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More than a decade ago, in 2011, former Cornell University President David Skorton wrote an opinion article For The New York Times after a Cornell sophomore, 19-year-old George Desdunes, “died in a fraternity house while participating in a hazing episode that included a simulated kidnapping, ritualized humiliation and drinking.” ‘forced alcohol’. Pledging to take steps to “address fraternity system practices that continue to foster hazing,” Skorton noted that at Cornell, “high-risk alcohol and drug use is two to three times higher more prevalent among members of fraternities and sororities than elsewhere in the world. student population. »
Dozens of deaths from hazing have been recorded nationwide, accounting for at least one death on a college campus per year since 1970…but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of what’s wrong with the Greek system. What baffles so many students and professors is why this continues.
The Greek system encourages excessive drinking, abusive bullying under the guise of hazing, groupthink and sexism in various forms ranging from the objectification of women to sexual assault. Thus, the Greek system goes against the values defended by contemporary colleges and universities.
Fraternities and – perhaps to a lesser extent in some colleges – sororities impose a kind of conformity that stifles growth and creates anxiety about being different. In the form of shared social, ethical, and political attitudes and behaviors, members are expected to adhere to the accepted mores of their Greek houses. Membership in Greek organizations stifles student innovation and creativity. Greek life absorbs time that could be better spent on academic work and more enriching extracurricular activities, including community service.
Since I first discussed this issue at length in How to Succeed in College and Beyond: The Art of Learning (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016), I have not seen any significant change and I am even more certain than before that the Greek system, although it provides value to some of its members, has lost its usefulness.
Although my most intimate knowledge necessarily comes from my home campus at Cornell, where only a third undergraduates belong to fraternities and sororities – and to three visiting professorships elsewhere – for more than half a century, I have been reading about the Greek system and talking with colleagues and students on visits from campuses across the country. Although two Cornell students have died since 2011 due to two fraternity hazing incidents which has garnered national attention, relatively little has been done to control the Greek system here. In fact, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, the fraternity that was the site of Desdunes’ 2011 hazing-related death and was disbanded for a decade, was recently allowed to back on campus.
Last weekend, Cornell police issued alerts reporting that one student was sexually assaulted and at least four others were drugged in off-campus residences affiliated with registered fraternities, resulting in the temporary suspension of all fraternity parties and social events.
These temporary measures raise a more timeless question: why are these organizations tolerated by universities? We know from studies that alcohol abuse is more common among those belonging to the Greek system than among other students and that membership in Greek residential organizations is associated with excessive alcohol consumption and marijuana use until the forties. As if that wasn’t enough, a recent New York Times An article about sorority rush at the University of Alabama highlighted the superficiality and frivolity of this system as well as the large dollar cost of membership.
Certainly, one can find alumni and students who believe that fraternities and sororities enrich the lives of young adults. Yet virtually every current and recent sorority member I have spoken to about the Greek system over the past few decades believes it is obsolete and should be abolished. Although not as unanimous, most of the fraternity members I have spoken to one-on-one – as opposed to having their fraternity brothers present – have similar views. Most current students – and almost all women – do not believe that men and women should be separated by sex, as is the case in the Greek system.
The Greek system makes my university, Cornell, less than it should be. I don’t know any student or faculty member who thinks the small changes made in recent years send the necessary message. Cornell must abolish an outdated, sexist, classist, elitist and discriminatory system that encourages excessive drinking, sexual abuse and the brutalization of the intellectual environment, even if it discourages interaction among diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. I recently spoke to a group of fraternity brothers where I found some ethnic diversity but very little economic diversity, in part because joining the Greek system is expensive.
Despite announcements of reforms, the feeling among current and former students is that nothing substantial has been done. I understand, after reading and discussing with students and colleagues, that the it’s the same in many other colleges and universities despite significant efforts to abolish the Greek system on many campuses.
It is fair to say that a large number of students and Faculty believe on this subject that their administrations have rearranged the deckchairs on the Titanic.
It is curious why college presidents and administrators ignore this community cancer, since they must know that the combination of hazing, bullying, predatory sexual behavior, and excessive alcohol consumption contributes to injury lasting physical and emotional. One reason for inaction is donor pressure from older alumni who, looking back, cherish their Greek years. But we know that the colleges that abolished the Greek system…Amherst, Colby, Middlebury, Swarthmore And Williams In colleges, among others, this fundraising goes very well in the absence of fraternities.
Another reason for inaction is that the Greek system is supposed to help solve housing problems. But if the Greek system were to disappear, national organizations could sell the houses to the university at a nominal price since they would have no reason to maintain them. The result would be no loss of housing space.
The main reason students give for joining is to overcome loneliness and give them a sense of belonging. But there are now a plethora of clubs and activities ranging from a cappella groups to juggling groups, totaling on many campuses more than 1,000 opportunities for students to find friends and cohorts and make networking connections for future employment.
At a time when there were few organized activities on campus, the origins of the Greek system grew from a need for male connections and, later in the 19th century, when women began to attend university in large numbers, of female links. The Greek system flourished in the era of parietal rules governing relations between men and women on campus. But today, these rules are relics of the past and constitute an obstacle unrelated to university objectives. The question is whether, in 2022, colleges and universities will be better for the Greek system, and my answer – shared here by the vast majority of students and faculty I have spoken with – is a resounding no.
