I’ve never been interested in joining a fraternity. Outside of friends and family, I have no ties to the Greek system.

But as an outsider, I’ve consistently been impressed by the Greek model. If you started from scratch, you could not develop a better organizational structure to promote college success.

Fraternities and sororities vary in mission and purpose. But the essence of the model focuses on the best of the university experience. Greek chapters aim to develop leadership skills, serve the community through service and projects, promote bonds and friendship between like-
minded and driven students, and support academic endeavors. Basically, everything about the Greek system is geared toward social, academic and professional success. As a result, Greeks rate their college experience as better than non-Greeks, and they graduate in higher percentages.

In the end, the Greek model fosters success and self-betterment for the same reason that a street gang promotes failure. Gang members become acculturated to a criminal lifestyle where their peers and mentors encourage negative behaviors and a dead-end life trajectory. A fraternity or sorority is pretty much exactly the opposite: It’s upward assimilation in an environment where your peers are statistically more likely than other students to enjoy college, graduate and have professional success.

Statistics on Greeks’ performance are probably overly cited and all-too-familiar to anyone who has seen a recruitment sign. But just to recap, the vast majority of presidents, Fortune 500 CEOs, senators, congressmen, Supreme Court justices and presidential Cabinet members were Greek.

And much of one’s professional career path depends on networking — sororities and fraternities are probably the most sophisticated networking organizations college students can join.

Sure, there’s the perception that fraternity guys belong to a mainstream clique, an extended version of the high-school popularity contest. Sororities have plenty of common stereotypes, many of them bad. I have nothing to add to this conversation, except to say the common
clichés strongly underestimate the value of the Greek model.

Then there’s the argument that the Greek system enables an atmosphere of partying and substance abuse. While Greeks tend to have slightly higher rates of alcohol use and drug use, it appears that this is more an augmentation of the college culture in general. Without endorsing any of those behaviors, I think an increase in substance abuse probably occurs among many college students who belong to a tight-knit, socially active community.

While my case isn’t really relevant, my praise for the Greek system might beg the question of why I didn’t rush. My lack of interest is mostly due to my background and personality — I like my independence, and I prefer to spend my time on other endeavors. I think going Greek is, by all means, a positive choice, but it clearly is for the minority of students. Most colleges will never see a significantly high Greek population, and I don’t think the model works if it’s applied to a large segment of the student body.

But I have a lot of respect for an organizational structure that has more than proven itself as a productive and worthwhile component of the American university.

At ASU, our Greek system strengthens us. And aside from the occasional negative publicity, or the stalled progress in any direction on Alpha Drive, for the most part, Greeks make ASU look good.

Reach Matt at matt.culbertson@asu.edu.