Fraternity brother: Bad headlines about Greek life are good for us

An onslaught of bad headlines and shocking revelations about fraternities that have gone viral in recent months — a racist chant, rape convictions, branding pledges, an email that seemed to promote rape during rush week, just for starters — prompted Bo Erickson, a member of Sigma Chi at George Washington University, to write. 

He wanted to counter the two messages he hears in the national debate — people calling for the abolishment of Greek life because of offensive and dangerous behavior, and Greek members defending the organizations by talking about all their positive contributions.

He felt something was missing from that debate: A true and honest portrayal of Greek life. 

Erickson, a sophomore from Minnesota, is vice president for public relations for the GW Interfraternity Council, but these opinions are his own.

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By Bo Erickson

For centuries, Greek letter organizations have operated under a guise of secrecy. The actions of each fraternity and sorority have been privy to only those present — until recently.

Headlines regarding racist videos, hazing-related deaths and sexual assaults within our houses have dominated Greek life’s message and turned our private organizations into a national debate.

Today, it is necessary to recognize that the publication of these negative actions needs to be welcomed, because this provided Greeks a wake-up call.

We need to see who we really are, and we have been given a mirror.

With each new story containing information that was worse than the last, Greeks were quick to argue that the community was being “painted with a thick brush” by the media because “we all aren’t bad.”

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Just like other communities, the actions of a few do not reflect the overwhelming majority of students in Greek life. Yet maybe these troublemakers are more prevalent than we want to believe?

It is time to shine light on the shadows of our organizations because it is in these places — the contained e-mail listservs, the dimly lit fraternity basements and our organizations’ dark histories — that the viruses of our organizations grow.

We need real membership reviews. We need to ask ourselves: Are all of our members living up to our standards?

If not, it is time for those individuals to see the door because they do not deserve to wear our letters.  And Greek life in general cannot afford for these individuals to continue to tarnish our communities that we immensely value.

I believe that no one truly knows what happened at these fraternities and sororities that have gained media attention.

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I believe that students in Greek life are genuinely good humans, and combined together, we can accomplish great things for our universities.

The laundry list of positive attributes of Greek life are endless: Greek life fosters student leaders, contributes to campus unity and pride and donates millions of dollars a year to our cherished charities. However, no student body president, great school spirit or amount of money can justify our wrongs.

We need to stop defending our behavior. We need to change it.

“That’s the way it has always been done,” is common reasoning within Greek organizations; I know because I have said this multiple times.

Our histories — the good and the bad — dictate chapters’ actions. Whether it is the morning workouts or the racist song, these “traditions” are seen as honoring what it means to be in this chapter by continuing our histories.

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This is why the conversation will be hard. Not only because of the tense subject matter but because our communities have ignored the issues for decades.

Last week, my GW Sigma Chi fraternity partnered with our national headquarters and hosted “Sexual Misconduct Education and Prevention Night” for the entire GW Greek life community. Thirteen fraternity chapters plus additional student organizations co-sponsored the event because they too believed in the opportunity for change. Unfortunately, the presentation given by our national headquarters was vague, students acted inappropriately, and worthy criticism followed.

Yet, the initial goal of the event was accomplished: to start the conversation on sexual assault within our Greek community.

From the headlines, it can be deciphered that Greek life has a public relations problem. But actually, Greek life has a internal relations problem.

When we recognize and change our organizations from within, we won’t have any problem.

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