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A Constant Battle Maintaining Greek Life

Fraternities and sororities are troubled with debunking Greek life misconceptions and ending its stigma in order to keep chapters alive.

Affluent men in collared shirts binge drinking “Natty” Light at parties or women in sombreros appropriating Hispanic culture at a social event are some of the many stereotypes plaguing Greek Life across the nation including the University of Houston.

Within the past 10 years alone, universities and colleges across the nation have been sucked into a negative narration forcing massive suspension or expulsion of Greek Life organizations.

In November 2017, seven big universities used a suspension upon its Greek organizations in order to evaluate the social climate plaguing Greek Life on their respective campuses. This came after these universities suffered a death among their Greek communities related to a Greek function.

This list of suspended Greek programs includes Texas State University, Louisiana State University, and Florida State University –all comparable universities to the University of Houston.

This begs the question –if Greek life has raised several problematic situations in modern society, why do these groups continue to exist?

For some students, like psychology freshman Drew Caver, choosing to go Greek was a deeply rooted influence coming from a Delta Gamma triple legacy: her mom, her aunt, and her sister.

“I definitely had an influence on (going Greek) from my family to rush and it was kind of something I knew I would do since I was little,” Caver said, “and that was a huge factor in search for college: having a Greek system and having one that was diverse.”

Although having such a strong family influence, Caver remained cautious of Greek stereotypes when choosing which house to call home.

“I think the biggest factor I looked at was diversity,” Caver said. “I didn’t want the cookie-cutter sorority experience where all the girls looked the same, they all dress the same, they’re all from the same neighborhood, they all come from the same part of Houston… going to such a diverse university I think it only makes sense that the Greek system reflects the student body.”

However, wearing Greek letters has its challenges across the board for sorority women and fraternity men alike.

“I am very cautious about people’s perception of me whenever I’m in my letters, because I know people do have stereotypes about sorority girls and especially since I look like I guess the typical sorority girl, I don’t want to be judged because of that and have people think that I’m bratty and pretentious because I’m in Greek letters, ” Caver said.

“I really try my best if I’m wearing anything, even when I’m not, just to be as nice to people as possible so people don’t get bad experiences and then see my letters and then think ‘Oh everyone in that sorority is horrible and I don’t want to be involved in them.’”

This public perception drives some individuals like mathematical biology alumna Pooneh Khazaeipool, to show the best version of themselves.

“Yeah I have gotten the stereotype that I buy my friends, that I don’t know anything, but it gives me the chance to prove people wrong.”

For Khazaeipool, maintenance of her academics were her biggest fear joining a sorority but after joining Chi Omega, she saw this was nothing to worry about.

“I became a better, more cautious, more aware person when I joined Chi Omega and surrounded myself around woman that cared about their future, their academics as much as I did, maybe even more ambitious than I was,” Khazaeipool said.

This worry goes both ways as electrical engineering senior Anthony Salcido worried about his academics when joining Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

“I guess my one thing, especially being an engineering major, that I was cautious about is how many social events you do,” Salcido said.

“Joining a fraternity, you’re always wanting to hang out with brothers but I would say, it turned out pretty well, people always respect it when you have to study and I was able to control myself. In some cases (my grades) have improved because of our standards. You have a bare minimum GPA you have to meet each semester whereas if you’re not in Greek life and not a student leader you don’t have a bare minimum GPA you have to meet besides the university’s.”

Fraternities and sororities alike must adhere to a level of standards that they abide by in their classes and in social scenes. Generalized, some of the standards Greek men and women must follow are a minimum GPA requirement, mandatory chapter events, participation in your own and other Greek philanthropic and social events and dues.

Since joining a fraternity, Salcido said that his academic performance and networking has improved, however, it hasn’t stopped non-Greek students from negatively narrating his life.

“Personally, in a lot of my classes, my friends make jokes about ‘all you do is party not in a bad way but you’re in a fraternity you must get lit’ and really that’s not the case,” Salcido said. “Yeah we throw some social events/parties but on a normal day we’re just chilling.”

For Alpha Sigma Phi member Gabe Johnson, a public relations junior, although this partying stereotype is a perception he has received, it is far less than another.

“Surprisingly a lot of people think just because you’re in a fraternity or sorority, you’re not approachable, that you’re going to be some jerk,” Johnson said.

This personal trait stems back to what Johnson gained from his fraternity.

“It’s a group of guys coming together to not only help each other socially but also to help each other professionally and overall support one another,” Johnson said.

Most recently, Harvard University has released a new single-sex social organization policy prohibiting single-sex organizations from its campus. This policy has sparked outrage from across the nation and lawsuits by two sororities and two fraternities –including Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

“Theoretically they’re not just talking about Greek life but of course when you think of single gender organizations the main thing is Greek life. I wholeheartedly disagree with (Harvard) being a college campus you’re supposed to be open to all these different ideas whether you agree with them or not,” SAE member Salcido said.

“You have fraternities for guys and sororities for girls and they co-exist with each other. I don’t agree with the fact that at a college campus we’re supposed to be open to all these different ideas that Harvard is trying to limit some of them.”

Harvard’s new policy has ignited several sororities not on their campus to be vocal and stand in alliance on social media –Chi Omega being one of them.

“It makes me very upset to think that just because I want to share that special bond of having very powerful women around me I’m not allowed to do so because we don’t allow men into our organization –even vice versa, if someone was interested in a brotherhood or have that bond for life, they’re unable to do so because Harvard specifically doesn’t think it’s fair. It’s very upsetting.”

For Khazaeipool, she believes it is a case of misunderstanding of Greek life style.

“When I was a newbie in my sorority, there was this quote that said, ‘From outside looking in, you can never understand it. From inside looking out, you can never explain it.’ That quote is very, very true in every case in Greek life,” Khazaeipool said.

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