Fraternities and Greek life as a whole have been a significant part of Indiana University for a large portion of the University's history. With approximately 24% of the student body being a part of Greek life, it’s no secret that greek life has a place on IU campus.
Fraternities are organized under the Office of Sorority and Fraternity life (OSFL), which has four councils under it in order to regulate Greek life. These are the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association, the Multicultural Greek council, and the National Pan-hellenic Council. Registration for the fraternities as a potential new member starts as early as June and there are 30 different fraternities that students are able to apply to. The process of meeting and possibly joining a fraternity is called rushing and occurs during the Fall semester. This process starts with potential new members meeting different fraternities, dwindling down their options, and then being offered bids by the fraternities that want them in their organization. After receiving the bid and accepting, the new member learns more about the chapter’s history, philanthropy and gpa requirements. They then start attending chapter meetings and becoming more involved.
The fees that come with being in Greek life can be significant. The fee to join any sorority or fraternity is $500. Each fraternity has different dues costs, so it can be hard to get a full gauge of the general costs of living in a fraternity. Alpha Epsilon Pi’s bylaws and constitution dues policy listed that each live-in brother has to pay $8,100 each year and each member not living in the house must pay $1,250 each year. It is also written that “the Exchequer and Master have discretion to change Price dues at any time. Members will be informed of the price changes at least six weeks before they are due.” Which can cause a sudden, and possibly distressing price increase for members.
Many of these fraternities under the interfraternity council have experienced being put on suspension during their time at Indiana University. At the time of writing this, 9 of these fraternities are on suspension and 17 are subject to discipline. One of the issues that plague these fraternities is hazing. Only two weeks prior, all fraternities at IU were put on suspension due to hazing allegations. 16 out of the 26 fraternities currently subject to discipline have hazing listed as one of the causes for the discipline. IU’s has a no tolerance policy on hazing and have made efforts to try and stop the hazing in different ways, like having a hazing awareness week, a required hazing prevention training for all students, and a website to report hazing. Despite this, there are still fraternities that haze. The definition of what hazing entails can be murky and the results dangerous. IU’s definition of what hazing is, is explained as “any conduct that subjects another person, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or psychologically, to anything that may endanger, abuse, degrade, or intimidate the person as a condition of association with a group or organization, regardless of the person’s consent or lack of consent.” The Office of Student Conduct makes decisions for the type of disciplinary action a fraternity will receive after investigating claims of hazing and meeting with a member/members of the fraternities.
Brotherhood, networking, and the possibility of more job offers post graduation is a huge factor for many men joining fraternities. The Interfraternity Council of Indiana website boasts that 51% of Greek members were likely to have a job waiting for them within 2 months of graduation. They also have written that when members seek help they are twice as likely to seek help from a brother. David Ferguson, legacy member of Acacia fraternity, said “And it is pretty cool to be able to get in a fraternity and you kind of go how many instant friends, and you know, that they become, not all of them, you know, but many of them will become your lifelong friends.” The allure of lifelong friendships, networking opportunities and job opportunities can be extremely attractive to potential new members.
Even with it’s issues and disciplinary action, Greek life continues to thrive on IU campus. Greek life relies on loyalty and trust, but also on secrets and false truths. Years of reform attempts by the university have been put into fixing issues like hazing but still many of the fraternities struggle to not haze. Time will only tell if fraternities on IU campus will continue to thrive, or if there will be more suspensions that lead to their demise.