Greek Life Standards Essay
Greek Life Standards Everyone has heard the saying, “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus,” so it should come as no surprise that in many situations the two genders are separated and treated differently. In the midst of the traditional activities accompanying the start of school is rush, in which students who wish to join a Greek-letter organization attend functions to learn about and select from the different houses and the fraternities and sororities decide which students they would like to become members. A natural question for someone such as myself, is what impact does participation in Greek life have on individuals ' attitudes and behaviors, both in the short and long term? Because I 've never been a member of any girl-only group other than sports teams, I didn 't know much about sororities when I started observing Sigma Kappa (SK). But
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In the past few years at KU, the inequalities between the two sectors of Greek life have become blatantly obvious. Sorority women have, and continue to be, held to a stricter set of standards than their fraternity counterparts. While fraternities are given a lenient set of guidelines to follow, sororities are forced to abide by harsh rules (or face the risk of serious consequences). That is why when it comes to Greek life, the double standard is not a good idea, and it is a persistent and increasing problem that sorority women at KU, and other schools around the country, are dealing with. Every aspect of being Greek, from recruitment to the social scene, is governed by rules and standards that are vastly different depending on whether an individual is a male or female.
The inequalities can be seen in the case of sorority and fraternity recruitment. It is no secret that “rushing a fraternity is generally much more informal than rushing a sorority” (Bartlett 20). While fraternities must hold a handful of formal rushes and recruiting events, statics show “the majority of the process is informal, largely consisting of throwing parties” (Bartlett 15). On the contrary, sorority recruitment is almost entirely formal. “Rush is usually made up of a series of rounds in which each potential new member (PNM) must meet and greet the sisters of every organization the PNM’s preferences for one sorority over another is unimportant until the last of the recruitment rounds” (Sigma Kappa Kansas). The sorority recruitment standards are so strict and structured that “a sister is forbidden to talk to a potential new member during the process outside of the designated times and rooms allocated for rush” (Omega Chapter University of Kansas). These differences in fraternity and sorority standards, especially in regards to recruitment, do not go unnoticed by Greek life members. A sister of the Delta Zeta chapter at KU describes recruitment saying, “The boys get to see the real person they’re recruiting, out in a normal college setting at a party or on campus, but we girls are stuck in the recruitment rooms asking unimportant questions, like "what would you eat for the rest of your life if you could only have one food," trying to get to actually know these new girls. It 's like the frats are at a complete advantage which isn’t fair.”
When rushing a fraternity, quantity is everything. It is “about how many of the brothers a PNM knows that determines whether or not he will get a bid” (Piker 23). When rushing a sorority, it 's about quality and the rules; whether a “PNM can break through the artificial questioning and form a bond in the allocated time set aside for rounds” (Piker 23). Clearly men and women are from the same planet, but one would never know it after examining the double standard that pervades the Greek system.
On March 15, 16 Yale students filed a complaint against the University for violating “Title IX alleging that Yale had failed to curb a hostile sexual environment for women on campus” (Yale settles sexual harassment complaint). Among the incidents of such hostility: a 2007 petition by women in the medical school charging sexual harassment; a lewd email ranking dozens of freshmen by "how many beers it would take to have sex with them"; and, most widely known, a fraternity pledge prank that involved dozens of men gathered on Yale 's Old Campus, shouting that women were "f--king sluts!," followed by "No means yes! Yes means anal!" These accusations have shed light on a campus culture in which “as many as one out of five women are sexually assaulted before graduation” (Piker 15). They also follow similar incidents at other universities, including a recent uproar at the University of Southern California, where a widely circulated email from a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity referred to women as "targets," explaining that "they aren 't actual people like us men." While the U.S. Department of Education recently released new guidelines for how to deal with assault on campus, Vice President Biden announced them in a press conference at the University of New Hampshire on April 4; there is one place universities should start now: the Greek system. While these fraternity brothers must be held accountable for their actions, the Greek system as a whole must also be held accountable for what it teaches college students about women that women are weaker and less capable than men.
At the University of Pennsylvania, where Samantha Wishman was part of a sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, that was founded more than a century ago to give women a foothold on campuses that had once been all male bastions.
But somehow, over the years, sororities have come to infantilize the women they once sought to empower. As vice president of Theta, she was tasked with figuring out how to get members more involved. She began fall recruitment, only to be told that the fall was only for the boys and they had to wait until the second semester. They then planned a social event, only to learn that they had to get permission from their national headquarters to do so and that they didn’t have access to the funds created by soro’s annual dues, despite their brother fraternities having the ability to plan and pay for events at their discretion. Later, when they planned a homecoming party, complete with Bloody Marys, they then were told that sororities were bound by a “no-alcohol policy" something that, again, didn’t apply to the boys. “Why don’t you have a tea party?” their adviser offered, as if they were living in the
1950s.
The Greek system as a whole must also be held accountable for what it teaches college students about women that women are weaker and less capable than men. The upshot was this: For trying to play by the boys’ rules, their sorority chapter was put on probation. Meanwhile, some of the male counterparts were on probation for serious, even criminal offenses like date rape, drug abuse, and hazing, yet they proceeded to party. When she asked the national office why they’d been punished, they spoke in euphemisms, but she understood the message: “Sorry, but you must abide by a different set of rules. This is how it’s always been.”
This caused Samantha to send a letter of complaint, and tried to organize a protest. But while many of her sisters shook their heads at the injustice, few were angry enough to leave the system and go rogue. This story about Samantha from The Daily Beast an online Newsweek with peer reviewed articles, has led me here to speak out about a system that gives millions of men and women in this country a backward education. While only “8.5 percent of undergraduates in the U.S. are involved in fraternity and sorority life, fraternities have produced 120 current Forbes 500 CEOs, 48 percent of all presidents, and similar numbers of senators, congressmen, and Supreme Court justices”(Bartlett 25). I wonder what the Greek system has taught some of the most influential people in our country about the differences between men and women? But then I realize I know: Despite all the strides young women have made, we’re not so equal after all.
If a university approved system present on hundreds of campuses nationwide continues to treat women as second-class citizens, then we should not be surprised when men call women “f--king sluts.” I am not advocating the end of fraternities’ Greek life is fun and valuable if done correctly. But if we’re going to change the testosterone dominated college culture, the Greek system must empower women to take part in campus life with full and equal rights. So that double standards and backward education can be no more. Work Cited
Bartlett, T. The chronicle of higher education. An ugly tradition persists at Southern fraternity parties. . :. 2001, . Print
"KU Tri Delta | âââ." KU Tri Delta. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. .
"How to Solve Sexual Hostility on Campus? Start with the Greek System - The Daily Beast." The Daily Beast. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. .
"Omega Chapter - University of Kansas." Omega Chapter - University of Kansas. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. .
Piker, G. R. Journal of College Student Development. Membership in a fraternity or sorority, student engagement, and educational. . :. 2003, . Print.
"Sigma Kappa Kansas." Sigma Kappa Kansas. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. .
"Yale settles sexual harassment complaint - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. .
In the past few years at KU, the inequalities between the two sectors of Greek life have become blatantly obvious. Sorority women have, and continue to be, held to a stricter set of standards than their fraternity counterparts. While fraternities are given a lenient set of guidelines to follow, sororities are forced to abide by harsh rules (or face the risk of serious consequences). That is why when it comes to Greek life, the double standard is not a good idea, and it is a persistent and increasing problem that sorority women at KU, and other schools around the country, are dealing with. Every aspect of being Greek, from recruitment to the social scene, is governed by rules and standards that are vastly different depending on whether an individual is a male or female.
The inequalities can be seen in the case of sorority and fraternity recruitment. It is no secret that “rushing a fraternity is generally much more informal than rushing a sorority” (Bartlett 20). While fraternities must hold a handful of formal rushes and recruiting events, statics show “the majority of the process is informal, largely consisting of throwing parties” (Bartlett 15). On the contrary, sorority recruitment is almost entirely formal. “Rush is usually made up of a series of rounds in which each potential new member (PNM) must meet and greet the sisters of every organization the PNM’s preferences for one sorority over another is unimportant until the last of the recruitment rounds” (Sigma Kappa Kansas). The sorority recruitment standards are so strict and structured that “a sister is forbidden to talk to a potential new member during the process outside of the designated times and rooms allocated for rush” (Omega Chapter University of Kansas). These differences in fraternity and sorority standards, especially in regards to recruitment, do not go unnoticed by Greek life members. A sister of the Delta Zeta chapter at KU describes recruitment saying, “The boys get to see the real person they’re recruiting, out in a normal college setting at a party or on campus, but we girls are stuck in the recruitment rooms asking unimportant questions, like "what would you eat for the rest of your life if you could only have one food," trying to get to actually know these new girls. It 's like the frats are at a complete advantage which isn’t fair.”
When rushing a fraternity, quantity is everything. It is “about how many of the brothers a PNM knows that determines whether or not he will get a bid” (Piker 23). When rushing a sorority, it 's about quality and the rules; whether a “PNM can break through the artificial questioning and form a bond in the allocated time set aside for rounds” (Piker 23). Clearly men and women are from the same planet, but one would never know it after examining the double standard that pervades the Greek system.
On March 15, 16 Yale students filed a complaint against the University for violating “Title IX alleging that Yale had failed to curb a hostile sexual environment for women on campus” (Yale settles sexual harassment complaint). Among the incidents of such hostility: a 2007 petition by women in the medical school charging sexual harassment; a lewd email ranking dozens of freshmen by "how many beers it would take to have sex with them"; and, most widely known, a fraternity pledge prank that involved dozens of men gathered on Yale 's Old Campus, shouting that women were "f--king sluts!," followed by "No means yes! Yes means anal!" These accusations have shed light on a campus culture in which “as many as one out of five women are sexually assaulted before graduation” (Piker 15). They also follow similar incidents at other universities, including a recent uproar at the University of Southern California, where a widely circulated email from a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity referred to women as "targets," explaining that "they aren 't actual people like us men." While the U.S. Department of Education recently released new guidelines for how to deal with assault on campus, Vice President Biden announced them in a press conference at the University of New Hampshire on April 4; there is one place universities should start now: the Greek system. While these fraternity brothers must be held accountable for their actions, the Greek system as a whole must also be held accountable for what it teaches college students about women that women are weaker and less capable than men.
At the University of Pennsylvania, where Samantha Wishman was part of a sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, that was founded more than a century ago to give women a foothold on campuses that had once been all male bastions.
But somehow, over the years, sororities have come to infantilize the women they once sought to empower. As vice president of Theta, she was tasked with figuring out how to get members more involved. She began fall recruitment, only to be told that the fall was only for the boys and they had to wait until the second semester. They then planned a social event, only to learn that they had to get permission from their national headquarters to do so and that they didn’t have access to the funds created by soro’s annual dues, despite their brother fraternities having the ability to plan and pay for events at their discretion. Later, when they planned a homecoming party, complete with Bloody Marys, they then were told that sororities were bound by a “no-alcohol policy" something that, again, didn’t apply to the boys. “Why don’t you have a tea party?” their adviser offered, as if they were living in the
1950s.
The Greek system as a whole must also be held accountable for what it teaches college students about women that women are weaker and less capable than men. The upshot was this: For trying to play by the boys’ rules, their sorority chapter was put on probation. Meanwhile, some of the male counterparts were on probation for serious, even criminal offenses like date rape, drug abuse, and hazing, yet they proceeded to party. When she asked the national office why they’d been punished, they spoke in euphemisms, but she understood the message: “Sorry, but you must abide by a different set of rules. This is how it’s always been.”
This caused Samantha to send a letter of complaint, and tried to organize a protest. But while many of her sisters shook their heads at the injustice, few were angry enough to leave the system and go rogue. This story about Samantha from The Daily Beast an online Newsweek with peer reviewed articles, has led me here to speak out about a system that gives millions of men and women in this country a backward education. While only “8.5 percent of undergraduates in the U.S. are involved in fraternity and sorority life, fraternities have produced 120 current Forbes 500 CEOs, 48 percent of all presidents, and similar numbers of senators, congressmen, and Supreme Court justices”(Bartlett 25). I wonder what the Greek system has taught some of the most influential people in our country about the differences between men and women? But then I realize I know: Despite all the strides young women have made, we’re not so equal after all.
If a university approved system present on hundreds of campuses nationwide continues to treat women as second-class citizens, then we should not be surprised when men call women “f--king sluts.” I am not advocating the end of fraternities’ Greek life is fun and valuable if done correctly. But if we’re going to change the testosterone dominated college culture, the Greek system must empower women to take part in campus life with full and equal rights. So that double standards and backward education can be no more. Work Cited
Bartlett, T. The chronicle of higher education. An ugly tradition persists at Southern fraternity parties. . :. 2001, . Print
"KU Tri Delta | âââ." KU Tri Delta. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. .
"How to Solve Sexual Hostility on Campus? Start with the Greek System - The Daily Beast." The Daily Beast. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. .
"Omega Chapter - University of Kansas." Omega Chapter - University of Kansas. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. .
Piker, G. R. Journal of College Student Development. Membership in a fraternity or sorority, student engagement, and educational. . :. 2003, . Print.
"Sigma Kappa Kansas." Sigma Kappa Kansas. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. .
"Yale settles sexual harassment complaint - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. .