Tom, I agree that social life is a very important part of college life. In my post, I merely stated people don't go Greek for the exclusive purpose of study, philanthropy, parties or alcohol. People go Greek to MAKE FRIENDS. It is within that social structure that the studying, philanthropy, parties and alcohol come into play. Some Greeks latch onto one aspect more than others. Those who are less responsible with alcohol and don't see how this affects their chapter, GLO and community are the problem every chapter faces. Or liability, in some cases.
The point of my post is, People don't join GLO's because of the prospect of free beer. They join GLO's to make friends. And because GLO's carry the stigma of being secret and exclusive societies, anything that goes wrong and becomes public will become the subject of high scrutiny, debate and ridicule-- not only for the chapter where the incident has occurred, but its national HQ, its other chapters, the university where the event occurred and all Greeks.