I think it has a lot of influence on non-greeks. The day I was to be inducted (into the greatest sorority of all time
) I had a non-greek friend drop me off at the location. About a week later, I saw him again a he was asking me for info on what happened. {insert "yeah right" look here} Didn’t tell him anything but that it was a beautiful ceremony. That's it. He thought I was kidding and would actually tell him what happened and then we got into it about the why's and how come's and at some point during the conversation, the movie School Daze came up. He later made a comment I hadn't really thought about. He said that what he saw on tv and in the movies is all he really had to go on. None of his folks were in frats or sorors, so I could understand where he was coming from with that one. In all fairness, he was from St. Thomas and apparently, in his neck of the woods they don’t hear too much about that sort of thing.
Of the movies, news stories and tv sitcoms/programs I've seen that' have dealt with greek life, usually it's the party theme, the tragic hazing story, or racism. If this is what is presented to the general public and everything else is "secret", what are non-greeks supposed to think? Now there are those who are legacies or know someone who is greek and may get more accurate information but for the rest, where does that leave them?