[paulaKKG]

I have no idea what the specific situation is at this school, so I won't try to judge, but clearly this article demonstrates a dangerous view of the Greek community.

The author mentions clearly the "boys" are the problem not the "girls" - and I am most certain that is not a unique opinion. I heard similar debates at my school for years. It wouldn't exist if there were not a ring of truth to it.

The difference between the sororities and the fraternities is that Sororities are dry. If fraternities want to stop these kind of problems from jeapardizing the entire system, they have to do the same - go dry. Even if the problem is just "a few bad apples" clearly the perception is that this continues to be tacitly tolerated and ignored.

In the sorority system, those who break the rules tend to get charters revoked or other disceplanary action from within. National organizations and NPC at times have sticter punishments than universities. And although there is still some truth to the fact that sororities are still engaging in hazing, taking alcohol out of the equation solves a great deal of problems.

This proactive approach to makeing clear no-tolerance rules for hazing and alcohol gives national organizations and upperhand when dealing with incidents when they happen. It is a far superior morale ground to be able to say "We catagorically ban and actively discourage this, but it happened without our knowledge. We are taking immediate and decisive action to correct the situation and it we are doing everything we can to educate our members and make sure it never happens again." National Panhellenic went so far as to not only correct their behaivor, but to impose a ban on NPC members from even socializing with organizations that are not themselves dry.

The author of this article is dead on. Philanthropy or not, Alumni pressure or no, college administration will continue to allow through inaction or negligence the death of students. The legal risk alone is daunting. And as all the posters here seem to confirm - most folks think "it's not the fraternity system its the bad apples, or the nature of being a young male - they'd kill themselves anyway. " And as fraternities, you're either on the side of ending alcohol abuse and hazing or your part of the problem.

The fraternity leadership at a national, interfraternity, and local level needs to stop reacting to the problem and start seriously thinking about. I worry not about the immaturaty of the 17-22 year old collegiates but rather the imaturaty of the adult alumni to take the decisive action to make all fraternities dry. Honestly, if the brotherhood can't exist without hazing and substance abuse, I can't blame anyone else for thinking poorly of it.

I don't want to be holy-than-thou about how great the sorority system is over the fraternity system - we have our own challenges for sure. But it does irk me to see that National Fraternities still fail to see the problem even as people continue to call for the complete ban of the entire system.


Paula