‘Black out, drop out,’ sells Greeks, athletics short

Recently a piece titled “Black out, drop out” was published that blamed athletics, “easy party majors” and Greek life for low graduation rates and poor academics.

Then it recommended reducing or cutting these features.

This is ridiculous for a number of reasons.

First, the graphic suggests “getting rid of the easy party pathway majors” like Apparel Merchandising or Hospitality and Tourism Management.

There is no reason that IU shouldn’t offer a variety of majors.

A student’s personal career aspirations do not automatically condemn them to a life of partying and academic failure.

That is based entirely from personal decisions, not what classes the student is taking.

Another suggestion was “scaling back athletics.”

Earlier, the graphic claimed that IU should offer more financial aid.

The author fails to realize that athletics are a way for the university to provide financial help.

Many students would not have the means to attend higher education without the scholarships they earned through athletics.

Unsurprisingly, another source of blame was the Greek community.

The “Black out, drop out” graphic recommended that IU should “eliminate or ‘seriously crack down’ on Greek life” in order to fix academic issues.  

This is laughable.

Let me start by pointing out that statistics from 2009 showed that the IU’s Interfraternal GPA was higher than the average men’s undergraduate GPA.
The same results were found in sororities, the Panhellenic GPA being .0878 above the average woman’s undergraduate GPA.

All of that aside, the support that the Greek community provides for its members academically is incredible.

Many houses have a base GPA requirement that must be met for admission, as well as a minimum GPA that must be maintained to remain eligible for house activities.

Additionally, houses have scholarship officers tasked with monitoring and raising the overall house GPA.

They encourage members to excel academically.

Houses will offer services like libraries, tutoring and study groups to aid students for no extra cost.

Some houses have a number of mandatory study hours that must be met each week.

In some cases, if a member’s GPA drops below the house requirements, they are restricted from social events.

This helps them stay on task and excel academically, a system that an independent individual doesn’t have.

Basically, the suggestions in the “Black out, drop out” piece were ill-conceived.

They are more likely to hurt the academic performance at IU than help it.
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— kmcbarro@indiana.edu