Abolishing Greek life is a fantastic step towards making college campuses more equitable.
I don’t think the answer of abolishing all Greek life will solve any of these actual problems.
My place now is to try and dismantle this system.
This summer as Americans marched in the streets, reckoning with systemic racism across the
nation, some college students looked at campus life through a new lens, and began to question
the role of Greek life in perpetuating inequality.
An Abolish Greek Life movement began to form, and it took root at Vanderbilt University
where nearly a third of students participate in the Greek system. It focused on those
fraternities and sororities that have historically catered to white students.
These systems, their whole purpose is to exclude.
It was a space that was created for exclusively higher socioeconomic status and white individuals.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, no one in my sorority had talked about it.
It seemed like, in my life, everyone was engaged.
And there was zero, zilch, in our sorority group chat.
And in a space where I had once considered community and I called these girls my
sisters, I just couldn’t justify continuing to do that.
I was like, I’m done.
This is exhausting.
Peace out.
What seems unique about what's going on right now is that it’s coming not just from students
but from students who are themselves in fraternities and sororities.
I have not, in the 200 some odd year history of fraternities, seen anything like that before.
I didn't want to be associated with Greek life anymore.
I wanted to wash my hands of it and be done with it because I was so embarrassed to
have ever been a part of it.
Over the summer, Emma Pinto created an instagram account that anonymously shares
students’ negative experiences with Vanderbilt’s Greek system.
We had a couple schools, where people reach out to our account, asking how they could get started.
Similar abolish accounts have helped spark debates on other campuses, and reports of
racist posts and threats online have amplified the calls to abolish.
It has to be the administration that decides to once and for all to remove these organizations
from campus, and we know they have the power.
We just want them to do it.
In the last few decades, some universities have gotten rid of Greek life on campus, often
in response to misconduct.
At Vanderbilt, fraternities have a huge presence.
They’re really a central part of the social life.
So if they're under challenge at Vanderbilt, I think they could be under challenge anywhere.
I could not with a clear conscience support the Abolish Greek Life movement, at least
in its current iteration, even though many of its intentions were noble and needed.
A divide has formed at Vanderbilt between abolishing Greek life and reforming it.
You actually have chapters on campus that have done wonderful things, more so than other
parts of non-Greek campus, when it comes to combatting sexual assault and combatting racism.
To then just say, oh no, everyone’s the same.
They’re all irredeemable.
Everyone that doesn’t drop their affiliation is upholding white supremacy and contributing
to rape culture, that doesn’t build the bridges that we need to make campus a better
place.
Bauman says his fraternity reexamined its protocols to ensure they promoted inclusivity
and safety.
This is how we can ensure that people are safe, secure, happy, able to prosper at our
events, and that we can be there for the community.
Greek life has taken a hit from Covid-19 this year too.
Many US colleges linked outbreaks to fraternity parties and Greek housing.
When school resumed in the fall, Vanderbilt put strict limits on group gatherings.
Greek life has really, for generations, been a public health problem, and I think that’s
coming to the fore in the era of COVID-19.
At one point, an organization of insurers rated fraternities as just above toxic waste
dumps.
If you talk privately to college presidents, many of them would say they wished that they
didn't have to deal with all the problems that happened at chapter houses, but they
understand that fraternities are popular, that members of fraternities are more likely
to donate to college campuses.
College presidents have lost their jobs when they taken on fraternities.
Abolish organizers estimate that about 300 students have left the Greek system since
May although the university hasn’t provided up to date, official membership numbers.
A modified version of rush began this fall and will conclude in the new year.
TIME asked first-year students what impact - if any at all - the pandemic and the abolish movement
were having on their decisions.
Maybe my first day on campus, I had an upperclassman friend tell me a whole
bunch of people quit Greek life because of the movement.
If you were interested in Greek life like I was, it makes you want to go back and consider
like is this something that I really wanna do.
I also do think a lot of people ended
up deciding to rush, just from my perspective because I think COVID played a role in terms of
wanting that sense of community.
And I think the Greek community, and sororities especially, can provide me a way to meet people
that I wouldn’t be able to meet in other situations.
I mean, a typical idea's like this brotherhood but actually, just having like a group of
guys that on like any given day I can be like hey who wants to grab dinner, who wants to
grab lunch?
And one out of eighty people will be like oh yeah.
The stories I heard it did impact my view overall, and that trickled down into my view
of Black sororities.
They were founded specifically in response to this exclusivity.
Greek life overall doesn’t really align with my values.
From what I’ve noticed, the majority of people here on campus still support Greek
life, but they are the silent majority.
Regardless of how many students choose to reject or join Greek life, the conversation
on campus is an indicator of how a new generation hopes to bring about change.