Do Fraternity’s/Sororities solve college problems or make college problems?

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Are these institutions more good or bad for college life?

Do the Mason’s still have a huge influence on them?
 
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I see the organizations themselves as neutral. The individuals in them can choose to act well or badly.
I do think some (not all) overemphasize alcohol use/ abuse and this, along with hazing, is a problem and needs to be policed. However, not all Greek organizations have these problems, and alcohol abuse is also a big problem for many college students who don’t join the organizations.
 
I think he’s thinking about certain Ivy-League societies which do have some historic ties to Freemasonry. While those are distinct from the standard Fraternity / Sorority on most campuses, there are similarities, so the confusion isn’t totally unfounded.
 
I’ve known a lot of people who were active in Greek life and none of them ever had anything to do with the Masons. The Masons in USA are pretty much considered like the Kiwanis, Moose, or Elks…a businessmen’s networking and booster club. College students couldn’t care less about that.

The “secret societies” at Ivy League schools seem more “Masonic” to me, due to all the secretive rituals, but they aren’t really considered frats or sororities.
 
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Let me re-direct please.

I’m worried my nephew is going to college next year and keep reading about hazing leading to death.
 
I recommend you sit your nephew down, perhaps including his parents, and you give him a frank talk about the dangers of hazing, drinking etc. Tell him that if he is asked to break the law, engage in physically dangerous activities, or submit to physical or mental abuse, or physically beat/ harass someone else, he should say no and leave whatever social group he is with who is pressuring him to do this stuff. Stress that he could end up not only kicked out of school, but in jail or even dead.

It would also be a good idea to remind him how much quantity of alcohol can be lethal. There are kids out there who do not realize drinking X number of shots in a row can kill you. I had a younger friend who had to be rushed to hospital for a stomach pump because he had one too many at a party. Fortunately the party was full of many older twenty and thirty-somethings who realized the need to get him medical attention and did not just leave him to “sleep it off”.
 
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I went to a private college that had no “frats” at all. A selling point for me. College is stressful enough. I am sure it is a big draw for others.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I recommend you sit your nephew down, perhaps including his parents, and you give him a frank talk about the dangers of hazing, drinking etc. Tell him that if he is asked to break the law, engage in physically dangerous activities, or submit to physical or mental abuse, or physically beat/ harass someone else, he should say no and leave whatever social group he is with who is pressuring him to do this stuff. Stress that he could end up not only kicked out of school, but in jail or even dead.

It would also be a good idea to remind him how much quantity of alcohol can be lethal. There are kids out there who do not realize drinking X number of shots in a row can kill you. I had a younger friend who had to be rushed to hospital for a stomach pump because he had one too many at a party. Fortunately the party was full of many older twenty and thirty-somethings who realized the need to get him medical attention and did not just leave him to “sleep it off”.
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On hazing, I’d also make the suggestion that anyone who wants you to do something you’re not comfortable with is not your friend. Also, hazing is also illegal in most states and if it happens it should be reported.

Just to emphasize too that hazing and binge drinking are two different problems, although related. Even without fraternities, where you have a lot of young men away from home for the first time in their lives, who haven’t been taught the dangers of “drinking to get drunk,” you’ve got the possibility of problems. I still remember “freshman drink night” and people being rushed to the hospital.
 
In my experience, frats and sororities do both good and bad, but it has always seemed that they cause more problems than they solve.

They also tend to have a sort of culture which repels me. But, to each their own.
 
I thought of them as on a scale from useless to harmful.

Then I had a kid in my office with a shaved head, and I asked why.

One of the other guys in his fraternity was in chemo, so they all shaved their heads in support of him.

And then I got the string of kids coming in with grade sheets for me to sign, as their fraternities had mandatory study periods and monitored freshman grades for potential further intervention . . .

hawk
 
I’ve seen everything in my area from guys committing assault, to guys surprising the local police department with a free lunch.
They are really all over the map.
 
I cannot speak to every university, but I know at the university where I went to grad school hazing was NEVER tolerated. If your fraternity/sorority was caught hazing you lost your charter. End of.

(I was never in Greek life as the university where I went for undergrad did not have it. The university I describe above is the one I attended for graduate school.)
 
They are bad! Initiations (hazing) are forbidden but they still do it. Drunken parties. The pledges have died. One kid fell down the whole steps very drunk. He hit his head. Unconscious. No one called 911 b/c they were underage drunk and doing drugs. Kid slowly died. They called in AM after they woke up. Kids dad went to that college. Dad was in that Fraternity. Alcohol and sex. Not worth it.
Go to college! Study! See how your grades are . Don’t date till Senior year. Sex is for marriage only. You surely, aren’t getting married right away.
THINK
JEREMIAH 29/11. Ephesians 3: 14-21
In Christ’s love
Tweedlealice
 
Greek life is a lot of fun and very beneficial for promoting social skills, philanthropy and academic success (if your grades weren’t a certain level, you eventually got the boot).

That said, the first time I ever saw someone do a rail of cocaine and the only time I ever saw “intimacy” involving more than two people was at those parties. My future wife and I partook in none of that stuff.

If anything, it magnifies the kind of person you are. If you have a good head on your shoulders - go Greek and Rush! If you don’t, the better frats can usually see this when they review your recent achievements (or lack thereof) and decline to offer you an invite to their organization.

Keep your head on your shoulders and don’t do stupid stuff and you’ll have a wonderful and reasonably safe time.
 
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