Scraping into my junior year of college and just barely surviving the infamous sophomore year, I’ve been unfortunate enough to see my fair share of fraternities get kicked off campus. Some houses were a surprise to see kicked off and others were just a matter of time, but within ten years here at the University of Arizona, eleven fraternities have been given the boot.
Now, there is a long laundry list of debauchery that can cause some fraternities to go up to Greek heaven, which range from stealing a train all the way to hosting a hobo fight club in the basement of the fraternity house. This isn’t to say that some chapters do not pose a real threat, at times, to it’s members and those who visit. But threatening chapters are quickly coming to an end. So the real question is why do fraternities make mistakes?
This is an easy question to answer and, in fact, the answer comes from one of the most legendary Greek movies man has ever been lucky enough to watch: Animal House. As the Detla Tau Chi’s are about to lose of recognition from the university, one of the members, named Otter, stands up to defend his chapter saying:
“The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules or took a few liberties with our female party guests…We did *wink*. But you can’t hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior a few sick, perverted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole fraternity system, and if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institution in general! I put it to you Greg, isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society!”
Now, if anything wiser has come out of a man named Otter’s mouth I wouldn’t be able to believe it until you slapped me in the face with it. Otter makes the point that if the fraternity is held responsible for the actions of a few of their members, then where is the responsibility of the school in those actions of a few of their students? Then, if the school can be blamed, then so can all of American society for this behavior and so on and so forth.
At the end of the road it all comes back to one thing and one thing only: fraternities are kicked off campus because of individuals who act only as a individuals without taking on the responsibilities of being a member.
Fraternities that don’t get kicked off are chapters that have the responsibilities of their house instilled in their members. They focus on the fact that they are strung together by a bond that can never be broken and this is the bond that keeps them alive. Fraternities that do get kicked off don’t have this bond built strong and it led them all down the same path.
