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The Problem with Greek Life: From One of Its Own

By Dane Zunich
For all of the good that Greek Life offers young men and women, it has lately become a rather
problematic entity that has strayed from its intended purpose. I should clarify, though, that the
positives of being Greek are not those clich perquisites such as networking and whatever
statistics members throw out to substantiate the Greek bodys elevated sense of achievement.
When done well, Greek Life provides students with a community of individuals motivated to
excel academically and, more importantly, act as a larger organization dedicated to upholding
values and traditions of integrity, respect, and service.
Presently, Greek Life is almost irretrievably broken. Shrouded behind an air of competitiveness,
it exists without its true spirit. Those same statistics we use to defend our involvement also
contribute to a certain haughtiness within members that divides Greek Life from the rest of the
student body. We conflict with others on campus because Greek Life is an angsty teenagerwe
are misunderstood and we want you to hear about it. Like adolescents, the current values of
Greeks revolve around clothing labels wed never heard of until joining Greek Life and making
sure we have some underground reputation as being fun to party with. Essentially, Greek Life has
bought into the highly satirical Total Frat Move culture, but it has failed to get in on the joke.
As Greeks, we complain about the media seeing us as organizations rather than individuals, yet
we fail to treat each ourselves any differently. We have lost the self in the place of our chapter. It
is not inherently wrong to seek to elevate the organization one aligns himself with, but it does
become problematic when one fails to see others as more than their organizations. As such,
Greek men and women are bound to their chapters and their associated reputations. Whats worse
is that these reputations lack any consideration of service and virtue.
In todays day and age, if you dont post something on social media, it didnt happen. This
includes service. If you dont take a picture of your organization at the local nursing home, you
might as well not have gone. That is, unless you remembered to log your hours of community
service. Then Greek Life will care. It is here, then, that its most fatal flaw presents itself. See,
service is no longer measured by way of the heart. There are no intangibles, nor is there a sense
of altruism in performing philanthropic deeds by which the Greek system measures itself. As
such, members no longer think in terms of how to help those in need; we see service in terms of
how it will help our chapter and our needs.
Greek Life gives many people a sense of belonginga sense of family. Additionally, it possesses
creeds that push us to reach for a higher standard of achievement, moderation, and morality. But
the Greek standard has shifted. Honor and loyalty are in the backseat nowadays, along with
humility, tolerance, and respect. Reputation rules. Material matters. Whatever is not quantifiable
is useless. Our conception of value is this: as long as we have more in our bowl at the end of the
day than others, we must be more deserving. We must be virtuous people if we have the statistics
to suggest it. It doesnt matter where our hearts are at or what our values areand I mean really
are, not what we say they areso long as we raised more money for that charity our National
headquarters tells us to care about than those other chapters do for their own charities. The
trophy has replaced the creed, it seems.

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