<p>Frat</a> Guys Gone Wild: What's the Solution? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com</p>
<p>If this has already been linked to in another thread/subforum, please cite that here. thanks.</p>
<p>I have decided to go to the most greek school in the nation, UIUC, and I was curious about greek life ( I am a male).</p>
<p>I don't think colleges should ban fraternities. It's really up to each individual male whether or not he chooses to sexually assault someone. I don't think we can blame fraternities when many do good things, like charitable work.</p>
<p>Wasn't this thread already done?</p>
<p>But, it's up to the school. My school(s) don't have greek life and life is great.</p>
<p>Yeah, this thread already existed. Are you trying to bring it back?</p>
<p>The thing is that frats and sororities aren't dependent on college's approval to exist, and they would definitely not disappear from colleges which have a huge Greek system - that culture is part of the school. Furthermore, the alumni would have a fit. Banning them would simply drive them underground and remove them from colleges' oversight, which I think everyone can agree is probably a bad idea. </p>
<p>So they're kind of here to stay at most schools, love them or hate them (most people seem to lean one way or the other).</p>
<p>Going Greek is the best decision of my life because of brotherhood, tradition, philanthropy, networking, leadership opportunities, and parties.</p>
<p>as a member of a fraternity at a very greek school i think it would be a bad idea. i was not sold on the idea of fraternities until i joined one. i am a member of one of the largest fraternities but my chapter is not a typical fraternity, and many houses are not like this one in general. fraternities create a bond that very few other things can, and it provides a great experience. your brothers are your brothers for life and even the less serious fraternities still take brotherhood seriously, and for good reason. the problem is not fraternities, its just the way the members act. besides i doubt that banning fraternities would do much to stop sexual harassment. if a guy is going to do something like at a fraternity, he probably would anywhere. to be honest there is more accountability as a fraternity member, because you represent a group. punish the criminals not the groups they associate with.
also the common criticism that fraternities are built on exclusion is a bit misguided. in my experience the sororities are much much more exclusive in who they pick. at my school all the girls freak out and stress about rush because they cant mess it up.</p>
<p>Banning fraternities only forces them underground. Underground fraternities have all the negative associated with fraternities, but don't have a public image they need to uphold.</p>
<p>Fraternities are illegal in my township. Yep, you heard right. Illegal.</p>
<p>There needs to be distinction between fraternity houses and fraternities in general. It's not about the house, even though a house can be a central point of a brotherhood.</p>
<p>The issue with these articles is that they target things that are often associated with fraternities, but the truth is, if you just bar fraternities instead of directly addressing those issues, they'll just pop up in another form.</p>
<p>On my campus, there are lots of campus-sanctioned fraternities and sororities. Yet, that's not where the craziest parties (in terms of risk, limits, etc.). Instead, they're all in the cooperative housing, which are like the housing components of fraternities without the brotherhood, values, or some headquarters to stop things when they go out of hand.</p>
<p>Colleges should just force out the bad fraternities and leave in those that follow the law. May not be many left, but at least it's a solution.</p>
<p>^ Are you implying that most fraternities don't follow regulations instead of the couple that force a bad image on the greek system as a whole?</p>
<p>You all forget that if a frat is banned from a campus in which it has quite the tradition, it doesn't just go away. It just goes underground, and there's not a lot it can't do if it's not sponsored by the school. Sororities are much the same way, although you wouldn't be able to rush an underground sorority along with the sponsored ones, so it may possibly die eventually (the rush process for sororities and frats are very different). However, you can't really outright ban a frat and expect it to be gone. The guys will just all get a different house off-campus and it's exactly the same. Maybe you can't have letters on the house anymore, but if everyone knows that's the XYZ house, it hardly matters.</p>