by Sylvia Woodham

Created on: September 04, 2008

It is unfortunate that the debate about the Greek system is so polarized and has such controversy surrounding it. Sororities and Fraternities themselves should not be to blame as a system, should they? At the root of them, they give many women and men social groups in the transition years from high school to college.

I come from an unusual vantage point. At my university, the Greek influence was minimal. The Greek system that existed was something of a remnant of the past, not finding much resurgence. They had been expelled from undergraduate life much earlier in the 20th century due to the structure of the focus of undergraduate life. The university took responsibility for providing individual, equal living and social structure which forms the platform for intramural competition and rivalry, as well as a sense of belonging. In addition, being a varsity athlete provided me the sense of belonging many incoming freshmen seek.

However, I had many friends, including teammates, in sororities and never felt ostracized by them. There are so many options in college to define yourself, I felt no conflict that was how my friends chose to spend their time and energy. While they had social events for their respective organizations, I had mine. At a university where diversity was celebrated, I never felt anything but mutual respect for our individual choices and priorities. Being part of a Greek sorority or fraternity wasn't any more or less selective than the college admission process had been.

While we did have amused discussions about the DKE pledges wearing their shirts covered in bodily fluids, the rituals and rites of passage that were a part of the Greek Fraternal organizations were not that much different than the ones present in the athletic teams and secret societies. We talked about it with equal unanimity as we discussed the women's swimteam dancing in training bikinis on the tables of the pizza hangout for their initiation. Even though we were part of different organizations, the fact that we all shared some kind of initiation gave us common experiences to bridge, which can serve to bridge other differences that might exist.

The Greek parties were not any more or less well attended than other major undergraduate parties. College students, particularly those in a high pressure academic environment, are going to look for a release, and the same part of the population that attended the Frat parties were the ones who created their own theme parties in the dorms. Often the privately funded parties were more original and drew people who wanted a cleaner environment than a muddy backyard of a fraternity house.

I do not think the Greek system needs to be a necessary evil. Coming from an environment where their presence had very little influence on the undergraduate experience, the concept that must have certainly been at their origins is certainly not a bad one. It enables the students to develop connections beyond the campus and communities where they spend four years, to be part of a nation-wide community and its resources.

Greek systems vary in approach and personality from campus to campus, serving a variety of roles. If anyone should be held responsible for the positive or negative potential they have to contribute to student life, it should be the individual universities in question. The undergraduates are themselves responsible for how much they chose to take advantage of the undergraduate experience to be exposed to others who may be different than they are.

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