The events of the past year at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Penn State have made their mark on Penn State history. A student lost his life because of the foolishness of binge drinking culture. We have hosted vigils, put some bans down and made life a little more stable here. But what does this mean when Penn State takes away our rushing all together?
I am not a part of Greek Life. I doubt I ever will be, because that has never been my life. But I have a respect for it. Not for the parties, or for the things that might happen there, but for the philanthropy they do. For all the organizations they help for THON, for everything. And now, Penn State has taken a major action that has angered the community — banning Fall 2017 rush for both fraternities and sororities.
The first thing that upsets me about this is that it’s not even just this ban. They stopped all day longs and limited the socials, when both are honestly just part of the college experience. They are there not for just connections but for people to gather and have a good time. Some of people’s best friends are made at these events, and now the school has taken them away.
The second thing that gets to me the most is that because of this, the stereotypes frats and sororities have are going to increase. The idea that it’s nothing but bad and that you’re going to get raped, or you’re going to get hurt, or that something terrible will happen. Yes, this stuff does happen, but does it happen at every single fraternity? No. I never have said this is okay, and it never will be, but the real question is why are they punishing everyone when they should be punishing the people who did the crime?
The third thing is that something like this should have been done a long time ago. Not to this extent, but for couple of sexual assaults that have happened down there. Ironically, however, a lot of sexual assaults haven’t just been at the Greek houses, they’ve been on campus too. At East, where I live right now. Why aren’t doing anything to stop what’s going on here? How come they are only focusing on the stuff that has happened at the frats?
I am not a part of Greek Life. I’m not the kind of person who will go out and party every weekend. Ask any of my friends, my boyfriend, even my mother. I don’t go out often. I am the type of person who like the stay in, binge-watch some sort of TV show that my friends or family have recommended to me, and eat a whole pizza with my buddies. But this is plain unfair. Taking away rush is the biggest part.
Do they have any idea how big Greek life is here? How many students are involved with it? They surely must because most of the money we raise for THON comes from Greek life, and that gives the school it’s title of having the “biggest student philanthropy in the world.” They take away rush, they are taking away the amount of people we have that raise money for THON. They are taking away thousands, if not millions, of dollars, that can all be used to give kids a chance at real life in the future.
Look, banning the fraternity was the right choice in my eyes. They let the situation get out of hand, and someone lost their life. It is one of the most horrifying things a parent or friend or family member could ever go through.
But that doesn’t mean you should punish the rest of the Penn State community by taking away other people’s chance to join Greek life, at other fraternities or sororities that haven’t had anything like this happen to them. They doesn’t mean you should possibly hurt the chances of little kids who have cancer at finding a cure. They doesn’t mean you should be going to this extent.
I am not a partier, but I know people who are. And at Penn State, when fall comes around, there are going to be plenty of people who will find their ways around this. Because of this foolishness, people are going to get even rougher, drunker and cause even more problems, because they feel the need to “stand up to the man.” This is unfair, and I’m not saying what these people are going to be doing is smart, but it’s just going to cause more problems.
The more bans we put, the more the students are going to get angry. Some for the right reasons, some for the wrong ones. Either way, Penn State, I’m not a huge fan of Greek life, but even I have to admit, this is utter BS. Sooner or later, your students are going to bring the pitchforks. I won’t be in the crowd, but I definitely won’t be supporting your style of thinking. Everyone is going to be acting like it’s 1920’s prohibition, and I’m just going to sit back and watch the madness happen. Because this is going to change a lot, and not for the better.
Not every student in Greek life deserves to be punished for this.