With horror stories about the danger of fraternities in respected outlets like The Atlantic, schools may feel the need to crack down on their Greek life systems – but Cornell University’s experience suggests it will backfire.
The Cornell Daily Sun reports the student government voted for an investigation of the school’s “quarter system,” created in 2011 to regulate and limit freshman contact with Greeks – alcohol-free, of course – and spread out the recruitment timeline.
The problem is everyone’s boozing everywhere else:
A “large portion of social activity has moved both behind closed doors and off campus entirely” to places such as Collegetown, according to the Cameron Pritchett ’15, president of the Interfraternity Council. These environments, according to Pritchett, tend to be of a higher risk because “event management guidelines are not necessarily followed.”
“When events take place on campus, in fraternity houses, bodies such as the IFC can regulate to ensure sober monitors are in place, no hard alcohol is present. The same is not possible off campus events,” Pritchett said. …
Panhellenic Council President Erika Whitestone ’15 added that the quarter system makes it difficult for freshmen to learn about fraternities and sororities. Additionally, she said parties in Collegetown can be “extremely unsafe since no event management guidelines are followed.”
“It is important for freshman to experience Cornell and have time to decide if Greek life is for them, which is why we have deferred recruitment. But the quarter system isolates the Greek System,” Whitestone said.
According to Pritchett, there was huge freshmen turnout for new “late night programming” offered by Greeks when the school approved it this semester, months earlier than the quarter system allows.
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