The Cavalier daily :: Tuesday, September 12, 1972 :: University of Virginia Library

-FRATERNITIES ARE
BROTHERHOODS. This one is
easy to spot: It's usually
accompanied by a tight
handshake, a steady grin, and
an assurance that you, too,
might be able to become one
of the family.

But honest fraternity men
will admit that, at best, it's
something of a broken home.
And more like what one would
expect from several dozen
college guys living together in a
house with a facade: circles of
friends who often become
bitter political blocs during
house elections; cultural
differences that sometimes
divide a house; ostracization,
less explicit than it used to be
but still present, that is often
effective in separating those
who deviate from the
mainstream.

And ask some fraternity
man who had his ass tarred and
feathered or was whacked with
a paddle until he bled about his
"brothers."

-FRATERNITIES ARE
SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS.
Read: fraternities are the best
way to meet people, have fun,
and get laid (not necessarily in
that order). The first, to meet
people, might be true, but keep
in mind that fraternities are
social institutions, and, as such,
their main concern is to
perpetuate themselves by social
means. That is, picking those
who seem most likely to
continue the house name, in
one way or another, and
discriminating against those
who seem like any sort of
threat to the organization.
(Cultural differences
sometimes appear later, and,
rather than being absorbed,
they usually produce conflict).

Fraternities are rather
well-known for being in-bred
groups that are short on
diversity. If you want to keep
around the same kind of
people for the next four years,
fine; but if you think that
college should be a place to
grow, remember that Madison
Lane/Rugby Road is a
wasteland.

Bloated On Beer

The second
inference—"having
fun"–depends of course on
your definition of the word
"fun." If it's getting bloated on
beer, getting blasted by some
over-amplified rock group, and
getting thrown in a mudpile
during IFC weekend, then
that's your hangup. I can only
hope you outgrow it someday.

Having "Fun:" A Lifestyle That Is A Foregone Conclusion

The third–"getting laid"–is
a little harder to rebut, because
it is a perversion of a genuine
human need for sex, and, even
more, for affection. When said
in any other way than sort of
tongue-in cheek, it means using
a girl or a woman as an object
for physical needs, as a way to
smother your fears.
"Meaningful relationship" may
be a cliche, but sincere contact
is not.

This syndrome is a holdover
from the days when the
University was all-male, and a
"date" was an expensive
weekend. Fortunately,
co-education has shown that
you don't have to engage in
tribal rites like "going down
the road" to meet a woman.

And, even more, it has
shown that women are not
some type of foreign animal to
be shipped in and out when the
need arises, but individuals
with needs.

-FRATERNITIES DO
GOOD DEEDS. Fine. If you
want to join a fraternity
because of the charity drives it
gives, then your motives are
way ahead of your experience.

-FRATERNITIES ARE
PART OF THE UNIVERSITY.
Okay. But so are Food
Services, Wahoo-wah, and D.
Alan Williams. Which doesn't
mean you have to like them.

-FRATERNITIES ARE
CHANGING. This is like asking
you to join the Army because
it's changing: it admits
something is wrong without
tracing the causes. Even in new
and hipper uniforms,
fraternities fight the same old
battles against individual
development.

Inadequate Housing

-FRATERNITIES OFFER
GROUP LIVING. With, of
course, a few qualifications: a
given group, noisy and often
inadequate housing, financial
obligations such as dues and
assessments, infringing (but
often unenforced) rules, and
the opportunity to eat en
masse, and a constitution that
(usually) binds you with other
such groups throughout the
nation. They give group living a
bad name.

And last and least–

-'MY FRATERNITY IS
DIFFERENT' This is a refrain
that usually follows a noting of
the black member, or the
amount of dope/hair in the
house, or the high grade-point
average of the members. Ask a
returning black student about
the long history of racism in
fraternities, and he might
mention incidents of overt
racism from last year, or the
brothers who, even today, will
admit they want to keep their
house white. And anyone
trying to tell you that
dope/grades/hair make a
genuine difference in living
arrangements only betrays his
own superficiality.

The alternatives?
Communes, dormitories,
individual houses, private
apartments, even (I'm told)
geodesic domes. But more
importantly, a life-style that is
not a forgone conclusion.