It's safe to say that the University of Southern California's Greek system has generated an above average amount of negative press this past semester. First it started with a derogatory fraternity email towards women than eventually circulated the whole school. Then came the infamous sex scandal on top of Waite Phillips Hall this past month that became international news. All of this on top of a dozen or so sexual assault/ rape charges at numerous fraternity house during parties. If the Greek system were a publicly traded business, every stockholder would be calling for change. And that's exactly what I'm proposing.
To start off with I am not ignorant. I know that USC will never abandon its Greek system. It's too deep seeded in our traditions as well as the large alumni base that will go up in arms if it happened. However this needs to be done sooner rather than later.
I was a member of a fraternity for 3 years, and even held one of the highest leadership positions in the house. I know how these places run, how the people inside think, and the overall attitude that the members put out. I can tell you that it's about lifelong friends, about giving back through philanthropy, and all about collectively working to better each other. However I don't enjoy lying. While I was in a fraternity we spent more money on a philanthropy party ($5000) than we actually gave to the cause we were raising money for ($2000). Everyone I know in the house's grades slipped, and to be honest there were numerous clicks within the house and after you graduate you only really care about a select handful in the group. Fraternities are about drinking too much, banging girls (which most guys in my frat referred to as "sluts"), and having a gang of people to call your own.
Sororities are a whole other story. I don't have a daughter, but I can imagine that it gets difficult when she turns 13 and you have to parent her through any body image issues she has or anything that makes her fell self conscience. You work until she's 18 to build a self confidence in her that will carry her through college and beyond. Then she gets to USC and what happens? She immediately gets placed into a group of girls completely based on her looks and wealth. It's the most superficial system I've ever seen. If your the hottest girl in the world then you will be cherished; if your a bit chunky and aren't appealing, then they can't wait to boot you out their door and pawn you off onto someone else. They can't let you bring down their "reputation". This system goes against everything that we are parenting our children to live by. Then once their in they are brainwashed into thinking that because their in a TOP sorority that they should be treated as such. It boils down to your creating needy, narcissistic psycho bitches then getting them drunk and sending them into a jungle filled with horny college guys willing to say anything to close the deal.
It's clear to me that this is a flawed system. There was a psychology experiment in the 1950's called the Robbers Cave experiment. It "studied the origin of prejudice in social groups". To paraphrase they took a group of 24 boys to the Robber's cave summer camp. They let them all get to know each other and watched who in the group separated into groups of friends. Then they divided the boys into two groups, making sure to separate some of the friends. They told each group why they were better and encouraged them to remain fractionalized. What happened is that the two groups developed gang like mentalities and hated each other. It got to the point that the groups couldn't be in the same room because they would fight so much. This is what has happened at USC. We have these frats and sororities and they all think they are better one another and it breeds problems. Your told to remain with your group and that everyone else is not as good. That isn't what college is all about.
My solution is unfortunately easier said than done. I believe USC should get rid of the "Greek System" , but maintain the Row of houses by purchasing all of them. USC could then turn this into "Preferred student living" and continue the tradition of being the place to party. This transformation would provide many benefits to USC. First off USC could charge premium rents to students that wanted to live in the most social housing. They could also put a GPA floor level that you have to maintain to live there; Nothing too severe, minimum 3.0. Secondly, USC could monitor and even organize the large parties that happen here. Now this might be seen as more work for USC officials, but its worth it. Better security, provides more jobs for the surrounding community, and the peace of mind that if anything goes wrong you can react immediately.
For the students this would create a "Bourbon street effect". Bourbon street is located in the heart of New Orleans. It's a Street with bars, restaurants, and other more risky businesses on each side a few hundred yards long. Imagine that at USC. Every Friday night each house is going off, with live music, free drinks, and of course security insuring everyone is of age and the peace is kept. And the best part is that everyone is welcome. You won't be turned away because your an outsider or just plain different. Imagine the college community that would spawn.
Yes this idea is radical. Yes it's unlikely to occur in this decade. But never ever, say never ever.
Fraternities are infamous for hazing. Whose to say something couldn't go horribly wrong at a USCStarkley,
"18-year-old Carson Starkey was attending the San Luis Obispo school at California Polytechnic State University. He was also pledging the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. During the pledge process, Starkey was required to complete a “brown bag” challenge in which he was forced to drink whatever amount of alcohol he was given in a brown paper bag by an older frat member. He died on December 2, 2008 amongst chants of “puke and rally.” His prospective fraternity brothers didn’t even take him to the hospital."
I only pray that if such a tragedy occurs at USC that the person in charge of fixing it finds this essay. To him I say good luck sir.
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ReplyDeleteI do agree that “the University of Southern California's Greek system has generated an above average amount of negative press this past semester,” and that after all that has occurred something needs to change. However, I don’t believe that the problems that you mention about drinking too much, grades slipping, girls confidence being compromised and judged on looks and wealth will be solved by ridding USC of the Greek System. Although many of these issues seem specific to and exacerbated by the “Greek Life”they are not. Just because you take away the Greek names on the front of the houses and replace them with USC Preferred Student Housing will not change a thing, especially if you plan on creating a “Bourbon Street Effect.” Clicks will form, people will be judged based on looks and wealth, and lets be real guys will get drunk and try to say anything to lure girls back to their place. I am not by any means trying to diminish the seriousness of these issues nor am I trying to say that something shouldn’t be done to try to change things at USC, but I just don’t see you solution as a viable or reasonable solution.
ReplyDeleteInteresting...with Nikias' anti-greek agenda maybe your plan isn't such a far-away notion. I don't necessarily think that he will shut down the row, but his actions thus far (i.e. the restrictions on partying etc) do show that he's not afraid to make moves against the Greek system if it keeps publicly bringing bad publicity to USC, because let's face it, that's what Nikias and other admins are really worried about. They have known about the numerous sexual assault allegations, hazing violations, underage binge drinking that leads to students in ambulances on a regular basis for YEARS but it wasn't until BAD PRESS that the admins decided to crack down on the greek system. So it seems, as long as all these bad things remain under the radar the system has a chance of longevity but if it keeps making its shortcomings public then the chance of Nikias bringing down the hammer will increase tenfold. I'm sure the greek system will never ever disappear, too many alums with deep pockets care about it, but it could severely be crippled if the social aspect (ie partying) is heavily regulated.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article I have to say finally I hear this from a boy and not just girls complaining about the Greek system at USC. I agree that something has to be done about the Greek system here at USC because it has gotten out of hand. I understand how you might think that the Greek life is responsible for the heavy drinking, grade slipping, lack of confidence, exclusivity etc. but I think its more than that. I think obviously the Greek system contributes heavily to all of those problems but I think more people need to be informed of the issues we are talking about and the severity of them. USC as a whole needs to do more to help with the bad reputation due to the things that occur on the row. I am not in a sorority but most of my friends are and having been out on the row i must say that for women, it is not the best place. Not only is everyone partying too hard but ambulances are leaving and arriving every 5 minutes and instances of rape are also occurring. I think the Greek life is such a huge part of USC so I personally dont advise getting rid of it all together but I do think that there should be stricter rules enforced and both the fraternities and the sororities should be talked to about the reputation of USC and the risk that their students are being put in by being a part of this party scene.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that such a prestigious school has a greek system that is so degrading to women and men. I'm sure there are a lot of nice people who are in these sororities and fraternities, but what these groups stand for is not so appealing and I think that in this case all that glitters is not gold. I agree that the greek system should be done away with. Sadly, this probably won't happen, but hey, miracles can happen.
ReplyDeleteI think it's so sad that a school with such intelligent students supports a system that quite frankly, encourages boys to degrade women and girls to equate their worth to just physical appearances. This is just unethical and wrong. Your idea about the alternate to the row is a better idea. USC has had enough rude awakenings that the greek system can reap bad fruits, that have been offensive to men, women and the school as a whole. When are they going to wake up and realize that the greek system, although with "good intentions" is an excuse to party. This often results in date rape and people passing out because of alcohol poisoning. USC needs to enforce stricter rules on the greek system. I think there needs to be an :"undercover" audit as well on these frats and sororities. If women are being made to believe that they have to look a certain way in order to be worth something and if guys are continuously degrading themselves and their female "greek sisters" then someone needs to do something about it. We deserve the best college experience possible, I just pray that these students know how truly valuable they are; Valuable enough to not subject themselves to a system that encourages them to lead an empty lifestyle.
While it is refreshing to hear criticism come from an actual Greek member, notably a male, I feel that your idea of having the university control and regulate the row will not work for several reasons...
ReplyDelete1) Open parties are a huge liability and the university hates liability. The reason that fraternity chapters at USC are able to hold open parties is that they often lie to their nationals about it. I cannot speak for every fraternity but I do know that at least a few have nationals that have strict code of conduct rules that basically prohibit anything that could put them at risk of getting sued. Most chapters don't follow these rules knowing that if they run into trouble their nationals' hands will be wiped clean because of the rules they set forth for their chapters. Fraternities at USC take these calculated risks, but the school simply could not. Maybe a cash bar would work, but who wants to pay cash at a college party?
2) It will not fix the real problems. Many criticisms of the row (binge drinking, sexual assault, etc.) can and will happen even without the labels of being in a house. If people are to live in these houses can't they still go upstairs to their rooms and drink even after hired bartenders say they've had enough? And can't a guy still take a girl up to his room and take advantage of her? As long as there are college students living in these houses where these parties take place the houses will be breeding grounds for this type of behavior whether there are Greek letters outside the house or not.
3) Making these parties "open to everyone" will draw a crowd far too big for the street to handle. Years ago I was told that pre-rush parties (which are open to everyone) drew a crowd so large that helicopters were forced to fly over the row and shut down the parties. Can we take the risk of letting this happen on a week to week basis? Won't that cause even further bad press to our school?
Overall I enjoyed your post because you were unbiased and actually tried to think up of a realistic way to handle the situation. Additionally, I have to agree that as a Greek member one of the things that does bother me the most is the whole "us vs. them" mentality. There is a lot of animosity between greeks and non-greeks. I don't know what originally caused this, maybe it was Greeks acting like they were better than everyone else or maybe it was the non-greeks who started it by calling the Greeks superficial, unintelligent people who pay for friends, but either way it needs to stop for the better of our university.
I agree that the culture of the Greek Row at USC is extremely flawed. The values upon which the Greek system is based (not on paper but actual values which people exhibit) should not, in an ideal world, be carried on by any righteous human being.
ReplyDeleteYou've taken a bold stab at an enormous culture problem. Examining this issue brings, to my mind at least, the question of whether the Row causes the judgmental and shallow attitudes observed, or if it is the students that USC attracts that have molded the Row into this superficial system. I have visited the Greek systems at different Midwestern schools numerous times, and the problems you brought up are nowhere near as pervasive or overt as they are at USC. I've got to believe that while USC's Greek life, or any Greek life for that matter, does not encourage altruistic behavior, the nature of USC students (Greek and non-Greek) exacerbates the nurturing effects of Greek life.
I like that you have proposed ideas rather than simply criticizing the issues of the Greek system. On the other hand, I think that it would be extremely challenging to implement these said ideas. In addition to what Phil has mentioned, I think there are some other factors to take note of. Just in terms of feasibility, these houses would not be able to function as a “Bourbon Street” because of one glaring issue: money. Fraternities require their members to pay dues, some of which is pooled for throwing parties. That means that the students who would live in these houses would consistently foot the bill for any party supplies and damages because, after all, it is university housing. Additionally, if the university treated fraternity houses as housing opportunities, they are ultimately liable for things that take place there. There would be no “social gatherings,” as that simply acts as a lawsuit just waiting to happen, and that certainly would be bad for public relations.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, what would prevent the residents of these “Preferred student living” houses from developing similar cliques and mentalities that are already apparent in fraternities? If things operate as planned, they will pay out of their own pocket to throw parties, they will compete with other houses along 28th street in terms of drawing people, and inevitably develop there own methods of distinguishing themselves from others in order to have others outside the house identify them. To me, that sounds like the fledgling development of a fraternity system.
Thanks for the responses everyone. They wlll definetly help me to fix this essay for the final portfolio and make it more sound.
ReplyDeletePersonally I've changed my argument a bit to include the idea that perhaps we need tighter regulation instead of an all out dismissal of the system. Sororities are actually doing very well at USC. Fraternties might need stronger supervision though. No on wants it and its a pain in the ass but its likely that this may be the only way to keep everyone safe.
I'm not anti row, and nor do I feel like this plan even needs to be done. Partying at USC is one of the best parts. When else are you more social than in the greek system. It introduces you to so many people and really opens up your network. I just thought it would be interesting to write out the idea.
Hopefully we can all get our shit together because it would be a shame for anything that I said above to actually happen.
It was really nice to hear about the issues from someone who has seen the way things work from the inside. While I know a lot of great people who are in sororities and fraternities, I have also seen the ways it degrades men and women. The publicity coming from the row has also been horrible. I have been talking with prospective freshman and the same questions and stereotypes about the row always come up and seem to deter incredibly smart students from becoming Trojans. While I don't see anything as drastic as getting rid of the greek system happening any time soon, I do like the ideas and resolutions you have mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI must say, I enjoy your critiques of the Greek System. Sure the 'Greeks' have been in the news more frequently than desired this semester. However before you try to even suggest abolishing the Greek system, you need to look at the system as not just a social scene and a realm of obnoxiousness, but also a very pivotal mechanism of future revenue for the University. Many affluent alumni who have since donated generously to USC enjoyed their undergraduate careers as Greek students. Our trusting Board of Trustees consists of a predominantly Greek constituency. While it might be time to evaluate the Greek community’s flaws and try to improve its standards, you need to realize that the Greek system is here to stay for a good while. Until it stops producing wealthy alumni who later contribute to the university, the row will always be here. At USC (as is true elsewhere) money talks.
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