No one should have to tell you that friendships are important. However, that fact might hit some of you in the face after landing at Northwestern along with thousands of other undergraduates, paired with a roommate you’ve never met, and forced to create connections far from home. I hope every one of you incoming freshmen can recognize the value in this glorious opportunity and form lasting bonds with as many great people as you can.
I am a proud member of the NU community and a proud brother of my social fraternity. I do not believe that being part of the Greek community is better than not being part of it, or vice versa. Your relationships are what you make them out to be, and it’s fine that you decide to focus on other things in your social life.
But during recruitment, we will devote a large part of our lives so that as many new undergraduates can go through the same experiences we went through. Many freshmen are at first creeped out by sophomores avidly taking male numbers down every weekend of fall quarter; sometimes it can be difficult for normal people to empathize with members as to why they love their chapter so much.
I understand that the Greek lifestyle is not normal by any definition of that word. But it disappoints me greatly to see some non-Greeks constantly play down the friendships Greeks form throughout the same college years, as if the bonds we were able to form are not as sacrosanct as theirs, as if there is a fundamental problem with wanting to be part of a 3,000-strong community, and as if that number somehow dilutes the quality of friendships we form.
Some say they “chose their friends” and we didn’t because we probably slipped and accidentally landed in our lifestyle, and some act as if the symbols and values we stand for are taken for granted at our houses.
Fraternity brothers sing the same chants, promote the same values, and wear the same letters. We learn to maintain their associations with positive meaning through social and philanthropy events. We are choosing to live with many of our closest friends, with whom we share an incredibly diverse multitude of experiences with.
Members of one fraternity respect what members of another fraternity stand for; this unites all of us into one great community. Chapters are each in charge of budgets around half a million dollars and learn to be responsible of their allocations.
We make sure to be always laying a better foundation for incoming classes of brothers. We have the motivational, financial, and academic resources to better the daily life of any student who wishes to be part of our world.
In arguing against fraternities and sororities, some people run the risk of ignoring many things that make our lives fulfilling. I didn’t think I will have the chance to join an institution like my fraternity in the future. Yes, some people have made bad decisions in the past as part of the Greek system. But with help from administration and alumni, most sensible NU students know what to make of it and what to take out of the experience into life after college.
