Discussion:

Discussion for article #234727

They serve as a place to defer socialization by the larger, mainstream business, community and workplace world, a place to hang on to boyhood and to defer adulthood as long as possible.

Some of these jerks never grow up, never learn how to act around women. I wonder how some find mates.

Yep, party 'til you puke. Now there’s a formula for responsible adulthood and for a place of leadership in society.

they should have been gone long ago. They are as anachronistic as a lawn jockey statue. Just think about the shit that went down at frats over the years that did not make the news.

Dartmouth has always attracted right wing jerks. Even in the early 80s, their school newspaper was an inflammatory rag.

I have long said that colleges need to boot ALL fraternities AND sororities, because they are little more than bastions of bigotry and elitism. They long ago outlived whatever usefulness they may have once had.

But they seem so forward thinking. These days, companies are all about branding.

The problem with fraternities is that they have a mob rule effect on impressionable young men. Those guys at U of Oklahoma? I doubt that they are “racists”. However, in the company of others, with the need to impress and convey strength, the “Lord of the Flies” effect takes over, and the lowest common denominator is the rule. So they end up chanting racist sayings.If they were alone, I doubt most would say those things.
With women, most of these guys are probably decent persons. However, in the company of other men, you again get the lowest common denominator. If someone says something degrading or bad about women, it is very difficult to speak up for decent attitudes. You either remain silent or are encouraged to add to the degradation.

Why don’t we call fraternities “gangs” instead? Because if you took away the predominant whiteness and the privilege, that’s what they’d be called.

But if frats are banned, where can they go to complete their Wall Street behavioral readiness programs?

Translation: they have low standards and questionable morality when it really might matter.

Why, in the 21st century, do we need organizations whose only mission is to get away with behavior that would not be tolerated by any other group by hiding behind the guise “tradition”?

As much as I would love fraternities to be banned, I have to admit at least part of this comes from schadenfreude of the perpetual social outcast enjoying turnabout.

I don’t think they need to be banned. I think they need to be controlled more tightly. Start having faculty members randomly inspect different frats on a highly regular basis and keep notes.

Are you talking about fraternities or Congress?

There are fraternities and sororities that are nothing like the ones being described here. There are predominantly African-American fraternities, singing fraternities, academic ones, etc. And same goes for sororities. I was never Greek but I fully understood that there were ones that attracted less savory members and ones my friends belonged to. This even varies chapter to chapter by the way as one college’s elite and bigoted sorority can be another college’s high achieving and supportive group of women.

They don’t need to be banned - just handled with actual oversight. In many instances they provide impressionable and overwhelmed young people a valuable bastion of support at a time that can be absolutely overwhelming, especially on larger campuses. There are easy things to do here - reforming rush, regulating the houses if on campus property, requiring actual community service and academic support etc.

Fraternities are and have been for some time a breeding ground for racism, bigotry and mysogyny even during the 60’s when I was in college they were egotistical jerks. Today we see the fruits of their ethos in Congress, on Wall Street, in Board rooms, on the police force with guns in their hands shooting innocent Black men. Are we surprised? They need no mercy.

The problem is not fraternities and sororities… it’s their houses. If you get rid of the houses, you get rid of most of the outrageous behavior, dangerous hazing, and indoctrination. Certainly get togethers and parties not in a central house could end up with similar problems, but I believe the risk would me much lower.

Frats and sororities were supposed to be groups that got together to do good things - clean up the community, espouse similar positive values, promote good academics, and yes, socialize. But it is the private houses and their parties that I see as the problem.

If frats and sororities really believe in what they say they are for, they should be fine with abolishing the houses, and just keeping the organizations.

Bill Maher said it right on Friday night’s Real Time:

College is a time when students are supposed to define themselves individually. Frats pummel that out of the students that join, with the hazing, drinking, and generally bad behavior, insisting that members behave within a certain framework.

The time for Frats has passed. They have outlived their usefulness. They are not doing themselves any good by allowing the bad behavior to define them. To wit, when is the last time there was anything publicly stated that was positive about fraternity activity.

It may well be that fraternities do produce the captains of industry and business leaders in this country, but then again, with the state of US business today, how’s that working for us? Many captains of industry and business leaders of this generation are one step away from the slammer. Not exactly the most positive image.

Someone needs to explain to me exactly what purpose the Greek societies (male and female) serve. Seems to be the female Greek societies are not all that much better?

Its plain as day: as long as the universities court these idiotic “institutions” for their alumni money, nothing will change.

Really don’t see why many of them exist other than to provide the upper classes with opportunities to participate in gang activities.

Just because you are not in frat doesn’t make you an “outcast”. In fact, I might argue the opposite.