Fraternity and sorority life is a topic that has reached the eyes and ears of many across the nation due to hazing incidents and other forms of misconduct reported in the media. This Thursday’s Crossfire discussion aimed to address this issue on Bradley’s campus.
The Activities Council of Bradley University’s (ACBU) Critical Issues presented Crossfire in the Garrett Cultural Center for its final event of the fall semester.
Mackenzie Clauss, discussion coordinator and member of the Chi Omega sorority, and ACBU president Helen Lagerblade facilitated “Greek Life.”
“I think it was interesting seeing the different perspectives [of] not knowing about what actually goes on,” senior creative writing major Chase Nitz said. “I only know about greek life through stereotypes, and seeing greek life dispel those stereotypes is great.”
Instead of having guest speakers, Clauss split the crowd into three groups of nine.
“[There was] no speaker this time,” Clauss, a junior organizational communication major, said. “It was hard because it was more opinionated, and the discussion was a lot more emotionally driven. In regards to that, we wanted people to feel like they could share their feelings.”
The three groups brought up various issues, such as racial segregation, gender segregation and segregation of non-greek members. Other topics mentioned included hazing, sexual abuse, stereotypes of both greek life and non-greek members and recruitment.
Attendees agreed that hazing and sexual assault are not some of the larger issues on Bradley’s campus regarding greek life unlike at other universities across the country. However, the greater issue that was brought up was the issue of exclusivity.
“I feel like it’s a national problem that needs to be addressed,” junior biology major and non-greek Marissa Bacon said. “I know that they have open initiation; like the fraternity guy said they had open initiation, and his mom and friends could see, but there’s still a problem going on.”
Each fraternity and sorority has specific rituals and traditions that make them unique and serve as unifying factors that transcend time and geographical barriers.
Yet, these rituals can negatively affect current relationships due to specific rules, the transition of living in a greek house and academic obligations.
“It’s not just a Bradley problem, and I’m not saying to eradicate greek life, but there should be a huge structural change in the greek system,” senior sociology major and non-greek Elizabeth Gum said. “The issue is across the U.S. [and] not just at Bradley. It’s not going to be resolved if we talk about it individually like we did here tonight at Bradley; it needs to be talked [about] nationally.”
Students discussed concerns of how secrecy and exclusivity breed hostility, which is something both greek and non-greek members don’t advocate.
“Exclusivity is a thing everywhere, whether or not someone is in a fraternity or a sorority,” Clauss said. “[Greek life] was an easier topic to come up and talk about. There are lots of regulations and rules we have to follow that make people feel excluded when we don’t mean to be.”
