Every few years, a wave of high-profile assault cases hits the news cycle and suddenly everyone's got an opinion about whether fraternities should exist at all. The ABC News story making rounds right now is the latest version of that conversation - calls to shut down frat houses entirely as public anger over rape cases grows louder. I've heard this argument before. I've sat in Panhellenic council meetings where the exact same pressure was bleeding over into how we handled our own policies, our own relationships with IFC chapters, our own event approval processes. And I'll say what I said then: closing houses doesn't close the problem. ... Read more

Indiana University is now investigating three more fraternities for hazing. Three more. That's not a blip - that's a pattern, and the school is gonna have a hard time framing this as isolated incidents when they keep stacking up like this. ... Read more

The Wall Street Journal ran a piece this week that a lot of people in Greek life governance have been quietly dreading. A rape case at Cornell. A university that had recently softened its stance toward fraternities. And a story that asks, out loud, whether colleges made a mistake by pulling back from the harder line on Greek organizations. If you've sat on a Panhellenic council or watched an IFC try to self-govern, you already know where this is headed. ... Read more

Nobody told me that the GPA you earn in your first semester follows you around like a shadow for the next four years. I mean, people say stuff like "work hard" and "don't fall behind" during orientation week, but that's not the same thing as actually understanding what a 2.6 in your first semester costs you two years later. I found out the hard way, and then I found out again when I joined a chapter as a sophomore and watched the same thing play out for a bunch of new members who had no idea what they were walking into. ... Read more

Recruitment chairs are great at a lot of things. Giving you a realistic budget breakdown before you sign your bid card is not one of them. I found out what my fraternity actually cost me around three weeks into pledging, when I opened my member portal for the first time and sat with my jaw on the floor staring at a number I had not mentally prepared for. Nobody lied to me exactly. They just... didn't volunteer the full picture. ... Read more

A former fraternity leader at Northern Arizona University just got sentenced to jail time after a pledge died from alcohol poisoning during a hazing incident. The case got national coverage - Fox News, Yahoo, AZ Family, the Arizona Republic, the Independent. When a story hits that many outlets, it means people outside Greek life are watching, forming opinions, and making up their minds about what fraternities are. I used to be one of those people. Now I'm not. And I think that actually matters for how I read this story. ... Read more

Nobody talks about what it actually feels like to watch your chapter go on academic probation. Not the official statement from your IFC rep, not the email from your advisor, not the campus newspaper brief. I mean the real thing - sitting in a chapter meeting where the mood is completely different and everyone's looking at each other like they already know the conversation is gonna be uncomfortable. That's where I want to start. ... Read more

I showed up to my first fraternity social as a sophomore pledge not knowing basically anything. I'd spent my freshman year as a GDI, going to whatever events I heard about through the dorm group chat, showing up with whoever was free. It was fine. But Greek socials are a different thing entirely, and nobody hands you a manual. You're just supposed to know. ... Read more

Every few semesters, some op-ed drops claiming Greek life is on its last legs. Universities are pulling recognition, national organizations are merging chapters, enrollment is supposedly tanking. And people share it like it's breaking news. But I've spent years watching how Panhellenic councils actually operate - the bylaws debates, the recruitment numbers, the chapter reviews - and I'm here to tell you that the obituary being written for Greek life is wrong. Not slightly off. Wrong. ... Read more

So Lafayette College quietly moved Greek life back under Residence Life, and apparently nobody in charge wants to talk about it. No press conference, no detailed statement, no explanation of what this actually means for chapters on campus. Just a bureaucratic shuffle and a whole lot of silence. If you've spent any time in a fraternity or sorority, you already know exactly what that silence means. ... Read more

You have made one of the biggest decisions of your life to go to college. Congratulations! However, that’s not the only decision that you’ll have to make when it comes to college life. Another important decision that you’ll probably make is the decision to go Greek in college. Greek life has lots of benefits to offer to its members – opportunities to build a network, social/community activities to participate in, a strong brotherhood bond to maintain, and many more!  However, one of the biggest challenges college guys face at the beginning of their Greek life is choosing the right fraternity for themselves.... Read more

Every fraternity house has one. A shared drive, a binder on a shelf, a folder in someone's email chain - years of old exams, professor-specific notes, highlighted study guides passed down like they're sacred texts. And the weird thing is, almost nobody talks about it openly. Not the brothers who use it, not the advisors who probably know it exists, not the university offices that would rather look the other way. The test bank is one of Greek life's open secrets, and I think it's time somebody actually said something real about it. ... Read more

Onward State put together a running compilation of every Greek life scandal at Penn State, and honestly, reading through it feels like scrolling through a highlight reel that nobody asked for. It's long. It's messy. And if you've spent any time inside a chapter, some of it is going to make you uncomfortable in a very specific, recognizable way. ... Read more

Most chapter events don't fall apart because of bad ideas. They fall apart because nobody figured out who was actually in charge. I learned this the hard way during my first semester as an active, when what should have been a straightforward mixer with a sorority turned into two weeks of group chat chaos, three people who thought they were in charge, and a venue that got double-booked. The event still happened. It was fine. But fine isn't what anyone was going for. ... Read more

Every few years, a wave of high-profile assault cases hits the news cycle and suddenly everyone's got an opinion about whether fraternities should exist at all. The ABC News story making rounds right now is the latest version of that conversation - calls to shut down frat houses entirely as public anger over rape cases grows louder. I've heard this argument before. I've sat in Panhellenic council meetings where the exact same pressure was bleeding over into how we handled our own policies, our own relationships with IFC chapters, our own event approval processes. And I'll say what I said then: closing houses doesn't close the problem. ... Read more