On the surface, Greek life appears to be full of stereotypes. In sororities, you have fake hair, fake nails, fake tan, and a fake smile. In fraternities, you’re just day drinkers who came to school to party. Greek life has always had negative connotations, from the crazy parties to the hazing that sometimes occurs in day-to-day life to become a member. But what if it’s all wrong? Is there more to the Greek system than the stereotypes that are so deeply embedded in our society?
Nestled into UI lives a wide and diverse community of Greek life, with 10 Panhellenic Sororities and 19 IFC Fraternities on campus. Within this community lie stereotypes of being just a pretty face, being unacademically driven, and being here for a good time, not a long time. When you speak to those within the Greek community, we see that even other houses have stereotypes for each other that everyone on campus knows about.
When interviewing three members who are in Greek chapters, they expressed how stereotyping seems to be a common misconception that occurs in Greek life. When asked what a typical stereotype about fraternity life is, Brogan Bates, a senior member of Delta Sigma Phi, said, “It’s just a house full of drunkards that don’t care about anything. They just go and be mean to each other and have an unhealthy relationship with each other.”
On the topic of parties, a member from Kappa Delta who wishes to stay anonymous said: “A lot of people do like to go out and party, and sometimes grades suffer because of that, maybe. But a lot of what sorority and fraternity life is about is making connections with people who have been in your house and getting jobs through that. So, a lot of it is kind of a networking thing, and a lot of it is based more on academics than people know.”
Every member that was talked to and interviewed expressed how academics is extremely high on the list of importance and how school comes before social and Greek life.
With partying comes the idea of being hazed. Hazing is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “Humiliating and sometimes dangerous initiation rituals, especially as imposed on college students seeking membership to a fraternity or sorority.” Hazing as an idea is the reason most people will not go through recruitment. The horror stories of how tragedy struck universities all around the country due to hazing are not something that can be brushed aside and hidden under a cloak of silence.
When asking the members if they believe hazing is a problem on our campus, they had a lot to say. Hinson said, “I wouldn’t say hazing is farfetched – there are some sources of hazing on campus, but we have a contract that we have our new members sign that goes against it for our nationals.” Having a hazing contract seems to be a great way to help keep hazing low in the Greek community on campus.
When asked if they believed that Greek chapters were made to have hazing be a part of their chapters, the anonymous Kappa Delta member said “I don’t know if we have any of those on campus, I wouldn’t know. I know as a chapter it mentioned in many of our important texts that we are strictly a no hazing organization throughout our entire process up until initiation.”
This may not give the answers needed for the issue of hazing, but it does clear up the accusation made about hazing and what is being done to prevent it. Hazing is not right and will never be justified, and even with the laws that have been put into place around the country, Greek life needs to take account of the actions that do happen in their chapters.
With all these negatives, there must be some good in all Greek life, right? Luckily, there is some good. Underneath all the parties and hazing accusations, there is philanthropy. Philanthropy in the Greek community is where you are giving back to a cause that is a part of your identity as your chapter. Each nationally recognized fraternity and sorority has one given.
When asked about the anonymous member’s philanthropy, they shared, “We have a couple we work locally, including Boost Collaborative, which is a great organization. We also support Prevent Child Abuse America, collaborate with the Girl Scouts of America, and do activities with them to try to instill confidence in them at a young age.”
When also asked about how their philanthropy affects them and their house, they said, “I think it affects us mostly in the sense that people are 100% behind it. I cannot think of any person in our house that doesn’t really care about our philanthropies or the charities that we work with.”
So, do these sororities and fraternities make a difference with their causes? The truth is they do. Looking into Kappa Delta’s actual website and going to see how much they have given back to the philanthropy Prevent Child Abuse America; they have raised over 33 million dollars nationally over 41 years working with the foundation – that also was founded by a Kappa Delta.
Now, while three members of the Greek community may not have changed the way stereotypes are viewed in UI, hopefully, it will help others to see that there is a good side to Greek life. When ending the interview with the anonymous member, they shared how they felt welcomed despite their differences: “I am a person that uses all sorts of pronouns, and when I was coming into the main recruitment process, or some people call it Rush, I was worried that I wouldn’t get into any house because of that. But I ended up finding my house and my family. I ended up finding very supportive people who are willing to love me as I am.”
So maybe there is more to Greek life than the parties and the hazing. There is a deep and rich community underneath it all that deserves to be explored. With the stereotypes that we have discussed, it’s important to be more open-minded and not judge a book by its cover. Take every stereotype with a grain of salt, because you don’t know what the truth may be.
Sandy
Excellent my lou. ❤️