We have all read the news articles. "Fraternity in trouble for hazing", "Fraternity in trouble for out of control party", or "Fraternity in trouble for tweet that was taken out of context". But when was the last time you got to read a news article on all of the good that greek organizations as a whole do for their community each and every year? This article is not here to defend those out of control parties, or hazing. This article is here to shed the light on the good side of Greek life, and why the stigma of hard partying, lazy and uneducated boys needs to come to an end.
I myself am in a fraternity, and it was the best decision of my life. I have made great friends, made great connections, and fantastic memories. Yes, it is true that fraternities have parties. This is a stereotype given much to fully to those organizations though. If you go to any college campus, big or small, just look around and you will understand what I am talking about. While fraternities are often depicted in movies and television as uncontrollable alcoholics, I would like to point you in the direction of any other program run by students, and tell me you don't see the exact same thing. Football, baseball, basketball, even an underwater basketweaving team is bound to have a party at least every other weekend. Now this is not saying that you're a bad organization for partying by any means at all. Everyone deserves to enjoy themselves every now and again. But I promise you, fraternities are not the only culprit of drunken mischeif on campus by any means. You just don't hear about it from sports teams. Who wants to know that their beloved football players got arrested for drunk driving? That just simply doesn't sell papers.
Next on the list is hazing. Hazing has been a stereotype of fraternities since the Flat Hat Club was founded in 1750. However, we can see today that hazing is taken very seriously, and punished very harshly. Hazing is not accepted by any national fraternity. If a national office even thinks hazing could be happening, that chapter's charter could be pulled in an instance. This doesn't mean that they are just suspended for a semster or two. No, that chapter is gone for good from that campus. But if we look around, do sports teams do this kind of hazing? Well, surely they don't. Unfortunately, you would be mistaken. In fact, at my school, the football team puts their freshmen through an "initiation" process. They are told to climb on top of the gymnasium roof. For years this has gone without a hitch. However, this year, a student fell off of the roof and landed himself in the hospital in critical condition. That student was also found to have blown just under a .2 when taking blood samples after the incident. Why wasn't this even on local news? If word of a fraternity undergoing this ritual caught wind, it would make it on The Today Show the very next day.
Aside from all of that, what about all of the good fraternities do for their communities? Did you know that fraternities donate more money than any other organizational body every year? The contributions made by fraternities are incredible, but we never hear about them. My fraternity, consisting of just under 20 men in the active chapter, single handedly raised $3,000 to donate to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Now if this is just one fraternity of not even 20 men, could you imagine what large chapters at schools such as Ole Miss with 500+ men in a chapter could do for charities. The results are incredible. The men in fraternities volunteer hundereds of hours every year and raise thousands of dollars for charity, yet the only thing said about them is how horrible they are for society.
Fraternities also require GPA regulations, study hours, and require you to be a full time student. These GPA requirements help maintain the good outlook that all fraternities try to maintain. Not only that, but they can helo get you far in any career field. All but 2 of the United States Presidents have been involved in a fraternity, and over 70 percent of all Fortune 500 CEO's have some Greek life background. Why is it then, that when talking about Greek life do we get such a bad rap?
The purpose of this article is not to direct your dislike to another organization, or to call organizations out. The purpose of this article to bring attention to the unequal treatment of fraternities and fraternity men across the nation. It is time people quit sniffing out every minute bad situation that happens, and look at the bigger picture. When a football team ends up volunteering at a soup kitchen, or a baseball team donates thousands to cancer research, you can call me out. But until then, appreciate the good fraternities do not just for the schools and organizations they represent, but for the good they do for society as a whole.
