CHE: Frat life under Covid

[Hibush]

The CHE has an article on a study of fraternities conducted by a group who are both former college administrators and fraternity members.

Based on actual performance in three national fraternities across many campuses, they investigates several of the bad behaviors that are largely kept secret but sometimes result in dead pledges.

The social dysfunction that is reinforced in some fraternities is both tolerated and despised on my campus. Administration is hoping to stamp it out and has made some progress in recent years. We should be concerned that this year will put us back.

What is your sense of the change at your school?

Here is the central theme,
"Because of the pandemic, fraternities are now made up of a higher concentration of members who view the fraternity house as their social playground and a lower concentration of more altruistic members who have historically served as a check on problematic behavior."

And some of the underlying dynamics stated far more clearly than my student-life administrators do.

"Fraternity members are conditioned to believe that they have the power to make the new members do as they please in order to "earn their letters." While this can begin in seemingly innocuous ways (cleaning, errand running), it often ends in forced drinking. The best way to counter social-dominance hazing is to undermine the power differential upon which it rests, and the best way to do that is to end the two-tiered system of pledging."

"As humans, hazing is in our nature — we have been conditioned by years of group selection to bind ourselves together into groups and to prevent the exploitation of our groups by would-be free riders."

You can find the whole white paper without a paywall.

[apl68]

One of the things I liked about Alma Mater is that the frats were kept on a very short leash.  There were no frat houses, only mild hazing was permitted, and a frat could get kicked off of campus for all sorts of things that are standard practice on most campuses.  It helped that the campus as a whole was "dry."  I still remember one frat being put on probation for what they did their mascot.  That poor little pig!

[mythbuster]

Interesting. I assumed when I saw the thread title that this was about the cluster$#ck happening currently at my alma mater, Duke University.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article249948889.html

The TL,DR version is that Duke is currently in a week long lock down (200+ COVID positive this week)  because of unsanctioned rush events after the majority of the Frats left the university governing body. Duke has LONG wanted to decrease the power of the Greeks on campus and move more towards a Yale-style residential college system.  When the Pandemic gave them an opportunity to shift by canceling rush this year, the Frats objected, and ultimately left university governance. It may the final blow for them in the long run.

[Hibush]

Interesting. I assumed when I saw the thread title that this was about the cluster$#ck happening currently at my alma mater, Duke University.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article249948889.html

The TL,DR version is that Duke is currently in a week long lock down (200+ COVID positive this week)  because of unsanctioned rush events after the majority of the Frats left the university governing body. Duke has LONG wanted to decrease the power of the Greeks on campus and move more towards a Yale-style residential college system.  When the Pandemic gave them an opportunity to shift by canceling rush this year, the Frats objected, and ultimately left university governance. It may the final blow for them in the long run.

Some rush activities are illegal, but local police in college towns tend to leave enforcement within fraternities to the schools. If the frats are just a bunch of rowdy guys in a house in town, how will the police response change? Any sense of the Durham police's approach?

[mythbuster]

Hibush, do you remember the rape case involving the Duke lacrosse team in the early 2000's? There is your exhibit A of how Duke and the local police get along. It's fraught.

The frats on campus are all in dorm sections, so normally highly regulated and only on campus. I don't think having the off-campus rush activities that caused the outbreak were truly illegal, beyond being gatherings large enough to serve as possible super spreader events.

[marshwiggle]

Hibush, do you remember the rape case involving the Duke lacrosse team in the early 2000's? There is your exhibit A of how Duke and the local police get along. It's fraught.

You mean this case?

The Duke lacrosse case was a widely reported 2006 criminal case in Durham, North Carolina, United States in which three members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape.

The Durham Police Department came under fire for violating their own policies by allowing Nifong to act as the de facto head of the investigation; using an unreliable suspect-only photo identification procedure with Mangum; pursuing the case despite vast discrepancies in notes taken by Investigator Benjamin Himan and Sgt. Mark Gottlieb; and distributing a poster presuming the suspects' guilt shortly after the allegations.

Not sure if this is what you mean by Duke and the police "getting along".

[Vkw10]

Hibush, do you remember the rape case involving the Duke lacrosse team in the early 2000's? There is your exhibit A of how Duke and the local police get along. It's fraught.

The frats on campus are all in dorm sections, so normally highly regulated and only on campus. I don't think having the off-campus rush activities that caused the outbreak were truly illegal, beyond being gatherings large enough to serve as possible super spreader events.

So if the frats have left university governance, the university presumably will not set aside dorm sections for them next year. I wonder how active the university will be in breaking up those dorm sections?

[dismalist]

Why does a university have to have anything to do with fraternities? Why do they want to?

Privatize, privatize: Let the frats organize as they wish off-campus, and if members wish to drink themselves to death, let them. Normal civil and criminal law would be in effect.

Problems with fraternities are universities' self-inflcted problems.

[bio-nonymous]

Interestingly, the unofficial line here in the medical school is that Greek undergrads are not welcome as undergraduate researchers in our labs presumably because of the propensity for poor behavior revolving partying/drinking during the pandemic. All undergrads are allowed in the labs only on a case by case basis with the final decision made by the department chair after a vetting process...

[Anselm]

Why does a university have to have anything to do with fraternities? Why do they want to?

Privatize, privatize: Let the frats organize as they wish off-campus, and if members wish to drink themselves to death, let them. Normal civil and criminal law would be in effect.

Problems with fraternities are universities' self-inflcted problems.

Who else would carry the burden of serving the poor, elderly and orphans through tireless charity and service work?

I think it comes down to alumni donations.   

[apl68]

Reportedly the crowds currently being booted from Miami Beach and now seeking new prey elsewhere in Florida are NOT mostly students.  But they've surely got at least some frat representatives among them.