Fraternity controversy at Swarthmore

Publisher · May 1

Yes. Most thorough college guide ever written.

Great resource for both conservatives & liberals.

HarrietMWelsch · May 1

My point is that readers would benefit from an awareness of the perspective of the group deciding, for example, what might constitute "unusual practices" at any fairly liberal college.

Publisher · May 1

Choosing The Right College was written from a conservative viewpoint. Wish that the Koch brothers would step up & fund its rebirth.

FWIW I am neither a liberal nor a conservative. I hold a mix of beliefs which vary from issue to issue. I am not afraid of being exposed to opposing points of view.

ucbalumnus · May 1

Some information associated with Choosing the Right College used to be at http://collegeguide.org (now just redirects to a site advertising the organization's books), including red/yellow/green ratings about the political environment from a right-leaning political viewpoint. Left-leaning students could reverse the political ratings to match their preferences.

PetraMC · May 1

*Any* other campus organization would be dissolved after boasts of drugging underaged girls and taking them to the "Rape Attic." Would the Swarthmore Debate Team or an acapella group not be shut down asap if they engaged in these activities? I'm pretty sure they would, since it would be unlikely that rich alumni would be upset.

Choosing the *Right* College is a bit on the nose, lol.

AlmostThere2018 · May 1

Any school with such a small fraternity presence means those orgs are by nature marginalized and ripe for controversy. A college should either have Greek life (and closely monitor it) or not -- having a tiny sliver of your student body take part seems unwise.

That said, Swat is known for lots of student dissent -- didn't they do prolonged sit-ins in the President's office a few years ago?

My D's great friend goes there now. I know several alums. It's a great school academically, but i knew for my D that kind of intense campus politics would be exhausting and distracting so I was glad when she didn't even want to visit.

twoinanddone · May 1

If fraternities and sororities are so horrible, why do they continue to grow? Why do students even want to join them, go underground to form them, pay money to belong? At Swarthmore, 1 in 10 male students want to join a frat. Is the recruiting pitch "hey, come join and we'll rape girls and do drugs"? I bet not.

donnaleighg · May 1

according to my son (Swat 2018) one frat was pretty much indistinguishable from the lacrosse team, and the other more or less indistinguishable from the baseball team. Someone upthread mentioned the same regarding the lacrosse team (Phi Psi). So it's not really that 1 in 10 males wants to join a frat-- it's more that those teams have a "party house." Seems completely unnecessary, and I agree with others that it is antithetic to the Quaker philosophy, even before the disgusting allegations described. Good riddance (I say as an alum myself-- and in my day DU was associated with the football team-- so not much has changed, other than that Swat no longer has a football team).

Publisher · May 1

I know of an LAC that closed all 6 fraternities for several years due to excessive partying. Eventually reopened two fraternities--the jock frat & the druggie frat. I suspect that the rest of the student body was happy to be segregated from both groups.

FlaParent · May 1

Trixy34 wrote: Personally, I feel that there is no use/reason for greek societies on most campuses. I would love to see them abolished at more schools. They make college shopping all the more difficult for students who do not want to rush. what you want to quote

What a frightening thought process. Take a choice away (joining a frat/sorority) because it might make it harder for someone who does not want to be in one? Wow! Just wow!

ucbalumnus · May 1

Publisher wrote:

I know of an LAC that closed all 6 fraternities for several years due to excessive partying. Eventually reopened two fraternities--the jock frat & the druggie frat. I suspect that the rest of the student body was happy to be segregated from both groups.

Did the "jock" one dominate the social scene for athletes (or a particular team's athletes) to the point that it was hard to ignore by athletes who were not interested?

ninakatarina · May 1

Kids that age want to have parties. They want a social place to hang out with people who are like them. In many cases they are mature enough to maintain those places without creating a culture of predatory sexuality. If the culture goes sour, however, they need to lose privileges.

The frat houses at Swarthmore are gorgeous buildings in a very nice part of campus. I'm sure there are a lot of other uses the college community could put those buildings to rather than just being a playground for a very small number of students.

santaclaradad · May 1

Swarthmore would do well to follow the lead of the many other LACs in the northeast who have disbanded fraternities and sororities. When my daughter was applying to colleges last fall, she was mainly focused on colleges that have abolished greek life completely. I am glad she will be attending one with no greek life whatever.

Publisher · May 1

@ucbalumnus: My understanding is that the school brought in a new president who had been a member of that jock frat as a student at that LAC & wanted to bring it back. To the best of my knowledge, the frat involved jocks from several different teams & the community was pleased to have them living & dining elsewhere.

ucbalumnus · May 1

santaclaradad wrote:

When my daughter was applying to colleges last fall, she was mainly focused on colleges that have abolished greek life completely.

Wouldn't all colleges that prohibit student participation in fraternities and sororities be private ones?

Fraternity controversy at Swarthmore

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