*Edit 12/5/14
Rollingstone has since noted "discrepancies" in their reporting.However, this enforces my point of how universities need to handle individual cases rather than choosing the diplomatic option.
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I know I’m late to talk about this topic, but the comments I have read and articles I have seen about disbanding all Greek life at universities has galvanized me to want to make my first blog post. Just like probably everyone else in the United States right now, I read the Rolling Stone piece about the sexual assault at UVA. Reading the victim’s words and imagining the sick behavior of the fraternity men involved compounded by the absolutely terrible handling of the situation by both her friends and the administration made my stomach turn.
The woman involved and the other women who have been a victim of sexual assault that seems so engrained in the UVA culture have my best wishes in finding justice and closure. The strength required to live through an event like that is immense. With that being said, its no wonder that many are calling for the banishment of fraternities permanently on multiple campuses. You have Clemson, Dartmouth, and now UVA.
Fraternity and Sorority Life evokes feelings from nearly everyone you talk to, ranging from disgusted to enthused. For my school, Cal Poly, the main idea that comes up is Hathway street, partying, Carson Starkey or any number of negative stereotypes and events. Don’t get me wrong, these things ARE important and do deserve that attention. However, what standard does that set for members who work tirelessly to live their values or seek their full potential? What standard does that set for members of a non-social professional organization like Delta Sigma Pi or an interest-based society like Alpha Zeta? What standard does it set for any of our great cultural fraternities housed under USFC? For many involved in non-social fraternities, banning all Greek life is an asinine conclusion to a problem that is given to them by association. Similarly, those in social Greek life organizations who follow the rules and uphold their values should not be given the stigma of enabling behavior that they also disapprove of.
“So Alex, what are you saying here?”
I’m asking the reader to look at the specific question of "How does getting rid of Greek life solve all of our problems?"
Every time I see an issue brought up with the magnitude of sexual assault, there are always the main 3 replies I see. They are:
- The "I don’t even understand why we have fraternities anyway, all they do is party" statement.
- "This is a problem, but what you should be worried about is that" logic
- The “I’m not surprised they did it” mentality.
It is difficult to break the stigma that all fraternities are just there to party. The president of the Northern Interfraternity Council said it best by saying “The vast majority of fraternity and sorority members join them for all the right reasons. They are looking for a place to belong. They want to learn and apply leadership skills. They seek an outlet where they can give back to their communities. They want to enrich their collegiate experience.”
To yank that away and tell all those students to go join a club or something undermines so much of what Greek life helps develop in students. Do students in Greek life party? Yes. It is a social group and therefore it is reasonable that they want to be social. Remember that these are college-age students who are experiencing independence for the first time in their life, being social is crucial to develop necessary social skills. It is when organizations and students lose sight of their values and purpose when they become a problem. Though being social is important, it is not the primary goal of Greek life.
“Though being social is important, it is not the primary goal of Greek life.”
As someone in a leadership role in my campus' Greek life and 3 years of experience as an active member, I can confidently say a large majority of fraternity men are not there just to party. Fraternity provides leadership opportunities, networking capabilities, lessons in humility, brotherhood/sense of belonging, an emotional support system, academic mentorship, and most importantly purpose.
One of the next largest problems to address is the logic of "this is a problem, but what you should be worried about is that". For example, "Sexual assault is a problem on all campuses, but what you should be worried about is how fraternities enable it" or "Yeah college kids drink, but you should be worried that fraternities are the reason people die of alcohol poisoning". This logic is even more short-sighted in my opinion. It is completely possible to see multiple problems and be upset about them equally. However, when you want to find a solution, you have to narrow your focus. So for those of you “worry about this instead of this” people out there, worry most about the issue you wish to solve and know that it is ok to see multiple things you want to change, in fact I wholeheartedly encourage it, but do not confuse the idea that you cannot approach them both.
To show that ideal in practice, I am not only a student assistant who works for SAFER (Cal Poly’s primary resource for sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and rape) but I'm also the 2014-2015 Interfraternal Council President, presiding over all 18 social fraternities. I am comfortable caring about my fraternity and uplifting fraternity life but that does not diminish my anger and my desire to end sexual assault both in my Greek community and on my campus.
Finally, the “I’m not surprised they did it” mentality is plain ignorance. If you genuinely are not surprised by the negative actions of a group then why did you or nobody else take that foresight and do something preventative or at least inform those who had the power to make a change before someone really got hurt? Be mindful of using a blanket statement on an organization. Me calling all fraternity men rapists is as true as saying all students cheat on tests or all athletes use steroids; these statements may apply to some of the population, but not the sum of the population.
“These statements may apply to some of the population, but not the sum of the population.”
Ok, so your fraternity may not be committing sexual assaults/rapes and I get that. But if they aren’t advocating against it, how are they a part of the solution?
Let me begin by saying I agree, if they are not helping then they are part of the problem. What is great is that we have programming for our fraternities that is in depth and the fraternities are actively volunteering for them. Every chapter on our campus has scheduled hour-long presentations on a range of topics from bystander intervention, to what constitutes sexual assault, spotting red flags, how to intervene, and how to understand consent to be presented by SAFER. Every chapter volunteers members of their house to attend “Greeks Against Sexual assault”, a 4 week educational seminar on the same topics. Every new member goes through an 90 minute mandatory interactive presentation to clearly explain to them what consent, sexual assault, red flags and so much more are. Every member is explicitly told that Cal Poly Greek Life has a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual assault.
But even with all this, that doesn’t mean fraternity men will never or have never committed acts of sexual assault. The fraternity leadership and general membership are trying to end that stigma and are holding their members accountable but there are no perfect groups, there are no perfect programs. But to ban all fraternities would be one minor solution to many major problems. These problems that are not just Greek problems, they are campus-wide ones. On average, a fraternity male will see over 12 sexual assault prevention presentations by graduation compared to the 3 or 4 normal students may see. What people fail to see is that there are entire Greek organizations up in arms and very angry for the same reason campuses, parents, and fellow students are. To disband them takes away a university’s opportunity to monitor that progress and see what programming is being done, and those organizations' right to continue educating their students and taking a stance on what matters.
A ban for all Greek life is diplomatically the correct move for a university and I get that. Realistically, instead of digging in and finding punishment for one group, it makes the school look better to “get to the root of the problem” and disband all Greeks. I think more reasonably, you could punish the perpetrators, and exclude the ones who have done nothing. But that takes time, and when a large incident happens, people want results immediately and they want administration making big steps quickly. I understand the self-created wiggle-room that it allows administration but I believe that investigating and sanctioning the appropriate groups is essential in developing an image of zero-tolerance, rather than covering the problem with a blanket ban.
How do we move forward then?
Banning all fraternities from a campus is like putting a band-aid on an internal injury, you may have covered it but you haven't cured it. Internally as Cal Poly Greek Life, we have already developed and are putting into place our “Standards of Excellence” which all Greek organizations are held to and displays their quantitative progress in becoming informed on social justice issues, member management, academics, and community service among other topics. How do we take that one step further? Maybe require completion of community service before registered parties are allowed, let's keep that purpose alive and show communities we're not here just to party. Perhaps we need to have students actually attend the events that SAFER puts on and not regard them as optional but necessary. Maybe we need to put more emphasis on continuing to pressure students to take personal accountability as both Greek and non-Greek students. But most certainly we need to be clear that sexual assault and so many more issues are NOT JUST GREEK PROBLEMS. It takes a community to make a change and both Greek and non-Greek students have to recognize that. Some steps non-Greeks can take; if you are a freshman interested in rushing and you hear something about a fraternity, address it, and if you don’t like what they have to say about it, DON’T JOIN, If you have proof that a fraternity is doing something bad or shady, DON’T LET IT GO and encourage your friends to do the same, if you are not a part of Greek life and you hear rumors, DON’T PERPETUATE them, seek truth.
Or we could not. We could handle all these complex engrained issues like mutually exclusive problems that will disappear if Greek life disappears. Let’s continue saying that all Greek students are bad people and deserve numerous and furious finger wags. Let’s not distinguish the social fraternities from the other various Greek organizations. Let's perpetuate this useless and damaging "us vs. them" mentality of Greeks versus everyone else. Let’s just ban it all, because then no more guys will rape because they’re not in Greek Life anymore. No more parties will happen where people make poor decisions. No more misogynistic behaviors will be perpetuated. That’s how that works right?
Here’s me saying that I hope the affected women of UVA find some peace and the guys who committed that terrible crime get every little thing that is coming to them. But you will excuse me when I say I vehemently disagree that we need to ban all of Greek life on my campus or any other. If you want to craft a solution, approach the leaders and members in those organizations and see what they have to say, I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised that you aren’t the only person pissed off about sexual assault.