Friday, September 4, 2015

It's all Greek to me!

I just walked back from the Post Office on campus and saw no less than 10 students in shirts that advertised one Fraternity or Sorority or another.

It brought me back to my undergrad days.  I went to a school that had a handful of Fraternities.  No Sororities.  We didn't see letters of sweatshirts and t-shirts.  The fraternity boys generally wore navy blazer, khaki pants and ties.  There were things that you knew.  You knew that Chi Phi was responsible for the International students being moved to a smaller house.  You knew that pledging Kappa Alpha required writing a HUGE check.  You knew that when Sigma Chi was rushing you'd get stopped and serenaded.  A lot.

You also knew that if you went to a fraternity party there was a better than average chance that your drink would be spiked and you'd be raped.

There's no other way to put it.  It was popularly known.  And it happened.  Often.  And as far as we knew nothing was ever done about it.

from www.washingtontimes.com
These days hte news is full of fraternities and sororities trashing things, fraternities with rapey signs,  and batshit crazy sorority recruitment.





I drive past the stately sorority building on campus here and wonder what these organizations are really like.  Because of where I went to school they weren't an option.  Are they as awful as the media says?  Other than finding lifelong friends (as the recruiting pitch goes) why would you join one?  Did I miss out on someone special because they were allowed on my campus?  (Apparently for some people it's never too late)

I'll never know.

And thus is life.


2 comments:

Liz @ iheartvegetables said...

I think some are awful andn some are probably fine. I went to Ohio State so there was definitely Greek life there but there were so many other clubs and things to join that it wasn't that big of a deal!

Unknown said...

I think fraternities can be as bad as the media portrays them, but most probably aren't. However, I graduated 11 years ago so it's possible things have really gone down hill. I hope not! Because if they have, I am terrified for my kids.