Fraternities and sororities have recently had their share of bad press, one example coming from the University of Oklahoma (OU), where the school cut ties with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity after a video of a racist chant went viral.
Penn State University’s Kappa Delta Rho fraternity was suspended after members allegedly posted pictures of passed-out women in a private Facebook group.
Despite issues like this, sororities and fraternities are growing in enrolment numbers on North American campuses.
The National Panhellenic Conference for sororities, in its 2013-14 annual report, boasted 26 member groups on 672 campuses in Canada and the U.S., with 131,683 new members that year.
This is compared to 90,704 new members in the 2008-09 report and 81,723 in the 2006-07 report.
David Ball, a second-year student at OU, said in an email the campus was “devastated” by Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s actions.
“In this day and age, racism is inexcusable,” he said. “The chapter of the fraternity was disbanded and the students in the video were expelled.”
Johanna Peetz, associate professor of psychology at Carleton, said according to social psychology, the feeling of belonging to a group, fulfilled by a fraternity or sorority in some cases, is answering a human need.
“We have a need to belong . . . and that need is satisfied through intimate, close relationships with family, with a romantic partner, but it’s also satisfied through belonging to groups,” she said.
She said often, fraternities and sororities can fill practical needs, such as having someone to study with, as well as the social aspect of groups.
Peetz also said the initiation processes of Greek organizations draw members to those who share in that common experience.
Maddie Ellepola, a new sister of Alpha Omicron Pi at Carleton, said she joined her sorority as she was looking for a family away from home.
“I wanted to join to break the stigma,” she said, referencing issues that have been in the press.
Tristan Taylor, a new brother of Sigma Pi at Carleton, said the stigma surrounding Greek organizations is a result of a focus on the bad.
Taylor said charitable work and fundraising often “get pushed under the rug.”
Ellen Cottee, a fourth-year journalism student, has lived on campus for three of her four years at Carleton and said she is not a fan of Greek organizations.
During the rush period sororities and fraternities hold, Cottee said she noticed, “depending on what I’m wearing or what I look like that day, I’ll be approached differently, or not be approached at all.”
In Cottee’s opinion, she doesn’t see why an exclusive group is necessary.
“I just think there are a lot better ways to do things, and that they don’t—as an association, a group—contribute as much to the university experience for all university members as we like to think that they do,” she said.
Cottee said some students also can’t afford the financial or time commitment necessary to join a fraternity or sorority.
Initiation is traditionally secretive in nature, and is when hazing opportunities can arise.
In 2012, Ravital Segal wrote a confessional Huffington Post blog about her experience being hazed in her sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma at Dartmouth College.
She and a fellow pledge hesitated to report the incident as hazing for fear of the “social ostracism that would surely follow.”
She wrote, “my story is important because it’s a common—and often concealed—tale.”
Ellepola said if initiation is ethical, it can be something to bring students closer together.
“There’s a huge divide between Canada and the States and the morals on each side,” she said in reference to hazing.
As for Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Ball said he understands why the fraternity was shut down.
“I, like most of the student population, believe the Greek system is founded on unity as opposed to segregation and shouldn’t be blamed,” he said. “However, when group mentality is corrupted in such a perverse manner, there are no second chances.”
