I spent a long time in university and have fairly neutral feelings about fraternities. I was wondering how other Dopers felt about them?
I’m sure they may do some good things, but all the news I’ve ever heard about them is bad.
This is in part because little good news is published. There are abuses but also a degree of socialization, charity work, tradition and school spirit.
Apropos of this, the NY Times just published an article about Cornell halting frat parties (too much rape and drugs and rape drugs, I guess):
I’m fairly indifferent – I was never in a fraternity; instead, I was a “dorm rat” (spent all four years of my undergrad program living in the dorms).
My father had attended the same college I did, and encouraged me to consider joining the fraternity he had been in (which focused on business majors); I went to one of their mixers, and wasn’t impressed, so I never pursued it.
The pluses, as @Dr_Paprika notes, are in giving college students an avenue to meet people and make friends – and, for frats that have their own houses, providing an option for where to live. Many frats do community service, as well, and that’s a good thing, as well as providing networking opportunities for alumni.
None of the above are particularly unique to Greek organizations, of course, but they are one way to help provide structure and socialization to college students, particularly those who are away from home, and responsible for many of their decisions for the first time.
The minuses, as get covered in the press, are the abuses which happen at some (sexual assaults, hazing rituals, drug and alcohol abuse, etc.). As with the pluses, most of those those aren’t necessarily unique, within the college experience, to fraternities, nor are they universal.
Some frats did seem, to me, to be particularly cliquish, and were sort of an “old boys network” for college students who came from upper-class backgrounds, but as with the other negative issues, I suspect that that’s only an issue with a minority of them.
My nephew was in a fraternity for three years and seemed to enjoy it. It was a great way to make friends and always have something to do. There were many parties, and I don’t think that helped his grades, but he was a business major, so it wasn’t all that difficult. I wasn’t aware of any hazing, but I’m sure there was some. It’s been ten years, and he still talks to some of his frat brothers. Of course, he could have done almost the same thing living in the dorms.
For some kids, it’s a mistake. Hazing can quickly get out of hand.
When I was college age I hated them. Now in my 50s, I really don’t care.
Pretty much mirrors my opinion of them as well. Only I thought of them as places for spoiled rich kids that didn’t want to mingle with the common folk. Now its just meh, to each his own.
When I was in grade school, I read an article in Nat geo about the AF academy, and the hazing that went on in all the service academies. Then I read about frats and their stupid hazing. It almost turned me off going to college at all, because I thought you had to be in a frat if you went to college, and I was foursquare against being hazed.
I went to a smaller state college, which had a corresponding smaller frat presence. They tried to have hazing and initiation, but they weren’t “good” at it. It was quite lame, and pretty safe. We’d mock them severely, if we even thought about them.
This was before date rape drugs.
PS I still hate frats. I side with the Dean in Animal House.
Dean Wormer didn’t hate all frats, just Delta in particular, for some reason.
I was a 4 year dorm resident when I went to college. I’m not a hard core anti-frat person, but I did find it a little creepy that they have selection processes and criteria- seems to me that they should welcome all who want to join except as space limits.
The stereotypical fraternity isn’t really something I think too highly of. But there are other types. I definitely don’t have a problem with the service fraternity, who get together to do volunteer work. Then there are those that are more like clubs for people with common interests. And there are academic frats as well.
The ones that just join together to party, that have hazing and promote bad behavior are obviously bad. But those aren’t the only ones out there.
I have the strong impression that it depends on the fraternity, and probably on the particular house.
Never been a member (it would have had to have been a sorority), but I had some friends who were. I don’t remember ever talking to them about fraternities, though, and I don’t know whether theirs did any hazing. The frats had all the best on-campus housing; I remember thinking that wasn’t fair, though I don’t think I knew whether the frats had paid for the houses. I went to a couple of parties – late 60’s/early 70’s – and didn’t get harassed; though there was certainly a lot of beer.
It depends. I never joined a fraternity, but I took meals with one. It was a good deal and the food was better than what the cafeteria had to offer.
There were quite a few at the college I attended (they billed themselves as the “mother of fraternities” because several of them were founded there). Hazing was pretty benign – count the number of spikes on the fence that surrounded the college, or recite the Greek alphabet in the time it takes for a match to burn down, or name all the rooms
There was one joke they did play on the freshmen: the bum’s photo. They were to dress in old clothes and stand on the steps in front of the frat house for a photo. While they were posing, the sophomores would dump buckets of water on them (this was always done on a warm spring day). There is one wonderful photo of them standing ready with the water cascading down. It was shot so the water was just about a foot above their heads.
I picked up a lot about frat life over dinners, but never had any inclination to join.
I was surprised to learn how differently frats/sororities were viewed at colleges other than where I attended. At our Big 10 school, there was a pretty big distinction between Greeks and non-Greeks. Sure, many houses were pretty innocuous, but they were overshadowed by their extremely obnoxious brothers/sisters.
It sorta surprised me to later learn that at other schools there was not such a divide.
In college, I and other LGBTQ+ friends were threatened and harassed by members of a fraternity to an extent that resulted in the frat being banned from campus. I don’t see the need for groups that exist solely to be groups and that too often engage (in my experience working at universities) in hazing, sexual assault, and illegal substance use.
That said, I admire Greek service organizations. They tend to behave, and be held by the institution, at a higher level of accountability.
I’ve studied at four different universities; none had Greek fraternities, so all I know about them is from Animal House.
Not a fan. I had the misfortune of living in frat row for a year. At times it seemed like non-stop noise, drunkenness, vandalism, and garbage strewn everywhere. It was like living amongst wild animals that have somehow learned to string their shoes along power lines.
I think frats should all be abolished, their treasuries and property confiscated, their houses burned to the ground and salt sown where they once stood.
I never went to university but pretty much everything I’ve ever learned about organised fraternities makes me certain I’d despise them.