Editorial Board | Greek life is just not the answer for Stanford’s social drawback

This text is the primary of a three-part collection on how the Stanford neighborhood can revive social life on campus. This primary piece covers Greek life, and shall be adopted by articles on sexual violence prevention and administrative reform.

After the slogan “Enjoyable Strikes Again” dominated polls within the current ASSU election, pupil help for the rebellious motion of “Stanford Hates Enjoyable” has seemingly peaked — however the place can we go from right here?

Sophia Danielpour ‘24 and Kyle Haslett ‘25 have been lately elected Related College students of Stanford College (ASSU) Executives, with the purpose of recovering the enjoyable that Stanford has misplaced. Their victory comes almost a 12 months after the Palladium article that began all of it, “Stanford’s Battle on Social Life,” wherein the writer Ginevra Davis casts Stanford’s administration as a bulwark to the vivacity of post-pandemic campus tradition.

The Palladium article’s strongest grievance is with the college’s crackdown on the “hubs of pupil life”: specifically, “fraternities and cultural theme homes.” This, together with wistful anecdotes about fraternities of yore, erroneously implies a basic hyperlink between the restoration of Greek life on campus and the revival of Stanford’s previously legendary pupil tradition. Whereas Greek life certainly performs a component, Stanford’s social life has an ideal deal extra to supply.

With rush wrapping up and new pledges chosen, fraternities and sororities have been very energetic as of late. “Abolish Greek Life” (AGL), however, has had an especially quiet 12 months, leading to fewer conversations concerning the harms of Greek life.

Hopes for Stanford’s social life have more and more been pinned on fraternities, which host nearly all of all-campus events. Earlier than 2021, dorm RAs usually advised residents that ingesting in dorms was tolerated in the event that they left their room doorways open. However the Stanford Workplace of Scholar Affairs printed a brand new alcohol coverage in 2021, which put an finish to Stanford’s unofficial pre-pandemic “open-door ingesting coverage.” Consuming tradition due to this fact grew to become centered on the Row, naturally resulting in the notion of the Row as the one place on campus the place you’ll hear bumping music and rowdy partygoers.

Along with throwing events, Greek life is thought to be an area the place college students can discover and construct neighborhood, particularly the place the neighborhood system has failed to take action. Greek life is rife with networking alternatives — that’s, if you may get in. De facto methods like “soiled speeding” contain members of a Greek group selectively recruiting (and primarily bribing) potential new members with items and favors — and, as you’ll be able to think about, these chosen people seemingly have present ties to the group or different benefits.

Whereas Greek life certainly contributes to a phase of the social scene at Stanford, there are severe harms to idealizing Greek life and fraternities particularly. Though variety statistics aren’t accessible, it’s evident by way of commentary and speaking to members of Greek organizations that a lot of Greek life stays extra white, rich, and well-connected than the typical Stanford pupil; the membership charges stacking as much as a whole bunch of {dollars} per quarter are sufficient to drive some college students away.

Much more pertinent is the problem of security. In 2020, a Stanford pupil died from a drug overdose in TDX fraternity. In 2015, Brock Turner assaulted an unconscious girl after a celebration at Kappa Alpha, which led to widespread reckoning with sexual violence referring to frat events and Stanford extra usually. Within the 2019 survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct, 47% of undergrad/coterm ladies who skilled instances of nonconsexual sexual touching or penetration reported that the incident occurred at a fraternity home. Frat homes are due to this fact hubs of sexual violence on campus, compounded by the truth that all-campus Greek occasions are hosted solely at fraternity homes, since sororities aren’t allowed to host events or have males of their residential space — insurance policies that time to Greek life’s misogynistic roots.

To their credit score, many fraternities aren’t ignoring the problem. Members of Phi Psi, Sig Ep and Sig Chi confirmed out to “Take Again the Evening,” an annual occasion to lift consciousness of and confront sexual violence on campus. If you wish to enter a frat occasion, you could learn out an indication that describes and agrees to stick to the rules of consent in the home. All fraternities have launched Violence Intervention and Prevention members, and every occasion is supposed to be attended by sober displays.

In good religion that these measures are honest and never merely performative, we help the above initiatives in addition to the introduction of DEI chairs in all Greek organizations and different efforts to make Greek life extra inclusive. To be able to promote a safer and extra various Greek social scene, we encourage housed fraternities to moreover:

1. Host open boards to collect suggestions from the Stanford neighborhood about how events will be made safer, and to elucidate present insurance policies that fraternities have round sexual violence prevention and response. These must be necessary for members of the fraternity to attend.

2. Launch transparency studies concerning the demographic breakdown of pledge lessons — for instance, self-reported race and socioeconomic background statistics. This may enhance accountability and assist Greek organizations establish areas for enchancment. This could apply to all sororities and fraternities.

3. Associate with non-Greek/cultural pupil organizations to host joint occasions that encourage a broader pupil turnout, particularly college students who’re underrepresented in Greek life.

We must also create and preserve social hubs separate from Greek life to diversify the vary of occasions on campus and scale back dependence on fraternities, thereby making a extra sustainable social ecosystem. Along with present discourse round how Stanford can facilitate enjoyable, we advocate for the next adjustments:

1. Neighborhood councils ought to promote alternatives for college students and dorms/homes to request neighborhood funds, and simplify the method for acquiring funding. There may be particular neighborhood funding for substance-free occasions that’s at present barely requested, however might be used to host live shows, sport nights and different occasions which have been traditionally well-attended. By lowering administrative limitations to entry funding, a broader vary of occasions will be hosted to cater to completely different pursuits and existence.

2. We help the current Farm Fridays initiative: a robust begin to internet hosting open, inclusive occasions on the Row. Now that theme homes have been renamed, we hope that they may regain a few of their previous id, facilitating extra campus-wide occasions which have turn out to be uncommon in recent times.

3. Late Nite at Arrillaga was a extremely common vacation spot that supplied college students with a protected and pleasurable late-night social setting earlier than 2020, nevertheless it was discontinued resulting from price range cuts. By restoring this providing, college students would have improved structural entry to a neighborhood area for finding out and socialization on East Campus.

These strategies are solely a begin, and might solely kind a part of the answer. In the end, it’s our particular person actions that collectively outline our campus tradition. Every of us, as Stanford college students, can select to be open-hearted and spontaneous; to precise ourselves, to be beneficiant to associates and strangers, and to grab small pockets of pleasure and create them for others. Step up in your dorm neighborhood. Host a film evening on your associates. Present up. Collectively, we will envision a social life at Stanford the place everyone feels welcome.