I just wanted to offer my congratulations on the board to Matrix aka David Williams, who was recently initiated into a different chapter of my fraternity. While I didn't actually have too much effect on his decision, I talked Lambda Chi up to David when he mentioned he was thinking about joining a fraternity. So that makes it pretty sweet.

I'm always interested by how my relationships online sometimes impact either my life or another's offline...it's like "real life" isn't just what's physically around you anymore.

in Z.A.X.,
Seth

Congrats...when does he die of binge drinking?

fraternities--

Just think...if not for teh omg intarnet, I never would have been tackled in the Stanley Park waterpark...how's that for an impact?

Boo.

If you disapprove you could start a Trippsian frat.

Free corn and bicycle peddles for members!

That would be very hypocritical. I'll do it.

... aye, and I'd never have been tied up and force-fed sushi ...

you loved it and you know it

Come on, sushi is not that bad...

And I'd have never met Jon and all the others.

And I...well...nothing.

Thanks GB, my kids will be double legacies .

To all those who never considered it: Neither did I actually, I was persuaded mostly by my brother who was a Lambda Chi, and a few of my friends at school here who are Lambda Chis.
It's a blast though

We don't have frats or the like hereabouts -- we all get drunk! Australians, I figure.

I despise fraternities for a number of reasons. And I'm not just saying that based on stereotypes.

You'll note that I've never denied that...



Damn right... now, if only we had a sushi bar out here in Aberystwyth...

-jdp

Then what you mean to say is that you despise some of the particular fraternities at your campus.

That sounds eerily reminiscient of university over here in New Zealand as well.

No, I despise them all on my campus. And having seen how they operate, and knowing what a fraternity actually is, I'm very confident that my views would apply across the board. Feel free to accuse me of generalizing, but I have yet to see evidence that would show me I shouldn't.

Unless you actually joined a social fraternity and dropped out prior to initiation, I'm sorry, you don't know how they operate. A GDI really doesn't have any clue as to the workings of a fraternity, and they certainly never see anything but the negatives. I'd be interested to know why you think you know the operations of the fraternities on your campus, and why in particular you despise them now.

Do frat names MEAN anything? Or is it just like "Omega Zeta totally looks like OZ, that's cooool"?

Yes, they mean something.

Originally many were just names, almost all fraternities have long since remedied that.

However that is usually a secret. I'm pretty sure FIJI doesn't mean anything, though.

I like the MAD TV skits with Kappa Kappa Kappa.

That's all I have to say.

They are social constructs for the purpose of "eliteness" and exclusion. They are irrelevant, disruptive, and annoying (heck, they're disturbing the peace as I type this). And yet they exist.

Rather than me explaining to you why I despise them (as if these trivial things weren't reason enough for me), why don't you explain why I shouldn't? What hidden positives do us poor non-fraternity people miss out on? I've certainly seen plenty of overt "positives", but what is the big important reason for them to exist?

Let's face it, even without personal experience to back it up, you people have major public relations issues. Use this opportunity to share with us all the good side of your little groups.

There's a triple-delta sorority at my school... maybe it stands for "Drink! Drink! Drink!"

i used to be in an exclusive club you had to be invited to join which had secret stuff non-members didn't know about and things.

i was nine.

point for painless.

The number one thing about it is that you can't explain it to someone who hasn't experienced it. Sometimes people will understand part of the brotherhood you experience if they went to an all boys school, but that's pretty much the only experience I know of that is even vaguely similar.

While I don't think I can ever capture everything about what it means to be in my fraternity, I'll just go through some basic ones that people sometimes don't even realize. While everything I say is most specific to my school, I know that it often holds true across the board.

Greeks perform more community service than GDI's. Often a Greek organization will choose one specific charity to throw most of its weight behind. Greeks at my school raise thousands of dollars and donate thousands of hours of service to these worthy causes. Some charities supported at my school are nationwide cancer organization, abuse and domestic violence, etc. For example, next week my fraternity is putting on its annual Pledge Queen Pageant, which sorority pledges from each sorority enter in for a chance to enter Miss Arkansas. We raise thousands of dollars from ticket prices which we donate to our charity. Each member is required to do, on average at my school, almost 10 hours of community service per semester. Do you think very many GDI's hold themselves to that standard?

Greeks almost always have a higher GPA average than non Greeks. The Greek womens average is 3.1ish, mens is 3.0ish, and GDI's is around 2.75. We have academic standards that don't allow you to be initiated and/or impose study hall requirements for not making grades. We also often have older members tutor younger members in subjects they've already had. We also keep resources that members compile, such as study guides, old tests, quizzes, etc. This helps our members to achieve higher grades than would be possible without the support of the fraternity.

Greeks are more productive when they go out into the world, both in the business world and the community. You will find that many Greeks are important members of their church, local businesses, and local government. It is because of the experiences you have, the opportunities to learn and grow, that Greeks become more rounded people, and through that more successful.

Don't get me wrong, there are idiots in every fraternity and sorority, just like their are idiots that aren't in fraternities and sororities. We probably do drink more, we probably do cause more problems on a college campus than the GDI's. But what it really comes down to is that we just plain do more all around. You just see the bad things.

It's funny that you ask me to explain, because one of the primary foci of Greek life nationwide is to do a better job publicizing the positive actions of their organizations.

Oh, and they are definitely not constructs for the purpose of eliteness and exclusion. Greek life looks for people who have potential in their life to excel in some capacity, and actively recruits those people...especially total package people.

Also, every Greek organization has meanings, principles, ideals, etc. While some of these are secret, there are plenty of open mottos that show what that organization tries to achieve within its members. Not every Greek ever attains those ideals, and some organizations aren't as focused on it as others, but at least we don't just sit on the sideline and bitch about it.

You hit on an important point yourself....if these organizations weren't a successful model, they would have folded long ago. It got bad in the 80s and 90s, and Greek numbers were going down nationwide, but Greek life is no longer in decline and is showing positive growth every year now. It was out of control, but the corrective curve is coming back.

Everything that I hit on is important, but to me its just the numbers that don't reflect the heart of the issue. I share closer bonds with some (not all) of my fraternity brothers than people who I thought were my very best friends. And don't do me the injustice of suggesting to yourself that its because we were hazed together, or because we were forced to drink together, or any other stupid ideas like that. The fraternity's education program for new members and their bigs creates relationships that will never be forgotten.

A point for humor, certainly not a point for validity.

One time I did a school project on "The Greeks" but I misspelt it, and accidentally called it "The Geeks" on my cover page.

Don't you think that is a little more than minorly arrogant?



Dresses dropped down is the common abbreviation here for Tri-Delt. A nice group of ladies though, they average a 3.8 gpa here oddly enough.