Why So Many Greek Letter Orgs?

[Ch2tf]

Originally Posted by PANTHERTEKE

I understand the argument that they fit a niche on certain campuses, but I think it'll be interesting to see where all these newer orgs that were founded in 1980s on up are 50 years from now.

I too am looking to see what 50 years down the line looks like.

Originally Posted by PANTHERTEKE

Most of these orgs were founded because their founders didn't feel at home with a "mainstream" historically White fraternity or sorority.

I would say that this is only partially. I think it has played a significant part in the foundings of organizations. Wanting something that supports/emphasizes your culture also plays a part.

Originally Posted by PANTHERTEKE

But what will happen when their "niche" starts to subside and you have, for example, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th generation Asians/Hispanics/South-Asians/etc who are assimilated and don't feel the need to stick to an organization that promotes their culture? Will these organizations eventually die off, or will they stick around and continue to serve their purpose and niche?

I don't have the numbers (I'm not even sure if this research has even been done), but I would argue the majority of people in culture specific orgs are not first generation Asians/Hispanics, etc, but in fact 2nd+ generation.

Originally Posted by PANTHERTEKE

Take for example my school, FIU, that has about 39,000 students of which about 58% are Hispanic. You would think that the Latin fraternties/sororities- like the Lambdas, LTA, LUL, SLG, etc- would be huge at such a school, but actually that's not the case. The majority of people in IFC/PC groups are Hispanic and the demographics of the school reflect upon the demographics of Greeks

This would occur anywhere where the vast majority of the population of a college/university were all of X ethinicity. An NIC/NPC organization at an HBCU would predominantly African-American as the population of the university plays a huge role in membership in ANY GLO on campus. I don't think it should be a surprise that IFC/PC membership at FIU has a significant latino population if that is the majority of the school's population.

Originally Posted by PANTHERTEKE

maybe because the Hispanics that grow up in S.Florida (where most FIU students are from) are 2nd, 3rd generation and grew up with a more "assimilated" lifestyle than in other hispanic parts of the country.

I haven't been to S. FLA in a while, but I (personally) wouldn't say S. Floridian latinos are more "assimilated". But there are also degrees of assimilation (IMO), so it could be that we are thinking of different things.

Originally Posted by PANTHERTEKE

So what is my point? Eventually, as the generations pass and America changes, the niche of a lot of these orgs will diminish and people will need more reasons besides "oh I'm [insert ethnicity here] so I'm going to join a [insert ethnicity here] fraternity" to join these orgs.

It seems like you are demeaning or downplaying people's decision/the way they make their decision to join a particular GLO. That's like me assuming you said "I'm Hispanic, but assimilated, so I will join an IFC org". That's an uniformed assumption.