By Bahnt Freiberger
Recent events involving hazing, racism, and rape allegations have severely affected the public perception of fraternities and sororities around the country. With the media only focusing on the dark side of Greek life and popular culture playing up the party aspect, fraternities and sororities must work harder than ever to fight off this negative image. Bradley University’s Greek system combats this with philanthropy, upholding the high ideals that Greeks should strive for.
Bradley Greeks fight negative media portrayals
Greek communities on college campuses have been around since the birth of our nation. But that doesn’t stop today’s media from questioning the need for them.
Fraternities and sororities are constantly dealing with a negative cultural perception that includes everything from constant drinking and partying to hazing and rape. Modern media, from news to popular culture, only perpetuates this image, which is hurting more and more fraternities and sororities across the country.
Bradley University’s Greek system must also deal with this negative image.
“While fraternities and sororities do a lot of amazing things, there is always the opportunity for specific members to behave in a way that reflects poorly on fraternities and sororities as a whole,” Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life Nancy Schwartz said. “I think that some of the media coverage is accurate, however, it often lacks the other side of the story.”
Thanks to films like “Animal House,” popular culture has built up the image of fraternity members as constant partiers who rebel against the system. It’s an image that Greek communities never seem to shake, and recent events across the country haven’t helped the matter.
Rolling Stone’s retraction of its “A Rape on Campus” article from last November only furthers the media’s negative perception of Greek life. Given the severity of rape allegations, what started as a heartbreaking story of a woman’s gang rape by fraternity members turned into a textbook example of sloppy journalism. While the University of Virginia’s Phi Kappa Psi chapter was cleared, Greek communities still struggle with the controversies such incidents raise, false or otherwise.
Bradley Greeks are not immune to this, combatting the media’s negative perceptions of Greeks in their own ways. “We have programs such as Greek 101, and policies and procedures such as the social event registration policy,” Schwartz said. “In addition, we work to make a lot of our general assembly council meetings places where our chapter leaders can discuss the issues and come up with solutions to combat them in a way that values the vision of our community.”
But to truly fight off the media’s perception of Greeks, Bradley’s fraternities and sororities commit themselves to community service. The fall 2014 statistics report for Bradley’s Greeks shows the amount of money raised and community service hours put in by each chapter on campus.
The Panhellenic Council (PHC) and Interfraternity Council (IFC) totaled 17,276 community service hours for the 2014 fall semester. IFC raised over $18,000 for philanthropy, while PHC raised over $15,000. Combined, that makes for over $33,000 raised by the entire Greek community.
The data proves that Bradley University’s fraternities and sororities strive to give back to the community, and uphold the ideal to which other chapters can aspire to.
“I think our community upholds a positive representation of what fraternity and sorority life is and should be in a lot of ways,” Schwartz said. “To me, it is the everyday conversations and actions of our community members, even in the face of national adversity.”
The media will continue to debate the usefulness of Greek communities on college campuses. Stories of hazing and drunken debauchery will always play a role in the image of Greek life. But for Schwartz, it means something else entirely.
“I think fraternity and sorority life represents groups of men and women seeking to understand, and be a part of, something much larger than themselves.”
Greek Incidents Across America
The Google Map “Greek Incidents Across America“ provides a detailed look into stories of Greeks involving hazing deaths, rapes and more across the country. Information for these incidents comes from several news sites, including sfweekly.com, dailycal.org, ibitimes.com, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, CNN and NBC News.
Bradley Greeks Fall 2014 Statistics
Statistics were taken from Bradley’s Fraternity and Sorority Life website, to analyze how much community service Bradley Greeks performed and how much money was raised. This allowed for a better understanding of the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council’s philanthropy efforts during the fall semester of 2014.