Archival Research | Backgrounds

Religious Panhellenic Organizations vs. the Societal Definition of Greek Life

Fetters, Ashley. "Pop Culture's War on Fraternities." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 28 Feb. 2014. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.

Society’s current opinion of Greek life isn’t what it always used to be. The Atlantic breaks down how the 1978 film National Lampoon’s Animal House virtually single handedly changed the Greek culture and as result, pop-culture’s definition of what fraternity life is. The article continues to say “In pre-Animal House  pop culture, fraternities were often shown to be a little bit mischievous, but ultimately harmless”. After the film’s release, the public was presented with a new and unruly image of fraternity life and so began “the rise of the keg-standing, beer-ponging, vomit-spewing, university-plaguing fraternity as we know it”. Pop culture’s image of Greek life is certainly something that would alarm religious students, and make them think twice before joining the sub-culture.

Gurrentz, Bejamin T. “A Brotherhood of Believers”: Religious Identity and Boundary-Work in a Christian Fraternity.” Sociology of Religion. Oxford University Press, 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

The time-period when young adults transition from life at home to life at college is one full of self-development and allows for the person to become exposed to a limitless amount of stimuli. Students who were raised in a certain religion often ““place their religious identity in an “identity lockbox””, which is a “space that neither increases religious salience or diminishes it”.  Gurrentz investigated the group of students that was able to avoid the “lockbox” phenomenon by becoming a part of a religious fraternity. Through research, it was discovered that these Christian fraternities have several methods in place to prevent their members from leading astray and becoming subject to the anti-Christian behaviors of the social fraternities. For instance, there are accountability groups where students who have acted in an immoral manner can go and share their violations in order to repent. Aspects like this reinforce the overarching goals and morals of the organization, and function to support the distinction between the “in group” and the “out group”, being the “party-culture”.

“Religion amid Greek Life.” The Washington Times. The Washington Times, 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 6 Apr. 2017.

While many fraternities and sororities were founded on Christian principles, most of them do not actively preach those said values and instead act as your typical social fraternity/sorority. The Washington Times investigates a new wave of PanHellenic organizations that are popping up across the country in order to spread Christian principles. Some of these fraternities and sororities have come under fire for having a requirement in place that all members be Christian. For example, Beta Upsilon Chi at the University of Florida filed a federal discrimination suit in 2007 after the administration refused to recognize it as a fraternity since they required members to be Christians.  Events like this illustrate the fine line between attempting to change the culture of Greek life and being discriminatory.

Svokos, Alexandra. “Inside A Muslim Fraternity: No Alcohol, But Plenty of Community Service.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 6 Apr. 2017.

This article from the Huffington Post highlights the nation’s first Muslim fraternity, Alpha Lambda Mu at the University of California, San Diego. Masud Rahman, who is the rush chair, explains how the fraternity operates under Islamic values, meaning that it is completely dry and they don’t have any parties or formals, like most fraternities do. He tells Huffington Post “… we focus on more of the positive aspects of giving, community service, having philanthropy things like that”. This is a perfect example of how religion and Greek life are able to coincide, even if the Greek aspects are not what society normally thinks of, meaning there is no alcohol consumption etc.

Archival Research

Discussing the Effect of Homogeneity

My motivation for researching this topic is not only founded on the diversity and Greek-ness of Emory University, but on the flaws of Greek organizations at other schools in terms of underrepresentation of diversity. A major problem with sorority and fraternity life is a homogeneity of those who participate: “predominantly white, rich and Christian” (Clio 2015). Despite the lack of accessible statistics on demographics of these various Greek organizations, it is easy to note a tendency toward White majorities in these respective clubs through social media, in particular. Why the underrepresentation of minorities exists may be because of a discouragement to join the club when looking into its members. In the past, blatant racism was the primary issue of why minorities were either prohibited from rushing or decided against it. However, today: it might be less due to intentional prejudice, and more so a lack of appeal in the absence of current diversity. Daily Columnist Mysia Anderson stated, “it’s not easy being the only person of color in a group of white people. And thus, the current lack of racial representation unintentionally fuels a cycle of white hierarchy” (Clio 2015). Moreover, the president of Beta Omega Phi, a member of the Asian Greek Council at the University of Southern California admitted, “Seeing the lack of diversity might also discourage students from trying to join if they don’t see themselves fitting in… If I were looking at the community from the outside. I would definitely feel that there is a huge division between cultures” (Ocampo 2013). Another student agreed describing the Greek scene at the University as being “dominated by Whites” and are discouraged due to the fact that they “see it as a white institution”.  These perceptions of sororities and fraternities being mostly white is uninviting and so the deficiency in diversity seems to continue episodically. One sorority woman interviewed by USA Today reinforced this theory upon noting that in her sorority she is the only black female and recognizing that, “Minorities might feel apprehensive to rush mainstream sororities because of the small amount of minorities seen in houses” (Ramani 2014).

Nevertheless, one Indian female student at MIT reveals a different trend, “Being non-Asian in an MIT sorority is probably the minority” (Ramani 2014). Also, in the same article: the University of Georgia has revealed a growing number of non-white females participating in sorority recruitment.

These articles were not written in the past year, which is something to note. The problem was heavily portrayed a year or two ago, and so the connection to my own research was truly to discover if these perceptions were existent in mass, still.