If you’re like me, then growing up you probably heard or saw a lot through the media or your parents about all the evil of fraternities and how they were nothing but organized party groups designed to destroy your GPA, liver, and possibly even your college career. With all this in mind, I have decided to attempt to give a counter argument to why fraternities might not be the evil organizations you have been lead to believe they are.
1. Fraternities can actually help your GPA.
One of the common misconceptions regarding fraternities and Greek life in general in is that their only focus is partying and getting drunk, therefore they are death blows to your GPA. Now, don’t get me wrong, a fraternity certainly can affect a person’s GPA, in fact, more often than not that’s the idea, but not quite in the way mentioned in the example above. You see, most fraternities have these things called study hours which are basically hours required to be maintained by brothers in order to maintain active membership. Most fraternities usually keep a track of these via a log book in the library, and while this practice is not always common among every fraternity it is in the majority of them. Additionally, most fraternities have a GPA requirement for active membership, which helps to assure no brother slips too low. With that being said it is still very possible and plausible for a student to choose to party rather than study and let his GPA drop, but in reality this is really a fault of the person rather than the fraternity.
2. It develops you into a concerned and active member of your community.
Another often overlooked benefit of fraternities is the opportunities for civic growth. Almost all fraternities have either fundraisers or service events that all work toward benefiting a local or national charity; in fact it’s a requirement in most of their bylaws. For a lot of college students, the idea of giving time, money and effort to help someone else can be a concept that they might never have taken under serious consideration, but fraternities go a long way in making such philanthropic mindsets and activities second nature to their brothers. To reinforce this core value of service to one’s community, many fraternities have service hours that are required for active membership. The idea behind service hours isn’t really to force brothers to serve, but to give a reminder of service’s importance to the brotherhood within the fraternity and really the brotherhood among all mankind.
3. We create some of the world's best leaders.
Lastly, one of the greatest reasons to join a fraternity is the leadership opportunities you get. We live in a world where good leadership skills are both greatly desired and greatly needed. While the average college experience is great and can prepare you for the adult world in many ways, one way it often fails to prepare students is in the leadership department. However, one way to remedy this shortcoming is to consider joining a fraternity on campus. Most fraternities not only provide you with many leadership positions and opportunities, they encourage you to take them. One year on an exec board of a fraternity can give you an opportunity to explore and discover your own personal leadership style while learning what it is like to apply that style in administrative situation.
In conclusion, this was just a quick article as to why fraternities have more to offer than they are usually given credit for. So next time you reading an article about the evils of fraternities and how all they do is tarnish a community, just remember that there is more to Greek life than getting drunk on the weekends.
