<p>" Their presence on college campuses is like finding hit men in the Boy Scouts."</p>
<p>That comment by the author is one of the more exaggerated and rude things I’ve heard. I guess he wouldn’t say it was, “like finding child molesters in the Boy Scouts?” Oops.</p>
<p>As if it has nothing to do with college culture at large. All of these sweet, innocent kids would never have parties and drink if it just wasn’t for these fraternities. And that’s certainly the only place they do it on campus, right?</p>
I don’t find this a very persuasive argument. Furthermore, at some campuses where drinking laws are enforced in the dorms, the Greek houses are in fact the main place they do it.</p>
<p>This conversation always goes around and around the same way. Even if we agree that not all Greek organizations are bad, why are there so many that are? And why do so many of them stay bad, year after year? Again, I’d like to know if any college campus has successfully reformed the Greek system (short of banning it) so that these chronic problems have been eliminated.</p>
<p>I’m not sure it’s the colleges that need to reform the fraternity/sorority system so much as the fraternity/sorority national organizations and local chapter alumni groups, which usually owns the local house, need to get control of the undergraduates that are populating their organizations and live in their houses.</p>
<p>It may indeed require the threat of throwing them off campus/closing their houses to get the nationals and locals to act.</p>
I think it has to come from both directions. Some national organizations have not shown much interest in imposing real consequences on wayward chapters.</p>
<p>As offensive at it may sound to some, it is appropriate to call the impact of Greek life on education a … cancer. And this because its impact is mostly destructive and divisive. </p>
<p>However, it is equally true that not all organizations are cut from the same fabric, starting with the usually much more benign sororities. It is also evident that colleges will NEVER attempt to eliminate all facets of Greek life on campus. It would be extremely naive to believe that college administrators will decide to openly fight donors, alumni, and students for the sole purpose of … protecting a few students from the potential damages of participation. </p>
<p>It remains that the biggest supporters of drastic actions against the chapters that persist in bending or ignoring the rules should be the precise … well-behaving chapters. Simply stated, are there ANY reasons why chapters that caused the DEATH of brothers or pledges should be given less that a PERMANENT removal – as opposed to the spineless and cynical 4 or 5 years ban? Are there any reasons why a national chapter with a repeat incident should not be PERMANENTLY barred on every campus in the nation? </p>
<p>Nobody in his or her right mind think that fraternities will not be there in the future. But it is incomprehensible that so little is done and that, outside of the repeated announcements of yet another fatality, few people consider it to be the massive problem it really is. If the problems were indeed isolated incidents, national news would seize the opportunities to make headlines. Take a look at the discussions in the small world of CC, and you might realize how repetitive (and senseless) those “incidents” are. </p>