Greek life has very much been in the public eye for a number of issues regarding safety, sexual assault, and drug and alcohol use on college campuses. At a family dinner with my grandparents recently, I noticed that their curiosity regarding my college life, and especially Greek life, seemed tinged with suspicion and disapproval. All of a sudden, instead of asking genuinely how my sorority sisters were, my grandma started expressing worries about whether or not being in the Greek system was affecting my safety on campus negatively.
“Did you hear about that story from Stanford? Do you feel safe at your fraternity parties? Are your friends drinking to excess too regularly?"
I couldn't really blame her and the rest of my family for expressing these concerns. Greek life has become the victim of all kinds of negative publicity that has, in fact, stemmed from all kinds of events in sororities and fraternities across the country recently. While these are not simply rumors, and are events that come from truth, I think the role of the media in the portrayal of these issues has cast Greek life in a more negative life than may be accurate.
This is a much larger issue than I am capable of addressing, and this article clearly is not representative of the entirety of the problem. I just feel that the negative connotation of Greek life in many contexts is not representative of the system as a whole. While Greek life is incredibly helpful, it is clearly not flawless or completely lacking blame for some of these issues.
Bad things happen on college campuses. Campuses are a hub of thousands of young adults testing their limits and experimenting with new experiences. They are in an environment where people are comfortable pushing themselves and may not behave in a way that is as careful or circumspect as in the rest of the world. Because of this, bad events can happen.
This is something that all college students need to be mindful of: not to get so caught up in the environment that we make poor choices. We need to stay aware and keep our wits about us because places like college campuses attract people who want to take advantage of students at their most vulnerable state.
That being said, many of these issues feel like they have been focused on Greek life, specifically. While many of these students have been part of sororities and fraternities, I actually think Greek life promotes a safer environment in which students can experiment. Because the Greek system exists in collaboration with the university itself, it is able to formulate its own systems for regulation and safety. Sober sisters and monitors and Greek life security allow parties to be held in a way that is both safe and realistic. Without Greek life, these parties could much more easily get out of hand. The system of registering parties and setting realistic guidelines to be followed actually keeps things much more in control. Greek life also promotes a degree of social responsibility and loyalty to others of the same organization.
By going out to parties with people of the same sorority or fraternity, and with the mixer system, brothers and sisters are held responsible for others of their organization. The loyalty of letters actually keeps all members much safer and, therefore, the system as a whole is much more accountable for its actions and the actions of others.
While Greek life has gotten all kinds of attention and flack for recent negative incidents, what I would like to say on that matter is that students are going to experiment no matter what. All Greek life provides is an opportunity for people to do that with some degree of control and registration, as well as allowing for a system that requires members to be socially responsible and accountable to one another Without Greek life, everyone is on their own, and I cannot imagine how much worse some of these issues would become without as much regulation.
This article was written before the events occurring at Indiana University last Friday and does not pertain to this event, but rather to earlier events, particularly in the last few months. My condolences to the family and loved ones of Hannah Wilson. This article does not refer to her specific situation.
