Greek Life
In the news lately, there has been a lot of talk about the Oklahoma fraternity that had some racism problems. The Frat had a video leaked of some members participating in a racist chant. Soon after the video went viral and caught attention all over the United States. The case was handled when the two of the members were expelled for being in charge of the chant. The students were expelled just two days after the incident took place. The boys spoke out about what had happened. Parker Rice said to a newspaper “I am deeply sorry for what I did Saturday Night. It was wrong and reckless.”
One of the students at the University of Oklahoma spoke about what happened sharing that he was extremely proud of the President for handling this situation so quickly and for saying that this is not OK and will not happen on our campus. A former African- American member of the SAE frat spoke about how hurt he was knowing that his fraternity was degrading his culture. He also continued to say that these are not his brother anymore but that things like this never happened when he was in the house.
The co-director Chelsea Davis also had some things to say on the incident which were shocking to many. She explained that the racist mentality is not a new concept on campus and this is not the only fraternity to be involved in such activities as this chant. It was just unfortunate that they got caught.
With all of this being said, Fraternities and Sororities already do not have the best reputations. Many stereotypes are presented when the talk of Greek Life on campus comes up. Most are deemed untrue but they still play a big part in how people view Greek Life. Here are a few of the stereotypes:
1. You are paying for your friends- this may be semi-true however joining a chapter is really just opening you up to tons of connections. You never know who you will meet in a Sorority or Fraternity and how they can help you out later in life.
2. Bids are about social status- This is not true, Greek life is open to anyone wanting to participate.
3. We are just here to party- This is also not true because part of being involved in Greek Life is participating in philanthropy. Also, most houses have minimum GPA that all members have to uphold or they face suspension from all Greek related activities.
4. All freshman get hazed- This is a huge controversy but most schools have zero tolerance policies for hazing. You will always have the cases that slip through but most colleges take care of hazing in their handbooks.
Greek life takes such a bad reputation from everyone when it is just people who do not know how the system works. Just like everything in life you always have those people who are underinformed but like to speak out about a subject.
In reality, Greek Life is such a huge way to get involved with your college. It opens up so many doors for you outside of college and the philanthropy looks great on resumes. Also, it is a wonderful way to get involved with the community around you.
Despite controversy, there are 9 million members of sororities/fraternities nationally. Between 123 fraternities/sororities they raise $7 million for charities throughout the United States. No matter what people say, the Greek life is such a huge part of colleges and raises a lot of money.