As I've said before, the colleges where greek life isn't really that big a deal - like Swarthmore - often have the worst frats. Or at least, the most fratty frats. It's remarkable that they both voted to disband themselves. I wonder if there's some kind of legal liability angle.
Did I mention that I was in the jury pool for one of the frat guys that was charged with various crimes related to the kid here who died in a frat after getting really drunk and falling down stairs? Anyway, he pled out right before the jury was to be selected so we went home. A few of those guys are going to spend some time in jail and that frat will never be allowed back to Penn State. It's also prompted some badly needed reforms - basically, the university finally decided to take governance and policing out of the hands of the IFC and create its own enforcement office which will be paid for by fraternity dues. Long overdue move, but it took a disaster to show just how bad things had become and to create the political will to do that.
Needless to say, "what to do about the frats" has been local political issue for about 120 years. "Just get rid of them" has never really a live political option, but it's getting closer to being one. Under the zoning laws, only frats that are recognized by the university can occupy a big house with that many people. So when they get in trouble and are de-recognized, they have to leave. I believe there are ways they can sell it to another frat or hold onto it until they somehow get off probation, but at least a few are having to sell to other kinds of users and there's some controversy about what other uses those houses should be zoned for. One of them turned into an eye-doctor's office. One is going to be a sorority. A few are empty or for sale without a clear future. But its clear that a lot of people, both townies and students, would like to see them disappear completely.
As I've said before, my feeling is that it's one of those "can't stop it, you can only hope to contain it" issues. The frat system gives the universities more enforcement leverage than they'd have if all this kind of thing was just happening in off-campus apartments - and a lot of it does happen there too. The universities have not generally used that leverage as well as they could, largely because so many administrators, board members, and alums want to protect the Greek system that they were a part of. The US is not particularly unusual in that regard. White privilege, innit.
Did I mention that I was in the jury pool for one of the frat guys that was charged with various crimes related to the kid here who died in a frat after getting really drunk and falling down stairs? Anyway, he pled out right before the jury was to be selected so we went home. A few of those guys are going to spend some time in jail and that frat will never be allowed back to Penn State. It's also prompted some badly needed reforms - basically, the university finally decided to take governance and policing out of the hands of the IFC and create its own enforcement office which will be paid for by fraternity dues. Long overdue move, but it took a disaster to show just how bad things had become and to create the political will to do that.
Needless to say, "what to do about the frats" has been local political issue for about 120 years. "Just get rid of them" has never really a live political option, but it's getting closer to being one. Under the zoning laws, only frats that are recognized by the university can occupy a big house with that many people. So when they get in trouble and are de-recognized, they have to leave. I believe there are ways they can sell it to another frat or hold onto it until they somehow get off probation, but at least a few are having to sell to other kinds of users and there's some controversy about what other uses those houses should be zoned for. One of them turned into an eye-doctor's office. One is going to be a sorority. A few are empty or for sale without a clear future. But its clear that a lot of people, both townies and students, would like to see them disappear completely.
As I've said before, my feeling is that it's one of those "can't stop it, you can only hope to contain it" issues. The frat system gives the universities more enforcement leverage than they'd have if all this kind of thing was just happening in off-campus apartments - and a lot of it does happen there too. The universities have not generally used that leverage as well as they could, largely because so many administrators, board members, and alums want to protect the Greek system that they were a part of. The US is not particularly unusual in that regard. White privilege, innit.
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