The Benefits of Greek Life

by Emma Stiner

Just like with any controversial topic, there is a spectrum. You say something
ranging from, “Greek Life does so much good,” or “Greek Life should not exist.” The
reputation of Greek Life has been brought up often over the last decade primarily due to
the tragic events that have taken place. As a collegiate Greek member, I do not support any
hazing, alcohol related incidents or harm to fellow Greek members. There is, however,
more to Greek Life than what you hear on the news.

Greek Life allows students to grow in many ways – professionally, personally,

academically and socially. Greek Life creates leaders with 85% of Fortune 500 executives
being Greek. Greek Life gives back – Greeks raise over 7 million dollars for charity each
year and are the nation’s largest volunteer network donating over 10 million hours of
service each year.

At its core, Greek Life promotes personal growth and development. Each Greek
organization holds you accountable and teaches each member valuable life lessons such as
time management and the importance of academics. Fraternities and sororities provide
students with a place to grow, network and be pushed to be the best they can be. Greek
organizations provide their members with the necessary resources and tools to succeed,
especially academically with scholarship chairs. Many Greek organizations have GPA
requirements and standards that need to be met in order to stay active, making members
motivated to do their best. The majority of Greek organizations have standards chairs, who
are responsible for holding their members accountable, meeting with them when they need
someone to lean on and ensuring that they are representing themselves and their
organization in a good light.

Greek Life shows college-aged students the importance of giving back. With each
Greek organization supporting at least one charity, Greek members build connections with
something bigger than themselves. Their philanthropy is the meaning behind their work
and the motivator to give back and want to grow as a person. Greek organizations work
hard to create meaningful events to benefit their philanthropies, strengthen their Greek
community while also learning necessary skills to plan and execute a successful event.

My experience with Greek Life was on a smaller college campus with 25% of the
student body involved in Greek Life. After joining the second semester of my first year of
college, I was able to foster strong friendships, understand the importance of giving back
and grow personally through my academics and my leadership positions within my
sorority. The Greek community at Susquehanna University provided me with countless
memories and opportunities where I always felt supported. Being in a small chapter, I was
able to get to know all my sisters and understand other perspectives that differed from my
own.

From a Greek Life standpoint, one group of organizations that do not get held
accountable as much as Greek Life is athletic programs. With sports teams not necessarily
having a student/student board or advisor in charge of their actions besides their coach at
designated times, the behavior of athletes is not monitored as closely as it should be. The
Greek community at Susquehanna goes through extensive hazing and inclusion workshops
in order to better our community and reduce the incidents that have been occurring all
over the country. Sports teams, however, have just started to be required to go through
parts of the same programming. This bias against Greek Life is frustrating as it does not
reflect the entire reality of the situation and can be exacerbated by those who do not
understand the value of Greek Life.

While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I ask you to consider the good that
does exist in Greek Life, the ones you may not see from the outside looking in. While I will
admit that the Greek community isn’t always perfect, it is important to keep an open mind
to a situation you may not know anything about.