Whenever people hear the words "Greek life," "sorority," or "fraternity," they automatically think of two distinct stereotypes. The first includes the "basic" blondes with minimal IQs, decked head-to-toe in Lily Pulitzer, going to parties and drinking every night, and contributing nothing to life. On the male side, people picture entitled boys living off of Daddy's money, drugging girls at parties, and again, not contributing to society. A lot of sayings get tossed around as well, such as "buying your friends" or "we are only here for the party." However, we live in a society where only the bad gets published and the good goes unnoticed because gossip is more prominent.
There is no denying that Greek life is not perfect, but what or who is? Join any sports or social club and you pay dues, you have team parties on the weekends; all in all, we all pay, party, laugh, cry, and grow up with our friends, no matter where or how we come to meet. I am not here to argue the pros and cons of Greek life, I just wish to shine some light on positive aspects that seem to go unnoticed. I am hoping this article will make some of you think twice before labeling all Greek members.
One of the most profound stereotypes people have to say about Greek members is that we are dumb, stupid, or will forever live off our parent's money because we are not smart enough to get good grades, a good job, or support ourselves in the future. Contrary to those stereotypes, there are minimum GPA requirements set by each organizations' national headquarters that must be met and continuously maintained in order to be a member. Most of these GPA requirements are set at a minimum average of a B student, however, a fair amount of us exceed the minimum requirement.
Another aspect of being a member of a Greek organization is that we also have to be involved with at least one other non-Greek affiliated organization or club on campus. When you say Greek students are only there for the party and do not contribute anything worthwhile, think about all the clubs and activities you participate in -- I can almost guarantee you that there is at least one Greek-affiliated person in the organization with you.
As far as the whole "sorority and fraternity members don't contribute anything and we should just ban them all" stuff, here is a summary of a news article written by Ron Menchaca specifically about the College of Charleston Greek life community in the 2014-15 academic year. Another part of being involved in a Greek organization is partaking in community service; last year, Greek members participated in over 33,000 hours of charity and service related work. To go along with the community service, each organization has a national philanthropy and CofC Greek life raised over $325,000 dollars for various philanthropies including: Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, Ronald McDonald House, St. Jude's, Darkness to Light, and lots of other nonprofit organizations. Similarly, every year Greek life hosts an event, Pep Supper, which is a dance competition between all the organizations where we collect donations, both monetary and food pantry items, to be donated to the Lowcountry Food Bank. Last year over 80,000 pounds of food were donated.
It's easy to point fingers and blame all bad things that happen on campuses at Greek life, because it is one of the largest conglomerates of people usually between 15 to 20 percent of a given campus that has Greek organizations. It also just so happens that the bad things that happen are the ones that go viral. There is no denying negative aspects, but all in all, everything has a downside. It doesn't matter if you're Greek affiliated, on a sports team, or in a social club -- bad things can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any given time. But perhaps we should stop highlighting the bad, and instead look towards the good. For me personally, I have over a 3.0 GPA, am involved in three other clubs other than Greek life, am a full time student, have a job which I love, and plan on doing great things with my life. I, along with the hundreds of other Greek members on campus, have a lot to offer. If being in a Greek organization brings an individual happiness, then who are you to tell them their happiness is wrong or bad or should be denied?
