Dear Editor,

I have always viewed Greek life as one big party without much supervision or rules. After watching movies like “Animal House” and “Neighbors,” this view of Greek life always comes to mind. Unfortunately, these movies stereotype Greek life as an endless, out-of-hand party.

As a high school senior going to Pennsylvania State University next year, I want to be involved with Greek life, but what happened at the Theta Tau fraternity at Syracuse University makes me second-guess whether or not I will join the right fraternity.

After footage emerged of Theta Tau members participating in a racist and anti-Semitic skit, Syracuse suspended the fraternity permanently. In my opinion, I think Syracuse and all other colleges with a large Greek life need to crack down more on these fraternities and sororities by monitoring parties and even monitoring the rush process more.

In this case, Theta Tau brothers had the pledge class inappropriately act out, but all around the country, pledges in fraternities and sororities do the same inappropriate things. Situations like this need to be monitored more, by possibly having an adult representative for each fraternity or sorority.

Colleges are already changing how they deal with Greek life, by suspending fraternities and sororities and even kicking them off campus permanently like Theta Tau. More things need to be done to make sure Greek life is a safe environment for all students at every university.

Even if you are not involved in Greek life at your school, these repercussions can affect almost everyone on the campus, since your own school can develop a bad reputation. College should be a friendly environment, and if stricter rules need to be enforced to create this environment, then changes need to be put into place.

Sincerely,

Jake Modelevsky

Published on May 10, 2018 at 8:16 pm