Fraternities and sororities on Saint Louis University’s campus do not have a recent history of being checked or called out. Individuals that are not Greek may have bias against these organizations, but it is not often that fraternities or sororities are publicly called out for the actions of individuals within the community or the community at large. Last year, a member of Kappa Delta Sorority was called out publicly for cultural appropriation (by me). I believe the subsequent response from Kappa Delta was universally positive. Many members came closer to the organizations that seek to combat bias in all of its forms, which, in my experience, has not happened before. These articles are intended to provoke a larger, but nonetheless similar response from Greek organizations at SLU.
This piece will come in two parts: the first will be to track the unequal influence of fraternities and sororities (in this case limited to IFC and Panhellenic Council) in comparison to the actual number of members for fraternities and sororities. The second part will be a criticism of sororities and fraternities, as they exist at SLU today, and how these organizations can and should change. This paper is open to debate and encourages those with differing opinions to submit letters to the editor (300 word max) or articles (600-800 words) to the UNews via [email protected].
Coming into SLU, I think most of us are unaware of how many students are in a fraternity or sorority, and how many leadership positions members of these organizations hold. I was personally told that Greek life “was not that big here.” I tend to disagree.
About 20% of undergraduate SLU students are in Greek organizations, constituting a large minority in the student population. In fact, there are more students in Greek organizations than the Hispanic, Asian American, and African American undergraduate student population combined. This population of fraternity and sorority members is made even bigger on SLU’s campus through a couple of ways.
The first way that fraternities and sororities exert considerable influence over SLU is through their over-representation as SLU Ambassadors. As an Ambassador, one is effectively a salesperson for the University. They are obviously selling the University to the people on their tours, but what aspects of the University? Despite their training, I doubt any know all, or most of the cultural organizations on campus and the wonderful things they do. I doubt they know much about the curriculums of African American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, or numerous other programs. That isn’t the ambassadors’ faults. I know very little about the Business school or Medical school. This is all fine. What’s problematic is when 50% of the ambassadors have similar SLU experiences, coming from fraternities and sororities. SLU is different to all of us based upon our own experiences, but the SLU being sold to prospective students is alarmingly monolithic.
The second way that fraternities and sororities exercise their influence is through rush. This is in no way unique to SLU. The narrative is very similar for every school: all the fraternities and sororities recruit members and ostensibly all of the campus gets in a frenzy of who’s joining which fraternity or sorority and who got denied.
Unless you have some sort of bias or are perceived as an obvious oddball, it’s likely most have at least considered joining a fraternity or sorority. Around 30% of SLU students will rush and about 20% will join a fraternity or sorority. Whether one joins or not, they have ties to these organizations. This is not at all insidious. Fraternities and sororities across the country have proven to be excellent marketers of their organizations. It’s just important to know how important fraternities and sororities are on SLU’s campus.
This influence isn’t an accident either; higher-ups in SLU so avidly supporting and defending Greek organizations, students to fill the Greek organizations year after year, and a stream of wealthy alums from Greek organizations have allowed these organizations to thrive and grow within this University. That’s what worries me; these organizations are becoming too large and influential to seriously challenge.
To be clear, fraternity or sorority member, this is not an attack against you personally. I don’t have grievances against individuals, but institutions. This is also my own perspective and I do not represent the ideas of the University News or any other organization I am a part. I, and The University News, want discussion.
The second part of this article will be published next week. Stay tuned.
