Survey finds Penn State sororities, fraternities drink more

[Kevin]

Daily Collegian
Pennsylvania State University
March 4, 2003

Survey finds Penn State sororities, fraternities drink more

By Colleen Freyvogel, Daily Collegian

Survey says: Fraternity and sorority members at Pennsylvania State
University drink more than nongreek students.

A Pennsylvania State University Pulse survey released at the end of
February shows 94 percent of students in fraternities and sororities drink
alcohol, compared with 81 percent of students who do not belong to a greek
organization.

"The data shows that fraternity and sorority members drink alcohol at a
higher rate than independent students," said Linda LaSalle, a community
health educator for University Health Services. "A big part of it is the
fraternity and sorority culture. A big part of it is the parties and a lot
of social activities revolve around drinking alcohol."

The survey, which was started in 1995, has a 3-percent margin of error,
said Betty Moore, senior research analyst at the Student Affairs Research
and Assessment Office. Students questioned were randomly chosen.

According to the survey, students who belonged to social fraternities and
sororities were more likely to encounter "problem behaviors," including
being assaulted or humiliated, being in a serious argument or quarrel, or
experiencing unwanted sexual advances.

Moore said they have "consistently" found members of social sororities and
fraternities drink more than the rest of Penn State.

The survey showed only 2 percent of greek members consume one drink an hour
and 8 percent consume nonalcoholic drinks as well as alcoholic drinks when
socializing -- almost two times less than nongreek students.

Mary Kaye Jacono, Panhellenic president, said she does not agree with the
results of the survey.

"It's completely not true," said Jacono. "There's no facts to back that up."

Interfraternity Council president Steve DiOrio would not comment on the survey.

Mike Sabol [senior-management science and information systems] said he is
neither for nor against the findings of the survey.

"I wasn't in a fraternity for the first two years, but before I joined the
frat, I probably drank more," said Sabol, a member of the Chi Phi
fraternity. "Now you go to a party and you go there just to drink, but I
don't think I drank any less before I joined."

Morgan Moran [sophomore-marketing], a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority,
said the amount of greek members that go to parties are miniscule compared
to the thousands of nongreek freshmen who go to fraternity parties.

"I think it seems like [greek members drink more] because, obviously the
stereotypes, and they are always seen as providing the alcohol. So it seems
like they drink more," Moran said. "The whole thing is the Penn State greek
community, especially the fraternities, aren't exclusive, so the freshmen
and sophomores go because older people go to apartment parties or bars."

Although the number of nongreek members might sometimes outweigh the number
of greek members at a party, the survey reported that 29 percent of members
participate in drinking games, compared with 19 percent of nongreeks.

The survey also reported that 32 percent of those who belong to a social
greek fraternity or sorority engaged in unplanned sexual activities,
compared to 19 percent of nongreeks. Nineteen percent of greeks did not use
protection when they had sex, compared with 10 percent of nongreeks.

(C) 2002 Daily Collegian

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by ktsnake
Nineteen percent of greeks did not use
protection when they had sex, compared with 10 percent of nongreeks.

The only statistic that scares me out of this entire article is this one.

Obviously, if 80 percent of nongreeks are drinking, then drinking is not just a "Greek problem." The statistics might be a little disturbing if 20 percent of nongreeks were drinking as opposed to 95 percent of greeks, but this doesn't strike me as surprising at all. It makes sense that those who are more likely to drink would be more attracted to the social oppotunities that fraternities and sororities bring.

However, the unprotected sex stats freak me out. How can they be so stupid? NINETEEN percent? Ten percent is scary enough, but when Greeks manage to double the rate, that's really bad.

[kateshort]

As with everything else, statistics about greek life don't show the whole picture.

The kind of people who generally go through recruitment and go to fraternity parties are *already* relatively social people. These are the kinds of people who would probably be in sexual relationships and drinking at the bars regardless of whether they were in a greek org or not.

So the survey is really looking at social people vs. all people on campus.

It's kind of like looking at greek GPA vs. all campus-- you have to have a minimum GPA to join most greek orgs, so of course the numbers are going to be skewed higher...

That said, yeah, the uprotected sex thing is really not good.

[IvySpice]

"It's completely not true," said Jacono. "There's no facts to back that up."

Now, that's just an ignorant thing for the Panhellenic President to say. The statistics she's responding to ARE facts; they don't need to be backed up with other facts, only with explanations of the sampling techniques used. The only possible way to attack these results is by arguing that the survey was biased by sampling error or some kind of statistical mistake. That's hard to do, since Student Affairs Research has apparently been working on this for eight years.

Instead of denying that the sky is blue, she should either put a positive spin on the numbers ("we feel that Greek students drink, but do so responsibly") or talk about ways of fixing the problem ("we're beginning an alcohol awareness program to address this issue"). When leaders stick their heads in the sand, it makes the entire community look foolish.

Ivy

[DeltAlum]

I had the same reaction to the Panhel President's comment as Ivy.

We can question the methodology of the survey or whatever, but every study pretty much ends up with the same results.

[33girl]

I'd have to agree with the Panhel prez...this looks like one of those studies that is more full of crap than the cattle barn at the County Fair.

According to the survey, students who belonged to social fraternities and
sororities were more likely to encounter "problem behaviors," including
being assaulted or humiliated, being in a serious argument or quarrel, or
experiencing unwanted sexual advances.


So if I'm the hot sorority babe that I am, and more guys hit on me, that's a "problem behavior"? Something that I don't provoke? Come on, that's really reaching. Like Kate said, the Greeks are usually the more social people anyway. You're probably not going to get in arguments with anyone if you sit at home in your room playing video games.

I'd also like to know the exact definition of "unprotected sex." Do they mean no contraception, or no condom? If it's the latter, well duh...if you're in a long-term, committed relationship and you've both tested OK, you're probably going to be on the Pill. Unless there are women out there who actually like condoms.

[sugar and spice]

I'd assume that "unprotected" meant no protection whatsoever. If you're on the pill, that's not exactly unprotected, at least in my mind. But now that you bring it up, that's a question I'd like to have answered . . . I wouldn't be surprised they only asked about condoms.

[TPASteph]

I go to Penn State and we had a whole thread about this on one of our forums on the DailyJolt. As far as the survey being biased, it wasn't. It was randomly emailed to a certain number of students. I personally wasn't involved and had no idea it went on until this was published, but I agree that Mary Kaye could have said something better than there were no facts. Of course, with the negative attitudes about greek life here I wouldn't be surprised if she did have more to say than that and the Collegian just used that one snippet to make her (and the greek community) look bad.

[teke4life]

personally, i can't believe this. nittany lions drink too much? no, not penn state! they seem like such sober individuals.

[TPASteph]

teke4life,
Tell me about it! I've never seen one case of underage drinking here.. For our mixers we go to the fraternities and play UNO! Isn't that what you do too? lol

[teke4life]

there ain't a whole lot else to do in upstate pennsylvania.