newswire: 8/21/2020
- In recent weeks, hundreds of college students have dropped out of their fraternities and sororities as part of a broader movement against Greek life. Spurred into action by recent racist incidents in the news, the students insist that the Greek system needs to be reformed or abolished altogether. (The New York Times)
- NH: Vanderbilt University has emerged as the center of the backlash against Greek life, with an estimated 200 students dropping out of their fraternities and sororities since June. The school has long been a stronghold for fraternities, with more than a third of students belonging to a Greek life organization. The movement has since taken hold at other schools around the country, including Duke, Northwestern, Tufts, American University, and UNC.
- The students who have left are protesting what they perceive to be a culture of exclusion; Greek life, they say, is racist, sexist, classist, and homophobic. This isn’t the first time that these organizations have come under fire from their own members; young Boomers also revolted against Greek life during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, leaving en masse and forcing some local chapters to disband.
- But there’s a big difference in the reception students are getting on campus. Unlike the last time around, many of the progressive ideals Millennial activists are espousing are shared by the administrators. Boomer students were fighting a G.I.-run "establishment" that firmly opposed their efforts. Today Boomers are the academic establishment and often support further regulating or excluding fraternities in the name of inclusion. Tufts already announced that it will suspend fall sorority recruitment as it reevaluates the role Greek life serves on campus (this also happened in 2017 and 2016, in response to other controversies). In recent years, it was often the national Greek organizations and university officials that stepped in to warn against dangerous hazing and insensitive party themes.
- For most of their history, membership in fraternities and sororities was limited to the wealthy, white, and Christian. To be sure, most have changed in recent years and now make an effort to reach out across income and ethnic lines. Students today also have a wider range of options. There are more “service” and professional fraternities (many of which went co-ed in the ‘70s), interest-based fraternities, and fraternities for minority groups.
- Still, the traditional single-sex system still dominates. And therein lies the dilemma. One could argue that all student groups--especially those based on race, ethnicity, or gender--are exclusionary by nature. The whole idea of any community is to let certain people in and not others based on perceived need or “fit.” Greek life has plenty of prosocial aspects--close friendships, networking, camaraderie based on common interests--and plenty of Millennial extroverts continue to support them for giving them a sense of belonging.
- But in the eyes of many progressive students, faculty, and administrators, the Greek establishment continues to represent the wealthy and the privileged--if only due to the force of its exclusive traditions and the clout of its powerful alumni. The students pushing for change are grappling with an age-old question: whether it’s possible to preserve what's positive about the Greek legacy while exorcising what's no longer welcome. Those who are calling for all of it to be abolished say no.
