When I was midway through my days at Valpo, I may the decision to join a fraternity. Granted, many don’t consider a music fraternity (is it a professional Greek society or social society or both?) to be an official fraternity, but Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at Valpo has their own house so I consider it a fraternity all the same. Sometimes, I even refer to the Kappa Sigma chapter of the fraternity as the 810 Brown Street Mafia, in honor of the house address. So, I do see things from the Greek perspective, and what I saw regarding the future of Greek in the mid 1990s is sadly starting to play out today.
In the mid 1990s, I made the prediction that the Greek system at Valpo would begin a decline and that within 10 years the number of fraternities and sororities would stand at 5 with all the sororities having gone national and at least 1 fraternity and sorority at Valpo being a minority Greek system. My prediction was based on declining pledges and the University’s apparent hostility towards the Greek system. Several fraternities were on probation due to various minor and major violations, the Theta Kappa Epsilon had been gone for a decade, Lambda Chi Alpha was trying to resurrect its Valpo chapter as a dry Greek, and the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity was about to be kicked off of Valpo for good, dropping the number of fraternities from 13 at its peak to 11. The sororities were still local and numbered 8, with Delta Phi Kappa being the smallest in size. Turns out I was wrong, but only in how long the decline of the Greeks has taken.
Since I left Valpo, a lot has happened. The sororities made the decision to go national immediately after I graduated, but it was not enough to save one of the sororities. Delta Sigma Theta closed its doors around 2000. Phi Delta Theta was kicked off campus in 2003. And perhaps the most surprising departure to me was the elimination of Theta Chi, 2 years ago, dropping the fraternity total to 8 (Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Sigma Kappa, Phi Mu Alpha, Sigma Tau Gamma, Sigma Chi, and, yes, Sigma Pi) and sorority total to 7.
Now comes word that Sigma Tau Gamma has been kicked off campus for 4-5 years by National and Valpo starting next year due to hazing and drug violations. Pressure is mounting for the chapter to sell its house, basically marking the potential end of the fraternity at Valpo. If the chapter is eliminated, that will even the number of fraternities and sororities at 7.
It’s no Greek secret that fraternities are under constant duress from a legal perspective. Gone are the party days made famous by movies like “Animal House” and “Revenge of the Nerds”, and events like Spring Break. The drinking is now severely regulated by Universities fearful of being sued should parties go wrong and people die from alcohol-related problems. National fraternities also face similar pressure, so many of the nationals have gone dry in an attempt to change their image. Hazing is prohibited under penalty of chapter termination. In other words, what happened in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with keggers, hazing, and drunken orgies is no longer tolerated in a PC world.
Athletic organizations also discourage joining fraternities due to the ever increasing pressure of athletes to put their sports ahead of everything except education (allegedly). Also the perception of fraternities being troublemakers doesn’t help. It is said Homer Drew discouraged his basketball players from going Greek at Valpo, which wouldn’t surprise me if true.
Sororities were never really painted with a broad negative brush that fraternities were, so their image is more positive in certain views. (Although in Indiana, the rule is if more than 5 woman who are not related live in a house, it is technically considered a brothel, which is illegal-don’t laugh, that law was around when I was a college student.) But sororities cannot survive independent of fraternities, no matter what some people would like to believe. Ultimately, what happens to one happens eventually to the other, so sororities must work together with fraternities to try and change the negative connotations.
In order to survive, the college Greek systems must adapt or die. Students no longer need to go Greek to enjoy college life as there are a number of alternative things to do. The Greek system must find new ways to encourage people to take a look at becoming Greek. The alternative is eliminating the Greek experiences at colleges nationwide, which would not necessarily be a good thing.
It’s going to take a lot of work for the Greek system to overcome the “boys will be boys” image that was once allowed. But in the end, I believe fraternities will be better for it if they can. Otherwise, the Greek system will become a thing of the past.
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