Over the past six years, Greek participation at DePauw has declined by 9 percentage points, with the last two years marking an all-time low for the university in terms of the number of students involved in Greek life, according to data beginning in 1980. However, DePauw is not alone in experiencing this decline, as universities across the country are seeing a similar decline in Greek participation.
Greek organizations within The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) and the American National Interfraternity Conference (NIC), the two councils that oversee all chapters of the DePauw Panhellenic Council and the Interfraternity Council (IFC) minus one fraternity, are experiencing the largest declines in student participation.
The number of undergraduate women affiliated with NPC sororities nationally decreased by 8.7% between 2015 and 2020, according to the most recent data available in NPC annual reports. NIC fraternities have seen a more drastic decline, dropping 31% between 2015 and 2019, according to the most recent data provided by Todd Shelton, NIC communications director.
DePauw’s campus has always been defined by its Greek presence, being one of the few schools in the country with more than 50 percent students affiliated with Greek life according to Frae Binder, director of fraternity and sorority life at DePauw. Despite the small size and rural location of the campus, it is home to 23 Greek letter organizations, including two Alpha chapters, and has already been ranked first #1 College for Greek Life by the Princeton Review.
From 1980 to 1995, Greek affiliation never fell below 75 percent at DePauw. The numbers remained constant throughout the early 2000s before a sharp decline began in 2015.
DePauw alumni, faculty, and students have differing opinions on the causes of this decline, but almost all agree that this topic is extremely multifaceted.
Old students
Nate Spangle, ’19, and Lauren Keltz ’20 attended DePauw during the years the decline began, witnessing a decrease of 8 to 9 percentage points over their four years. Keltz said he noticed a drastic difference in his experience between his junior and senior year, attributing it to the administration’s disapproval of the Greek community’s social scene.
“It felt like they didn’t want to get involved with us,” Keltz said. “It felt like they were just trying to restrict us (socially) and they didn’t feel like they were there to help us in some way.”
Spangle felt a similar lack of support when he was vice president of risk at IFC. “I was constantly at war with the administration and there were very few internal defenders of the Greek system,” Spangle said. “It has been very difficult to make a significant impact on building a healthy Greek culture on campus due to the lack of support from those in positions of power. »
While both say their Greek experiences have been positive overall, providing them with lasting friendships and relationships, they believe Greek life at DePauw could be improved for current and prospective students through better communication and approval of the DePauw administration.
Unaffiliated Students
Current DePauw students who have opted out of recruiting have a variety of reasons to be independent.
Senior Lindsey Grewe knew from her freshman year that she didn’t want to go through recruiting, feeling like it wasn’t the right fit for her. Toward the end of her time on campus, Grewe said being independent did not have a major impact on her experience at DePauw. “I have friends in sororities and friends in fraternities,” Grewe said. “I don’t feel left out at all.”
Similarly, senior Joanna Berry did not feel that joining Greek life was something she needed to have a positive experience at DePauw because of the various other opportunities available on campus that gave her more freedom in terms of time, money and choice of accommodation. However, she acknowledged that the strong Greek presence in the school was inevitable.
“It can be incredibly difficult not to feel excluded, especially when you can’t walk across campus without seeing at least a handful of Greek properties in front of you,” Berry said. “But life is not a spectator sport, you need to seek out organizations and clubs that match your interests and passions on campus. You’ll find yourself and your friends in these places just as easily.
Berry said one of the main reasons she chose to be an independent and a factor in DePauw’s declining numbers is the Greek system’s exclusivity toward people of color. “People are taking the time to educate themselves about the racist histories and foundations of Greek fraternities and sororities, and actively choosing not to be complicit in perpetuating that history by remaining independent,” Berry said.
Recognition of the historical white predominance of Greek life and refusal of any complicity is not unique to DePauw students. During the activism of the Black Lives Matter movement that took place in the summer of 2020, the racist underpinnings of Greek life made national headlines as students across the country disaffiliated from their chapters, some even dissolved them completely.
Senior Cooper Mixon also chose not to join Greek life due to a lack of diversity and inclusion. “I don’t think most fraternities are very inclusive of people of color, so I felt like I wouldn’t always be comfortable in that space,” Mixon said. “Not seeing someone who looks like you in a community makes it very difficult to join.”
Mixon believes that being unaffiliated has broadened his experiences at DePauw, allowing him to make friends with people in and out of the Greek community. He speculates that Greek student affiliates may not be as inclined to make friends outside of their own organization.
Greek leaders
Jack Kneisley, DePauw IFC president and member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said the biggest concern he hears about Greek life from freshmen and transfer students is hazing. Hazing in the Greek system is another topic that has flooded the mainstream media due to the overwhelming number of hazing deaths occurring across the country in recent years.
According to the hazing death database created by Hank Nuwer, journalist and hazing expert, there have been 33 hazing-related deaths between 2015 and 2021.
No hazing-related deaths have ever occurred at DePauw, however, there have been a handful of hazing-related incidents that have made the news. Delta Zeta, which has since been removed from the DePauw campus, discrimination against members based on their appearance to avoid a negative stereotype, asking some members to leave the house in an attempt to promote a specific image during formal recruitment in 2007.
Binder acknowledges the existence of hazing, historical white predominance and several other issues within the Greek system, and said the office of Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) is working to address these issues.
“Any historically white entity probably has very problematic foundations, that’s just a fact,” Binder said. “So I think that’s where our job as Panhellenic organizations and IFC is to continually challenge and work on the landscape and the foundations of what our organizations are to see what we’re building.”
Binder said this spring, when the formal recruiting process takes place, an anti-hazing and identity development program will take place for the Greek chapters. The identity development program will aim to get chapters to “question their perceptions,” Binder said. She also said she plans to make an effort to have conversations with unaffiliated students about the Greek system.
Binder mentioned that while Panhellenic organizations and IFC are seeing their numbers decrease, chapters that are part of the Greek Multicultural Council (MGC) nationally are increasing. However, she was unable to locate the data for these chapters. Members of DePauw’s MGC organizations who were contacted declined to comment.
“I think sometimes when people don’t know what a sorority is, they just see, ‘oh, they’re cute girls who live in a house and have matching shirts,'” Binder said. “Yes, but also, they take STEM training courses, they travel abroad, they are educators, they are future mothers or future politicians. I think the more we can show how amazing, powerful and uplifting Greek life is, the better.
