Snowthx - Sorry for being so late in answering your question regarding the benefits of Phi Beta Kappa; I would say that the most immediate benefit is the recognition within the scientific community of Phi Beta Kappa is a considerable one. Members are invited based on their proven past accomplishments, potential for scientific advancement in the future, and their leadership in the scientific world. It is not about social get-togethers, parties, housing, or any of the other things popularized in various media (and which overlook some of the positive features such as community service and so forth that are a feature of some fraternities) Membership in PBK does indicates that your past performanceaccomplishments have been outstanding, and looks nice on a resume.
PBK members are chosen without regard to race, religion, gender, economics and so forth. Most are chosen while in graduate programs, but it is possible to be selected while an undergraduate; that was the case for me.
I don’t know about the liberal arts population within PBK, but the same criteria are applied to their membership.
I was going to reply to this with a resounding “yes, some don’t have frats / sororities”. Surely, UC Santa Cruz, that bastion of counter culture, won’t have them? I remember in my college age years (don’t ask how long ago), frats / sororities were anathema there.
Then I searched on the UC Santa Cruz web site and was horrified to see how many they have! Oh, the shame! Surely the end of western civilization has arrived.
J.
Based on what I saw at PA’s largest state university in the early 80s, fraternities are about getting drunk and acting like beligerent assholes. Liquor + 30 other assholes to back him up seems to give a certain type courage he would otherwise lack to harass women and minorities and talk shit to somebody he knows good and well would crack his skull 1 on 1.
Someone told me they were useful in the US, because if you wanted to visit a friend at university right across the country, you could stay in a room in the frat house, if you are a member and there is a branch nearby.
Actually, students in graduate programs aren’t eligible for induction into Phi Beta Kappa. The first eligibility requirement is that the student be a current candidate for a bachelor’s degree.
Fraternity houses aren’t Starwood hotel chains. You typically can’t just show up and say “I’m a Delta from Colgate, can I crash here?” It’s completely up to each house’s discretion.
Sometimes we would arrange road trips to travel to another chapter’s house and stay there for the weekend. But those arrangements were made ahead of time between the house officers.
Exam files are the chief advantage, if you go to a college where the professors don’t change exams much from year to year. By hook or by crook, even exam papers which were supposed to be turned back in after the student looks the grading over show up at the frat/sorority.
It puts the independent student at a large disadvantage.
Fraternities may have started being semi-respectable organizations, but nowadays they’re just elitist organizations where those privileged enough to buy family, friendship, and brotherhood all unite to work to ensure even more privilege for themselves.
Occasionally throwing chump-change (relatively speaking) to charitable organizations doesn’t count, any more than Bumfuck City M.C. doing a “we’re gonna throw five Benjamins towards cancer research” excuse ride.
When I see a fraternity that:
Does not charge those who cannot afford it,
Isn’t into hedonistic cultures of excess and vice,
Truly cares about their community (by doing service–both with organizations and by independently being there for the downtrodden every day they possibly can, WITHOUT cameras around for photo ops), and
Is welcoming even to the most outcast of outcasts,
then I will change my opinion from “they should all be banned”.
Generally many of them started out as elitist organizations, creating an exclusive zone of privilege for whatever the dominant group was in an area, but generally white, Anglo-Saxon men. Many of them started out with the purpose of excluding Catholics, or Jews, or women, or Irish, or Italians, or Poles, or black people, etc. etc. etc., from their universities, or, if that failed, from the dominant social circles.
I’ve never understood the animosity directed at Greek organizations. If you don’t want to participate, don’t. College students are adults, they can join any club they want.
On what grounds would anyone advocate banning them?
At my Big Ten Alma Mater, the frats provide benefits to all students in that “open” parties are truly open to anyone who shows up with a University I.D. (Plus the one or two charity events they hold each year.)
It seems to me some people, with their noses pressed up against the glass, just don’t like the idea of mostly white, upper-middle class kids, with nice cars and clothes, living in a mansion with a cook and a cleaning lady.
When and where I went to school, they were a coterie of aggressive douchebags. I mentioned upthread about their behavior towards women and minorities, particularly when with their brothers.
One of their charming Greek traditions at that school was to have their pledges steal toilet paper and cleaning supplies from the classroom buildings and the dormitories during pledge week. They had quotas to meet so that the frat wouldn’t have to spend money on those things for the balance of the academic year.
When their douchebaggery extends to hooliganism and theft, I don’t see a pressing need to have the organizations on campus. Nobody cared then, or cares now, about them yanking each other’s cranks over their belief that they are some kind of elite.
Surely the end of western civilization has arrived. 
