Running head: Literature Review

Literature Review
Greek Life
Jonathan Pacheco
The University of Texas at El Paso
Rhetoric & Composition 2
Paul Vierra
October 14, 2015

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Abstract
This literature review will go on to analyze many sources that provide information about
fraternities, sororities and any other organization involved with Greek life. These sources will be
put into argument and conversation with each other to explain what Greek life really brings to
campus life and the community.

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Introduction
Greek life involvement has for a while now been a controversial issue to universities,
parents and students entering college. Each of all the three groups think that there is an issue with
Greek life and each have their own interpretation of what a fraternity or sorority is and what they
are involved in. This paper will guide you through and out of the stereotypes there are about
fraternities and sororities and explain what Greek life has to offer to each of those groups.
For such stereotypes to be proven wrong fraternities and sororities both have to be
analyzed for what they have done, what they provide, and what they advocate. These areas will
be forced to study by the research questions that follow:

What do communities and colleges gain from Greek Life?

Are there differences between a student involved in Greek life, and one who is
not?

What gives people a misleading impression on fraternities??

What role does Greek Life play at UTEP?

The purpose of this literature review and these research questions being answered is to inform
Universities who have not allowed Greek involvement, parents with students entering college,
and students entering college, a real overview of what fraternities and sororities really stand for.
What do communities and colleges gain from Greek Life?
Since fraternities first started in December 5, 1776, their goal was to get important
matters done in an orderly fashion. Fraternities were meant for students to connect at
Universities and help build skills that would help you enter the real life, and help improve and
get involved in the community and with the university. Also fraternities and sororities are the
largest group in the U.S. dedicated to serving its community with many different services. Greek

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life for the university provides an opportunity for students to adjust to college life more
smoothly. Also provides connection to the community and to
real world situations to obtain desirable jobs or information. Last but not least Greek life
provides community services to the community to help it improve and keep involved with the
city.
Fraternities and sororities provide students with a community that assembles and
organizes events with a group of pears that only they decide whether or not they get to join.
Grafflin (1952) points out, how very organized these fraternities can get, even if it is just an
assembly made up of students. Grafflin illustrates, upon the work of the four commissions and
the committees of the fraternity (p. 46). In this particular instance a fraternity is gathering for a
certain event to help improve the structure of fraternity involvement and essentially to improve it
as a whole. This type of environment provides students involved with a reflective process of how
businesses operate and help them improve social and planning skills. Sure a fraternities/sororities
have different goals aside from those of businesses but the way they operate are very much
alike. Students can benefit from this if their major is business management of some sort, because
they already have an idea of how things get organized and done, also have developed social skills
with the fraternities and sororities that have helped them improve their understanding of how
business meeting are ran, and how to communicate with people. Communicating with people is
another way Greek life benefits a student, further more connecting with Grafflin, Bohrnstedt
(1962) believed that fraternities directly contribute to the attainment of a desirable job. (p. 42).
Grafflin and Borhnstedt both believe that the assembly and structure that fraternities have give its
members important skills in running meetings and a group of people with the same goals. These
skills in term help a student obtain a desirable job and the social tendencies they picked up in the

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fraternity help them get through the job smoothly. Although in this particular study the test prove
to be stereotypical because it is not the fraternity or sorority who obtains the job rather the
student. A student involved in Greek life or not would both be able to manage to obtain the same
job only if they meet the requirements. But the way Greek life does help and obtaining a
desirable job in a much faster and simpler way, is by connections. First of all being that
fraternities provide their members with numerous opportunities to become involved with people
of very different backgrounds (Cotter, 1972, p. 5). They involve students with many different
people around the community with community services and give their members a chance to meet
someone they may be interested in working, learning, or even just talking to which in turn helps
them with whatever they are studying. Another way connections are possible is that fraternities
and sororities have a long list of members, members that have already graduated and have their
own jobs as. These members can help any other student members looking to do perhaps what
theyre doing, do just that.
Fraternities and sororities have often been involved in helping the community,
fraternities are involved in social service projects of all types (p. 5), whether it be picking up
trash for a highway or volunteer services for charity events of fundraising events. Universities
have teamed up with many Greek life groups and other groups to organize day/s where every
group does their part of service for the community. At the University of Texas at El Paso such
event is called Project Move. Such services also become competitive between all the members
and groups involved Greek life, community service hours for each of all the groups are recorded
and are used as friendly competition between them.
Are there differences between a student involved in Greek life, and a student who isnt or wasnt?

Students coming into college life have often struggled to adjust to the new schedules,
work, and overall the way college works. Fraternities and Sororities have made it a point to

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speak to incoming freshman and help them adjust to college life smoothly. There are many
differences between Greek life students and non-Greek life students over the time of college and
in the future. First being students that pledge any fraternity or sorority seem to better adjust to
college life, second grades usually tend to be better than those who arent, and lastly tend to
obtain higher paid and desirable jobs.
To show some of those differences by example I conducted an interview on a student
whole has been involved in a fraternity and student who hasnt. Keep In mind that in this
particular instance the interviews where narrowed down to two people and may there have been
a larger group of people the results could have shown a difference in comparison to each. The
two interviewees that were chosen for this experiment where part of the band at El Dorado High
School with me and graduated in the same year. The reason these two particular people where fit
for this interview is because I wanted to choose students who were, motivated, smart, and good
students throughout high school, and where somewhat alike. Anthony Zavala the student who did
not get involved with Greek life upon entering college, during high school was part of the chess
club, received various awards in band and solo competitions, was the drum major his senior year,
and also for the most part maintained a high GPA throughout high school. Jorge Dominguez a
student who did get involved with Greek life upon entering high school also received various
awards in band and solo competitions, was a section leader since his sophomore year in the band,
and also maintained a high GPA during high school. As you can see both students are motivated
and show a promising future in college. The first question that was asked to the each of them is:
How much new friends did you make your first semester of college?

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Now this question is simple and other than being a study of the difference between
groups, would only prove which of the two have better social skills. Here are both of their
responses:
Anthony Zavala: Well for the most part in my classes I would talk to the few people
who would sit around me.
Jorge Dominguez: In the beginning of the semester I started pledging Omega Delta Phi
and I became good friends with my pledge class throughout the weeks, I also go close to mhy big
brother and the rest of the brothers in the fraternity. It was pretty cool because when I was
struggling in my Math for Social Sciences class my big brother helped me study and get me
ready for tests."
As you can see Anthony Zavala was not as fortunate as Jorge Dominguez and did not
much interactions with any other students attending college, other than the ones sitting around
him in class. This shows the social differences both students faced upon entering college and
Jorge at the end of the day adjusted better socially than Anthony. The second question that was
asked was:
How well did you adjust to the work and assignments given to you in college
classes?
This question will go to show how well each student adjusted academically. Here is each
of their responses:
AZ: I didnt manage to obtain the minimum GPA and was put on academic probation
my second semester.
JD: My Prospective member educator for my pledge class would ask us each to take at
least 6 study hours out of the week to work, or study for a test
As you can see Anthony took a turn for the worst in academics. Had he had the a person
like Jorges PME to push him to dedicate more time to his studies maybe his GPA wouldnt have
dropped so low and been able to avoid academic probation.
These are only two of the many questions I asked each of them as you can see Jorges
college experience proved favorable from that of Anthonys. Jorge had no trouble adjusting to
social life at college because of the wide net of groups Greek life has and how much they are all

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involved socially with each other. Also Jorge had people to guide him through his first semester
and showed him a bit of time management in order to keep his GPA up. The fraternity provided
the resources and ideas to insure success in college all Jorge had to do was use and follow the
ideas wisely to his benefit. A similar study was done by Carol Stone about females involved in a
sorority during college and females who were not, and the results were for the most part similar.
It has been shown that the sorority girls showed some advantages over the non-sorority girls in
the home, social and emotional adjustment as measured by the Bell Inventory (Stone, 1951, p.
538). Stone provide that information at the conclusion of his study done on Sorority Status and
Personality Adjustment. Further proving that Greek life groups are helpful to college life
adjustment. A similar study was also conducted by Homer L. Bradshaw and Richard Kahoe
(1967) showing the difference between the two on academic standing. The study showed
significant differentiation in GPA between the Greek and non-Greek groups actually occurs the
second semester of freshmen year (the semester in which rush-activities occur) (Bradshaw &
Kahoe, p. 62). This proves that because Greek life members had a positive motivator to get
good grades while non-Greek life members didnt, Greek life members academic standing was at
the end of the day higher.
What gives people a misleading impression on fraternities?
Fraternities and Sororities all over the U.S. have in several cases been the blame of any
illegal or problematic actions taken place while they were involved or around. Kim Bellware
(2015) from the Huffington post reported a recent incident where a couple of members were
involved in such action and the entire fraternity was punished. People have also been misled to
think that fraternities and sororities are distracting to students from the real purpose of college.
What doesnt seem reasonable about these stereotypical accusations is that whether or not a

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student is involved in Greek life or not, the actions he or she takes should be on his or her head
and they should be responsible for the consequences. Greek life members should not have to
suffer for a stupid mistake one person commits. The main issue Greek life groups have received
these accusations is because of campus rape and hazing towards its members, both which actions
can be conducted by anyone and without the influence of anyone else.
As far as rapes that occur on campus most recorded ones have taken place at fraternity
and sorority housing, you can see that it is easy to point the finger at such organizations for such
crimes. What people overlook that for such action to take place it only take one person to do it or
a small group , that doesnt necessarily mean the whole organization was involved in the crime.
Patricia Martin and Robert A. Hummer (1989) looked into such cases and concluded that little
research has analyzed fraternities at American colleges as rape prone context Most of the
research on fraternities reports on samples of individual fraternity men (Martin & Hummer, p.
457). Key word being INDIVIDUAL, most of these problems occur upon the action of one
member or a few not the entire organization, so why is the whole Greek life community being
punished to and stereotyped to be the cause of such actions.
As far as hazing goes Johnson (2011) points out that in many organizations, sports teams
and groups undergo such circumstances, and that is part of the norm and tradition all the
members go through. There is one simple way of avoiding getting hazed and that is simply to not
try and join the organizations, or teams. If a person cant handle what it takes to be in a group
then not joining is the simplest solution, at the end of the day you are the only person who puts
him or herself in that situation. There have been many instances where such hazing activities
have gotten out of hand and certain fraternities have been punished and either suspended or
expelled from the university. A hazing case occurred here at the UTEP campus, a fraternity that I

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will not be named was suspended for seven years due to higher level brothers forcing their
pledge class to drink and embarrassing them while they were intoxicated. In this case it was right
for just that one fraternity to get suspended because not all of the Greek life organization was
involved.
At the end of the day the Greek life organizations should not have to deal with
stereotypical accusations made because one student or one fraternity took part in illegal or
troubling acts. The only people that should be punished are those who had a part in such actions
What role does Greek Life play at UTEP?
Greek life seems to play a big role at UTEP, many members of the faculty and staff are
directly involved with the sororities and fraternities. Walter L. Wallace (1967) went more in dept
with such structure. Basically Walter explains that coming into college there are two major
groups that stand out the biggest, those being the faculty and fraternities. Faculty is meant to
organize the student structure and basically control how the school runs, while fraternities on the
other hand help with adjustment to school and help members improve their social skills, both
prepare you for the real world (Walter, p. 648).
Having faculty members involve with the fraternity and sororities on campus serves a
safe keeping from the groups getting into trouble or acting on blind sides that can eventually get
them into trouble. Daniel L. Grant gives an example of where a faculty member at a university is
involved with the fraternity and plays a specific role. The praeceptor should be vested with no
authority other than arising out of his own maturity and superiority (Grant, 1932, p 259). Such a
member exist at one of UTEPs most successful fraternity, Omega Delta Phi. This fraternity has a
faculty member, Craig Thompson, who is in charge of most students work-study programs
during college, but to the fraternity serves as an advisor of what to do and what not to do. Craig

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also in the long term gets involved personally with many of the activities the fraternity organizes
and does to keep them out of trouble.
This structure in terms helps most of the brothers in the fraternity because Craig is
directly involved with work-study and serves as a reliable resource to any of the brothers that are
looking to enter a work-study program. And at the end of the day insuring the success of one
member as a student.
Conclusion
July 4, 1776, is celebrated as the beginning of the American experiment in government
of the people, by the people, and for the people. December 5, 1776 brought forth something quite
similar in the realm of student life (Johnson, 1972, p. 3). Since 1776 important groups like U.S.
government got together to declare Independence Day, students showed the same initiative as our
countries great leaders and created their own organization at universities for themselves to get
important matters handled as well, and also show their importance to college life.
In conclusion Greek life groups such as fraternities and sororities have a lot to offer the
community, the university and students entering college life. These groups show great benefits to
students and guide them through a promising life during college and promising future.

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References
Bohrnstedt, G. W. (1969). Social mobility aspirations and fraternity membership. The Sociological
Quarterly, 10(1), 42-52.

Bradshaw, H. L., & Kahoe, R. (1967). Differential effects of fraternity and sorority membership upon
academically promising students. The Journal of Educational Research, 61(2), 62-64.

Carol Larson Stone. (1951). Sorority status and personality adjustment. American Sociological
Review, 16(4), 538-541.

Cotter, G. W. (1972). Fraternity mentality. Change, 4(4), p. 5.

Eshet, A. (1981). Fraternity. The Review of Metaphysics, 35(1), 27-44.

Fox, E., Hodge, C., & Ward, W. (1987). A comparison of attitudes held by black and white fraternity
members. The Journal of Negro Education, 56(4), 521-534.

Grafflin, D. G. (1952). Fraternity news and statistics. The Phi Delta Kappan, 34(1), 45-48.

Grant, D. L. (1932). Leadership in the fraternity. The Journal of Higher Education, 3(5), 257-261.

Johnson, J. (2011). Through the liminal: A comparative analysis of communitas and rites of passage in
sport hazing and initiations. The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers Canadiens De
Sociologie, 36(3), 199-227.

Lindquist, R. D., & Patty, W. W. (1934). Fraternity facts and policies. The Phi Delta Kappan, 17(1), 2-4.

Martin, P. Y., & Hummer, R. A. (1989). Fraternities and rape on campus. Gender and Society, 3(4,
Special Issue: Violence against Women), 457-473.

Pike, G. R. (2000). The influence of fraternity or sorority membership on students' college experiences
and cognitive development. Research in Higher Education, 41(1, AIR Forum Issue), 117-139.

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Stannard, C. I., & Bowers, W. J. (1970). The college fraternity as an opportunity structure for meeting
academic demands. Social Problems, 17(3), 371-390.

Wallace, W. L. (1967). Faculty and fraternities: Organizational influences on student achievement.

Administrative Science Quarterly, 11(4, Special Issue on Universities as Organizations), 643-670.

Campo S., G. Poulos, and J.W. Sipple. 2005. Prevalence and profiling: Hazing among college students
and points of intervention. American Journal of Health Behavior 29(2):13749.

Primary Resource: Interview conducted by Jonathan Pacheco Interviewees: Anthony Zavala & Jorge
Dominguez (October 17, 2015)

Secondary Source: Book: Clyde Sanfred Johnson Fraternities in our Colleges By Clyde Sanfred
Johnson Ch. 3 Pg. 18 pp. 2 1972

Secondary Source: Book: Clyde Sanfred Johnson Fraternities in our Colleges By Clyde Sanfred
Johnson Ch. 2 Pg. 12 pp. 3 1972