It was around 4:00 AM this morning when I arrived back to my dorm room at The University of Iowa after a long and very tiring night of studying. Upon arriving in my dorm room, I turned on my television in my dorm to avoid oversleeping. The channel I turned the TV onto was CBS due to my football watching this past Sunday. It was only some late night news. Nothing too intriguing for me I thought. Until the reporter mentioned how one of America's top schools banned Greek Life. When I first heard that, I immediately knew it had to be a school on the west coast or down south. A majority of my friends and I attend school in the Midwest and I would've heard about this already if it were a Midwest school. Upon a wait from commercial break, I finally heard the school to ban Greek Life was none other than Florida State University. When I heard they banned Greek Life due to a pledge dying from alcohol use, I immediately disagreed with the University's decision to ban Greek Life. Don't get me wrong, I do not support activities where people deliberately get other people to do ridiculous things where someone ends up dying. That is not who I am. What infuriated me about the University's decision was how they handled the punishments.

First off, I do not see justice in blaming the entire Greek system for when it was just one fraternity that did the damage. The only people who should be held accountable for the death of this pledge should be the fraternity that held these events, not the whole Greek System. Only that one fraternity should receive discipline for the wrongful death of their pledge. They were the ones who oversaw those actions leading to the pledge's death. None of the other fraternities and sororities did anything wrong in the death of that one kid. It makes no sense to place blame on organizations who did nothing to contribute to the death of this kid. Penn State this past Spring had an incident where a pledge of The Beta Theta Pi Fraternity passed away due to negligence of the brothers after the pledge was forced to drink unsafe amounts of alcohol. Upon hearing that news, I definitely was not too pleased hearing how the fraternity handled the situation. Even if Pennsylvania does not have that law where nobody will get into any legal trouble if you have been drinking underage and you have to call for help for someone who was drinking underage, they should've called an ambulance right away. But, did I believe the whole Greek system at Penn State had to be banned and taken away because one fraternity made a horrendous decision to just let somebody in desperate need of medical help die? Absolutely not. Rightfully so, Penn State did not ban their Greek System after this incident since there was no way to hold other organizations accountable for the wrongful death of one pledge. Blaming everybody will solve absolutely nothing. I hope Florida State realizes this concept very soon so that not every Greek organization, especially those who are ethical, don't lose out on a great brotherhood or sisterhood all because of what happened in another organization.

Ever since I joined The University of Iowa, I have been very interested in joining a fraternity. Unfortunately, I did not get a bid this semester due to this being my first semester on campus. However, as I have mentioned in another article I wrote, I still feel confident I can get a bid in January or next August. Since I desire the brotherhood that occurs in fraternities, I would be very mad if Iowa banned their entire Greek Life System all because of what happened in one organization. And I would hope that something like this never happens at The University of Iowa so that way, I can get my fraternity experiences I am looking for. These reasons about why I want a brotherhood and want to go Greek is not solely based off of partying and tailgating. I would love to participate in philanthropies, chapter meetings, formals, community service activities, intramural sports, as well as learning how build my leadership skills and start making networking connections with other chapters of whichever fraternity I will join. If at any point in my college career, I get all of those opportunities stripped all because of what happened in another fraternity or sorority, I would be infuriated. I am sure there are many Greeks at Florida State who feel that way, and I am behind them. I support those in Greek Life at Florida State because I understand their desire to want to have some of the perks of Greek Life. Florida State, you are handling this situation all wrong by banning all of Greek Life just because of what one fraternity did. Please, support those who are in Greek Life and let the other organizations who were not involved in this death live on and enjoy their brotherhood or sisterhood.