I have seen a really great side to sorority life now that I am involved. I know that most of the sororities on campus have the reputation of being very involved in partying. This is nothing new. In every movie sororities are portrayed as being slutty drunk girls there only to have a good time. This is not the correct portrayal. Although being social is a definite plus to the greek system there are so many other things we are involved in. Now that I am a initiated member I have quickly been thrown into all of the responsibilities that come with being a member. In order for us to participate in our fun events we must also put in work in philanthropy. Philanthropy is something that the leaders of my sorority feel very passionate about. It is not possible for us to be uninvolved members without getting punished. I wish that the school and fellow students would recognize the positives that the greek system gives to our university.
Our administration clearly has a negative opinion of the greek system. This is obvious when we see how many of our fraternitys are on probation. It seems like the number of fraternitys is dwindling as the years go on.I hope that the fraternitys learn from their probation and I also hope the adminstration can start giving greek systems some credit for all of the good things it is doing. In most schools the greeks are a wonderful asset to the university and I would love to see it like that here
I am going to have to agree with you on this on Francesca. I mean seriously there are so many things that sororities and fraternities do for this school. They have no idea what this school would be like if they ruined the greek system. I don't know much about what sororities do but i know they contribute a lot of money for the school just as the fraternities do. For example every year our fraternity takes part in a cancer fund raiser called St. Baldricks. We have been doing this for the past several years, and I know that last year we raised 80,000 dollars for cancer research. This year we are going for 100,000 dollars. This is just one of the many things that fraternities and sororities do to benefit the school and society. The school should have more respect for what the greek system does because without it this school would not be the same.
ReplyDeleteSororities on campus definitely take a huge part in being involved around the community. For me this is the biggest deciding factor when choosing which one to join. From the outside so many people only touch on the negative aspects of the greek system but truthfully, its much more than meets the eye. Its sad to say the generally the only time you hear about a sorority or fraternity is when they are in trouble with the University. I personally think that positive publicity for the greek system needs to dramatically increase so that people really get to understand the key parts that they play in the life of the community
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this post. I am also in a sorority and it bothers me how the school sees the greek life in a negative light. After being initiated, I have seen the responsibilities that we have to uphold. For example, this past weekend Relay for Life occurred on campus. As a whole sorority, we went and participating in walking on the boulevard and even raised our own money that was donated to the foundation. Furthermore, we put alot of time and effort into our philanthropy. We put on events where we donated all the money we raised to our specific cause. Sorority life has definitely pushed me to participate more in philanthropic causes.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I heard the university's plans to phase out the Greek system with 'living and learning' communities. I think it will epically fail. The best part of Greek life is that you are friends / brothers / sisters with people that generally want the same things. Generalizing it and making it broad to an entire community seems like it wouldn't work. We raised $50,000 for cancer as well. The school needs to pay more attention to the good we do vs. some of the negatives.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more! I feel like the Greek system is not only helping out the school, but the whole community as well. I recently just volunteered through my sorority for the organization MADD. This organization is not part of SMU, yet many people in the Greek system at SMU were here helping out! Without Greek life students would definitely be less involved in SMU activities and outside ones too.
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