Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
Fine, here is where I'm going to start.
How big is the Greek system at a school like this?
Do people see the risks associated with this school?
Do Greeks see it and still continue to operate, etc. there?
-Rudey
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Some excellent questions.
According to the CU webpage, there are 15 active fraternities and 10 active sororities. There were several listed as apparantely inactive. There are about 2,700 GLO members.
I think what people "see" in Colorado is the beautiful campus at the foot of the mountains and all of the outdoor activities. The school is also highly regarded in areas like Chemistry (Two Nobel Laureats on the Chem Faculity) and Aerospace Engineering. A huge number of astronauts are CU graduates -- including one each who were killed in each of the Space Shuttle disasters. Important parts of the Hubble Telescope were built in conjunction with C.U. All in all, a very good college in spectacular surroundings. A fair number of affluent students come to CU, Boulder for just these reasons.
As you asked earlier, though, it does have a party school reputation.
The relationship between the school and the Greek Community is fairly unusual. Basically, as I understand it, a few years ago (maybe 10-15) the school took a hands off attitude toward the Greek System. A lot of people read that as, "We'll give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves," and the "problem" will go away.
I can't really comment on present chapters at all. Within the past few years, there have been a number of alcohol and hazing incidents, but really probably not any more than most schools of its size. I would be interested in knowing if current members think differently since I'm really looking from the outside.
Delt had a huge presence on the CU campus (Beta Kappa Chapter) for many years, but after a number of alcohol and drug related incidents and the trashing of one of the most beautiful Greek houses I've ever seen, closed the chapter for a third time, I doubt that we will ever recolonize there. Local alumni had raised over $1.5 million to refurbish it only months before. Clearly, we think there's too much risk and baggage to go back there. A former very high ranking alumni officer told me that the chapters were (paraphrasing) a bunch of rich, drug using, alcoholic ski bums.
I was on the adjunct faculty (School of Journalism) there for several years and would say that that's unfair in regard to the student body as a whole. The chapter was gone by the time I taught there, but older alumni members of the chapter were highly disappointed in what it had turned into, and many of them would not support an attempt to recolonize either. To what extent our former experiences match the rest of the Greek System, I couldn't say.
It's sad to walk by the old Shelter with the Delt letters carved in stone above the front door and think how badly my former brothers screwed this up. The house now belongs to the university and is used for Continuing Education offices.
I hope that's a fairly ballanced and accurate snapshot -- but again, not having anything officially to do with the university or Greek System there, it's only an outside view.