Analysis of the Current Greek Life Scene (+Oak/DU)
by: OP
In light of the recent Maroon article, I think the Greek life scene is in need of a breakdown. Will go over the dynamics of the scene/culture as well as the current status of each fraternity.
1. Sexual assault - The notion that teenagers + alcohol in rowdy settings is a breeding ground for sexual assault is true. However, the notion that fraternities, in particular, promote this culture from within, is false. Every single fraternity has extremely strict zero-tolerance policies for sexual assault (including accusations) that mandate that at minimum any brother accused of sexual assault is removed from the fraternity until they can prove themselves innocent (with the burden of proof being upon the brother). It is quite literally a part of the pledging process to ensure that parties are a safe environment and to weed out anyone who may be a risk. With the amount of interaction between the fraternities and sororities, if brothers were regularly assaulting girls, a significant portion of those girls would be sorority girls, and if a brother assaulted a sister and wasn’t immediately removed from the chapter, they would instantly lose all relations to said sorority. At a school this liberal it is almost unthinkable that a sorority would dismiss a sister’s accusation and side with the fraternity. So yes, it happens and it’s terrible, but the narratives painted are unfair to 99% of Greek life.
2. Hazing - Aside from one particular action that happens toward the end of one particular fraternity’s process, there is absolutely nothing about any of the pledging processes at this school that poses any significant risk of long term physical or psychological trauma. Pledging is designed to suck, not scar. Sororities don’t haze
A look at the fraternities and sororities
When evaluating a chapter, the main thing that goes into what’s “top” and what’s “bottom” is who the chapter mixes with. That is to say, it’s relativistic, especially with sororities since they don’t do very much unilaterally. There are certain things that fraternities can do to boost their attractiveness to rushees (pledging, dues, amenities), which helps, in turn, to have better brothers. Better brothers means better sorority relations, boosting the chapter’s status. It’s a common trend that the top fraternities have, in this particular order of importance, 1. The hardest pledge processes, 2. The highest dues, 3. The nicest houses (though the bottom houses tend to have almost non existent houses, so a house is the biggest prerequisite to making it out of that tier). A hard pledging process being important is just as superficial as it sounds - It’s a battle of who’s less of a pussy and who wants to have friends that are equally less of pussies. High dues are important to pay for cool stuff but (perhaps more importantly) because of the Veblen effect, if something is expensive people will assume it is better. House quality importance is obvious. I’ll give the general tiering first and then elaborate on each chapter afterward in the comments
Fraternities
Top - Fiji, DU, Psi,
Mid - Sigma Chi, Alpha Delt
Bottom - AEPi, Pike, Zeta, everything else
Sororities
Top - Oak
Upper Mid - AOII
Lower Mid - DG, Pi Phi
Bottom - Theta
It’s generally very easy to get a bid at this school, which means bottom is REALLY bottom, so we’re going to skip evaluating everything below mid
#1by: OP
Alpha Delta Phi - This is an interesting one. They have currently the best house setup on campus (easily top 3 nicest + utilities are paid for by the school + location is on the quad). Dues are decent, and they’re just as large if not larger than Fiji. On paper, these guys should be top. So what’s the issue? Essentially, they’ve been playing this blitzkrieg game where they bid a million kids every year (including doing 3 pc’s) to try and accumulate campus presence. The issue with that strategy is this school doesn’t have enough cool guys to go around for that to work, and so you end up with 5 cool guys per pc and then a bunch of weirdos. They also use their utilities being covered as an excuse to not raise their dues and make their pledging really easy to convince guys to join them, which backfires by, again, attracting a bunch of pussies. Cool girls don’t want to mix with weird dudes so they have no oak relations. Alpha delt has by far the clearest route to top of any not currently top house, but they need to 1. Make their pledgeship real 2. Stop babying the dues and 3. Stop bidding so many kids. They do this gradually and they’ll find themselves with way cooler guys that oak actually wants to mix with and will be easily top within a couple years
Comment#2by: OP
Sigma Chi - Probably in the most comfortable position of any chapter. They (generally) seem aware that they’re not top and the guys taking bids there are consciously accepting that trade off for an easier pledging process, more low key fraternity, and lower dues, rather than constantly gunning for the crown like alpha delt. Just a chill guy
#3by: OP
Psi - Generally the top destination for internationals. Great relations with AOII, decent relations with Oak, great house, weird pledging process. They will pretty much always be known as “the international frat” which leaves them comfortably where they are in the tiering. It’s worth noting, though, that the non-internationals in Psi tend to be less normal than the non-internationals in DU and Fiji, which, given that the majority of Greek life is Americans, can hurt them a little bit.
#4by: OP
DU - Not technically a fraternity (Iron Key Society), and pretty small, but that’s by design. Essentially the complete opposite of alpha delt. House is a complete ****hole but regarded as having the most difficult pledging process, and the dues are at least double everyone else’s. Slightly edges out Fiji in oak relations (pretty sure both oak social chairs are dating DU’s) but doesn’t mix with any of the normal sororities
#5by: OP
Fiji - Most well rounded fraternity at the school. Top 3 house, top 3 pledging process, top 3 dues, and top 2 largest brotherhood. They have a cache of football players and other various athletes for rush that provides a permanent cushion for new pc’s. Their large size does mean that they’ll bid a few duds per pc, and girls complain that they invite random people from other schools around the city to their parties, but it evens out. Impossible to argue Fiji out of the top 2
#6by: OP
#7by: OP
AOII - Every girl who would have gotten oak had they waited around for their later rush process goes AOII, and those girls are mostly great. There are some less socially apt girls who wouldn’t have gotten oak anyways that end up in AOII, though, so generally lower quality, but still the top “sorority”
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