Keg parties, American football players and lots and lots of red cups. Our knowledge in the UK of what fraternities and Greek life at American universities is like is probably all based on films.
Safe to say then, there’s some puzzle pieces missing from our definitions of what goes on. Puzzle pieces that it’s important to slot into place because, in recent times, numerous fraternity houses have come under fire for tragic incidents involving hazing and sexual assaults on women.
According to new documentary Frat Boys: Inside America’s Fraternities, airing on BBC Two, there are 120 different chapters of fraternities across the country. They are mainly named after the Greek alphabet, things like ‘Kappa Delta Phi’ and ‘Theta Delta Chi'. Their members are able to reside in huge, grand fraternity houses, attend parties with their fellow members, and, upon leaving university, remain part of a community that may help them work their way up the career ladder. In 2012, 85% of people working for a Fortune 500 company at executive level had been part of the Greek System. Half of all US presidents pledged to a fraternity and, with 9 million students currently part of Greek life, it’s an organisation to reckon with.
It is therefore a mistake to write fraternities off, says Chris Taylor who directed and produced Frat Boys. ‘They are breeding grounds for America’s wealthy and successful’ he says. ‘There’s so many reasons to sit up and take them seriously. Sure, there is the whole partying with red cups thing but there’s a lot more to it than just that.’
Fraternities are a way of keeping America's many privately-run universities in the black. With some students paying nearly $60,000 a year to attend their chosen unviersity, each student is a highly lucrative catch. Fraternities are a way of attracting that much-needed attention. ‘It’s no concidence that the street as you go into lots of college campuses is ‘Fraternity Row’ Chris says, describing a stereotypical street lined with fancy-looking mansions with columns and perfectly mowed front lawns. ‘Prospective parents and prospective students that come are immediately impressed by the look of it and the wealth. Making sure frats are happy and in a good way is important. Greek life is a good thing to have.' Indeed, many fraternity 'brothers' will continue funding their fraternity and university for the rest of their lives.
This means that any bad publicity is a big deal. In the past few years however, barely a week has gone by without a negative news story with Greek connections meaning the original ideals of philanthropy and community that many frats were based on are no longer the main focus
Since 2000, there have been at least 34 deaths related to extreme hazing during the pledging process from fraternity and sororities. What happens in a pledging process? For the film Chris spent time with the Gazoni Family, a breakaway fraternity that belong to the University Of Central Florida, to find out. Possibly due to being newer and less established, the Gazonis don’t reside in the grand mansions of their counterparts. Instead they seem to have taken over an old motel. It’s pretty gross. Not that this stops them from taking their pledging process VERY SERIOUSLY INDEED.
The pledging process is different for every organisation, and a large part of it is kept secret from the outside world. However, we get a few insights from the film. Chris says he can’t imagine the Gazoni Family doing anything ‘particularly aggressive’ when it comes to hazing and indeed the tasks we do see them doing look relatively harmless. 'They have to spend a certain amount of time at the house and get to know their brothers.' Chris explains. 'They have to spend five hours a week at the gym, take tests on the history of fraternities and beliefs, they have to clean up the house for the elder brothers, have a philanthropy project to raise a certain amount of money for charity, build something for the house. They’re not doing it for the simple benefits of having lots of friends and getting girls, they want to show real commitment and investment in the frat.’
Other fraternities have had huge problems though. In 2014, pledge Nolan Burch died of alcohol poisoning supposedly trying to become part of Kappa Sigma at West Virginia University. His blood alcohol level was .493. In 2013, Michael Deng died when he struck his head during a ritual called 'glass ceiling'. His brothers allegedly waited two hours to call for medical assistance. In the film, Chris interviews the mother and sister of Harrison Kowiack, a student at Lenoir-Rhyne University whose family claim died during a ritual called ‘bull-dogging’. Harrison’s 'brothers' said he was hurt during a game of football.
Hazing allegations though, are dwarfed by the amount of sexual assault controversies linked to American universities though. As it stands, one in five female students will be sexually assaulted at college. And, men belonging to fraternities are three times more likely to be perpetrators of sexual assault than other male students. The rape in the Brock Turner case took place after a fraternity party. Last month, fraternity member Jason Relopez escaped a prison sentence after admitting to raping two women. At Kansas State University, two women had their requests to have their rapes investigated by the college denied because they were comitted at fraternity houses off campus. A particularly poignant part of Chris's film shows Marissa, a rape victim herself from a university in New York State, walking around campus pointing out houses her best friends have been sexually assaulted in.
According to Cari Simon, a lawyer in the documentary, many universities have motives to 'sweep fraternity sexual violence under the rug' and indeed, when you take into account the aforementioned funding from alumni, it's easy to see why. Marissa agrees with Cari, 'No-one wants to be known as the rape school', she says sadly.
'I think the fact that you've got so many men in one place, going to the gym so much with machismo way out of control it could, for bad eggs, go wrong.' Chris explains. 'When there's so many boys together, being able to tell these stories the next day it might make you more popular. You might want to be the guy who's known for sleeping with 'x' number of girls.' Chris is careful to ascertain again that it is a very small minority of fraternity brothers who do go too far.
Even with this in mind though the attitude the men in Chris's documentary have towards women is worrying. Some men he meets speak about hooking up with girls like they're keen collectors. One guy says proudly he only brings home two or three girls a month rather than ten because 'that's just the kind of guy that he is'.
More worryingly, Chris tells me, is that most sororities are actually 'dry' due to some bizarre archaic rule. Therefore, any parties *must *take place in fraternities with any alcohol provided by the brothers themselves. 'They hold the parties, they control what's drunk, they control who they're inviting. It's a very partriarchal society.' Says Chris. It doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to see how problematic this situation could be.
Sexual assault at universities, just like amongst the general population, has always happened. 'It think it was going on for years and nothing was being said,' Says Chris. It's only that now that women are finding the platforms that have their collective stories heard. The Brock Turner case (as far as we know Brock wasn't in a fraternity, he just attended a party at one), though sadly far from being unique, caught the world's attention thanks to a brave and eloquent statement from the victim. When it comes to hazing too, pledging is coming under more scrutiny thanks to victims and their families seeking legal action against the universities. Whether this increased attention will have an impact on this closely knit commuinity though remains to be seen.
Chris thinks it's heading in the right direction but 'there's still a long way to go'. As for the attitudes of the frat boys, whether they can be changed is something else entirely. 'I would doubt it.' He says. 'But we'll have to wait and see.'
Frat Boys: Inside America’s Fraternities is on BBC Two, Thursday June 23rd at 9PM.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.