To an outsider looking in, Greek life appears to possess countless negative qualities: binge drinking, hazing, elitism, racism and most prominently, sexual assault.
Recently, cases of sexual assault at universities all across the country have resulted in Greek organization names plastered across newspaper headlines. Although the specific fraternity members involved have rightfully made the news and faced the necessary repercussions, it should be those individuals alone who are punished for their unspeakable actions, not the national organizations they’re a part of.
I don’t think it’s accurate to conclude that sexual assault is a systematic result of Greek organizations as an institution. While one member’s heinous actions are often assumed to reflect their organization as a whole, it’s vital to remember that organizations are comprised of individuals with their own morals, who are responsible for their own actions. Sexual assault should not define these national organizations, whose age-old traditions based in brotherhood and lifelong relationships are meant to better people, not make them worse.
Sexual assault is a horrendously prominent issue on college campuses as a whole, not just on frat row. Sexual assault happens in dorm rooms, on campus, in apartments and in locker rooms, not solely in locations bearing Greek letters. Rather than directing focus only toward punishing and evaluating fraternities, universities need to focus on their Title IX programs and on providing efficient reporting systems where survivors of sexual assault can come forward knowing their university will take investigative action.
It’s easy to use fraternities as a scapegoat for all issues related to sexual assault that occur on a university’s campus, in order to avoid the bigger issue at hand. “Reevaluating” the role of Greek organizations on campus allows universities to pretend to take action against sexual assault by making Greek life look like its only cause.
This is a harmful approach. It’s harmful to survivors, it’s harmful to campus culture and it’s harmful to Greek organizations.
In the haste to point fingers and blame Greek life, it’s easy to overlook the effect this has on the thousands of members of various Greek organizations experiencing the backlash that follows one individual’s actions. It’s also easy to overlook the fact that nothing is being done for the survivors of sexual assault whose attackers were not in fraternities at all.
The current approach of scrutinizing fraternities leaves Greek organizations diminished and sexual assault still prevalent. Sexual assault is happening regardless of Greek life, and universities need to adjust their focus in order to actually find a solution that will put an end to it.
She totally ignores the fact that there is an inordinate number of sexual assaults committed by fraternity members. A fraternity member is 3 times as likely to commit a sexual assault than is an unaffiliated student. The most dangerous place for a coed to be, in terms of sexual assault, is at a party at a fraternity house following a game of contact sports, e.g. football. It is impossible to believe that potential sexual predators are attracted to fraternities. There is something about the fraternity experience that brings these behaviors to the forefront.
While I agree there is a lot of title ix work to be done on all campuses, starting with the fraternities where so much of this behavior happens is completely reasonable. While it doesn’t make sense to say that a particular frat is a house of rapists if an incident happens at that house, when sexual assault happens throughout the Greek system at a higher rate than the rest of the campus, its clear something needs to change. If that means scrutiny on Greeks on our campus or others, the organizations should welcome that. By taking on this issue rather than being scared of and fighting the scrutiny, the fraternities would likely be seen as proactive and reasonable rather than privileged and misogynistic. If what this writer claims is true and sexual assault does not reflect Greek life, then clearly these organizations would easily be able to stand up to the scrutiny. Members of Greek life should stop writing posts like this and instead demand the scrutiny and high standards be placed on their organizations. After all, as so many of these organizations claim to have the best and brightest of our nation, they should be just as concerned with the sexual assault rate in Greek life as us outsiders are. All of the posts recently which reflect a desire to focus elsewhere just make Greeks look like the stereotype played out in the media: privileged, exclusive, secretive, anti-feminist, party groups.
This is editorially irresponsible. As the commenter below mentions, fraternity members are three times more likely to be involved in sexual assaults. The National Institute for Justice lists being in a sorority as a primary factor in increased sexual assault risk. An estimated 40 percent of women in sororities report rape or attempted rape, much higher than those who are not in sororities. Almost 50 percent report unwanted, nonconsensual sexual harassment and contact. Whether you are talking about college fraternities, the Catholic Church, athletic teams, or the Military, it is a fact that rape is far more likely to proliferate and be tolerated in cultures that are sex-segregated, that inhibition of women’s leadership, and that encourage boys to define their masculinity in terms of the rejection of feminine attributes/authority. Part strengthening Title IX programs, improving reporting systems and supporting survivors is understanding how certain environments are inherently coercive. In truth, the bigger issue isn’t fraternities on campus, but fraternities as a microcosm of how we are socially organized.