Fraternity Life At Arizona State

Arizona State may be one of the top partying schools in the United States, but leans towards the bottom when speaking of fraternity life. Every year we are among top 10 in party schools, but our fraternity life is slowly deteriorating. The school says that fraternity life is bad, but I disagree, I think that fraternity life is a good thing for school campuses. It was only a couple of years ago that Arizona State had a decent fraternity row, and now that row has dwindled down to 4 houses. For the people who dislike fraternity life at Arizona State should know that many good things come out of Greek life too.

            Fraternity life has existed for over 200 years, where it was built based on its secrecy and brotherhood. Back in the late 1700s fraternities were considered inappropriate by the school faculty, which was why students met underground in secret. Every fraternity has their own unique history along with the traditions secrets of that fraternity are passed down to the next pledge class. Over the years the secrets and traditions of fraternities have changed, and they will always change, but if the schools are cracking down on fraternity life, the evolving trend will eventually stop.

            Today, Arizona State has been very harsh to the Greek life, gradually devouring fraternity after fraternity. It was only a couple of years ago where Arizona State Fraternity life was mediocre, there were a lot of parties being thrown, and people were having a good time. Now, Arizona State now has one of the worst Greek lives in the nation. A majority of the school dislikes Michael Crow, not just because he is trying to bring down Greek life, he is trying to lower the amount of partying that goes down at Arizona State. The main reason that most people come to Arizona State is not because of their academic standards it is because they want to have a good time, and how can you have a good time if you cannot party.

There are many benefits to fraternity life at Arizona State; first, there is friendship, when joining a fraternity you get the opportunity to meet many people. Joining Alpha Epsilon Pi has helped me make many friends, when I was in the fraternity; the brothers were the only people I hung out with. I created a good bond with all my brothers and that bond will only get stronger. Arizona State is one of the most diverse colleges in the nation, and there are a lot of people every semester that rush fraternities The colleges in the East and the South have a majority of the male students in fraternities, and then Western schools like Arizona State have a low percentage of male students who are in fraternities. It should not be that way; all school should have a similar percentage of students in fraternities.

The second benefit is leadership; everyone in the Greek family has been a leader, whether it is being a CEO, an officer, etc. You learn many things when being in a fraternity, like public speaking, budget control, motivation. Being in a fraternity also looks good on a resume, giving you an edge over your competition to get the job you want. According to http://www.greeks.psu.edu/benefits.htm 48% of US Presidents are Greek, 42% of US Senators are Greek, and 30% of fortune 500 Executives are Greek. Greek life provides the most successful leadership programs for college students. Going Greek will higher your chances of success in the work force.

Last, the best benefit of all is academics; according to http://www.greeks.psu.edu/benefits.htm the graduation rate of college students is 50%, while the graduation percentage of Greek members is 70%. The academic part of college is a significant part of future success. The Greek community encourages its members to have higher academics; the older Greek members have already taken the classes that the freshmen take, so they are able to help them out, improving their grade for that class. Michael Crow thinks that fraternity life is part of the blame for Arizona State’s bad academic standards, but in my opinion, he’s wrong, there are much more pros than cons in a fraternity.

At Arizona State it is very easy for a fraternity to get in trouble with the school. For example, if a college girl leaves a fraternity party to go home, then gets a Minor in Consumption, the fraternity is on probation. You have to take every single precaution just to have a party. I was talking to the Master of my fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Adam Newman, and he told me that for a fraternity in the South to get in trouble, they literally have to kill someone. Why does every college have different rules? Every college should have similar rules and procedures for the fraternities if they get into trouble.

In conclusion, Arizona State has the reputation of being one of the best party schools in the United States, but the Fraternity life is one of the worst. Every year Arizona State’s fraternity life has been worse. It was only a couple of years ago that we had a decent fraternity row; now, there are only 4 houses on the row. The school thinks that fraternity life is bad, but I disagree, there are many benefits in being part of a fraternity like friendship, leadership, and academics. I might not be a witness, but I know over time fraternity life at Arizona State will improve, it is just a matter of time.

http://www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/mu/greeklife/

http://www.greeks.psu.edu/benefits.htm

Newman, Adam Personal Interview. 29 June 2011