in this article are far fewer than that) Honest question- can people really not handle these numbers in the name of fun? Academics like Bruni, all you ivory tower Times types, I can't wait till yall's weak and outdated politics have their day in court.
Lots and lots of opinions expressed here with virtually no data to back them up.
I would like to expect better from NY Times writers and readers.
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After freshman year I quit my frat, even though I would soon be able to stay in the frat house the next 3 years at much lower housing costs than the dorms. There were many reasons I quit. It was the late '60's and I was beginning to question all sorts of issues about our politics and our culture, and one issue became frat life.
Here are reasons I quit:
The point of dating was not love, it was presented to pledges as 'get some and move on to another girl'. AKA "The 4 F's", a term I will not explain here. Pure predation, all hands under clothes.
Despite promises of academic help and even organized cheating for pledges, we were instead helped with underage drinking and burdened with frat house work. Result: half the pledges, many good friends, flunked out after a semester.
Hazing, especially Hell Week, with my Christian university's tacit approval. Parts were silly fun, but parts were deliberately brutal.
No blacks. Like many frats, mine was founded in the South after the Civil War. My good friend Varishmapuri was a 'social member'. More rampant racism than I had ever encountered growing up, and the U. is in central Ohio.
SPE was one of 15 frats that housed 80% of upperclass men.
The university was complicit. Sig Ep may have changed some by today, but not enough! See 'Controversies' on their Wikipedia page.
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More liberal nanny mentality on display here. Eyeroll.
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Darwinism at work. Nobody is forcing participation in these asinine activities.
Thank you to the NYTimes for selecting three rational comments to publish in the NYT Picks section of the comments because this article certainly is not rational. As an adult member of the Greek Community who is still actively engaged on the collegiate level, I find the headline, "Their Pledges Die. So Should Fraternities" to be nothing short of inflammatory. After every praise (if you could call it that) of the Greek Community, the word "but" follows, which negates the entire previous positive thought. The author says he's not painting the whole community in the same light, but he is. He throws up statistics about the rate of incidents in the Greek Community as if they are as bad as say, the homicide rates in Chicago and Baltimore. What about the average rate of student suicide in colleges and universities across all students? Believe me, it's far worse than the statistics presented in this article. The authors quoted are clearly biased, too. Perhaps Mr. Bruni should have spent some time interviewing actual members of the Greek Community to get their input. He may just find that enriches their lives like it has mine. Mr. Bruni, do a more thorough job investigating both sides of this story, then get back to me.
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Frank - how many non-fraternity alcohol or drug deaths occurred on campuses? Have you looked at the numbers? It’s easy to demonize a group of people when in fact the statistics may reflect an entirely different set of circumstances. Is it illegal to assemble with people that you feel most comfortable with? There are historical black fraternities or Jewish fraternities (yes - they were started b/c of discrimination but survive in a time when most frats are come one, come all). This was a lazy, headline stealing article that goes after easy prey and only briefly outlines the positive attributes that Greek life can provide. You are better than this Frank.
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I completely agree. Even during the late 70s, frat and sorority house were known to be problematic. My older brother forbade me to get near them because “they are no place for serious students or nice girls.” He was right. The stories I heard from my girlfriends about what went on in those places would set your hair on fire. Shut them all down.
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Because of the actions of a few, Bruni wants to get rid of fraternities entirely. It has little to do with the very occasional death, but with attitudes of solidarity and confidence that he dislikes in college males. Tough.
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Hampshire College rightfully shunned these insidious organizations, which doesn't prevent Greek geeks from neighboring colleges crashing Hampshire parties~
Mr. Bruni,
Collective punishment and guilt by association are not progressive values. Please try again.
You may have more success if you base your opinions and policy suggestions on facts rather than anecdotes.
As a starting point I suggest the following.
According to the source you provided in paragraph 5, death rates among frat members are 2.1 per 100,000. According to the CDC, death rates for American males age 15-25, due to alcohol or drugs, is 9.2 per 100,000.
How about we start having an intelligent conversation about the subject, instead of engaging in knee jerk reactions based on the latest headlines?
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You go to a good liberal arts school for the best education your money can buy, and there, enshrined at the top of the hill, is a drinking club where men can be hazed to death, and women can be raped or assaulted.
Why pay these people to supply your education, when they tacitly condone this stupidity? When they allow it to go on so it can happen to you.
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Long overdue.
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As a Greek person (from Greece), I am deeply offended by the subtitle of this article ("Why do colleges indulge Greek life?). Why does the NYT indulge blatant country-of-originism?
Quick. When you hear the words "frat boy" what comes to mind?
'Nuff said.
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ambulances come every weekend to the frat at UR across from my sons dorm.
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They were inane and dangerous when I was in college in the late 60s and nothing has changed in almost 50 years...and nothing will. BAN THEM!
Join the autonomy club or the clean the water in Africa club if you seek wanting to belong to something and have a positive experience.
Tell ya what else should be banned, besides these stupid, pointless, crime-ridden confabs: the term "Greek life." It's an insult to the magnificent country and culture of Greece.
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The sad state of peer pressure & wanting to be in the "In" crowd. The sad state of texting & sexting scooping out identity. The abyss & nothingness left so acolytes must submit themselves to Blood & Crypt-esque shenanigans to try to feel part of something. Kneeling heads to text might be replaced by kneeling heads to pray --to be grateful & to help those without resources. These are all symptoms of the epiphany--the doom of the "over civilized" which seems more than a tad barbaric. Play Dr. Larry Myers of St John s University & Director of The Playwrights Sanctuary (authorized by the late Edward Albee) is at Penn State. He write "The Nomenclature of Violence" about frat hazing -- a sequel to "Penn State Pentagram." He ended up addressing the transsexual Vigil about identity & expression vs. oppression, suppression & depression. His theater foundation mentors newer & younger dramatists--now tri coastal
Future Republicans/Trumpians of America.. All with diminished cognitive capacity from their alcohol consumption. Note the the POTUS does NOT drink however.
All men.. BTW... All with supposedly responsible parents of both sexes.. obviously feckless and immoral parents even if they attend services regularly and are pro-life.
IMExperience not all frats are awful.. I guess they cater to emotionally immature individuals (all 18 yr. olds?). Why did the men that I know who joined frats do it?? The promise of brotherhood?
There is way too much alcohol on campus-- and I say kick them out for a term if caught drunk . NO EXCEPTIONS.. and IMO much less wine should be served in venues where undergrads might imibide..e.g. after lectures as part of receptions I attend a lot of these functions often with delicious receptions and always wine..but I KNOW it's wrong for children to drink too much. Some are nascent alcoholics * a 16 year old goddaughter undoubted drunk and dressed head to toe in black (wear some white at nite!) got run over by a 70+ driver. What is responsible drinking?? a big discussion needed.
The frat initiations like primitive ceremonies hold to the notion that punishment is part of the process(like gangs that rape girls who want to join. Primitive thinking like that which IMO is at the base of all religion. (Atho in Christianity baptism is the indoor. However until recently fasting was prescribed as necessary before confession and communion.
The Greek systems at schools are inherently racist, exclusionary, contemptuous cesspools. They justify their behavior by stating that they help the community once a year by picking up trash on the side of the highway. I agree, ban them all.
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Do these violent stats also apply to black fraternities? I️ never hear about pledges dying in black frats—and know a few men who’ve remained active in their black fraternities into old age. I️ had the impression the culture of African American fraternities was much less destructive. Am I️ wrong?
Fraternities are one of the few places where young men can sow their wild oats and form the tribal bonds that arepart of male DNA. We coud outlaw the Greek system, but it won't do away with the genetic need or the behaviors. Young men will find a way to fullfill their genetic calling, if not in some (generally) harmless and open way, than in a hidden and nefarious way - on Wall Street, in the White House, in the military. The election of Donald Trump is proof that you can repress human nature only so long before it springs back. "Political correctness" went to far and now we're paying for it.
We use the same excuse with the Second Amendment: Guns are too entrenched to repeal something that has no business being in our Constitution. If the Constitution was being written today and someone said "Hey let's guarantee the right to tote around assault rifles in public and buy as many firearms as they wish and all the ammunition they want while also greenlighting the right to buy and possess handguns, which have the sole purpose of killing people," such a suggestion would be dismissed out of hand. Yet here we are.
At some point, you have to do something about certain things. Fraternities are plain stupid, as Bruni has aptly written. The only solution for fraternities at this point is an individual one. Before sending my son off to college, I would tell him that if he joined a frat, paying for college would be up to him. I would not allow my money to subsidize such an awful thing.
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Are these not cases of murder? Like try these frat boys as if they were gangs killing members during initiation. Penn State- that was murder to force a kid to drink himself to death then deny treatment. Then to cover it up? That sounds like some Death Penalty level work there. It probably would be if it was the Bloods or Crips. Don't kick these kids out of college. Send them to prison.
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Close them ALL. Repurpose the buildings for use by Sororities or other student housing. The most dangerous person to himself, and others, are young Males. Why not just add Guns into the toxic mix, and we could have a massacre every week or two????? And yes, that is sarcasm, for the impaired. Fraternities: Boys gone Wild, and DEADLY.
The real question here ought to be: why are the boys in these frats so brain-dead? If you're smart enough to get into a decent college, you ought to be smart enough to look at the landscape around you and realize: gee, maybe having pledges guzzle a case in one sitting is pretty stupid; or, maybe, if we want to keep this thing going, we need to be a whole lot more careful about relationships with women. The frat has always been a privilege, not a right. And it you're too stupid to protect that asset, you surely deserve to lose it.
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Quick. What image comes to mind when you hear the phrase "frat boy"?
Need I say more?
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Thanks for writing about something that is of very limited importance and thereby giving us a break from the boy president or sexual whatever.
I went to LSU in the late 1970's and fraternities were prominent with all of the usual associations of drinking and rape. It was no mystery what frats were and the people that they attract. Some people just like that lifestyle. They aren't tricked into it. Everyone knows what to expect from a frat house.
Follow the money. People make money from these college students who buy massive amounts of alcoholic beverages. Colleges also make money from their parents.
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I must add that Mr. Bruni's opinion appears isolated to fraternities, there is no mention of sororities, and on the clear face of it is a rather sexist combination of the same system that undermines the legitimacy of his writing and the righteousness of what he says. There is no room in our society for sexism, even in the New York Times.
Bravo, Frank!
Dump it, Frank, you’re right ( pardon the expression) on this!
Follow the money.
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I'm trying to put myself inside the minds of those upperclass leaders who are planning pledge events. "OK. And for the finale, we gotta get these pledges so dangerously drunk that they act like real idiots." Clearly these people see the news. They know young men have died from extreme drinking. They know it can lead to tragic consequences. Is their judgment so underdeveloped that they just don't care? Do they believe, "It won't happen here?" Armed with such unavoidable knowledge, those young men are clearly engaging in premeditated criminal conduct and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There are no accidents here.
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When poor black kids form similar organizations, they are called "gangs".
Frats worked in the old America.......white and easy to reach the upper middle class and a hotbed of chauvinism, racism, alcoholism and every other "ism" except Communism. But not in the new international nation we have become. I said goodbye to my frat 50 years ago and mainstream America did too when Johnson signed the non discriminatory new immigration law. The future of America is mixed and more teeming slums of Bamako or Port au Prince or San Salvador than SAE, Chi Phi or Sigma Pi. It is the last gasp of a vanishing demographic.
Good idea, Frank.
i guess we're all on " double secret probation"
It's high time fraternity alumni to teach their juvenile-delinquent "brothers" that there are limits to hazing , such as involuntary manslaughter. Otherwise, they might encounter prison hazing, which I doubt they'd enjoy.
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When the Brilliant Track All Academic Pathway arrives at University, there is going to be further separation of Students, Professors and Schools. The Best and Brightest Students and Professors will be on this new Track at Schools who do not have Fraternities. All dollars are spent on Academics. The Star Professors will be leaving these Fraternity Sorority Partying Sports Playing Universities, and transferring to these All Academic Brilliant Track Schools to teach the Best and Brightest Students who want Top Level Jobs all around the World... on the World Market. So what will be left will be lower ranked Colleges and Universities, than they are now. Rankings go by prestige of Students and Professors. These Fraternity Colleges will not have such Professors and Students anymore. Serious Students will be in Serious Places. And all Executive Administrative Support goes toward Academics, and not trying to deal with these Fraternity Problems.. that never seem to go away. Fraternities dumb-down the University. High School Valedictorians won't go to these dumbed-down places for University. The Valedictorians will have the Brilliant Track All Academic Option in the Future.
If one was starting a world class university from the ground up, could it be successful without fraternities? With out question.
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Why don't more colleges and universities ban fraternities (and sororities)? Not because administrators are fans, and not just because they "follow the money." Alumni donations may be a factor, but every college president and dean knows that frats are lawsuits/publicity nightmare risks- not just from deaths but also from accidents, sexual assaults, or racism videoed and viral on social media. But banned fraternities and sororities don't disappear; they go underground where they become even more toxic, dangerous, and desirable because they are no longer under school authority or jurisdiction.
A collegei I know banned fraternities/sororities over a decade ago. They still flourish underground in private houses where campus security is not permitted to go. GIrls who are raped at those parties never report the crimes, no matter how egregious because they don't want to get their friends in trouble for illegal organizations/parties.
I went to Williams which did not have fraternities at the time and it was more than fine.
We don’t need to child proof every aspect of life to succeed as a society. If these men had decided to focus on their studies instead of being a part of rape culture none of this would have happened. We all pick our path in life. These men decided to roll the dice on binge drinking. Please don’t tell me they weren’t educated enough to know that alcohol is harmful: if that’s the case, the admissions officers of these schools should be put in prison.
If the term “nerd” wasn’t coined in the halls of a fraternity, it might as well have been. When I attended school it was universally understood that fraternities were the domain of a supposed higher class. If you weren’t “cool” you were stuck in the dorms.
I have a thought based on no statistics, but I’ll state it anyway. Perceptions may be reversing in some, or even many, circumstances. I’ve spoken often with students very committed to excelling in math, engineering, technology and other challenging programs at top schools. They held fraternities in disdain and considered their members as immature, unfocused - even dim.
Is this spite? Reverse snobbery? Actually, I don’t know. I do know our world is rapidly changing. Having a fraternity brother whose dad can get you a job in a bank may not be so cool when the nerds are founding tech startups.
Men should be limited to no more than 41% of a college student body. Wait, that’s already happened.
Three dead at Seton Hall after the dorm fire had nothing to do with the Greek system. At TCNJ, Freshman John Fiocco got drunk and went back to his dorm to sleep, somehow winding up in a dumpster. His remains were later found in a landfill. No Greek System to blame.
The common thread in dead college kids isn't the Greek System as much as it is men themselves. Indeed, the likelihood of dying after "Hold my beer" highlights the gender that needs much closer supervision upon attaining adulthood. An unfortunate number of them cannot be trusted around guns or teenagers or women of any age, ever.
It's not the Greek System, Frank. It's the guys.
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That's right. Collective punishment and guilt by association are the solutions.
Alcohol and drug abuse is common on college campuses, both within and without fraternities. Banning fraternities will make no difference.
Provide evidence that substance abuse is more of a problem for frat members than other college students and you may have a case. But without actual facts your opinions have no foundation.
The link you provided in paragraph 5 states, "There have been more than 60 fraternity-related deaths since 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg." That amounts to 60+ deaths in an 8 year period (2005-2013), or 7-8 per year. Undergraduate fraternity membership is roughly 380,000. The death rate is around 8 per 380,000 members annually, or 2.1 per 100,000.
For reference, per the CDC the average death rate for males between the ages of 15 to 25, due to drugs or alcohol is around 9.2 per 100,000, more than 4 TIMES higher than the rate within fraternities.
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I was a student at Colby College in the 1980s when fraternities were abolished. Immediately after the announcement, the fraternity brothers went on a rampage, dumping furniture -- including a piano -- out of their frat houses onto frat row. They set the piano on fire, an image that made it onto the front page of US Today. If anyone had a lingering doubt about whether fraternities still had a place on that campus, the flaming piano put it to rest. Fraternities bring out the worst in young men.
Why do parents keep sending their kids to fraternities? It seems like the answer here may be to educate the parents.
Last time I looked, no fraternities have forcibly mandated that anyone join their ranks. If you don't like what you perceive they do or stand for, then by all means don't sign up. But to paraphrase Christopher Walken in SNL's census skit: "Don't push your politics- or morality- on me, man".
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"I want to start an exclusive club on campus that doesn’t allow women and serves mostly white and privileged students and we’re going to throw parties all the time that are illegal, and at these parties, all the bad stuff that happens on campus is going to happen disproportionately. What do you think?"
Answer: "Hmm, will it attract the children of wealthy parents who will regard the clubs as a mark of exclusivity and, therefore, disregard the rising tuition costs and fees? Will it eventually make the students nostalgic alumni who donate in an endless battle of one-upmanship with their former 'brothers?' Will these alumni then return, time and again, to stimulate the local economy as they relive glory days while meeting with their old buddies in the bars, hotels, and banquet facilities?.....Young Man, your club has our blessing."
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One reason their members make higher grades is that many of these organizations keep files of illicitly acquired exams and term papers.
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One side note: of course, Greek GPAs may be higher than average--they should be--because they kick out into the general student pool those who do really badly academically.
"...fraternities segregate. They discriminate. They concentrate and enshrine privilege at a time when we’re ostensibly trying to be more mindful of that."
So do the Ivies. So do expensive private schools that poor kids can't attend because liberals deny them vouchers. Please save the fake concern about segregation.
Banning frats (or guns or anything else liberals don't like) is never going to work. Huge financial penalties, holding individual frat members criminally responsible, and constant negative press will work.
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Agreed. No more fraternities or sororities.
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I went to a college with a large Greek population. I joined a fraternity, made a bunch of friends, and I had a good time. Yet as I look back now I realize that much of the conduct my fraternity fostered was not positive. Drinking, exclusivity, popularity for the wrong behavior, etc. Any charitable efforts were purely for optics. The reason I joined, as I assume so do so many others, is you are in a strange place and you want to belong. So, I understand why they are popular but I don't disagree that fraternities are not an overall positive and should be phased out. My problem with Bruni's article is that I have the same view about most every other institution on college campuses. Not just fraternities. Look at college sports teams. By definition physically segregated. Massively privileged. Hazings galore. Routine sexual assaults. Most are also racially segregated - tennis teams are white, basketball teams are black, etc. I know that there are positives to the student-athlete for playing sports. The same could be said for fraternities. You have lesser forms of the same evils with the Hispanic Student Union or Republican Club. My point is just that Bruni is doing what has become really all to common today-targeting groups whose assembling, views, or exclusivity he does not like with theoretically objective characteristics that are not applied to all groups. I'm sure he will hate the analogy, but it's like Fox congratulating Trump for behavior Obama would be hung over.
Administrators of academic institutions have blood on their hands for turning a blind eye to the illegal activity that has repeatedly led to the death and physical and psychological abuse of their students by fraternities and their co-conspiring sororities. Moreover, it is undeniable that it is foreseeable that their continued depraved indifference for the well-being of their students will lead to more deaths, rapes, and other physical and psychological trauma. Sadly, it will only change if the universities and the administrators themselves are held accountable.
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The "fraternity experience" is vastly overrated. Think Trump's steaks, prepared the way he likes them...a few more minutes on the grill and you could resole your shoes with them.
I joined a frat in 1965 as a freshman. The official selling point was admission to a lifelong support group, a good-ol'-boy national network of successful men waiting to be your mentors, contacts, promoters throughout your professional career, all because you had two or three Greek letters associated with your college education. Doors would fly open at the mere mention of this affiliation.
In truth, it was all about the parties, the sororities (whose members supposedly dated only "Greeks"), file cabinets of pilfered course exams for a leg up at midterms and final week. But mostly just the parties and the women.
My fraternity did not engage in physical hazing or in forced alcohol consumption as an initiation rite. Sleep deprivation, required to make fools of themselves in social situations, strictly following an "Active's" ridiculous, humiliating orders, these awaited us. But alcohol was freely available, thanks to any of a number of frat members who readily fill liquor run orders for those too young to buy booze.
But, back to the supposed benefits of fraternity membership, the network of door openers waiting your graduation. In the 50 years since I left college, I have spoken to exactly two members of my pledge class, one of them only once.
In the end we each made our own way in life.
Colleges should cease enabling fraternities and sororities. Students who want to
"go Greek" should do so off-campus in private clubs. End of story.
For decades, Vanderbilt University has restricted each Greek organization's in-house resident population to only six students. That helps integrate members into dorm life, and restrain exclusivity. From VU's website:
"In 1960, Vanderbilt University made the decision to move all fraternity and sorority residences on campus. It was also decided that each fraternity and sorority facility would house six students each. These six students are typically the top Executive Officers for each chapter. Students must apply for authorization to live in Greek housing."
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/greek_life/about-us/greek-facility-management...
Where are the parents in this discussion? I have informed my sons that I will not support their university educations if they join a fraternity. End of story.
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Fraternities and Sororities are promoted by colleges, because for the most part, they are a mistake, and, for the most part, people learn from there mistakes. At least that's my theory. . . . Just saying.
Colleges are good with bandaids. They're lousy with true preventative measures. And yes, that's a generalization, but I believe it's true.
Only when the schools take a proactive approach and really teach the students how dangerous excess alcohol consumption is and how to develop a different relationship with it, will there be an inkling of change. It's not just the frats that are at fault. It's the schools that want the kids to have fun and then make donations when they're alum.
Instead, they're breeding alcoholics.
Here's a thought: Allow Greek organizations to do whatever they do, with one stipulation: they must post an 8x10 photo in their house, as well as on online, of ANY member who has died while in college, along with details of the circumstances of the death. Kind of like the graphic warnings on cigarette packs in other countries.
I have enjoyed membership in several elite, white, male groups and I have no regrets and make no apologies. But, I did not pledge a frat because the pledge year the subsequent years' social schedule would have left not enough time for my other white, mostly male, elite activities: fly fishing, deer & elk hunting, and snow skiing. There was something wrong with frat boys who hung around the frat house drinking and partying all the time. They were soft.
Fraternities or not, there is a certain segment of the young male population that wants beyond all else to live this lifestyle. Men will be drinking themselves to death and hazing each other, no matter what organizations are officially allowed to operate. Perhaps if we changed our entire culture to value things like moderation, community and the exchange of ideas, perhaps if boys werent so stressed out from such a young age, there wouldnt be so many who see their natural path in life as one of callous macho excess.
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I can only guess that Frank didn't belong to a fraternity. I was in a fraternity at Miami University (Ohio) in the mid-80s. There were enough fraternities and sororities that anyone who wanted to join one could do so. At a campus with few non-whites, my fraternity had Hispanic members. Race never came up as a membership issue. I would know since I was in charge of membership for a year. Most of us weren't privileged. Many worked part-time and almost everyone had student loans.
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The pledging process is what scares me the most. Hazing still happens, and some of the situations pledges are presented with are far worse than those portrayed in 'Animal House.' Having a 16 year old son who will head off to college in several years, I dearly hope he chooses not to join a fraternity. Serious damage to his internal organs and brain will be a given. I will consider it fortunate if he graduates unhurt, free of STDs, and not haunted by memories of rituals too lewd and embarrassing to write here. I know this not because I was in a fraternity, but because most of my friends pledged at Miami of Ohio. I heard their horror stories, and watched them age themselves living lives their parents would have been horrified by. I pulled out of rush mid way through my Freshman year because I was scared by stories of cocaine use. Behaving badly was part of the culture. I'm glad I was independent, but at the same time, this was very isolating for me socially. Miami is still very greek, which is too bad, because it is a nice school otherwise. I haven't sold my son on it - primarily because of the fraternity scene.
Regarding why fraternities continue to exist, it's because they are successful in many ways. Fraternity members tend to earn more money, even though their grades are lower. The GPA difference is a small quarter-point, but the income increase is a large 36%! (see this Bloomberg article https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-06/the-fraternity-parado... ). Also fraternity members tend to donate more to their alma mater as alumni.
I have four well adjusted sons who all went away to school. As far as I can tell, they all socialized and partied just as much as the next guy attending a four year college. To listen to them, frats were useful as a place to drink alcohol at parties freshman year and that's about it. Bottom line is that frats are a vestige of the past and kind of corny and looked down upon by the vast majority of the student body. The sooner they fade away, the better.
I could not agree more.
I had hoped that colleges would have done away with fraternities decades ago. Anything useful to be gained from them can be found elsewhere without the absurd and dangerous patterns of behavior that so often characterized fraternities, leading to physical and emotional abuse, sometimes even resulting in death.
2
I attended the University of Southern California, a school with a very prominent Greek system, in the late 2000s and early 2010s. It was commonplace for both girls and guys to define their worth based on the "prestige" (read: hotness and wealth) of their sorority or fraternity. I believe that many of us developed a strange sense of what constituted self-worth and self-esteem-- my girlfriends and I talk about it all the time. The first question we were ever asked at a party was, "What house are you in?" Or even worse, "You're hot. Can I guess your house?" Physical beauty and "a good pedigree" mattered more than brains, passions, hobbies, accomplishments, or any of those other things selective universities claim to look for in a prospective student.
I remember USC championing its diversity statistics when I first took a tour. To its credit, the campus is very diverse. On 28th St., however, you could expect to find carbon copies of the same privileged, white student over and over and over again. It did not help that the exclusivity and snobbery of these organizations made anyone who did not join feel like an unworthy outsider. It became infinitely worse when social media (and the "like") exploded around 2010-2011. Dare I say: social media encourages this behavior. Social "capital" is earned from popularity. Popularity is earned from exclusivity.
In any case, a handful of students died because of heavy drinking or drug use during my time. That speaks for itself.
126
This comment touches on another deleterious effect of the Greek system, the emotional damage of being excluded. Every Greek member, perhaps particularly women, who revels in the supposed benefits of Greek life, should walk a mile in the shoes of the ones who have been shunned. Shameful. What ethic does the university promote with this practice?
1
I considered USC, briefly, and then went to CSULA because the students were just as diverse, but older, more mature, and were there to learn, to graduate, and to build careers. Maybe the idle rich can afford to party their way through college. Most of us prefer to grow up.
Just ewwwwwww
The fraternity is an important element in the college experience that must be preserved, it is the initiation process that must be reformed. Thank you.
6
Greek letters without Greek wisdom. Instead of everything in moderation, the Roman tradition of everything in excess.
1
Before I joined a fraternity, my grades were abysmal. After I joined, they immediately went up. Why?
Because before that, I felt isolated and alone. With the encouragement of my brothers, I was able to think more of myself and push myself in a more positive direction and have fun at the same time.
Sure, we did stupid things. There’s probably no one stupider than a 19-year-old college kid.
But we did have morals. We threw out a pledge who attempted to sexually assault a young woman at a party. And yes, we probably drank too much.
In our instance, the good far outweighed the bad. No rich kids. No sense of entitlement and privilege. Just a bunch of middle and lower-class guys enjoying themselves.
Many of us are still friends, many years later. It’s not black and white — there are a lot of grey areas.
6
Before I joined a fraternity my grades went up. Afterwards they were abysmal. My first semester I was on the dean's list. My senior year I barely slipped by. I was on probation with a threat of removal of my academic scholarship during my second to the last semester. But I survived.
Before I joined I thought that fraternities would let me meet beautiful women and make many friends. I met some women but the beautiful women who came with me to dance events were not sorority women. The friends I am still in contact with today were not in my fraternity.
Most of the fraternity brothers were rich guys who bought their wardrobes in England or at Brooks Brothers. Their parents owned major corporations (small businesses with 100-200 employees)
Many of my fraternity brothers died before the age of fifty, some of alcoholism.
Although I made some friends in my fraternity I no longer keep up wtih them. My friends are located in many of the countries of the globe.
asathank you for writing this, too often hazing deaths make the front page and t then vanish, leaving heart broken parents and embarrassed administrators.I was briefly heartened when Timothy Piazzo's tormenters were facing manslaughter charges. If every hazing death was followed by the arrival of the local police and a truck from the local tv station, there might be fewer pledges and fewer fraternities.
1
If there is one death related to drinking, drugs, hazing, etc at a fraternity, the penalty is simple and all-inclusive: every single member of the frat gets expelled immediately. No tuition refund, no reapplying down the road. You are toast. Confiscate all the property inside the frat house as evidence to a crime and put it in storage for the DA to examine. Might take years for it to be released. Too bad.
If these immature boys running the frat house know they and their brothers will be expelled for one infraction, they will think long and hard before abusing their pledges.
Note - criminal charges shall be filed against the frat boys involved in the death or abuse.
1
Those responsible for crimes should be punished. Those NOT responsible, should NOT be punished.
Guilt by association and collective punishment are not values appropriate for a democracy.
Simple-disallow fraternities and sororities from all campuses.
How will you deal with all the alcohol abuse and sexual abuse that doesn't occur at Greek houses and therefore has no locus to blame? While Bruni is sensitive about privilege, he seems to forget that colleges concentrate privilege by their very existence. What does he think goes on at the admissions office?
3
Not all colleges and universities promote or romanticize fraternities and sororities. Some ignore them, and along with it, an opportunity to perhaps set higher expectations and attract a more responsible group of students to join Greek groups.
I am a sorority alumna of a state university in the Northeast. In the more than 30 years since my freshman year, the university has done little to even publicly acknowledge fraternities or sororities on campus, until there is an issue where police are called. Buried on the university website, there's a page explaining Greek life in fairly positive terms, but to look at the university magazine over the course of several years, you'd be hard pressed to find a single mention of any fraternity or sorority. This is the case despite the fact that even the chapters of non-ethnic Greek groups accurately reflect the school's highly diverse student base, and that many of the members participate in activities highlighted in the school media. There's a pretty good story there, but it's ignored.
I often wonder if it might have a positive impact on the chapters to have the university highlight more of the positive parts of Greek life, and the achievements of their members. When I was in school, I sought to be part of an organization whose members are student leaders, rather than one whose members were best known for partying. I know I'm not the only one who felt that way.
TEACH teenagers how to drink before they go to college. TELL them about how alcohol and sex go together, about how alcohol can literally kill you, faster than you could ever have imagined. Parents, if you don't drink yourselves, find friends who do and can help. You wouldn't throw your children in the water (I hope) without giving them some idea of how to swim, but sink or swim is what happens when they enter into the social life of a college campus.
3
This goes back to Woodrow Wilson, who first achieved national attention trying to eliminate the eating clubs (i.e., fraternities) at Princeton. He lost.
Hampshire College never felt the need for such organizations, although there are numerous Greek geeks from neighboring colleges who try to crash Hampshire parties for some reason.
Frank, it is easy to blame fraternities - they are not perfect. But the real issue is one of binge drinking. American kids start binge drinking in the 9th grade. Our society glorifies shots of tequila and beer chugging. We export this behavior around the world on Junior Year Abroad trips. Let's have a conversation about how to fix that, and then fraternities will come along for the ride.
5
I'm a student at Auburn University in Alabama, and Auburn has a reputation of being the "non-Greek" state school in Alabama, a reputation the university loves to mention on campus tours. Even so, 15% of the student body is involved in a Greek life that dominates campus.
Want to run for an office in the SGA? Not in a fraternity or sorority? Sorry, that won't do. Winning any sort of election is nearly impossible if you don't have support of a fraternity or sorority. Pay for your friends and you can win just about anything here.
Greek parties at Auburn are pretty much what one would expect from any university. There's not shortage of stories of binge drinking, overdosing, and negligence of proper medical care for injured or sick members.
Regardless, I doubt any significant changes will be implemented to dull the influence of Greek organizations on campus. It's simply too ingrained, and alumni give too much money, for the university to do anything.
Once as an undergrad, I sat on a disciplinary panel for a student who was about to be expelled for failing too many courses. He had excuses/reasons (his mother was sick, his friend had committed suicide, he was just a young kid trying to figure out his way) and made promises of doing better next year by being more focused and diligent. The panel let him stay, and I happened to have a class with him the next semester. He wore his frat jacket all the time (there was nothing in his plea to be allowed to stay that indicated he was a member of a fraternity), and usually came to class just to meet his friend so that they would skip class and go drinking together. When he was in class he was hung over, and the stench of him was intolerable. I'm certain he didn't make better grades the next year. Did fraternity membership cause him to act that way? Probably not, but it didn't help, and even as he begged to be allowed to remain a student, he knew that it was not a laudable aspect of his campus experience.
Obviously, it is impossible to be sure that under-age frat boys and gals don't drink, but they should be held responsible if they don't get help. During orientation, at the U of Colorado at Boulder, they talked about alcohol poisoning and its signs and symptoms. They told the students to call 911 sooner than later and the police won't arrest the caller who stays with the victim. The incident where the frat brothers did not call for 24 hours is an example of an event which should be prosecuted. Perhaps if enough brothers and sisters received stiff punishment for deadly events the Greek societies would have to clean up their act or find their members in prison.
The idea of frats and sororities is a relic from the past but it won't die out anytime soon. People love to belong to a group, the cliquier the better. Some people can't get through college without joining such a group. The fact you have to pass muster is what allows the pledges to be abused, which under any other circumstances would lead to arrests. I predict that every college which banned frats will let them back in by popular demand. Greek societies need to be policed with severe punishments for those who abuse others, whether with alcohol or physically.
1
One of the best ways to polarize opinions, to get people to reinforce each others' biases and gravitate towards the most extreme views, is to let them organise themselves into near-homogeneous groups and let them interact for a while - the results are stunning. Mind you, it could be good behaviour (but with a race to being holier-than-thou) or bad behaviour (xenophobia, racism, sexism).
The fraternity/sorority system is one such system. Facebook facilitates another (virtual) one. All need to be publicly identified and managed to mitigate their negative impacts, civil society needs open discourse and challenge but self-destruct if there is excessive polarisation. This is true not just of American University fraternities, but can be seen at work in numerous western, liberal democracies.
1
This morning Ohio State University suspended all Greek life activities. University of Michigan suspended all fraternity activities a week ago. It's high-time for presidents and trustees to permanently suspend these hubs of sleazy predators and vicious mean girls from all campuses. The issue, of course, is that most presidents, trustees and vocal donors were "brothers".
3
An obvious - or what should be an obvious - place to start with fraternity reform is to recognize that colleges and universities are not "safe havens" exempt from the reach of laws with which the rest of society must comply. For too many years, these institutions have been allowed to operate like monastic orders, accountable only to their own rules and mores. A report of sexual violence in the community at large requires a police investigation. So does serious vandalism. Our society classifies use of physical force to terrify someone, as practiced in many rituals of fraternity hazing, as assault and battery. Forcing someone to consume alcoholic drinks beyond what a normal body can tolerate may not have the same intention but is scarcely less pardonable than lacing someone's tea with cyanide. Part of education is to teach that acts have consequences for which one must take responsibility. Make clear to the fraternities that their behavior is subject to the same laws that prevail beyond their walls. And that, if warranted, the police - not the campus police - will be called in immediately.
1
As Groucho Marx wrote in his resignation letter to the Friars Club: 'I don't want to belong to any club that will accept someone like me as a member." As a college fstudent, I felt that the pledging and hazing rituals were sadistic and demeaning. We can add lethal today as well.
1
College should be about education but for many that is a secondary goal as compared to a vacation camp away from the parents. That is the core of the modern fraternity appeal. The good works organizations or academic fraternities are really just trivial variance and not the major attractions of membership.
Colleges have diminished hard requirements and built rock walls and lazy rivers to attract students to their resort. Good food to be had by all. In an article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed., a proponent of lazy rivers suggested that having such would reduce rampage shootings such as happened at UT Austin years ago.
Fighting for enrollment as caused institutions to prostitute themselves and winked at 'entertainment' for the kiddies.
Should we fell sorry for those who chose to go to those schools? The dominance of frats and sororities is easily researched. Should we feel sorry for parents who send their kids to such schools and in some sense allow such memberships.
Until colleges return to education as a primary goal (fat chance of that displacing the hunt for money), these organizations will remain a cancer similar to that of the athletic teams of today.
The proclamations of horror from a president - hypocrisy of the highest order.
I am a feminist woman who lived at a co-ed "fraternity" on campus (at MIT). It was not very fraternity like at all, thankfully, and we were more likely to take magic mushrooms than drink alcohol. The fact that women were living there (as equal members) made a huge difference in making it not remotely like a typical frat. It was a progressive, inclusive, and awesome place and I loved living there.
I think frats just need a revamp, as co-ed social clubs where people can live together off campus.
In the late 1960s, the faculty at SUNY Buffalo voted to remove Greek letter organizations, intercollegiate sports and the ROTC from the campus. I attended in the early 1980s, and it was a sane, respectful place with an emphasis on academics. Yeah there was plenty of drinking, and the campus also had a vibrant organizational life.
The fundamental social function of fraternities and sororities has nothing to do with drinking, except for its use as a social lubricant. Fraternities and sororities serve to maintain segregated boundaries of race and social class: for men to obtain access to old boy networks with exclusive access to opportunities for wealth and power, and for women to secure marital partners from that pool. The result is self-perpetuating, homogeneous clans. It's the opposite of diversity.
You might want to look at some of the universities in the Northeast. For instance, I'm unaware of any university Greek systems in New Jersey that reflect the environment you describe. And someone forgot to tell me that I joined a sorority to marry a man with access to wealth and power.
1
Counter-hypothesis: Fraternities are not the problem. Young men who have been socialized to be sexist are the problem. Young men who have been taught that drinking is not merely an escape but a badge of honor are the problem. A society that now stretches the development from childhood to adulthood into almost three decades is the problem.
Classic case of overreach—just because some abuse and can’t handle the responsibility doesn’t mean all Greek life needs to end.
2
Some three decades ago, in a conversation with one of SUNY's vice-chancellors, I was told that a primary reason that Greek organizations were tolerated if not welcomed was that their graduates were one of the most lucrative sources of contributions to campus alumni funds and endowments. I guess if you pay, you play.
1
I will strongly dissuade my kids from joining a frat/sorority should their school have one, and if they do, I don't think I'll pay for college. I understand how these organizations can be a siren's song for 18-yr-olds away from home for the first time. Writing that check for frat/sorority fees gives students instant belonging, instant status, instant friends, and instant activities to fill their time. I would have been quite tempted myself, should my college have Greek. But being an adult means FINDING belonging, EARNING status, MAKING friends (and meeting people unlike yourself), and EXPLORING activities that give your life meaning (as opposed to fulfilling the dictates of your frat). Not to mention, college is expensive enough without fees to Greek organizations.
The NYT recently did an exposé on sororities. I was aghast. The women spent their time making arts-and-crafts, singing songs (that they performed for frats), and dressing up in fancy clothes (for men at frat parties). The crafts, singing, and dress-up sounded a lot like preschool, but the orbit of, interaction with, fraternities just sounded like rank misogyny. Not for my daughter. And, there's no way I'm paying for my sons to "pledge" with a bunch of young men who are more prone to commit sexual assault and drink themselves to death. Raising (their parent's) money for charity doesn't move me. We'd do well, instead, to make a donation in our kids' honor to United Way, and send them on to the campus library.
3
Universities have known for years that frats are usually highly segregated racially, religiously, socially, and financially. Binge drinking goes on in may "houses", and marijuana may be bought or shared. Exam and paper work are stored in most frats, and authorship of new work is suspect in some. Sex and abuse are not unknown. Many members are, after all, experimenting with alcohol, drugs, sexuality, and frats offer a safe place place do so, at least to do so without family and neighbors nearby. Later, networking begun in frat years may also provide security and familiarity. Frats won't be disappearing soon.
What can we do to reduce the wastage and cruelty? First, on-campus houses must be supervised by central admin. Off-campus, frats must be induced to insure student health at their events and to support social integration in the academic and public communities. Penn State has an annual competition and carnival for the members - why not set entrance requirements promoting tolerance - either PSi PSI PSI proves to examiners it does A and B off-campus and ABCD on campus, or they can't take part in carnival? I was invited to a frat party once. "Lock 'em up" understates my revulsion. But let kids try it and decide, but safely and sanely, with close supervision by outsiders and mandated social contributions. Just don't let them self-police. Penn State, I'm talking to you. Make student life better not unsafer, please.
So glad I chose UCSD, where no Greek life existed at the time. I always thought fraternities and sororities were pretty lame. Exclusionary with silly "traditions" that only appeal to those with low self esteem.
1
Community defines the collegiate experience. No organization inspires more loyalty than a sorority/fraternity. Greek graduates are the most likely to engage with and donate to their university over time. I was an Alpha Phi. 20 years later, at Reunion, almost my entire pledge class came back.
Before you rip apart the system, consider that there's something you likely don't "get" about the Greek experience. Stop assuming that they are all exclusionary. My best friend was an Indian girl from Texas. I'm a Jewish girl from NY and our President was an evangelical from Omaha.
Regarding the dangers of binge drinking, Start with the presumption that college students will drink - because its fun. Focus on keeping them safe. Have good transportation systems. Strongly discourage hard alcohol. My college had a no glass policy that worked extraordinarily well. Require social safety education, early, using the Greek chapters and the RA network. Determine your tolerance. Stay away from Punch. Bring a sober friend. Warn your sisters of sexual predators.
Then set hard boundaries and have zero tolerance policies. Suspensions, prosecutions, accountability. At my college, every member of the group was responsible for the behavior of the chapter. My college hasn't had a greek incident in 30 years. Kids respond to structure and consequences.
You don't have to eliminate the system.
1
Most telling for us was when my daughter joined UMich. One of the question posed to parents was whether we would prefer not to have shops that sell alcoholic beverages on campus. And wow, there were very few parents who raised their hands. It’s not just a university problem. It’s an American problem. When parents think being All-American, means binge drinking, sex, fun, loud idiotic behavior and everything that does not include academics, then obviously your kid is imprinted with these values.
Bringing in silly statistical data that people in Greek institutions do better than the average kid does not help. Show me in which field, show me that they have succeeded without Daddy and Mommy’s money and influence.
Greek societies are like the new face of the Ku Klux Klans. Universities are only pampering them for the revenue they generate. Till we as Americans look in the mirror and acknowledge the problem, and teach our children that respect of other people, education, kindness, consideration are all hallmarks of what makes us a super power, these will simply be talking points that get published in newspapers and get people loudly and emptily arguing.
Color me cynical, but I don’t think this is going to disappear as long as people can find ways to make excuses for bad behavior. Greek institutions do so much philanthropic work ergo they can be as bad as they want we will just pretend the other stuff does not exist.
Thanks to the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee (FSPAC) and other Frat organizations, which are some of our most powerful lobbying groups, enormous amounts of money go to universities and colleges. I found this out through the documentary "The Hunting Ground," which documents sexual assault on campus. These frats may have some good sides, but either way they're not going away anytime soon. Too much money is at stake.
1
In California, neighbors of drug houses have used public nuisance law to shut down the drug houses in their neighborhoods. Neighbors individually and collectively bring claims in small claims court against the owner for maintaining a public nuisance. Almost all states have public nuisance laws similar to California's.
Fraternities are a form of drug house for the privileged young (alcohol being the preferred, but by no means the only, drug). During my college days at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I delivered pizzas hundreds of times to fraternity parties. These were well dressed versions of Fellini's Satyricon. The odor of vomit was enough by itself to be considered a public nuisance. Add to this the effect on the neighborhood of vandalism, noise and unhinged behavior by young men who have not mastered the recent presence of testosterone in their blood, let alone alcohol.
If neighbors, or city attorneys or district attorneys wanted, it would be relatively easy to have a fraternity declared a public nuisance and have it shut down, not based on who is a member, but on the effect the house has on the neighborhood.
2
Greek life is a bunch of rich kids whose parents are donors or have other influence with the college. They're not about to go away so forget it.
Once again, a ridiculous reaction from a theatre critic. Those who misbehave should be punished. Those who don't shouldn't. They should be allowed to associate however they please. If only there were a document, with principles fully stated, protecting the rights of citizens in a free republic! Imagine how that might actually protect people from others like Bruni who want their opinions to determine how we all live our lives.
3
I'm sure this happens to some extent in sororities but really, most of what we experience is boys, then men behaving badly.
Lack of impulse control and lack of common sense judgement is epidemic among men - even Al Franken! I don't agree with some of the letters that attribute drunkenness and debauchery to the undeveloped brain. Look at the behavior of grown men. This is a crisis for humanity.
1
I'm sure this happens to some extent in sororities but really, most of what we experience is boys, then men, behaving badly. Lack of impulse control and lack of common sense judgement is epidemic among men - even Al Franken! I don't agree with some of the letters that attribute drunkenness and debauchery to the undeveloped brain. Look at the behavior of grown men. This is a crisis for humanity.
Alumni donations are fueled by nostalgia. Killing the institutions associated with those "glory-day memories" is going to dry that financial well up quickly. Ever wonder why football matters so much in "learning institutions"?
Greek life in the last 15 years has become more about money than tradition. Sure it might give some students social mooring where they need to find their group and some are better than others at community service. But lets not forget how strong the alumni base is and how much money flows back into the school from alumni who participated in Greek life at their campuses. This is why there is a blind eye turned towards frat/sorority culture from the highest levels of administration at universities.
Joining a fraternity was one of the best decisions of my life... it taught me about brotherhood, self-government and taking responsibility for my life and my house. It gave me a social network which would have taken years to develop. It also provided me with life-long friends, all sharing a common bond. I continue to support my fraternity to allow kids to reap the benefits I enjoyed. Of course there were drinking incidents, just like in every dorm room and apartment on campus, but I am proud to say our fraternity never condoned over-drinking.
3
It's unfortunate that some of these fraternities are so reckless . They're not all like that . My older son's fraternity was a Jewish frat at Hofstra University ( maybe that's the difference maybe not ) but basically their pledging consisted of doing chores for the brothers like cleaning their house , etc . They also did a lot of fundraising and charity work .
My younger son's pledging at American University believe it or not , consisted of hours they would have to spend in the library and meeting the brothers in the cafeteria for meals . Maybe my sons weren't telling the whole story I don't know
These stories are heartbreaking. I always hated the idea of fraternities and sororities because they are so cliquish and judgmental.
I think that eliminating them is a good idea . They can be replaced with clubs based on mutual interests that actually do good for people .
1
Maybe we should just call them for what they are....Gangs.
150 years ago corporations weren't that favorably viewed either.
We seem to be stuck with both so We the People need to find some ways to tame their excesses.
For now I will stick with fraternities.
Perhaps there should be off duty police hired as security anytime a house wants to throw a party. Granted that is going to somewhat dim the life of the party, but since I am now an old man I don't care if it does. Not as much as I might have at 20, anyway.
There is one piece of the puzzle that we could take up a discussion about; legalizing 3.2% beer again. When I was a lad 3.2 beer acted like training wheels, teaching kids how to drink without so much lethal consequences. A person could get drunk on it but it took a long time. Beer is not as angry a drink as whiskey either, so rage wouldn't be as prevalent at drinking parties.
If we as a nation were not so squeamish and priggish about sex, drugs and alcohol we might start to teach our children some responsibilities regarding these "adult" activities a little earlier than college.
Finally, anyone who abets the hazing of frat brothers with lethal doses of alcohol should be indicted as an adult and prosecuted to the fullest extent. That might put a lid on some more of the excesses.
On our campus there's a fraternity that's notorious for the number of young women who've been sexually assaulted at its parties. Students and faculty have known about the problem for years, yet, nothing is done.
Part of the problem, as I see it, is that universities must compete with one another for students and so do not want to be the first to eliminate what is still viewed as a key component of the ideal/traditional college experience.
I was in a fraternity way back when. The college had essentially delegated any and all social life to Greek organizations. The drinking was reckless. I am surprised how no one died, overdosed, or was killed another secondary to DUI. There was also a form of anti-social heritage that permeated the chapter, being pushed along by earlier graduates. While I was sort of detached from the whole thing as I was very future oriented, I saw many a brother suffer academically and socially secondary to the fraternity milieu.
Looking back I see my fraternity as sort of an adolescent gang of middle class white guys. This model seems so 1950s. It needs to evolve into something
more mature; otherwise colleges will need to add more nannies than already exist.
1
Exactly! These adolescent gangs of the "privileged class" students that are the foundation for the culture of privileged power, hazing, cruelty, sexual harassment, rape and alcohol abuse. And we wonder why this happens at the "upper" levels? This "frat boy" culture is baked into the culture for "success" in America. I am so grateful that when I was younger I chose to instead go into a union apprenticeship where we learned valuable skills and acted like responsible grown-ups with a job to do. The college fraternity/sorority culture resonates with unhealthy life skills and ignorance of the suffering they inflict.
The logic behind Bruni's piece on Greek life doesn't keep up with his outrage. In blithely accepting Wade's questionable methodology that fraternity life "cannot reform" he ostensibly cuts off any dialogue. But perhaps this topic doesn't merit conversation? Why not cast aspersions on the collegiate athletic culture or other groups where hazing deaths are prominent? Quite possibly because Greek life has always served the cultural masses a pre-packaged scapegoat for lost values, gender masquerading, and socio-economic privilege. Once more what harm would it cause to look at the community service, moral leadership, and social and cultural awareness programs being promoted by a vast majority of Greeks who abhor being lumped with individuals who clearly have no regard for brotherhood let alone life. These deaths are anything but inevitable and a grave tragedy but they are hardly some cheap consequence of some outdated institution of collegiate life.
3
How many fraternities exist because institutions shield them from the consequences of their actions? A business that regularly served alcohol to minors would be shut down. Fraternities and fraternity members need to be held responsible for their conduct by law enforcement, without the kid gloves they currently get in most towns.
A deeper question: why do colleges run dormitories or, indeed, anything that is unrelated to classrooms, labs, and other learning/collaboration spaces? Why not focus on the core missions of education and research and not try to run hotels and restaurants?
1
Anyone who has attended a university is familiar with Greek life. I started pledging a fraternity, my wise father pulled me aside and counseled me and I backed off. At the expensive private university I went to there were the fratboys, exclusively white and economically privileged and then there were the rest of us. The social interaction between the two groups was nonexistent, we non frat boys were not worthy. In spite of it all I made some great friends, got a great education, graduated sober and did not view women as does Harvey Weinstein.
Fraternities and sororities give in to the worst of life: racism, sexism, classism, and bullying. The students join an immature culture. In college, I felt sad for students in fraternities, given that it seemed completely fake and forced.
1
Here's what will happen: Highly-paid college administrators will just throw their hands up and say, "We just don't know what to do with these exclusive, social groups that cause problems -- even death -- on our campuses? The alumni will be mad/pull money. Let's start a conference on diversity and inclusion, that will cure our ills."
It stuns me that these colleges are completely helpless in eradicating binge drinking, drugging, and sexual assault on their campuses -- be it in a fraternity or residence hall.
The first step is to grant a full-year's tuition/room and board for every year served in social service, be it Peace Corps, Military, working with the poor, etc. Just dip into that 6- or 7- figure endowment and create those scholarships. Divest yourself from shady corporations and real estate holdings and provide those scholarships.
This won't 100% change the party/non-academic culture of colleges -- usually the giant state schools -- but it's a start. But I know, "We've never done that before" will be the cry, so it won't get done. For a bunch of thinkers, colleges sure don't think much outside the box.
1
I am not sure that I agree with this. Yes indeed they need to be reigned in! And glorifying the drinking and hazing process is absolutely absurd -- and that needs to stop! But especially with sororities -- there's something to be said about "Girl Power" and sororities do that. Sure, it would be nice if all females could attend schools like Barnard College (part of Columbia University) -- where our young women learn that the sky's the limit and their gender "should" have nothing to do with their success. But not everyone can go to an Ivy League school. My daughter's sorority (AXiD) focuses on autism and their philanthropy is geared towards raising money for Autism Speaks. Not all AXiD sister lives in the house, but everyone is required to learn and participate in those activities. And when I meet these young women, I am humbled and encouraged by their dedication and their drive. Hazing has to stop -- without a doubt! And the obsession with drinking and binge drinking and getting drunk also has to stop -- without a doubt! But I don't think you can paint all Greek life with that very wide brush.
3
Fraternity life was key to my social life as a college student... I was shy, felt socially awkward and out of place, was far from home. The frat I belonged to began initiating women during my senior year and that has thrived. The rest of the fraternity chapters, save a few, were horrified at this step, but there are a few fraternity houses around the country that are no longer all-male.
The answer seems clear: don't abolish frats, just make them stop excluding people who aren't male. College presidents and administrators, please kindly take note.
I recently heard that sororities are usually forbidden to have parties, empowering the fraternities in that realm. It occurs to me they should do the opposite, ban frat parties and make the sororities the gate keepers.
Belonged to a fraternity in the early 60's. Think Animal House light. The opportunities to go wrong were limited compared to what's available today but we did the best we could with what we had. The difference between now and then was the degree of respect we had for each other. Pledges were there to torment but there was a line and everybody, on both sides, understood and respected it. Those tempted to cross the line were quickly reined in. My herd were brothers in every sense of the word. We genuinely liked each other. Those who didn't fit the mold were not allowed in. Maybe that's the problem today. Kids are allowed to pledge who have no business pledging and, alcohol diminished common sense and empathy, yields a fatal result. Take a bunch of 20 year old kids, add a keg, toss in the open carry deal and what could wrong? I wouldn't trade my experience or life long friendships for anything, but, like all things, maybe it's time to pull the plug.
Fraternities fill a deep seated need for belonging. NPR did an excellent program where a now college professor describes his then brutal induction into a fraternity and how looking back, he would not change a single thing about it because it played a big role in making him the person he is today.
Get rid of fraternities and students will simply find another way to get together in cliques and binge drink and get up to unsavory shenanigans. Such is the nature of young adults getting away from home for the first time.
1
Colleges compete for students on several levels including "Student Life". Nobody wants to go to a boring college. With the 21-year-old drinking age, (almost all) the partying that goes on in college is illegal. The frats function as a cutout, of sorts, taking much of the liability away from the university (at least until things go very wrong).
What college administrators like about greeks is the same thing they don't like - the frats are not controlled by the administration, so the university is not responsible for what happens there.
1
I don't understand why these organizations are not closed after and underage drinking laws remain unenforced after the recent spate of student deaths associated with college-sanctioned activities.
To be clear, any other activity associated with comparable numbers of drinking-related deaths and sexual assaults would be shuttered without debate. I cannot imagine any rational attempt to justify fraternity systems that involve systemic abuses and predictable deaths to the parents who will never recover from the losses or their children.
Colleges and universities can revoke the charters for these institutions at any time with the stroke of a pen. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to more unchecked hazing and alcohol-related deaths. There are plenty of other ways to forge social bonds and engage worthwhile charitable organizations.
1
I'm a 65-year-old alumnus of a college fraternity. When I arrived on campus I felt terribly out of place. Moving into a frat house gave me a sense of social belonging that I had not experienced as a boy. I doubt I could have finished college or gone on for higher education without it.
In my senior year we initiated our first group of new members who included a few women. At the time I was surprised all frats were not starting to do this, and instead, we met trenchant resistance from all but a few of the other undergraduate chapters and a near-unanimous opposition from the older alumni.
Socially, all-male fraternities are the same thing as all-white fraternities, so the remedy is obvious. Don't kill off the fraternity system. Reform it by making it fully inclusive. I'm surprised all-male frats are still legal in any of the blue states.
Here's a novel thought - allow Greek Life as it stands today and eliminate all forms of hazing, ritualistic drinking requirements and any other activity which may lead to physical harm.
Some frats do valuable public service for the communities surrounding the schools - let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater!
I think there has always been a need for men to pass from boyhood to manhood and to be a part of a group. I think both Boy Scouts, the military, and fraternities serve this function to some degree. What is the difference? Supervision and adequate mentors. Colleges and universities take no responsibility in mentoring young men and women. I don't know if it's practical that they do so. However their obvious legal distancing is distasteful at best. I would love to hear from anthropologists and psychologists about this.
That being said, I think fraternities are a magnification of our culture. Drinking to lose one's inhibitions is not new. But why such excess? Why drink it until one passes out each and every weekend? What is lacking in the soul of our young people? Where are the mentors?
1
I've worked with alumni groups at a university and most of the Greek organizations had their own scholarship funds, so we worked with them a lot. One thing I noticed was that the older alumni had specific identities attached to their groups. They were usually based on religion, race, or nationality, but sometimes they were more for common interests. You still have that in some Greek organizations geared toward a specific major. They are always co-ed and aren't really for social purposes. The oldest sorority on campus was essentially a support group women students at a university dominated by men. The younger alumni didn't have or really need that. They mostly had shared memories of parties and they didn't have much in common with the other generations. People tend not to band together based on heritage or religion these days (and it's seen in a negative light), and there are plenty of women and minorities who attend college. Greek life has mostly become irrelevant.
Its been awhile, but in my time at UT Austin joining a fraternity was about the most uncool thing a guy could do; for many it's still that way. Sure, a fraternity enables an extended adolescence, provides an anti-merit based advantage in later professional corporate life (clearly needed for many to succeed) and access to power (their ilk in the House just passed a massive corporate tax cut at a time of historic income inequality, an enormous federal debt, neglected infrastructure and millions in our workforce now facing the loss of medical insurance. Frat boys are takers its hard to name any of their alum that have made any meaningful contribution to our economy or culture...and that's pretty uncool.
1
Greek life doesn't have to be all negative. A lot can be determined by the character and the make-up of the members.
In my personal experience in college from 1977 - 1981, the fraternity I joined was the only one on campus that accepted men of all races, and regardless of wealth and social status. It was all about the what the members felt the candidates would contribute to the chapter. On pledge drives we pointed out that it was LUDICROUS/unacceptable in that era not to allow, for example, black members.
Having had no brother growing up, I thought it would be a good experience to join a good group of guys in a Greek chapter.
Being a straight A student and completely serious about maximizing my education and getting a good job (which I made clear from the start), the next couple of years the group moved toward being the scholastic chapter on campus. Mostly making the Dean's list, and not being rowdy, generally. I didn't drink because my girlfriend didn't like it, and I personally didn't care much. So I didn't drink, and was never at all judgemental toward those who did. After awhile, brothers accepted that. In the following years, we had several non-drinkers or light drinkers join, and that became normal. I'd like to believe that by setting a good example in a non-pushy way, that I helped this trend materialize.
Instead of pushing for bans, how about simply demanding acceptable, if not model behavior? Or lead by example?
4
Frank -- Remarkably one-sided column and comments. Just had a daughter graduate having participated in a sorority for four years at a large state university and was in a fraternity myself years ago at the same school -- which has more than 35,000 students on campus. Fraternities and sororities are a way to manage and reduce that impersonal large school experience to far more enjoyable one, and a way to make friendships that last a lifetime. Both my fraternity and my daughter's sorority were quite diverse -- reflecting the student body at large. A significant percentage of my daughter's sorority was Asian-American. In addition, they made philanthropy a large part of their mission. Every year my daughter's sorority raised five figures in support of heart disease research, as well as many other philanthropic activities. At that same school, any fraternities or sororities who engage in the conduct your article describes are decertified and banned from the system. The tragedies that prompted your column are awful, those involved should be held responsible and more reforms are needed at those schools/systems. But you and your commenters are painting with way too broad a brush, and stereotyping Greek systems which vary in diversity and character across the country. Hundreds of thousands of students each year have a very positive experience in their respective Greek systems.
2
It's not Greek life it's the culture of intoxication. Many European countries don't have a minimum drinking age and the kids learn to drink responsibly at home. You never see drunken vomiting kids in Rome - unless it's a pub filled with Americans. the drinking age was 18 when I was in college and beer was served at every barbecue and in the Rathskeller every day. and no one walked around ossified - a drink or 2 was enough.
"Binge" drinking culture is not exclusive to the Greek system, it exists in the university student body as a whole. The more universities "crack down" on drinking, the more students drink. People at that are are on their own for the first time, wanting to rebel and seek out forbidden fruit. The more forbidden it is, the sweeter it is.
Honesty about drinking would go a long way. Stop referring to drinking as "high-risk behavior," that only makes it more desirable at that age. With a definition of "binge drinking" as four drinks for women and five for men, painting that as a problem just destroys your credibility. Four/five drinks, spread out over a few hours, is not excessive and students doing the drinking know that.
Trying to convince students of dangers that contradict their own experience is an exercise in futility. Drinking is fun and students know that. Stop acting like it isn't fun.
It's actually rare for a college student to die from excess drinking, a bad hangover is the usual result. Dire warnings about certain death are ignored because they don't align with reality. Someone If they received honest education that taught them what level of drinking would actually lead to a likelihood of severe consequences, they'd be better able to judge what really is excessive. Telling them that four/five drinks is excessive just makes them laugh.
But that would require accepting that adults will drink and the scolding, nanny state, neo-prohibitionists will never allow that.
1
Don't blame fraternities. They reflect their 19th century founding values: racism, sexism, white privilege and member discrimination. It's more subtle and repressed these days, but they carry on what brought them into existence. That's who they are. The fault is with school leaders.
Trying to domesticate them is actually unfair to them. Anyone who thinks that the fraternity legacy deserves a place on campus is endorsing a retrograde force. Administrators and trustees lack the courage to do the right thing by pushing them out. Two reasons: the greeks relieve them from having to generate social life and their fear that kicking fraternities out will alienate big donors. Conscience again takes a back seat to money. My college, Bowdoin, eliminated fraternities two decades ago. I think I speak for most alumni by saying that move, carefully done, brought huge benefits.
I don't know. We paid for our kids' undergraduate, private college educations. If they had wanted to join a frat I would have said, fine, but you pay your own tuition. And I would have given my kids the exact same reasons that Bruni gives here.
Reforming frats might be a great idea, but I think a lot of the worst behavior is a direct result of the drinking age being too high. Universities should lead efforts to lower the drinking age, since they suffer so directly from it being so high.
Looking back on my years in college and my fraternal experience I would say I had some of the best experiences of my life, but also some of the ones I'm most ashamed of. 18 and 19 year olds don't make the best decisions as is and being in a fraternity doesn't help.
This article makes many valid points but is painted with a very broad brush. The National Institute of Health (NIH) reports that more than 1800 undergrads die every year due to alcohol consumption. Were fraternities and sororities to blame for those? I think not.
The NIH further states that colleges that support a large greek life and large sports programs have more alcohol consumption. Should we also ban large college sports programs?
Don’t get me wrong. Forcing an underage pledge to consume dangerous amounts of alcohol as part of a hazing ritual is illegal and deadly, and should be punishable to the fullest extent of the law; the chapter disbanded and the house shuttered.
I think the greater discussion needs to be why so many 18 to 24 year olds are dying from over drinking on college campuses, whether in Greek like, or not.
2
Thank you Mr. Bruni for articulating my deeply held attitude toward "Greek Life" on our college campuses. For whatever reason, especially when I'm with parents of a conservative political bent - I keep my mouth shut and comments to myself on what I see as the antithesis of enabling our children to become better adults than the last generation and thereby go on to improve our society. Universities, especially public ones, are funded in the expectation that they will help to improve our society. The values and attitudes engendered by fraternities and sororities do nothing of the kind. "Feel good" moments of charitable fundraising do not eliminate the pernicious effect of institutionalized discrimination. Currently there's a recognized problem of a lack of diversity in the tech sector. These companies are able to skirt labor laws by affixing to any candidate a "not a good cultural fit" label. "Cultural" fit - gee I wonder where they got that?
Greek life usually, but not always, tends to thrive in one of two scenarios: either the college is very, very large like a state university in which case a fraternity or sorority helps students find a tight knit group of friends in an otherwise faceless institution, or the campus is located in the middle of nowhere with little to do for social activity other than parties and drinking. When you think about a newbie freshman starting at a school in which s/he knows no one, Greek life is appealing to bridge that social isolation.
My son joined a fraternity at a large state U. despite my misgivings, mainly because as an engineering major, he would meet few people beyond his STEM milieu. It worked for him and his grades did not suffer; to the contrary he graduated with honors. My daughter, on the other hand, chose not to join a sorority even though she, too, goes to a large state U. For her a sorority felt limiting and too time consuming given her very demanding major.
I honestly don't know what the answer is to the scourge of binge drinking deaths. I'm convinced that if fraternities were shut down, the hazing would still happen, just not under the watchful eye of the university. Perhaps a better way to combat the crazy is for parents to have a serious sit-down with their kids prior to them going off to school, and to give them a taste of freedom in high school. When kids know actions have consequences, they tend to be more responsible.
Might the staying power be firmly entwined with alumni giving? I recall some powerful octogenarians reminiscing in front of the fireplace at their old social club at Harvard, about some mischief they were up to in days gone by. I think their donations sustain their nostalgia, AND, they are convinced that these adventures are building blocks for the powerful of the future. Had they not had that experience, they would not have such connection. Having it, they can't imagine life without it.
1
I went to Brown, not expecting to join a fraternity. However, I wound up joining a co-ed fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi, that was otherwise a traditional fraternity dating back to 1832.
Arguably, the most enduring gift of attending a competitive school is the group of interesting and high-achieving friends you make there. I have far more active friendships from Brown enriching my life at 47 than I do from my high school or MBA program.
This is all due to the social bonding the fraternity dynamic creates...living together, participating in activities both noble and sophomoric, for over 3+ years in the same group.
Sure, there was drinking. As a co-ed fraternity (most women members called themselves 'brothers') there was less machismo and roughhousing than at some of the all-males. But being part of the Greek system truly amplified the long-term social benefit of going to college.
1
Although I know from my own experience that it is possible to organize the living and social arrangements of a college without fraternities or sororities, I realize that my situation was different from that on a large university campus and that tradition will likely preserve the Greek system. Thus, it becomes necessary to see that the members and leadership of Greek organizations are held civilly and criminally responsible for the abuses that occur.
When I attended university some 40 years ago we "Independents" used to envy members of fraternities and sororities as these organizations were known to
maintain files of old exams given by our professors , which gave them a big advantage when they took their own examinations since questions are frequently re-used on new exams.
This may partly explain the GPA boost seen in their membership, and the impetus for people to join.
5
The colleges and universities are deemed to be accountable but demand it out of the wrong people, if they even demand it at all. The good news is there is a framework already in place for two effective solutions:
1. The school administration can require that an adult lives in the house. House Mothers and House Fathers were the norm back in the day. The money spent on lawsuits and PR would more than pay for the incentive to find someone to do it. The house parents are formed as an organization across all the fraternities/sororities, which is accountable to the Dean of Greek Life for promoting the good and fixing the bad.
2. They can require the National Fraternities to have active, participating local fraternity Alumni associations in place to ensure that the mission and goals of the Fraternity are being met. The national fraternity organizations should have a network in place to establish that. Those Alumni associations should be working in tandem with the House parent and also be accountable to the Dean of Greek Life. If that cannot be accomplished, then the charter is suspended/revoked.
I know from personal experience as an Alumni member of my house for 40 years that this actually works quite well. Yes, our members still wax nostalgic over the glory days of hazing, but they also know it’s a big no-no and will be in deep doo-doo if they go there, per us. So, they don’t.
The solution is not to search for the guilty and punish the innocent.
1
The legal drinking age of 21 is one of the biggest challenges to culture reform for Greek life. 21 is in a sweet spot where most of your members and guests are underage, but there is still easy access through the Senior class. Our chapter would send the youngest 21yo to the distributor every weekend for dozens of cases of cheap beer on pooled cash.
This creates a situation of "underground" parties that are soaked with booz and have no responsible oversight. And when things go wrong, people are afraid to risk helping those in need for fear of exposing themselves.
You can't stop college kids from drinking. The best thing to do is control it with oversight (imagine a student-only bar with trained bouncers and tenders that only served wine and beer). Unfortunately, that's not possible as long as the bulk of campus isn't legally allowed to drink.
As the president of a college fraternity that is both academically successful and very active in community service, I can tell you that Greek life is no more than the sum of its constituent parts. When each member works hard, puts education first, values difference, and is held accountable for their mistakes, a beneficial community is formed that in turn helps the members grow. When people only care about parties, a toxic culture develops. It is these cases that make headlines and inspire anti-Greek polemics in the Times, while good behavior is ignored. Colleges can and should take steps to encourage diversity and punish misbehavior in Greek life, but the real change should ultimately come from within. At their 19th century roots, fraternities were created to provide college men with peer communities on whom they could rely as friends and role models. The chapter that my brothers and I have built stands as proof that such a model can be equally effective today.
1
I joined a national fraternity in the 90's and there was no hazing. The purpose behind pledging is to put a group of people together that dont know each other and challenge them to become close friends through a series of "adventures" and this can be done without hazing. Then when they are brought into the fraternity they understand the meaning of brotherhood and teamwork. I transferred after my 2nd year to another college which had a chapter of the same fraternity so I was automatically in. This one had dangerous hazing. There was no difference in the bonds between brothers of the first and second chapter so hazing was all risk and no reward. Fraternities can be a wonderful way to develop close friends and learn how to run a business (chapters are run like a business with officers and budgets) while doing good work for the area, both did lots of charity work. They also create a bond with the school which allows alumni to have a reason to come back and visit with old friends. Alumni are a key funding source for chapters. If you want to get rid of hazing, start there. Most pledge classes lose a few people along the way and some of those were victims of hazing and "could not take it". Its fairly easy to set up a hotline where they can report it while staying anonymous. If a fraternity gets caught, the national a. gets fined by the school and b. the chapter is removed from campus for 2 years. This creates a gap in alumni and is difficult to get going again.
1
According to the NIAAA there are 1,825 college students that die each year due to excessive alcohol consumption. That number seems to suggest that alcohol related deaths amongst college students that are not affiliated with a Greek organization occur at a higher rate. This isn't a Greek specific issue, it is a college student in general issue.
5
1825? Each Year? Really? Not kidding, I am shocked. Lower the drinking age and raise the matriculation age. NOW. Most students are too immature to get much out of their first four years. Let people work for a few years. Then they will appreciate the opportunity to be in college.
The simple fact of the matter is that fraternities do not serve a purpose anymore in the real world.
In generations past, the best benefit of fraternities has been networking thus helping secure jobs. However, now, both more effective job and applicant searches are handled by the Internet. Sure, as a job-seeker, it helps if you know somebody and have an established relationship or reputation, but it is more important to have a good social media profile and résumé so the Internet robots will detect you.
Meanwhile, the personal social costs of being in a fraternity are still the same as generations past: Spending years in college delaying maturity and adult responsibility with less exposure to the outside world with balanced sexes and more ethnic diversity.
So, really, from a cost-benefit standpoint, fraternities are obsolete. All but organizational fraternities (e.g. Pi Tau Sigma, the National Mechanical Engineering Honor Society) and service fraternities (e.g Alpha Phi Omega) should be eliminated from campuses.
4
Fraternities, like people, run the gamut from good to bad. When I arrived on my college campus they were really bad. Two professors led the way to start a new fraternity and we had more members at start-up than any other fraternity. For over 50 yrs., this fraternity has been led the campus in academic, athletic, and community endeavors.
But during some bad years our National Organization (Sigma Phi Epsilon) responded quickly to the hazing and drinking abuse by launching a "Balanced Man Program". Pledging gone, binge drinking gone, with academic achievement paramount. In short, it re-engineered itself to promote the value of responsibility in all areas of college life. In short, it's working.
Socialization is probably the greatest benefit, while exclusivity the greatest risk. Nevertheless, I felt broadened by exposure to guys from homes far different than mine. It is the POTENTIAL benefit to members that can justify their continued existence.
As a former fraternity president at a state university the 60's, the Greek system led the all-student GPA buy a substantial figure, the Greek system produced over 80% of all student organizational leadership, raised dramatically more philanthropic money than the student dorms, and had a very significant presence in the student athlete percentage. My fraternity was very instrumental in mandating my then-embryonic study habits, and during my presidential year, we were number 3 in the all-Greek GPA average.
When my son was entering college at the leading university in our state, I attended the Greek orientation for parents of entering students. I asked 3 questions. 1. What is the Greek GPA average compared with the all-student average? 2. What is the percentage of student government (and all student organization) Greek leadership? 3. What is the percentage of 4-year graduation of Greek system members compared with the all-student average? All questions were answered with negative data on the Greek system side.
My son already had partying skills, so I saw scant reason for him to go Greek. He never regretted that guidance, graduating in 4 years with student body leadership and academic honors. This is a poor statement on the Greek system, sadly.
5
I am not advocating for fraternities as I was never a member of one and did not have a US undergraduate education. But I have two kids in college and what I am hearing and seeing is that drug abuse is rampant on campus and that there is absolutely no difficulty in obtaining anything, of course Marijuana (not even considered a harmful drug even by most of the general population in the US), ecstasy, cocain, Amphetamin, Adderal for perceived enhanced academic success, meth, opiates, whatever, you name it, you can get it. The drug caused college drop out rate is sky high, and from my perspective going to college puts your children into a clear and present danger zone in this respect. Now, even though forced alcohol consumption should indeed not be tolerated as it does result in the tragic incidents which were cited in the article, the issue pales in my opinion in comparison to the magnitude of all the other drug abuse which is present on campus, and which is in principle unrelated to Greek life, because it’s everywhere. Greek life is easier to target, because there is in the end somewhere a structure or an organization with representatives, who can be hold responsible. But it is not doing anything to fight the general college drug culture - that would require a much more forceful approach from college management (yes, I am saying management because colleges are run in essence as a business here), which I don’t see really coming out for this.
2
Drink, danger, debauchery and don't forget: degradation.
Been there, been a recipient of that behavior, done with it.
Sororities and fraternities are a petri dish of sexual abuse, binge drinking and male mob mentality where women are largely viewed as playthings, a conquest for the night.
It needs to stop now before more young men die and more women are harmed by the mob mentality that is at the core of most, if not all fraternities.
31
We have to recognize that the "boys will be boys" foregiveness we extend to fraternities demonstrates what can best be understood as a disease primarily suffered and promoted by white male privilege. All the mysterious mumbo-jumbo surrounding frats obscures the fact that pranks are encouraged as part of rituals requiring toughness, survival and... finally... domination. We let "the kids" do it and then find ourselves surprised that they do it as adults. Come on, people, kids do it because we teach them to do it.
11
The frats are off-campus in my city. When I drive by on Mon morning the yards are littered w/ trash, beer cans, and alcohol bottles, a disgusting sight. There are always exceptions, but in the aggregate most frats promote white, male privelage & lack of sexual restraint w/ young women. They remain the 'old' boys club into adult life. Do their attitudes change or do they continue in their privelage and attitude to women? WRT hazing consider the Milgram experiments - 65% of subjects continued to shock others because of they were told to do so by an authority figure. We know young male brains are not fully mature & some lack impulse control. Pledges are freshmen-the frat brothers upper classmen and function as authority figures. How does a freshmen boy seeking to belong resist what he is told to do? And especially when he is inebriated? The blame squarely falls on the older brothers who encourage hazing. If fraternities cannot change their culture, then yes, they need to be abolished. One frat death is too many. If it were me, I would prosecute every frat brother when a death occurs-all are complicit in promoting a drinking culture.
7
I was a lost and unhappy person when I entered college and, although it did not happen immediately, my fraternity helped solve those problems. My alcohol consumption started at the local bars, with non-fraternity students. It continued at the fraternity, but I think it was pervasive at the school, not just fraternities.
Also, fraternities can have alcohol consumption without hazing. Fraternities need not be insular - continued friendships with people not in the fraternity should be encouraged. A fraternity should not be exclusive - it should welcome students of all backgrounds, as long as they are open to others as well.
I do think that school officials from the fraternity-sorority dean's office should visit each fraternity on a regular basis, and educate them on the dangers of substance abuse and hazing. They would have the perfect captive audience. One visit every year is not enough.
I understand the idea that fraternities seem to exclude a lot of people. There are some fraternities which contain snobs, to their own detriment. But there are many other fraternities and sororities who are interested in new members, and are not at all closed to any student. It is not a bad idea to make fraternities and sororities co-ed.
5
If there's a positive (there isn't), may it is that we're reading this column? For decades, we've all known what being in a "frat" really means. Older women whisper to girls inbound to college, "stay away from the frat parties." At least now, we're talking about it. At least now, when the Penn State "brothers" who escaped expulsion and felony charges apply for jobs, their names will appear prominently with the vivid and gruesome descriptions of their entitlement and neglect. Change won't be overnight, but kudos to Mr. Bruni and the Times for outing this culture and calling for its end.
23
I am not a fan of the Greek system, but I don’t see a lot of evidence against sororities in this article, mostly fraternities.
Perhaps the lack of diversity is a problem for both, I honestly don’t know.
5
One key distinction is that sororities don't end up with dead pledges.
Many frats would disband if just the drinking age law (21) was enforced. The deaths due to massive alcohol intake are of course tragic. But any alcohol consumption by 70% of frat members (those under 21) is illegal. While I have a problem with laws that prevent any voter (or anyone that can be drafted) from having same rights as other citizens, the law is the law. But in these horrible stories it never is brought up.
6
Actually, it often is brought up – – but do you support of you opposite of yours. It is brought up in connection with the idea that do US drinking age of 21 is unrealistically high, and has lcontributed to out of control weekend binge drinking on campuses.
In the early 80's at my fraternity if a brother swore in the presence of a woman he had to buy her a rose and apologize. If twenty women were there you bought twenty roses.
We walked women home from the library. We read to kids, raised money and donated time to other charities. We had study groups and invited professors over for dinner. We also had parties with beer. It was legal to drink beer at 18.
Look at business, government and academics - many of the most prominent leaders today were men and women in the Greek system.
There's nothing wrong with the Greek system.
The problem is the wrong kids are going to college. They are philistines. Their parents are philistines. They failed to teach their children basic civility. They have no business being in college.
College used to be an institution for mature, sophisticated young people. Today it's just high school with less rules, more booze and lots of debt.
Today every kid has it drilled into his or her head that college is a requirement. Kids who used to become plumbers and carpenters and truck drivers now feel the need to attend university.
Leave the Greek system alone. Make college harder for the unwashed, hooligan rabble to get in to.
22
About the same age as you - I was in a prestigious fraternity at an elite college with sons of ambassadors, titans of industry and the like. We had all traveled the world, sponsored and attended literary critiques, had meetings in which poetry and art history were often central themes, knew which forks to use at formal dinners, and put on tuxes every Wednesday night as we dined on quail and sang songs of brotherly love. Then we changed out a formal wear, tapped the keg, and acted like animals, particularly with women. Fraternities need to go.
41
I've attended lectures, know a thing or two about fine art, traveled to Europe several times (2 dozen times +) know which fork to use too since I was about 5 years old and DIDN'T attend an Ivy League College. Glad I saved my folks money.
1
Because if the formal association goes away young men, filled with hormones and new found independence will miraculously no longer want to drink beer and try to have sex with women, who, by the way are also teeming with hormones, want to drink beer, love their freedom and want to have sex with the men..
What has worried me for more than three decades since being on the periphery of this " frat" culture as a member of a sorority, is the ongoing problem that many of the problems associated with the culture--sexual harassment, rape, binge drinking, alcoholism, entitlement and misogyny--carry over into our society many years after graduation. So, so many of these young " frat" boys never shed the attitudes and practices learned during those formative years. And we, as women and society, pay the price.
34
Let's see: you create an organization of young, over-sexed men, barely out of adolescence, many away from home for the first time. You set them loose in an environment of minimal adult supervision and passively encourage their sadistic tendencies by turning a blind eye to the 'hazing' of vulnerable applicants desperate for admission to the club. Then, when some of these medieval rituals inevitably climax in tragedy, you declare that you are shocked, shocked to learn that drinking is going on in the establishment.
Yeah, that pretty much defines hypocrisy and dereliction of duty. Were university authorities truly committed to bringing the frat boys under control, they would ban hazing and suspend any fraternity that failed to comply. Whatever apologists for these organizations might say, the true purpose of hazing is to assert power by humiliating the pledges. Perpetuating this culture of dominance and submission not only violates the mission of academia; it also fosters contempt for this country's democratic values.
Fraternities may remain an unavoidable evil on campuses, but authorities do not have to tolerate their most destructive tendencies.
14
Why not include the number of alcohol related deaths/hospital trips for non-Greek students? I was a GDI forty years ago and partied hard-no hospital trips thank goodness, but still the alcohol binging was there. We were lucky. Flash forward to my son's years in college-no Greek organizations on his campus-but plenty of ambulances every weekend carting off the kids that drank too much or OD'd on something. We attended roughly the same size schools, mine was Methodist affiliated, his non-secular. Small, liberal arts campuses. Binge drinking, like sexual harassment, has always been there. With mass media being so instant these days, everyone knows about it. But yes, it is time to stop hazing.
10
I am not moved, even in the slightest, by alcohol-induced deaths among young people. You really, really have to try to get as drunk as these students are getting. They are adults and bear full responsibility for their own actions, regardless of 'peer pressure' or whatever else.
That said, I do agree 100% that the entire 'Greek' system should be abolished. It serves no legitimate purpose, it has NOTHING to do with 'education' per se (same as sports!), and it (at least in its most common incarnation) serves only to foster and promote legitimately harmful ideas and actions. It gives people a sort of herd immunity to responsibility and acts as a breeding ground for elitism, sexism, conformity (of the worst kind), racism and, of course, sexual abuse.
The American education system does not need the 'Greek' system, derives no benefit from it, and in fact suffers injurious loss due the existence of these organisations which exist to enforce conformity, and permit all manner of antisocial behaviour and abuse.
19
Sorry, the brain of a male in his teens or even early 20s is physiologically profoundly different from that of a male even a few years older. This is no longer disputed. Science backs it up completely. Forgive me if I don't join you in washing my hands of helping 18-year-old man-boys to make better decisions.
1
Nice to see you are so well informed and open minded about the subject. :) Seriously, please do not assume all fraternities behave according to the stereotype you mention.
1
Fraternities are "Animal House" without the humor. They are, every one of them, nothing more than a bunch of spoiled boys without moral or ethical standards. They are, in short, places for small minded boys to vent their most base characteristics. It is long past time for them to be removed from college campuses. Certainly, no land grant college should allow them.
9
The anecdotes offered about Greek Life are no different from any other College "club" and sport. Should we abolish those as well due to a handful of poor decisions by young adults?
Thankfully Bruni holds no sway in the future of the Greek system.
4
Ah, but the data show that a lot of fraternities are disproportionately responsible for binge drinking and warped attitudes about sexual misconduct. See the IU professor's quote.
1
Poor decisions that cause death.
Which other college clubs and sports end in death? Math club? Lacrosse? Even football?
If your son died due to a major series of poor decisions that led him to drink himself to death, would you feel that way?
1
Fraternities and Sororities are an anachronism. "Greek Life" is nothing more than a euphemism to ensure that young people, away from their parent's oversight for the first time, "mix only with their own kind. " Outsiders of a different race, religion, and economic standing had their own Fraternities. Society changed in the 1960's. It's way past time for College Campuses to catch up.
15
Boston College has no fraternities, and no one will knock BC for not having a social life, it is one of the most fun college campuses.
Hazing in fraternities is akin to sexual assault or other power imbalance situations. Pledges feel that they must be a part of a fraternity to have a successful college life, and they are at the mercy in many respects to their "big brothers." Add alcohol and there will be abuse of power. It would be interesting if there were a movement where pledges came out about all the abuse that happens and happened. If there were an open forum maybe it would help stop the hazing.
4
As a student at a large university I witnessed frat life as it was practiced on my campus.
The good: Frats offer students a place to make friends, call home, and occasionally work on charitable projects.
The bad: Frats only recruit members who embody their "philosophy." I don't mean the high minded philosophy of the national charter, but the actual, on-the-ground operating philosophy of the brothers.
This philosophy was often focused on partying/drinking, providing opportunities for sex and promoting themselves. The frats were often combustible combinations of immaturity, testosterone, segregation, homophobia and sexism.
I heard many credible stories of - and experienced first hand – frat brothers who committed violence or sexual predation (assaults that typically started with heavy drinking at the frat, before heading to local hangouts -- often in large groups.
These groups of four, six, eight or more brothers were intimidating.
More than one of my female friends told me of frat brothers cornering and groping them or worse. Male friends told me of threats and intimidation which often led to fights.
These derogatory actions certainly weren't the sole provenance of frat members, plenty of non-affiliated students caused trouble on campus, but in my experience, frats as currently operated deliver far more that is detrimental to the university and it's student than beneficial.
PS: University leadership is aware of what is going on and complicit. The reason is money.
5
I will modify a phrase from the gun control debate and say that "fraternities don't kill people, alcohol kills peope" You can posit that banning fraternities will eliminate the problems associated with alcoholic overindulgence but it's the alcohol itself that is the root cause of the problem. Can you ban alcohol from campuses or, at least, fraternity premises? I don't know to what extent that's feasible but this is the direction toward which the issue should be focused.
2
Due to a lack of space, my first dorm experience in college in the 70's was in a frat house. There was a lot of pressure to join so I did. Once initiation started, it became apparent after a few days that paying for the privilege of being hazed for a few weeks made absolutely no sense. That, coupled with the fact that a few of my pledge brothers had served in and survived Vietnam, made the decision to quit pretty easy. So, a group of us did.
We continued to live in the frat house for the rest of the year and the "brothers" did everything they could to make our lives miserable. Four years later, several of my former pledge brothers approached me, apologized and said they regretted not making the same decision.
4
I joined a Sorority the first year (1973) my university stopped requiring House mothers in the Greek houses. But we were under close supervision with a retired Dean’s wife stopping by daily, overseeing our maintenance and staffing. Twenty years after graduation I returned with my incoming freshman son and visited my house. It was a mess! It looked like a flop house. A few years later my university disbanded the Greek system. My daughter joined a sorority that still required House mothers. It was well run and their Greek system did not have serious hazing issues. I think Greeks went downhill when universities allowed them to operate unsupervised by adults.
3
Among the many reasons why I chose my college was the lack of sororities and fraternities. Fast forward to my life as a college professor, and I am totally baffled by Greek life. And while the deaths and injuries from fraternities gets all the news, hidden is the impact of rush on academics and finances on some of these young people.
The worst offenders, however, are the off-campus (i.e. non-recognized) fraternities that pop-up after they've been censured on campus.
This is a public health issue that should be treated like one. We've worked on decreasing rates of teen smoking and pregnancy. We need to use evidence-based approaches to minimize the negative impact of fraternities.
7
The fraternities are another place where the power hungry and cruel/psychopathic flock to and take out their disturbing behavior on eager wannabes. We need reporting from psychologists and experts in the field on who these troubled people are, why they are that way, and what we can do to make sure they don't get into positions of absolute power where they will do terrible things. And is there a connection to others in other fields who also seek powerful positions only to lord over others in a barbaric way.
8
In very few parts of the world do university students not sometimes drink to excess and engage in other risky behaviours, but in very few parts of the world are there institutions in place that so clearly encourage this behaviour. No college or university should allow fraternities. They are there in part because of the degree to which we prioritise alumni funding, although many top schools don't have them. And, although it is not mentioned here, they are also behind a huge chunk of the academic cheating that goes on rivalled only by the share that can be credited to the coddled members of top sports team, football and basketball in particular. Both of these are testaments to the degree to which school spirit rather than actual education is at the core of the college experience for too many undergraduates.
11
Get a grip, Frank.
Although true that there is probably as much drinking in fraternities than elsewhere on campus and hazing occasionally gets too enthusiastic, on balance the Greek system has much to offer. The good far outweighs the bad.
I won't bore you with the details of my college life more than 50 years ago except to say that the time in the fraternity resulted in lifetime friendships with people from all walks of life. Coming from a town of 1,200 people, that was a better education than in the classroom.
Come up with a better solution than your Draconian suggestion.
6
Because you had a great experience 50 years ago, getting rid of fraternities is Draconian? Is that the critical thinking universities try to teach? Your experience is irrelevant. The facts are what matter.
5
I was employed by a large university to provide student activities support to the Greek Houses. It was odd how the students were so attached to their identies as member of these ridiculous clubs- - And that they really did nothing useful or valuable. Lots of drinking, lots of sex and a ready made sense of inclusion built upon nothing. Universities need to remove their support and their funding of Greek houses. They serve no useful purpose and encourage, then cover up their illegal and dangerous behavior.
16
Fraternities is a special creation of American Universities. No other country has these kind of organizations in the Universities. Today’s fraternities are mainly used by students to drink, be roudy and enjoy. I think they have a feeling that they are different than others.
8
What if an 18 year old student walked into the dean's office with this pitch:
"I want to organize a game in which the players, most of whom are students of color, hit each other as they fight to move a ball to the end of the field. The game will cause lasting physical and mental damage to the players. What do you think?"
22
Imagine a world in which a student must ask permission from a dean in order to start a campus club!
Mr. Bruni would prefer that students pledge their financial futures and their first born child in exchange for the wherewithal to attend college than pledge their loyalty to play at being pretend Musketeers and Singing Girl Groups. Fraternities and sororities are fantasy exercises. In an America driven mad by its addiction to fantasy, condemn Greek clubs for that. If Greek life was in better touch with reality there would be fewer of these problems. Employers regularly complain that recent college graduates are utterly clueless.
Don't condemn the children for packing their parents' sodden dysfunctions in with the brand new sneakers when they head off to college (a key filter for the elite). If you need to paddle somebody when a fraternity student dies from stupidity, line up the parents. All of 'em. Make them say: "Please, Sir, may I have anotherl set of values?"
I'm a 58 year old fraternity member. 40 years ago I passed on pledging because every table at the 'Meet the Greeks' event stank of the 'Animal House' culture. The next year I developed a tight group of friends and we ended up affiliating with a dormant chapter of a fraternity. We were straight with them - don't accept us if you expect us to recreate the absurd culture of abuse and exclusivity.
We proceeded. Our 'pledges' demonstrated their commitment through voluntary acts, most often helping to renovate the house that had been destroyed by the previous occupants. Despite the divergence from the cultural norm, within a decade had one of the largest houses on campus with a reasonably diverse membership, and great success in intramural sports and student government.
As time went on, we who stayed connected saw a slow, backward cultural migration culminating decades later in a spate of police interventions in parties, university sanctions etc, despite our guidance and exhortations. I still cannot explain it and it's taken the better part of the last decade to reverse that tide.
I tell this story because articles like Mr. Bruni's and the torrent of comments from those with an obvious lifelong disgust for Fraternities and Sororities presume that there is a desire within the Greek community to maintain the status quo and to accept or excuse these tragedies as the cost thereof. No. We are horrified and heartbroken, too, and are working furiously to find solutions.
161
Try harder, it's not working.
2
You must admit that your experience was an extreme outlier compared to the other 99% of fraternities. You are not Job and the administrations are not God. Are you saying that all should be kept because of the virtues of a minuscule few?
2
After a pretty heinous freshman year that left me depressed and lonely, I wanted a do-over and I wanted to make friends. This may seem contradictory, but sophomore year I joined a sorority that was for geeks who liked music and that had the structure and (yes) safety I needed. Yes, some of us liked to party, but for me, being part of a sisterhood was having a sense of community and source of friendship on a large college campus. As a pledge, there was no drinking or hazing of any kind, just different activities to get to know one another, along with charitable work.
We were respected for our quirks and differences. There was no pressure to go to fraternity parties or to participate in Greek Week-I opted out of these activities because socially they didn't appeal to me. Sadly, not all organizations worked this way and so much has not changed.
Years later, my sorority lost its charter because of an event held where there was underage drinking. The decision was just. I am horrified that people who are supposed to be your brothers or sisters within a fraternal organization choose to not respect human life and accountability. Would you watch your brother or sister die from injuries or alcohol poisoning just to try and avoid getting in trouble? This is not acceptable any where in any organization--this is not humane.
There is not a one size fits all solution.
1
They discriminate. They segregate. They're elitist. And parents who were Greeks encourage their kids to do the same and be the same. People I know who were Greeks do have a warped view of humanity and "success" and they have a sense of entitlement that is antithetical to the values so many of us learn in church and through our religious training. Outlawing these organizations would be a good first step toward bringing at least some semblance of decent behavior on college campuses.
11
Our local SUNY college is investigating a fraternity whose Fall pledges were paddled, drank and forced to roll in their own vomit, among other absurdities. To be fair, the majority of fraternities in our town do community service and aren't heard about. I do wonder about alcohol consumption, but unfortunately, that's not just a problem in Greek societies.
2
Maybe the immaturity of the people who want to join fraternities/sororities is the real issue. Any number of kids go to college each year with zero interest in being part of the Greek system. No one is forced to join and everyone knows that there is hazing in some form and that many times it's drinking. Tim Piazza communicated with his girlfriend that the night of the hazing, he'd be getting totally smashed. He went into it with his eyes open and unfortunately it ended with him having his eyes closed due to alcohol poisoning and stumbling down a flight of stairs in an alcoholic stupor. Mature people don't join these groups who regardless of what their "literature" says are for the purpose of underage drinking and sex with the girls who attend the frat parties. Let's not pretend that "friendship" is the goal because thousands of other college students managed to make friends with kids in their dorms, classes, and other social venues on campuses around the country.
3
Is the problem drinking associated with Greek Life or drinking in college? How many kids die from drinking who aren't in frats or sororities? I'm not defending Greek Life, but want to know that before I make an informed decision on where the real problem lies. If it is just drinking, getting rid of Greek Life isn't the answer. You just move the problem further off campus.
3