What Is the Future of Greek Life?

[exlurker]

The Southern Methodist University student paper has just published a pretty thoughtful story giving an overview of some of the challenges facing Greek life everywhere. Colleges specifically mentioned are Louisiana State U., Texas at Austin, Washington State U., U. of Oklahoma, etc., but I'd recommend it to anyone seriously interested in the future of fraternities and sororities.

http://www.smudailycampus.com/vnews/.../4270865478b83

Observations in the story include some that may be familiar to long-term GCers:

** most organizations are one or two lawsuits away from extinction due to financial disaster;

** hazing and alcohol-related problems are major threats;

** membership is declinining, especially for traditional fraternities, although traditional sororities are seeing some problems with numbers too;

** multicultural fraternities and sororities are an exception -- they're growing.

A perhaps chilling quote: "Slowly but surely, we're killing ourselves."

Another quote pleads for changes and for fraternities and sororities to get smarter, with a reference to "Darwinism." (Although I believe that particular reference is an oversimplified and innacurate application of present-day evolutionary theory.)

[33girl]

Any time I read something like this, I think of a great quote from Andy Rooney on elders wringing their hands over the actions of youth.

"It's amazing how long our country has been going to hell without ever having gotten there."

[Rudey]

I wish fraternities and sororities would release raw data on numbers, chapter sizes, and hazing reports.

-Rudey

[Coramoor]

Originally posted by 33girl
Any time I read something like this, I think of a great quote from Andy Rooney on elders wringing their hands over the actions of youth.

"It's amazing how long our country has been going to hell without ever having gotten there."

This sums up what I think perfectly.

It always goes in trends. Back in the 60's and seventies membership was way down, then in the 80's and early 90's it went back up. It may be down in some places-but on my campus I have noticed that there are larger chapters now than when I joined 4 years ago and that there are about 6 new fraternities on campus than when I joined.

The main place I see a problem is the leadership of IFC/Pan and the Greek Offices. I think a bunch of blind monkey's could run the Greek Office better than what's being done right now on campus.

[Firehouse]

The mantra seems to be that numbers are declining. That is not true from what I see. Numbers were down in the 1990s from the 1980s. There is a natural cycle; they were also down in the 1970s from the 1960s.
Fraternities and sororities at my school have their highest membership levels since the 1980s. Our national numbers are up appreciably. I can't imagine that we are the only ones. The "numbers are down" business is old news. greeks are popular today. None of this means that we can afford to be any more irresponsible than other students.
(P.S. - Just saw the "blind monkeys" comment - love it)

[Tom Earp]

Originally posted by Firehouse
The mantra seems to be that numbers are declining. That is not true from what I see. Numbers were down in the 1990s from the 1980s. There is a natural cycle; they were also down in the 1970s from the 1960s.
Fraternities and sororities at my school have their highest membership levels since the 1980s. Our national numbers are up appreciably. I can't imagine that we are the only ones. The "numbers are down" business is old news. greeks are popular today. None of this means that we can afford to be any more irresponsible than other students.
(P.S. - Just saw the "blind monkeys" comment - love it)

Lambda Chi Alpha Numbers are up and I expect that as One GLO goes so do We all.

I cannto take the time to check all GLO Sites, but if expansion and Rechartering means anything, then Greeks are growing.

But remember, Naysayers will say and print a lot of stuff to put down Greeks.

I just wonder how many charities would be finacially hurt if Greeks did not do events for donations to them?

How many dollars do you figure We as Greeks Donate?

LXA has the largest food drive in the world, and My Chapter also donates to Ronald Mc Donald House for one.

I am sure there are each of us who have our own Main Charity and some sides ones that We donate to.

[TxAPhi]

Originally posted by exlurker
The Southern Methodist University student paper has just published a pretty thoughtful story giving an overview of some of the challenges facing Greek life everywhere. Colleges specifically mentioned are Louisiana State U., Texas at Austin, Washington State U., U. of Oklahoma, etc., but I'd recommend it to anyone seriously interested in the future of fraternities and sororities.

Originally posted by Rudey
I wish fraternities and sororities would release raw data on numbers, chapter sizes, and hazing reports.

From article
At Washington State University, the number of new members joining fraternities fell from 359 in 1998 to only 232 in 2003. According to IFC records, The University of Texas at Austin saw a more dramatic drop-off since 2002, as the suspensions of eight fraternities contributed to a 28 percent decrease in the number of men in IFC fraternities.

Discipline Record - University of Texas at Austin:
http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/gle/disc.php

[DolphinChicaDDD]

Originally posted by exlurker
Another quote pleads for changes and for fraternities and sororities to get smarter, with a reference to "Darwinism." (Although I believe that particular reference is an oversimplified and innacurate application of present-day evolutionary theory.)

THANK YOU!!! I HATE WHEN PEOPLE BASTARDIZE THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION!!!


Anyway, like Firehouse, I believe any changes in membership will be cycical. Furthermore, you can't look at one year's worth of numbers and compare it with decades of information; it just skews the results too much. I think its silly to say, "Number are going down in the 00's compared with the 1990's." Well, yeah numbers are going to go down because we are only in 2005. What if next year every incoming freshman on every campus goes Greek? Unlikly- yes, impossible, no. Anything could happen. My point is its hard to make predections about what will happen in the future.

[Tom Earp]

The Price of College Education going up does not help Students with discretionary $$ Either.

It has to be someone special to see what it means in the Long Run to be a Greek.

[AGDee]

Our numbers are down in some states, and up in others. In Michigan, they are way down overall for all of our chapters. Then again, our unemployment rate is the highest it has been in a long time and they have said that young college students are having trouble getting summer jobs and part time jobs because those folks whose unemployment has run out are taking the types of jobs that college students would normally take, and usually taking 2 or 3 each. I attribute our lower numbers, in this state, to the horrible economy. Retention of members has been poor, often because they are choosing to quit the 4 year colleges to head for community colleges to get their basic studies classes in at a much lower rate. Some are also part time at the 4 year university and part time at the community college. It's rough in this state.

Dee

[Glitter650]

I don't know about the whole "fraternities aren't going to be around for my kids" deal, seems a bit over dramatic to me.
I can say I know my chapter was the only one in my area whose school saw a general increase of women rushing this past fall. I believe rush numbers, like almost everything else, cycle up and down.

[alphaalpha]

Originally posted by AGDee
our unemployment rate is the highest it has been in a long time

young college students are having trouble getting summer jobs and part time jobs because those folks whose unemployment has run out are taking the types of jobs that college students would normally take, and usually taking 2 or 3 each. I attribute our lower numbers, in this state, to the horrible economy. Retention of members has been poor, often because they are choosing to quit the 4 year colleges to head for community colleges to get their basic studies classes in at a much lower rate. Some are also part time at the 4 year university and part time at the community college. It's rough in this state.

Dee

I agree whole heartly with what you are saying. In washington and specifically where i life the employment rate is horrid. I have 2 bachelors degrees and work part time and that job that i work at in college (same store different school) Anyway, but there are no jobs here and people are living on welfare and unemployement cause they can not get jobs or go to school, ie pay for school. The community colleges give finacial aid, but there is not enough to make ends meet while in school,

I have heard that it is normal for the economy,as in downward trends like the one now, to reduce the amount of college students in general and then the amount of college students going through rush. Anyway, i think that it should be watched for any bad trends. however, i really don't think there is too much to worry about. I think that it would be nice to get rid of some of the problems relating to alcohol, but again that is just normal campus stuff and in my opinion not just associated with the greek system. But this has been argued in other threads and i will not waist too much time.
debbie

[hoosier]

The news media has never been on the side of GLOs, and all negative reports are widely and repeatedly circulated - while good reports and the World's Largest Food Drive are ignored.

Right now there is a tremendous interest among the news media concerning hazing and boozing stories, and we (and especially our high school athletes) have given them plenty to report.

In earlier times, some HS girl in FL getting a swirlie got only local (or no) coverage, now it's on the national cable and broadcast news 24 hours a day.

The hazing and boozing deaths (and the combined incidents at CO, Chico, OK, MIT, LSU, Plattsburg, etc) have put GLOs on the front page in a very negative manner, and we can expect our enemies to use this against us.

I suspect a few more bad years in recruiting and membership are ahead.

[emb021]

Originally posted by Rudey
I wish fraternities and sororities would release raw data on numbers, chapter sizes, and hazing reports.

-Rudey

Release to who?

As an alumni volunteer for my org, I can get numbers and chapter sizes. But we prefer to keep that info within our organization.

Hazing reports are much tricker, as you are getting into legal issues. Too often that information is keep on a 'need to know' basis, and typically if you do know, you keep it to yourself.

I would think other orgs follow similiar policies, but my experience is many have different views on who should/should not have access to such info.

[PhoenixAzul]

The numbers in our local chapters are great. Most of the sororities are still active, none are in financial distress. Even with being local, we've been active for 80 some odd years. The fraternities, however, are seeing smaller numbers across the board. But that might also be due to the fact that the male population at Otterbein is MINISCULE! Guys, if you want a 5:1 girl to guy ratio...send in an application.