Micayla Roebuck-Photo Essay Final

Micayla Roebuck
Dr. Lindsy Lawrence
Comp II
18 April 2011

It’s Greek To Me

“Greek Life” is a term that is generally frowned upon by society as a whole. But, why? The stereotypical frat guy is a cocky jerk that parties non-stop, wears Sperry’s, khakis, polo’s, ray bans, and who enjoys to golf. The stereotypical sorority girl is tan, wears sundresses, lavalieres, pearls, neon hats, norts, enjoys crafting, and is always drunk. Reading over these characteristics, I think anyone could see why Greek life is a joke to most people. Sadly, the media only portrays negative things and exaggerated situations pertaining to Greek life. Naturally, that’s what society sees Greeks as.

My personal connection to the Greek life subgroup is that I am involved in the Greek life community. Yes, I wear my lavaliere, my pearls, and my norts, but there’s so much more to it than that. We do community and service hours throughout the semester, sponsor quite a bit of activities on campus, and most importantly, we are always good to our sisters, especially in times of need. The stereotype that annoys me the most is when non-greeks classify sorority girls as “slutty drunks.” Neither of those terms describes me or the majority of my sisters. To be honest, a lot of my sisters hold true to their morals on not drinking and saving their innocence until marriage. Holding true to our sorority’s morals and personal morals is a big part of our standards. Another stereotype that truly gets the best of me is when people claim that Greeks “pay for their friends.” There is a quote within the Greek community that says “If I paid for my friends, I didn’t pay enough,” meaning that our sisterhood is priceless. Another point on the matter of paying dues is that people pay to be in National Honor Societies, Partners Club, Key Club, and many other organizations, but I rarely hear anyone make jokes of people who pay those dues. It’s very condescending of people who say “Greeks don’t have friends, so they have to pay for them.”

An important word throughout the Greek community is “philanthropy.” Greeks hold events within each semester to raise money for their philanthropies. A philanthropy is a national service that each chapter agrees to sponsor. With sponsoring their philanthropy, the chapter raises money and support for the organization. For example, Delta Gamma holds events in the campus center with information about Service for Sight, which is our philanthropy. We also travel to elementary schools and nursing homes to raise awareness about blindness and eye diseases. These two actions are just the support part of the service. We raise money for service for sight by collecting box tops, hosting car washes, and hosting events at restaurants such as Chick-fil-a where 10% of each purchase benefits Service for Sight, and our biggest philanthropy event “Anchorsplash” where we host swim competitions and for however many teams there are, a company sponsors the team with “X” amount of money.

I don’t think people outside of the Greek community realize how much service is involved with each organization. All they see are the actions described in movies and TV shows such as “Sorority Row” and “Greek” and others that involve college partying and torturing pledges. In reality, most of that does not happen. However, there are a few cases that happened in the United States that have participated in horrible hazing events and I believe these events have had great impacts on Greek life. For example, in the fall of 2004, Delta Gamma sorority of LSU was punished for violated the “no hazing” policy. Members forced pledges to sit Indian style facing the sorority house without looking elsewhere for several hours. Other new members were taken off campus, quizzed, and told to participate in intense calisthenics. Alcohol was also involved in this incident, whereas all of the new members were underage. Also on LSU campus, Delta Kappa Epsilon was removed from the campus for repeated alcohol incidents, hazing, and even assault on pledges.

On the UA-Fort Smith campus there is a very strict “no hazing” policy. If any organization on campus participates in any sort of hazing events, there will be a warning along with a minor punishment. After the first offense, if caught again, that organization will be immediately expelled from campus. In order to prevent hazing from happening and to make it very apparent that there will be no hazing tolerated at all, Alex Snowden, the director of Greek life, holds seminars each semester that are at least three hours long discussing the effects of hazing and explains exactly what hazing is. During the seminars, he shows news clips of true life stories of people who have been seriously injured or died from hazing events. Also, each member of the organizations receives a button that says “NO HAZING” to wear around campus to support the idea of the “no hazing” policies and to also encourage others not to haze.

There are more to the bonds of sisterhood and brotherhood than polos and pearls. The public view of bonding is playing beer pong, partying, and other drinking games. However, bonding is a very special time between sisterhood and brotherhood. There are secrets and rituals that are only to be shared between people of the same fraternity or sorority. These secrets are the bonds that each member holds each other accountable for and holds each member together as a sister or brother. I joined Delta Gamma to be a part of these bonds that I share with my sisters. When I got out of high school, I knew that all of my close friends were moving away for college and I was staying here with my family. Without my friends here with me, I didn’t know what I was going to do without them or how I would enjoy college. Then, I heard about sorority recruitment and I was interested immediately. I figured if I made new friends and became involved on campus, my college experience would be much more enjoyable. So, that’s just what I did. I made new friends who are my beautiful sister, but I’ve still kept in touch with my old friends. I get the best of both worlds.

Works Cited

"Discobolus Making the Cast." Karen's Whimsy. Web. 29 Apr 2011.

"Hazing Project." Chronology. Web. 29 Apr 2011.