On Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012, I walked into the Zeta Beta Tau house a clueless 18-year-old. It was less than 72 hours since I had accepted my bid to ZBT, and at this point, I had no idea what I was in for.
During my freshman fall, upperclassmen, fellow freshmen, parents and administrators gave me mixed reviews of Greek life at Northwestern. Some people told me fraternities were social clubs, some told me they were student groups and some told me joining a fraternity was the best decision they made at NU.
I knew nothing. I knew almost no one and I did not know what I wanted. I was a freshman trying to find my place at NU and thought I would give fraternities a shot.
At 5 p.m. sharp, then-president Jon Rosenberg (Medill ’13), struck down a gavel. All 120 brothers around me shut up.
Announcements began. Brothers started advertising their drama and musical performances for the week. Open discussion followed, as upperclassmen spoke about such topics as dues and dishwashing.
I witnessed my first election. Two brothers made two-minute speeches on their plea for the position of risk manager. The chapter asked the candidates questions for three minutes and sent the candidates downstairs during a five-minute open discussion period. I took part in the secret ballot vote that followed and the victor was awarded the position.
This was my “holy crap, fraternities are a whole lot more than a social club” moment. For me, my first chapter meeting showed me fraternities, and Greek life as a whole, is a lot more complex and responsible than it may appear on the surface.
As the current president of ZBT, I will be in Rosenberg’s shoes this Sunday. When the fraternity holds its first chapter meeting of the winter with new members, I will have the opportunity to give them their “holy crap” moment.
Over the past couple months (and to a larger extent, the last two years), I have been reminded not all of campus has experienced a “holy crap” moment involving Greek life. Heck, if I did not join a chapter, I probably would not have experienced such a moment either.
But I did and here I am. And I want people to get the facts right before judging fraternities.
In certain sects of North America, fraternities have had a bad rap since the middle of the twentieth century. It is very easy to tune Greek life out as nothing more than an outlet for organized partying. It is very easy to see Greek letters as tiers in a social hierarchy.
It is also very naïve to view Greek life as a social club featuring over one-third of NU’s undergraduate student body. It takes ignoring all of the positives of Greek life to accept that assumption. Unfortunately, some students, administrators and readers of recent NU Greek life-related content have chosen to oversee the positives and jump to solely negative conclusions.
There are the obvious pros. Part of being in a modern NU fraternity means embracing the idea of philanthropy and community service. As NU students, we understand the blessed opportunity we have at one of the world’s top institutions and we recognize the need to give back. According to the Fraternity and Sorority Life page on NU’s website, NU fraternities average $181.61 of philanthropy per member and 12 hours of community service per member (both per quarter).
For NU’s premier philanthropic event of 2013, NU Dance Marathon, $487,488 of the $1,214,632 raised came courtesy of Greek organizations. On a personal level, I was part of the Delta Gamma/Zeta Beta Tau team that raised $134,842. I can assure everyone I take a whole lot more pride in raising over $134K for the Danny Did Foundation and other charitable organizations than I do for any party. Anyone who believes otherwise should think twice.
As for the argument that fraternities do not stimulate any educational benefit, how can the Greek life GPA be explained? Last spring, NU’s all-Greek GPA of 3.43 stood above the campus average of 3.40. This is not to mention that one in three fraternity men had a GPA above 3.65. It is also impossible to ignore nearly every Greek chapter has an academic chair to help stimulate a high GPA within the organization. Most chapters have a scholarship chair as well.
Go to the homecoming parade and look at the floats. Go to an intramural venue and see who shows up. Go to a speaker or a performance and see who is a sponsor. Go to Project Pumpkin and see who is running a booth.
Go to any national Greek life conference (university-wide Greek life or individual chapters) and see what the rest of the country thinks of NU Greek life. NU’s campus sets the standard.
Perhaps the most meaningful parts of Greek life are the scenes outsiders do not witness. Take the chapter meetings I mention above. No one outside of my fraternity sees over 100 dudes in my house running an organized meeting for an hour each week (not to mention staying focused with dinner looming).
This past reading week, I started a conversation with Omega Delta Phi President Zachary Kisfalusi (Weinberg ’14) at approximately 10:30 p.m. Omega Delta Phi is part of the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) and it does not have a designated house on campus. ZBT is an Interfraternity Council (IFC)-recognized chapter and I live in the on-campus residence.
When Zach and I looked at the clock what felt like a few minutes later and saw it was 1:30 a.m., we came to a consensus. We wish people could understand the everyday parts of Greek life. We wish people could see us eating meals together in our kitchens. We wish people could see us huddled around the TV for football games on Sunday. We wish people could see when a brother gets dumped by his significant other and 10 brothers rush to his side to comfort him. We wish people could see when we go to a brother’s improv show to give him support.
There are no statistics for this stuff. You will have to take our word for it. It sounds cliché, but you cannot measure friendship.
Is Greek life perfect? No, by no means.
There is no denying many fraternities have made mistakes in the last few years, and these organizations have paid the price through punishments, some of which have included expulsion. The university has done its part judging fraternities in a respectful, fair and organized manner. The system has been and continues to be a structural success. To go along with this, NU Greek organizations are lucky enough to have a full-time office with full-time employees (NU OFSL), who work tirelessly to continue progressing the Greek community.
With recruitment week on our hands, let us put Greek life in perspective. As a presence on campus, Greek life provides many relationships and opportunities NU students may not have without fraternities and sororities. There is an endless list of positives Greek life brings to its members and the NU community as a whole.
It is easy to wag a finger at American Greek life and, recently, NU Greek life. It is more accurate to analyze the pros and cons of Greek organizations on NU’s campus and weigh both sides of the coin. I guarantee anyone who puts in the effort to learn about Greek life at NU from reliable sources will be proud to be a part of a university with such strong and influential organizations.
From my own experiences, I take pride in being part of an organization that has made my college experience. In life, we will hopefully all hold careers, make relationships, start families, absorb knowledge and garner a series of other checkpoints. From these “things” we will select a series to be our priorities in life.
For me, making my chapter a priority was a no-brainer. The relationships I have made, the leadership opportunities I have held and the group accomplishments I have been a part of are experiences I honestly believe I could not have amassed outside of NU Greek life.
This is why becoming president of my chapter was so important to me. This is why I will always remember the first chapter meeting I have with the new members on Sunday even if I will not remember the finals I took last month or the homework I will do this week.
Not every NU student will have a “holy crap” moment with Greek life. I get that. I am not asking people to join and love Greek life. I am not asking everyone to have a “holy crap” Greek life moment.
I just ask this campus to respect those who do.
Jeffrey Eisenband is a Medill junior and the president of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. He can be reached at jeffreyeisenban
