The McGill Tribune, McGill University Student Paper - September 13, 2005

It's Greek to McGill
What you've always wondered, but never known, about McGill's fraternities and sororities

by Genevieve Jenkins, The McGill Tribune

If you've seen Animal House or Old School, you probably think you know what Greek life is about: sex, beer and parties, preferably all at once. In the States, where students can't legally get their hands on alcohol until the ripe old age of 21, this sometimes may be the reality, especially when small towns offer scant alternative methods for student entertainment. Here in Montreal, however, with alcohol readily available to any student over 18 (arguably, at any age) and parties in every downtown club, the appeal is not quite the same. In fact, most preconceived notions of Greek life don't stand up against McGill's existing fraternities and sororities.

Despite my determination to keep an open mind about fraternity boys and sorority girls, I found myself expecting to interview the stereotypes. When I rang the bell of the Sigma Chi house, I half-expected to meet a hungover guy in a room full of empty beer bottles and passed out party-goers. I met, instead, chapter president Jake Kuster, who spends his free time singing with Soulstice Acapella, working at Royal Victoria Hospital in a genetics lab of the cardiology department and hanging out with his girlfriend. Where was the beer-guzzling, football-loving, womanizing, Cheeto-munching anticlimax of a human being I had expected?

Not one to be easily shaken from long-held beliefs, I went to the interview with Inter-Greek Letter Council (IGLC) president Jessica Jekkel and two McGill Panhellenic (of the Panhellenic National Conference) representatives, Adrienne Bingham and Jordana Dobski-Cohen, expecting the American media clichés: bitchy, overly made-up and air-headed sorority girls. Once again, these young women were anything but my imagined interviewees.

One is planning to start her own business soon after graduating, another spent the summer getting her real estate license, and the third was looking into careers in biochemistry. Much to my surprise, they wore little makeup, had their natural hair colors and were friendly and intelligent. I found myself guilty of prejudice, having succumbed to the images put forth by television and movies and the infamous few frat boys and sorority girls who have apparently ruined the image of Greek life forever.

Somehow, I doubt I'm alone with that guilt. Still, I can't help but wonder if these fresh faces and well-phrased thoughts aren't part of a perfectly planned ploy-the cover-up scam for a seedy underworld of raucous party-goers.

"What have we ever done?"

Aaron David, president of the McGill chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, one of the five largest fraternities in North America, has no doubt that the worst thing about being a "frat boy" is what other people think of him. "It's so annoying," he says. "During my whole four years, I've taken so much heat from all my friends, to the point that [being in a fraternity] is almost an embarrassment."

All of the Greek representatives I spoke with relayed the same feeling. The only negative experience they attributed to being part of sororities or fraternities was the response from their non-Greek friends.

"What have we ever done to anybody?" David asked, clearly irritated with this general sentiment

The shady past

So what exactly have the sororities and fraternities done? It's not so much their philanthropic activities or social outings that seem to have gotten under everyone's skin. Instead, many non-Greek students look at the shady past of fraternities-the complaints of sexual offence registered against Zeta Psi in 1988 and the 2003 fire in the Phi Delta Theta house, for instance-and see those incidents as permanent stains on the present reputation of Greek organizations. Of course, logic would dictate the unimportance of these events: The frat boys accused of sexual offence are likely (though Old School might make us think otherwise) no longer here at McGill and those who contributed to the 2003 accidental fire are only a few among many. Why, then, are we all so willing to jump to conclusions and let a miserable reputation stand for McGill's sororities and fraternities?

Buying your friends

One of the most frequently touted stereotypes about Greek life is that belonging to a fraternity or sorority is equivalent to buying one's friends. Regardless of what they do, members of Greek organizations are thought of as paying dues in exchange for a permanent group, all of which wear sweatshirts emblazoned with unintelligible, brightly coloured letters and form a tight, impenetrable posse of girls or guys who will intermingle with each other, but never with non-Greek. According to Jekkel, "[T]his is the biggest misconception: that we're cliquey, that we're close-minded, or that we exist as this big, intimidating unit."

"You're not paying money for friends; you're paying for activities," says Dobski-Cohen. And, in the long run, what makes this so different from a sports team or a school club? We've allowed athletic teams to charge fees for participation without a disparaging nod, and activities' fees are typical for the majority of campus clubs. Where and why have we drawn the line?

What they get out of it

At this point, you may wonder: Why, if admitting one's affiliation with a Greek organization brings so much "heat," would anyone still want to belong to a fraternity or sorority? Chris Alford, U3 Management, is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. "From a business standpoint," he says, "you gain alumni connections... [but] my favourite thing is that it's a brotherhood... a group of guys who are gentlemen."

This gentlemanliness is required of most fraternity brothers. Greek organizations hold members to codes of ethics and typically have academic standards for all members to ensure their good standing within the university.

Kuster answered, "My particular frat focuses on building leadership skills and character development. It's fulfilling when you see things being accomplished and you know you played a large part."

The other Greek life leaders name leadership possibilities as one of the most important aspects of their experience, but there are many other things to be gleaned from Greek involvement.

Networking, leadership skills, a diverse social group, academic help, community service opportunities and the chance to enjoy yourself at organized parties throughout the year are all benefits of joining Greek life. In exchange for these benefits, members of Greek organizations pay dues typically ranging from $200 to $400 per semester and spend varying amounts of time organizing or partaking in events.

Breaking with tradition

At McGill, a school notorious for low student involvement in Greek life, most of us won't come to grips with the reality of our fraternities or sororities and are content to let old ideas stand. Even if we won't admit our ignorance about the subject and feel ourselves to be experts after a few sessions of MTV's Fraternity Life there is actually very little we know or understand about Greek life at McGill without having experienced it. Most of the Greek representatives I spoke with had no intention of joining a sorority or fraternity in their first year.

Each of them, however, decided to experience life as a Greek before discounting the possibility. Without the experience, David says, it's difficult to know what you're missing (or not). Our ideas can sometimes be so stale from the lack of fresh thought on the subject that no one has any real perspective. As Bingham puts it, "[When someone calls us close-minded] sometimes I have to turn it around and ask: who's being close-minded?"