Identifying The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Sorority ...

Identifying The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Sorority Experience At Bucknell University

Introduction The Greek experience has become a popular student way of life among college

campuses across the United States. Sorority and fraternity life exists at both public and private schools, regardless of their sizes or locations. The impact of sorority and fraternity life on campus culture is immense, for these organizations have both negative and positive influences on the student body. Recently, the media has highlighted many negative aspects of these organizations, including the drinking culture, sexual lifestyle, and exclusiveness that they supposedly promote, making the topic of Greek life a controversial one. Due to fear of this type of negative publicity and the ways Greek life can negatively influence campus culture, university administrations across the country have begun to ban Greek life all together rather than search for solutions to these problems.

Bucknell University is a small, private, liberal arts college located in the town of Lewisburg, PA. Greek life, and sorority life in particular, is extremely popular on this campus. There are seven active sororities and ten active fraternities at Bucknell, which consist of sophomore, junior, and senior members. About 60% of Bucknell's student body is part of a Greek organization, and 500 women rushed in 2014.

As a sorority woman at Bucknell University, Greek life has become a very large part of both my friends' and my college experiences. Considering how many students are involved in Greek life on Bucknell's campus, the purpose of my study is to investigate the ways in which individuals feel Greek life impacts Bucknell's culture. Although I was interested in the strengths of sorority life, I especially focused on the weaknesses, for in

order to solve the issues they must first be identified. I sought out to hear from different perspectives, and to do this, I interviewed students that belong to different organizations. Since there are many differences between fraternity life and sorority life, I have decided to simply focus on the sororities at Bucknell. Considering Greek life's popularity across college campuses, this research may also help to solve the problems that other universities are also experiencing.

Supporting Literature Considering that Greek life has recently become such a popular topic in the

media, there has been much research conducted regarding the impacts of fraternities and sororities on campus life and culture. Some researchers have found that Greek life positively influences the student body and campus life. Martin, Hevel, and Pascarella (2012), were interested in the way in which sorority and fraternity involvement affects the development of a first-year college student's socially responsible leadership. They conducted their research at 24 colleges and universities, which varied from public to private, by size, region and student residential patterns. Their results showed that both fraternity and sorority members demonstrated significantly higher scores on two components of leadership than unaffiliated men or women.

These results were confirmed by Long (2012), who studied the effect of sorority and fraternity life on members' leadership, service, friendship and scholarship skills. This study was conducted at 15 universities located in the Southeast of the United States. The researcher used the AFA/EBI Fraternity/ Sorority Assessment, which was administered by each institution, to determine his results. Like, Martin, Hevel, and

Pascarella (2012), he found that respondents did experience gains related to leadership, as well as service and friendship. However, a more negative finding was related to the effects of Greek life on scholarship; Long found that members of sororities and fraternities did not experience gains related to scholarship. In response, he suggested that sororities and fraternities encourage their members to "spend more time preparing for class and developing study skills and career-related abilities."

One of the main widely perceived negative effects of Greek life is the way in which it affects the drinking culture of college campuses. A report by the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention noted the consequences of drinking on college campuses in 2008. They found that there are "1,700 college student deaths from alcohol-related causes; more than 500,000 unintentional injuries [due to alcohol]; more than 600,000 assaults [related to alcohol]; and more than 70,000 cases of sexual assault and acquaintance rape [associated with intoxication]." They attributed many of these consequences to the heavy drinking that they believe fraternities and sororities both engage in and promote. To combat these consequences, they offered multiple suggestions. They determined that Greek organizations should promote alcohol-and-drug-free social, extracurricular and service activities, as well as limit alcohol availability and access. They also proposed that these organizations work to promote a healthy lifestyle and social norms. In their report, however, the center does not provide suggestions for how to accomplish these different goals.

Unlike the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention, Huchting, Hummer, and LaBrie (2011), did not attribute the heavy drinking that occurs on college campuses to Greek life alone. They were interested in

comparing drinking behavior between athletes and members of fraternities and sororities. They had a sample of 1,541 students complete an online survey with questions related to drinking behavior. They found that athletes scored significantly higher than Greeks on conformity reasons for drinking. However, Greeks seemed to experience significantly more social problems from drinking. Overall, these researchers recognized and proved that the drinking culture on college campuses is not unique to Greek life.

Much of the current research regarding Greek life on university campuses, including the above articles, is quantitative and focused on the way in which Greek life affects individual skills, including scholarship and leadership, or alcohol consumption. I could not find any qualitative research at all. Therefore, none of the studies actually focused on the Greek individual experience and the problems that individuals suffer from. For example, none of the above studies focused on the way in which Greek life affects social hierarchies on campus or the way in which Greek life could be considered exclusive and elitist. These are two main problems that I, and others, have recognized within Greek life on Bucknell's campus. This has made me more aware of the need to conduct this study. Although the quantitative research is important, I feel that it is just as significant, if not more significant to truly get to the root of sorority life and what those involved believe are the most important problems. I believe that my study could greatly impact Bucknell's culture and also help other universities better understand the impact of sorority life on campus culture rather than just contribute to the statistics. Data Collection and Analysis

My data consisted of four interviews, with four different sorority women, and two observations, one of a joint sorority and fraternity philanthropy event and the other of a

talk given by the Associate Dean of Students at a sorority chapter meeting. All interviews were conducted in my house in Lewisburg, for comfort and convenience purposes, and ranged from 30 minutes to an hour long. The four women I interviewed, Bertha, Sasha, Brenda and Viola, are seniors at Bucknell University. Brenda and Sasha are members of Alpha Chi Omega who both rushed in the spring, while Bertha is a member of Alpha Delta Pi and Viola a member of Chi Omega, who both rushed in the fall. Brenda is an English major who is on Bucknell's dance team, is a dance TA, and also works at the writing center. Sasha is a psychology major and also the captain of the women's soccer team. Bertha is a global management major who works at housing services and is involved with the club soccer team. Viola is a psychology major who frequently volunteers at a local dog shelter.

I have analyzed my data in accordance with two theoretical frameworks. I am conducting this study from the perspective of that of a college student, immersed in Greek life, who is interested in learning about the way in which sorority life influences the college experience. Therefore, my theoretical framework is related to Chickering's theory of identity development, which states that "a person identifies himself with a group, that group becomes an anchor and a reference point. The values and behaviors approved by the group provide a background for developing individual attitudes and behaviors" (Kuh). Because my life is so immersed in my research, Chickering's theory very much applies to my study and theoretical framework. My theoretical framework is also related to that of Astin's. In Four Critical Years, Astin writes that "membership in social fraternities or sororities substantially affects the student's intellectual self-esteem, business interests, status needs, and hedonism (in particular, drinking). Fraternity or

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