The Greek System Should be Removed From College Campuses

The Greek System, present on college campuses around the nation, is deeply flawed. Although many young men and women have found solace in these Greek communities, these organizations do more harm than good. Lets talk about a few of the problems that plague this system (most applicable to both sororities and fraternities): 1. Discrimination/Elitism: It's becoming increasingly apparent that these organizations discriminate by race, appearance, ethnicity, class, and obviously, gender. I'm sure you've seen/heard of the incident with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in Oklahoma in which the members joyful sang racist slurs about how an African American would not be allowed in their chapter. What's worse is that this chant was taught to them - so it's not a recent thing, it's a part of their history. To use a personal anecdote - in my freshman year of college, my roommate decided to rush. During her rushing process I learned all the stereotypes of each sisterhood. "Only bid Alpha Phi if you have straight blonde (maybe a brunette here and there) hair and are smaller than a size 6. Phi Mu? Don't you mean Phi MOO? And if you don't get into any other sorority, Sigma Kappa will always take you." Granted these are examples from the university I attended, but what's sad it that those stereotypes really did manifest themselves on my campus. 2. Sex: I know, I know, sex is rampant on college campuses - hell, health centers hand out free condoms (use with caution). I'm not just talking about consensual sex though, I mean sexual assault. Women are much more likely to be victims of sexual assault by fraternity brothers than anyone else - *300% more to be exact. Numerous studies show anywhere from 70%-90% of campus rapes occur at the hands of fraternity brothers. In fact, 1 in every 5 women in college will be sexually assaulted. That is obscene. Why is this happening? Well some of this has to do with the misogynistic ideologies being engraved in these young men's minds. There have been countless videos of frat brothers marching around chanting "no means yes, yes means anal" or at Yale "We Love Yale Sluts". A number of fraternities have also been reprimanded for hosting websites that share stories of sexual experiences (consensual and not) and often pictures are included. Another reason this is such a problem due to the excess of alcohol available to these students. That brings me to point #3 3. Alcohol: College is the prime time for experimentation - the newfound freedom, the sense of community, the legal drinking age of half of the people on campus. Although alcohol is plentiful outside of the Greek System there is notorious alcohol abuse happening within. *Twice as many Greek students as not, report they have done poorly academically as a result of alcohol consumption. Approximately 20% more Greek women abuse alcohol than non Greek. *A study done by Harvard shows "4 out of 5 fraternity and sorority members are binge drinkers. In comparison, other research suggests 2 out of 5 college students overall are regular binge drinkers." Clearly alcohol is a huge problem. That same freshman roommate I had (the one that decided to rush) commonly partied with her new "sisters". Those same sisters allowed her to drink 22 shots of vodka in less than two hours - her BAC was .4. They then dropped her off at our room and continued partying; clearly alcohol was more important than the well being of a "sister." (The roommate had to go to the hospital to have her stomach pumped that night or else she could have died. This happened twice.) Those are only 3 of the issues that are rampant in these organizations. The Greek System is causing too much damage among our youth. It needs to go. *http://www.theguardian.com... (300%) *http://elitedaily.com... (alcohol) *https://www.addictioncenter.com... (Harvard study)