That's really our culture? You know this? Such blanket statements are as offensive as the crap coming out of these very few racist asshole chapters. In the SAE case, the national organization caught wind of what happened and shut that chapter down and expelled or is in the process of expelling everyone responsible. In the case of Pi Kapa Phi, as soon as their national organization was notified, the chapter was placed on suspension and is under investigation. What the hell makes you think our culture reinforces white supremacy when the actions of our national organizations when faced with isolated cases of chapters behaving badly could not possibly rationally give that appearance?

What we have is a PR problem to be sure. It is not a cultural problem. This situation is very similar to how the public perceives school violence. While it is an all time low, because of media coverage, the public perceives our schools as danger zones. In reality, we are living our values better than ever, are more diverse than ever and are successful in terms of attracting quality members. Is everything perfect? Nope. But the sky isn't falling.

You took from that what you felt like taking from it. What I said was:

I am growing increasingly concerned that the culture of mainly white fraternities and sororities is one that reinforces white supremacy, even in the presence of black members; that reinforces sexism and sexual violence; and fosters a sense of generational entitlement.


My concern about this doesn't negate my concern about violence in black fraternities. You want to make this a "we're all in the same boat" conversation, but we are not. Stop.

We are all in the same boat. We want our GLOs to survive despite a-hole individuals within and without who are trying to drive them into the ground.

LOL.... yes, that is your culture because that is the culture of unchecked whiteness.

Be offended by that, not by me saying so.

Men...not boys. YES. If you're over 18 and can go to jail and go to war, you are a man or a woman. Boys and girls are under 18. They may lack some of the tact and life experiences of those older, but they are expected not to do crap like this.

I don't want to turn this into a race war, but what if this book was found in an urban neighborhood, written by poor and/or minority kids? Would they be boys being boys then? College kids get a pass for a lot of things.

If this book was found in an urban neighborhood, you would have never heard about it. It would likely be thrown away instead of the media being alerted.

The existing programming, while well-intended, is not effective. It's something that the men and women sit through, barely paying attention, to check off a box and go on with their lives. In other words, it's very similar to the corporate diversity/harassment/privacy bullshit that I and others in the corporate world sit through to justify HR jobs and to cover an employer's ass in the case of the shit hitting the fan. I agree that we have to change the way we are doing things in order to be effective with today's collegian.

If you don't agree that there's a cultural issue, I'm going to share what I overheard some very lovely (and I sincerely mean it) women saying this week: "I wish our chapter meetings were like the fraternity chapter meetings. All they have to do is sit around and tell stories. The person with this wildest or grossest story wins." Do I think that's all a fraternity chapter meeting involves? No. I have to believe that business gets done. But I do believe it's indicative of a problematic culture that that's what the men are putting out there to represent themselves instead of the good stuff.

I think we have to get input from these young men and women about designing what will reach them rather than subjecting them to programming developed by old people.

This! I agree with all you said, but especially this!

And I think we need to look for ways for these young men and women to take on more responsibility for holding each other accountable rather than letting that fall mainly to the older people at HQ and in positions of national leadership.

Some things she is on point with - like Greek life ISN'T for everyone, at every school - but some things she completely misses the mark, like we should treat rush like a job interview. That's the same mindset that says "rush is the same as marketing a product. " No. It's not.

I also hate how people seem to believe that (especially at big schools) rush is being run this way because the groups prefer it. I bet if you asked any Ole Miss sorority member, she'd say she'd rather have time to sit and talk with women and get to know them, rather than having bump groups, skits and the same conversation 100 times. The fact is that the sheer amount of rushees doesn't allow for this unless the sorority members don't go to class for 2 months. What's the remedy there? Limiting the amount of women who can rush? If you think we get yelled at for discrimination now, that would amp it up to stratospheric levels.

To add to amiblue's post: we need to develop programming in house, with people who actually have Greek experience, instead of going to outside corporations who take the same presentation and do a cut & paste and replace "company" with "fraternity. "

When did we stop networking within our own ranks for programming, graphics, site design etc and decide someone who knows nothing about our bonds or real mission would be a better candidate?

I don't think she believes recruitment should be like an interview; only that you can only learn so much about a person from brief conversations in a stressful environment with tens and hundreds of other people around. What's the solution? Who knows?!

This x 100! I don't understand why our orgs are more and more looking to the outside instead of within. But perhaps part of the reason is lack of widespread alumnae support and involvement, which is also why they should spend more time emphasizing the lifelong membership aspect of joining a Greek org. I'm not saying all GLOs are lacking in this area, but many are.

The old boy or old girl network needs to open up and look to people who may have not been stellar members or from stellar chapters, but who have professional connections that could prove valuable. Just because Anni Alum barely scraped through school and took early alum status, and doesn't donate or participate in an alum chapter, doesn't mean she wouldn't be willing to provide (example) ritual catsuits at a reduced cost, seeing as she owns a textile factory.

I think we are taking steps and realizing there are all kinds of alum support and involvement, but we need to go a lot faster.

Update: NC State and Pi Kappa Phi announce the immediate closure of the chapter, members must be out of the house by this weekend, and NC State announces a "thorough review" of the school's Greek system. More from the Raleigh News & Observer here.

From the story:

“We know what they say their values are, but we see evidence with a number of fraternities not living up to those values,” NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson said. . . .

Woodson said Greek communities must address the culture on college campuses across the country.

“It’s a national challenge,” he said.