Why go Greek at alll?

Like most of you, I have been absolutely sickened by the revelations that have come out of Cornell University courtesy of the very impressive student newspaper staff at the Cornell Daily Sun.

Moreover, having not only been young once but having been a student at a campus where they have fraternities and sororities, I have some familiarity with Greek culture. And I made the choice as a young person to never join one.

Why? I didn't know at the time, but I'm keenly aware why now. Greek culture in the guise of sororities and fraternities is designed, first of all, to exclude people such as myself--introverts who might not fit in, people who might not be attractive enough, people who might not be "cool enough" and otherwise just unlucky, period. The overriding problem with the Greek life, though, is peer pressure.

I am certainly not excusing a single man in that gang rape text chain, but my hunch is their decisions were at least partly, if not largely, driven by peer pressure. Think about all of the crazy, perverse things we hear about frats and sororities, like initiation rites. My own dear mother, may she rest in peace, was in a sorority at Baylor, a Christian university.

I can't remember what she told me she had to do in her initiation. But I remember it didn't sound good. (Actually, now I remember and it was eating raw eggs, a thought that haunted her decades later!) No slam against Baylor, it was probably much tamer than many other universities.

In the case of this horrific crime, not only have the perpetrators hurt Jane Doe they have hurt the university. They have blown up the university's prestigious reputation, perhaps irreparably. I was thinking, for example, when Brown University suffered a gun attack a while back, and I remember thinking they will survive this. This will not affect them PR wise for want of a better term. They will bounce back.

I'm not sure Cornell can bounce back, at least not anytime soon, from this. And I think there will probably be lawsuits. But that is not the primary reason to wholesale get rid of this so-called Greek culture. I'm all for the Greeks, uh, the real Greeks. I'm all for traveling to Greece. But I have never met a frat boy that I liked. Period.

When I was at San Jose State my freshman year I was in a dormitory, Markham Hall, and across the street was a fraternity. Don't remember the name, don't care to remember the name. All I know is that the boys who lived there scared the bejesus out of me.

I can remember one night some of them, I don't know how many, one, two, three, I don't know, took a long branch, I think it might have been attached to something and raised it up to my window where I was trying to get ready for bed and go to sleep. Perhaps I was already asleep. They were obviously trying to get my attention. I remember thinking at the time how great it was that I was protected by my locked door, my roommate and the dorm the adult dorm monitor. And the lock outside. Such privileges are not afforded those who feel the need, the pressure, to be accepted into sororities and fraternities.

Whoever thought of introducing this to the college experience probably was not a rocket scientist. A rocket scientist would know better.

Having just completed my master's at a late age in 2018, I can tell you that true academic excellence takes 100 percent focus. Diversions such as these bring down not only the student's reputation but in the case of taking drugs, possibly adversely affects their mind. I don't know much about drugs, but it doesn't seem like a good choice.

I fully support a thorough investigation into what happened. I fully support holding the perpetrators accountable and I also support Cornell taking the opportunity to be a role model and immediately shutting down their sororities and fraternities. Period.

photo: Chi Pi, 1909, Wikimedia Commons images