Recently, our university has made the decision to suspend Delta Chi and Phi Delta Theta, two fraternities from Greek life, because of alleged hazing and underage drinking.
Greek life. Hazing. Underage drinking. If you find one of those words somewhere, you’re sure to find the other two if you just read a little bit further. The reason? Because the three are connected at their core. When you think of one you almost immediately think of the other.
Despite this however, Greek life is a huge part of most college campuses, which is a little odd if you think about it. On one hand, our university administrators are telling us that underage drinking and hazing are bad, and not only should we not do it, but that we should report anyone who does. But on the other hand, the university allows Greek life on campus, which is nothing more than a breeding ground for underage drinking and hazing.
This begs the question: why do we have Greek life? If it is repeatedly notorious for this bad behavior, which it has shown time and time again that it is, then why do we have these groups on our campus to begin with? Especially when our administrators are telling us to avoid the exact behaviors those groups are constantly partaking in.
The answer? The university doesn’t care. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true. If the university genuinely cared about our safety and wanted to keep us from the dangers of underage drinking and hazing that Greek life is crawling with, then they would have banned Greek life the day Stone Foltz died.
Along with being a breeding ground for underage drinking, hazing and sexual assault, I personally believe that Greek life is sexist, elitist and at it’s core is for people who never grew out of high school.
However, Greek life isn’t exactly the problem here. It’s the university.
There have been numerous reports over the years of hazing, sexual assault, underage drinking and more related to Greek life. And when one of these things inevitably happens, the university acts shocked for the public, makes a big deal about how this is absolutely not okay with BGSU, and then quietly sends the group off with a slap on the wrist. The first time the university actually did something meaningful about Greek life breaking rules was when Stone Foltz died.
It’s common knowledge that the majority of college students drink underage. And even if the university were to get rid of Greek life as a whole, it would still continue. However, if BGSU genuinely did care about their student’s safety, and wanted to prevent underage drinking, hazing and sexual assault, they wouldn’t allow a community on campus that is known for it.
