Princeton discourages freshman from joining fraternities and sororities

[amanda6035]

As the University prepares to welcome another class of incoming freshmen, these members of the Class of 2013 will receive a letter from Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan and Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson over the summer informing them that the University does not support fraternities and sororities on campus.

President Tilghman said in an interview last Wednesday that the administration continues to discourage incoming students from participating in Greek life on campus because she believes it restricts students’ social lives....

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/04/29/23574/

[littleowl33]

What an insulting article. The university officials completely fail to mention all the community service Greeks do and the academic support they provide for their members. Nothing against dance groups or sports teams, which wonderful in their own right, but Greeks add a lot to the community, too!

Also, does anyone know what "Bicker" is? Or "eating clubs"? That part of the article was kind of confusing.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by littleowl33

What an insulting article. The university officials completely fail to mention all the community service Greeks do and the academic support they provide for their members. Nothing against dance groups or sports teams, which wonderful in their own right, but Greeks add a lot to the community, too!

Also, does anyone know what "Bicker" is? Or "eating clubs"? That part of the article was kind of confusing.

An Eating Club is a social organization at Princeton (I believe similar to the finals clubs at Harvard).

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by littleowl33

What an insulting article. The university officials completely fail to mention all the community service Greeks do and the academic support they provide for their members. Nothing against dance groups or sports teams, which wonderful in their own right, but Greeks add a lot to the community, too!

Nothing new here. This has been the case at Princeton for some time. The reality is that at Princeton, Greek life simply isn't as big as at some other schools. Not to say that the experiences of Princeton Greeks aren't enhanced by Greek life, but fraternities and sororities are not at the center of the social orbit at Princeton; eating clubs are. As I understand it, most Greeks at Princeton also belong to an eating club.

Also, does anyone know what "Bicker" is? Or "eating clubs"? That part of the article was kind of confusing.

Originally Posted by KSigkid

An Eating Club is a social organization at Princeton (I believe similar to the finals clubs at Harvard).

Right. Eating clubs are the centers of social life at Princeton. "Bicker" is the process, comparable to rush, by which one joins the selective eating clubs.

The Wiki article on Eating Clubs.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Nothing new here. This has been the case at Princeton for some time. The reality is that at Princeton, Greek life simply isn't as big as at some other schools. Not to say that the experiences of Princeton Greeks aren't enhanced by Greek life, but fraternities and sororities are not at the center of the social orbit at Princeton; eating clubs are. As I understand it, most Greeks at Princeton also belong to an eating club.

Exactly - at some point you have to pick you battles, and Princeton just isn't a place to battle this out. Some schools are less friendly to Greek Life, and Princeton is one of them. They've been sending out letters (or at least communicating those sentiments) since the late 90s, and they're not going to stop any time soon.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Exactly - at some point you have to pick you battles, and Princeton just isn't a place to battle this out. Some schools are less friendly to Greek Life, and Princeton is one of them. They've been sending out letters (or at least communicating those sentiments) since the late 90s, and they're not going to stop any time soon.

I agree. As it turns out anyway, there are chapters that thrive at Princeton--NPHC chapters come to mind immediately, but there are others as well. They simply aren't recognized by the University.

[aopirose]

They've been sening that letter out for a few years now. It just kind of goes with the territory.

Bicker is the bidding process of Eating Clubs. Eating Clubs are similar to fraternites and sororities in that they may have a physical house, sponsor programs and provide a home away from home. Some clubs are exclusive and have a bicker process while other are "open" and pick members based on a lottery system.

[Shellfish]

The eating clubs seem similar to Greek local groups anyway, but I guess they're exempt from criticism because they're traditional. Insert rolleyes emoticon here.

(There's a useful article about them in Wikipedia.)

[madmax]

Bicker is like rush.

At Princeton the greeks are pretty much invisible. The eating clubs are a combo fraternity/sorority, dorm, dining hall. The clubs look like small dorms and they are coed.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by Shellfish

The eating clubs seem similar to Greek local groups anyway, but I guess they're exempt from criticism because they're traditional. Insert rolleyes emoticon here.

(There's a useful article about them in Wikipedia.)

Perhaps Princeton, like many many other institutions, does not want to alienate wealthy alumni. Since virtually everyone at Princeton joins an eating club, that's potentially a lot of donated money that could be lost by heavily sanctioning/getting rid of the eating clubs. Princeton, despite having a cost of attendance that rivals the median household income in this country, guarantees that students don't have to take out a single loan while they're enrolled. Where do you think that money comes from? Monopoly?

Again, I don't see why this bothers so many people. There are still NPC/NIC greeks, they're just not recognized by the University. If you want to join, you still can!

[twinkle555]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Perhaps Princeton, like many many other institutions, does not want to alienate wealthy alumni. Since virtually everyone at Princeton joins an eating club, that's potentially a lot of donated money that could be lost by heavily sanctioning/getting rid of the eating clubs. Princeton, despite having a cost of attendance that rivals the median household income in this country, guarantees that students don't have to take out a single loan while they're enrolled. Where do you think that money comes from? Monopoly?

Again, I don't see why this bothers so many people. There are still NPC/NIC greeks, they're just not recognized by the University. If you want to join, you still can!

I think if my ex read this he would laugh...although he had scholarships, he still had to take out loans, last he told me he was in debt by six digits, hopefully he was exaggerating! But why cant they just have the eating clubs and greek life live in peace and harmony? Why shun one and not the other? Im pretty sure greek life does more good than those clubs..

[rufio]

ah, they're just jealous.

[RaggedyAnn]

The Greek collegians should print out copies of the letter to send to their alumni. I wonder how much money to the school comes from Greek donors?

[KSUViolet06]

This is nothing new, the Dean has been sending the same type of letter for quite a few years. Students there still end up going Greek, so it obviously hasn't made an impact.

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by kellyg29

Yes, and we wonder how impotent at times the School Admimistration members are our not tuned in about GLOs and what they/we do?

Whether we as GLOs act as stupid people, I also wonder what we do for betterment? From what I have seen a tremendous amount of things.

TEITY?