Fraternities and sororities are both the best and worst things for any university, so several schools are struggling to find a way to harvest their good and put a muzzle on the bad.
On one hand, fraternities can help students land lucrative jobs after graduation and those alumni donate more money to their alma mater than non-frat members do. On the other, frat houses are a beacon for hazing, binge drinking and sexual misconduct, a triple play of issues facing higher education right now.
More often than not, schools take a reactionary approach to handling instances and only ban a fraternity or sorority when they have committed a serious infraction. Julia Ryan wrote for the Atlantic on proactive strategies universities can take to curb the evil associated with Greek groups while reaping their rewards.
Here are the four main points from the article, CLICK HERE to read the full piece.
1. The University Flexes Its Muscles
The most forceful approach is for a school to put an end to fraternities and sororities for good. Elizabeth A. Armstrong, a sociologist at University of Michigan, told Ryan this approach could also mean the school treats Greek groups just like any other club, stripping away any special treatment.
2. The University Uses Its Checkbook
Some fraternities have very powerful alumni who would not hesitate to open their wallets to support their Greek organization. Those alumni are also sometimes big donors to the school. Armstrong said a school could combat fraternity alumni donors with donors of equal financial prowess who will only give money to the school if the Greek groups behave themselves. This would almost certainly influence administrators to keep fraternities and sororities in line.
3. The University Brings in Parents
Since parents often pay for their child's tuition and dues, they could refuse to spend money on a school with Greek groups that have a record of conduct code violations. Armstrong suggested parents could educate themselves on various schools' fraternity chapters without ignoring some of the more disturbing details.
4. The University Sways Students Not to Join
Armstrong had a simple solution for this: educate girls on the dangers of a frat party. She said fraternities depend on parties to recruit pledges and those parties depend on females showing up. Young women should certainly be allowed to attend any party they want without fearing for their safety, but they should also be educated on the statistics of sex crimes at their school.
If school A has half the violent crimes that school B does, any student is more likely to choose school A. Unfortunately, this would theoretically give school B an incentive to lie about their crime statistics. This strategy of course requires schools to be completely transparent, already required under federal law via the Clery Act.
While angering a Greek group could have negative consequences for a school, continuing to have hazing deaths, underage drinking arrests and sexual misconduct claims on campus can be far worse.