Since the 1770’s, fraternities have existed to bring men collectively to teach about brotherhood and service. But over time that has started to include: wild, raging parties, sex, binge drinking, hazing and finding superiority over non-Greek affiliated college students. Fraternities have existed for hundreds of years and countless stories and studies have established them to be dangerous and exorbitant. So exactly why do we keep fraternities around? And what supremacy does universities have over Greek organizations to protect the image of their school and the students that attend? Fraternity men are in ample charge of their actions, but when their actions cause impairment that gravely reflects on the school, action needs to be taken. This is why Universities have the right to step in and ought to step in before situations become uncontrollable regarding Greek life. Author and activist Libby Nelson said that “Campus Greek life might be a monster- but it’s a monster colleges created.” And it’s a monster that colleges need to regulate before binge drinking, wild parties, and sexual assault become the educational background of all adults in America.
Fraternity life remains a stereotypical powerhouse that feeds off anyone inferior and cause lots of detriment in college campuses. There remains a stereotype associated with being the superlative frat boy and they will do everything it takes to become that. Libby Nelsons describes the horrors of Greek life accurately in her article by laying out some specific examples where the gain of being the stereotypical frat boy caused further harm than good. She states, “At Dartmouth, the fraternity that partially inspired Animal House was accused of branding the skin of new members. Members of Kappa Delta Rho at Penn State are under police investigation for allegedly maintaining a private Facebook group featuring photos of naked, passed-out women. A member of Pi Kappa Alpha at the University of South Carolina was found dead. At North Carolina State, members of Pi Kappa Phi filled a notebook with jokes about rape and lynching, then left it at an off-campus restaurant. Students were sent to the hospital with alcohol poisoning after fraternity parties at Rutgers and the University of Wisconsin. And that’s just in the past 10 days” (Nelson)
She outlines tragedies that have occurred at fault of the fraternity house in such a fleeting time frame. Men in fraternities deem that the man that drinks the most, acquires the most girls, and is the most popular, is the man one desires to become. Not keeping in mind that binge drinking and sexual assault can ruin a person’s life. Correspondingly, Fraternity parties have developed such a problem that they have the 6th worst insurance risk in the country, even ahead of toxic-waste companies (Flanagan). According to the NASPA, college fraternity members are more likely to commit sexual assault, binge drink and more fraternity college men have died from drinking related incidents than non-fraternity college men since 2005 (Flanagan). There stands an issue with fraternity life and the stereotype they all feel the need to fulfill. Evidently, Fraternities aren’t clearly run in a productive way since college fraternity student cause the peak harm and are harmed more compared to several other student groups on campus.
Fraternities remain a long standing tradition that has dedicated alumni, nonetheless the amount of drinking and sex that goes on in the house should be enough for them to be abolished. They will never be abolished for the financial aid colleges receive from fraternity alumni. When Alumni have sturdy ties to a university they are further likely to donate money. Also Fraternities participate in philanthropy events which support the community and bring respectable press to the school. Certain universities preserve their Greek systems, even with all of the consequences of Greek life, although schools, including- Clemson University, West Virginia University, University of Virginia, and San Diego State University, Middlebury College have all suspended their Greek systems in the past to control accidents caused by fraternity parties. Clemson and the University of Virginia both only suspended their Fraternity systems temporarily and brought them back hastier than anticipated because of the backlash that the campus and alumni contributed to the school. Middlebury College on the other hand banned their Greek system and now have 15 philanthropy groups that furtherly improved and enhanced the campus (Frost). A major critique of this stood the idea that the fraternities will just relocate or extend underground. Frost alleged, “I’d rather have frat brothers participating in “furtive meetings” than “boisterous beer bashes” any day” (frost). Fraternities are all founded around this common goal to drink the greatest, catch the greatest number girls, and acquire the greatest amount of trouble. They trigger complications on college campuses and particular schools have even gone underway to abolish them.