How do you feel about sororities and fraternities? Is too much emphasis placed on them at Universities, or are you a Greek who is tired of all the criticism of the Greek system?

I think too much emphasis is placed on being in a sorority or fraternity. I have friends who are in the Greek system, so I'm not going to say anything too bad about it. However, they are not the only campus organizations.

they serve no net social value, and are in fact a detriment. I don't care about the supposed 'charitable' function (it's not even clear to me that charity is a thing to be valued), and the 'social function' they supposedly perform. They are, without exception and without qualification, bastions of institutionalized sexism, heterosexism and homophobia. If it weren't for the fact that frat/sorr alumni/ae had the administration by the balls in terms of donations, the bullcrap they promulgate would not be tolerated. What has a fraternity/sorrority to do with getting an education, which, unless I'm mistaken, is the reason one goes to a University or college? They should all be expunged from the face of american higher education. No, I'm not kidding. And Jen, I think there's a flaw in that argument. A gun is ethically neutral. It just 'is.' Fraternities/Sorrorites are collections of (presumably) thinking individuals -- they are therefore not exempt from moral judgement, like a gun is.

I'm Italian which is close to Greek. I think too much emphasis has been placed on them. I do like their brotherhood and sisterhood philosophies, but I think it has gone too far.

Whatever. Too much of a big deal is made by the media about them but it is a very individual thing. Does it really matter.

As far as fraternities go, they can kiss my behind. I wouldn't join one if they begged me. I would rather not hang around people who feel you need to belong to some club in order to be worthy of respect. If that's your kind of thing it doesn't bother me...but I am confident enough in myself to know that I don't need others telling me I am good at this or that. Sure you could say that you like it for the comraderie and the friendships you make, but aren't regular friends good enough? Mine are! And as far as a sister/brotherhood feeling from hanging out with people of like races ie: Greek system or whatever, I feel that this just breeds intolorance. You should feel a connection with ALL people. I feel a sister/brotherhood connection to all people and I will accept anyone into my life and into my heart as long as they are decent folk..... jen (sorry, it seems you are being picked on) but I have a comment to make to you. You say that frats get blamed for a lot of stuff that isn't their fault. Well when you join a little clique you have to roll with it and do what is expected of you. Most people are so happy they got into that certain frat, that they will do all that is asked of them. They are too emotionally fragile to step back and say "This is not for me. I don't care if you kick me out." Who can blame them, I guess? Most people feel a compelling urge to be accepted. Standing alone is much harder.

Anti-Greek. Anti-Rush. Anti-Cult. If they have a good purpose, such as the business fraternities, then more power to them.

Not a greek, and it's obnoxious when a bunch of drunk school funded jerkoffs play their music so damn loud that I can't get any silence.

If you have got enough time left over and you want someone else to figure out who your friends ought to be and what you ought to be doing, then you ought to be in a sorority or a fraternity. I figure every other student is in the same boat as I am and try to think of everyone as being in my "fraternity." It's more fun that way.

Background: I lived in an independent living group, which is like a frat but co-ed and unassociated with a national organization, and which is required to belong to the organization of fraternities at my school. So I had to deal with the fraternities more than I would have chosen to. That said, I think that they mostly suck. A lot. There is an institutional culture of alcoholism that is maintained by these places that endangers (and, yes, occasionally kills) their members. Of course, not all fraternities are like most fraternities, so hush, Stinky.

The former.

Well, if it's as I see in US films (there are a lot about), it seems a bit stupid, but I really don't know much...

Sororities and fraternities are like arranged marriages, they typically work but somehow they lack romance and passion. (I just completely changed my comment, by the way, shame on me!)

Steve, you know me so very well. I love you, dear friend. But please remember the famous quote from Martin Neimoller. It's disappointing to see so many prejudices expressed here as though they were fact. Even steve makes the implicit assumption that all fraternities are nationally organized and male-only. A lot of today's most successful collegiate fraternities/sororities exist because their first members weren't allowed to live with other students because they were Catholics, or Jews, or black, or female. Not a thousand years ago, not hundreds, mere decades. Freedom of association is inalienable, remember? I happen to think that there *is* a problem with many fraternity cultures, but I think the idea of fraternal virtual families is fundamentally sound. I have parallel views about many aspects of our culture and their relation to Democracy. When locusts are eating the leaves, you don't do any good by cutting down the tree.

Frat boys are often evil jerks who should not be placed in close proximity to each other, they only become more jerky and evil.

I didn't notice them much at school. Presumably, the people in them were more wrapped up in the whole scene, but it didn't affect me much.

I am a Greek.

no comment

Why Greek?

Immature people who need alcohol to have a good time. How the hell can you drink that much anyway? I get so ill everytime I drink anything alcoholic. My body knows that I'm putting poison in it, and decides it should throw up. Don't get me wrong, the moment when you're kind of dizzy and in "the place" is really good, but it isn't worth losing the next day to a barfing fiasco!

As an MIT living group alumni president (non-Greek), I see the Greeks as being little better than Neanderthals. The criticisms are deserved with only a few exceptions.

I have a love hate thing for them. I really hate anyone who will not tell me there secrets. I wish I had joined one just to know what secret crap they tell there members.

I think they're good for people who like them, but I think that there is definitely too much emphasis on them at many colleges and universities. Some people feel that they have to join one to be "accepted" which is just plain silly.

i have a stereotype of guys in frats as overweight tv-watching wife-beating alcoholics in training, and if i had to guess, i would assume most women in sororities are the female equivalent. i never went to college though.

If that is what makes them happy then more power to them.

i got a pretty bad opinion of them while at WPI, but I think they are way over criticized at this point in my life.

I'm a member of an honorary fraternity and a service fraternity. I'm not a big fan of social fraternities, but hey, if other people like them, fine.

My college didn't have on-campus fraternities and that was a good thing. I have hung out at colleges which do and prefer 'independent living groups' or 'literary societies' or other entities which have some of the functionality of a fraternity without the cheap beer or the xenophobic national. I used to give the coed ADPs (I hung out at Wesleyan) as an example of a "good" fraternity but then they got kicked out by their national. Oh, well.

Bad: Breeding ground for twits, gits, and butt-holes.
Good: Causes cirrhosis of the liver in twits, gits, and butt-holes.
**phi: Interesting. I hung out at my sister's ADP at Bowdoin for a while. They were also getting a lot of flack from the national arm of the fraternity for being coed. It seems that coed fraternities have a lot less of the crap that makes segregated ones so bad.

I feel that they are generally groups of people who are similar minded made into groups of people who are like minded. there is too much emphasis on them. Other than that I really don't care unless they choose in impinge upon my life.

\/\/hatever. I don't really see the appeal myself, but I know people that I consider to be reasonably intelligent human beings who were in fraternities and enjoyed them.

I think they're OK - they serve a social need just like any other club does. *** I think it's unfair to say sororities *as an entity* make people good or bad. Any kind of group can tend towards "good" or "bad" if you're going to categorize them that way, based on the leaders and what they tend the group to do. Good sororities could be like "Red Cross Aux" groups. Bad frats could be, well, like movies of drunken hordes. That doesn't mean a frat is inherently bad or that a Church group on campus is inherently good.

We're all individuals. Odd how many gross generalizations I see flying around here.

I don't think such organizations are necessary. If you can't hold a kick ass party without being in one, then you're worthless anyway.

We didn''t have them at my uni - and I'm glad of that.

Except for what I've seen of them in movies, I have no knowledge of them.

I know zero about them.