'Greek Life' fights stereotypes in new national magazine

They're known for their disruptive parties, yet also for their passionate campus involvement. Their reputation of excessive drinking follows them everywhere, but so does their history of remarkable leadership skills. Their letters can be seen from nearly every spot on campus, yet in reality they make up only about 17 percent of the IU undergraduate population.\nThey are greeks, as were nearly half of all U.S. presidents, 30 members of Congress and 40 percent of U.S. Supreme Court justices, according to the North-American Interfraternity Conference.\nMark Briscoe, executive director of Sigma Pi's national headquarters, attributes the high numbers of greeks who become prominent leaders to their greek experience in college. \n"(A greek experience allows them) the opportunity to lead, the opportunity to take a chance, to make a bad decision, to recover from a bad decision and to learn from it," Briscoe said. "College is all about learning, and being greek provides practical experience."\nOf course, there is also the other 83 percent who choose not to go greek. Some might sneer at the very thought of going greek, but most are just baffled by greeks and their distinctive enthusiasm and other curious features.\nStudents not involved in a fraternity or sorority often have trouble understanding the other 17 percent of the student population. They might regard greeks as exclusive, self-involved or even bizarre -- typical stereotypes and misperceptions from those students living beyond Jordan Avanue and Third Street. \nGreg Woodman has been fully aware of these misperceptions since his days as a Kappa Delta Rho at Penn State University in the early 1980s. In September 2000 he became CEO of Affinity Connection Inc., an organization committed to reconnecting people in associations and organizations. This work experience influenced him to take action to give back to his fellow greeks and to disprove their continuous misperceptions. \nWoodman recently became the publisher of a national publication titled Greek Life, which places a positive light on fraternities and sororities by highlighting characteristics such as their community involvement and fundraising, high GPA records and several budding fraternities who choose to stay dry and fight against alcohol abuse. Greek Life also reaches out to the thousands of greek alumni across the nation, connecting them to their younger greek brothers and sisters.\nBriscoe said he is grateful for a publication like Greek Life and believes it is overdue. \n"For years we have read about the five percent of greek organizations that make the news due to irresponsible behavior," he said. "It's about time we heard the real story of the other 95 percent."\nBesides only focusing on the positive aspects of greek life, Woodman acknowledges the negative characteristics that can coincide with fraternities and sororities, just as they can with any organization. \nTwo of the most infamous negative characteristics of greeks are their hazing and alcohol tendencies. In recent years, numerous fraternities have been kicked off campus due to such problems. In a matter of days these former greeks have had to find new housing, as well as cope with their unfamiliar non-greek lives. The number of fraternities on IU's campus has been dramatically reduced and those greeks still remaining do their best not to let this nightmare happen to them.\nSigma Alpha Mu founder and senior Aaron Minkus came to IU in 2000 -- one year after the preceding chapter of "Sammys" were kicked off campus due to a series of events that went against the fraternity's code. When a field representative of Sigma Alpha Mu called him the following winter to see if he would like to help reinstate a Sigma Alpha Mu chapter at IU, Minkus said he jumped at the opportunity. Nearly three years later, the fraternity is back on campus with approximately 35 members. \nYet in the back of his mind, Minkus is not able to forget how the previous Sigma Alpha Mu was kicked off, and he desperately wants to avoid a repeat experience. \n"We try to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, so we have to recruit the best guys available who will represent the positive parts of fraternity life."\nIn order to avoid problems like alcohol or drug abuse and tragic hazing incidents, Minkus and his brothers focus on getting more involved on campus and remembering that the primary reason they joined a fraternity was to establish and maintain lifelong friendships. Like other fraternities and sororities on campus, Sigma Alpha Mu is involved with events such as IU Sing, Dance Marathon, Spirit of Sport and Little 500. As a traditionally Jewish fraternity, the majority of its members are Jewish and therefore some are actively involved in the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, Jews in Greek Life and other Jewish organizations on campus.\nSenior Kyra Busch said she has several friends within the greek system, but never considered joining a sorority. One of the reasons for Busch's decision, she said, is that she did not like the expenses and the commitment involved with the idea. But mainly, Busch said she wanted to be on her own.\n"I just wanted to explore college and make friends myself through diverse activities rather than being limited to one organization," Busch said.\nThose who decide to venture into a greek organization face a long process. The first step in the process is to choose their favorite houses in hopes of at least one of those houses choosing them, and if a house does select them, they then embark on the notorious weeks or months of pledgeship. If they get past this period, they are inducted into the house officially and treated as real brothers or sisters. \nGiven the positive and negative aspects of fraternities and sororities, the decision of whether to join is ultimately up to the wide-eyed student who is naïve, yet also welcoming to new college experiences. Greek alumni urge eager students who make the choice to go greek to do so on their own terms and not let peer pressure overrule any decision. \n"College is such a great experience because it offers an endless array of opportunities to learn," Briscoe said. "While college will teach you the necessary fundamentals of your chosen career, the greek experience will provide you with valuable life skills that you will utilize for the rest of your life."\nLike Woodman and Briscoe, National President of Delta Upsilon Alvin "Ed" Porter has found a career in the greek organization due to his influential years at the University of Oklahoma in the early 1960s. He is another active alumnus who said he aims to give back to the greek community and his own fraternity. \n"Well researched and carefully considered greek affiliation will help students and alumni develop themselves morally, intellectually and spiritually and will help provide lifelong friendships that would otherwise be missing," Porter said.\nIn a letter to greek alumni in the premier edition of Greek Life, Woodman addresses the issue of the evolving greek college student and the constant challenges he or she faces. He urged alumni to give back to the greek community in the letter and throughout the magazine. \n"Greek life today is very similar to what it was 10, 20 or even 30 years ago and yet very different," Woodman wrote in the letter. "They're also facing some tougher challenges than we did. Certainly, the evolution of time has brought change, but what makes a greek great today is the same thing that made greeks great way back when"