Greek life as of late has fallen under stereotypes that are unfavorable. Those of us in Greek life are trying to turn around the stereotypes and show people that we are a big part of campus, we go to cultural events, we support other organizations and most of us are very philanthropic. So why is it that people still think all we are is upper class kids who buy our friends? Because they only see the ugly and fail to see what we are really about. They see this because the bad always seem to outweigh the good.
Being under a microscope, media chooses the bad over the good usually, they find the one news story to exploit an organization, but don't show the many things Greeks do on campus and for their community.
Parents have a big say on whether their kid can join Greek life. What if these parents decide that Greek life isn't what they want for their kid due to the incidents from 2014-2015? With recruitment coming up soon, Greek organizations are doing everything they can to ensure the perfect, well oiled recruitment process possible. So in order for a successful recruitment there has to be a large incoming rushees. We can only hope at this point that these rushees choose to see the real reasons to go Greek rather than the rumors they hear on campus.
We're lucky as a campus that we still have the privilege of continuing traditions with our organizations unlike other colleges who have completely disbanded their Greek organizations. There has been a multitude of arguments against Greek life and for Greek life and everyone seems to take sides. Some people assume Greek life is about rich, self-righteous people coming together to be in a secret society while some see Greek life as members being long-standing members of the college community with leaderships skills and philanthropic service. With the arguments circling the media many people create their beliefs and either support us or are against us.
The changes our administrators have made and continue to make need to be taken seriously and implemented for the long term if we hope for our Greek life to remain on campus. Greek organizations will have to intermingle with other organizations more instead of maintaining the secret society vibe. The whole purpose of Greek life in college is mainly to network, and what better way to network than to reach out to other organizations than your own.
Greek life has helped myself and others that I know better themselves, and while I understand Greek life isn't for everyone, I still recommend going Greek because you won't regret it.
