Fraternities; most likely the word evokes an image of Belushi chugging a bottle of Jack Daniel’s while wearing his “College” sweater in the movie Animal House. But Greek life can serve as more then an excuse for a toga party.
Sacred Heart University is a local Catholic university in which Greek life plays a major role on campus. The difference is that it not only benefits the student’s social life but reaches out to help the community through different services.
However, Fairfield University officials say that students should not expect to see fraternities and sororities here in the future.
“Fairfield University made a decision a long time ago to not be a campus with fraternities or sororities,” said Dean of Students Mark Reed. “But more importantly it conflicts with our mission statement in terms of who we are as a university.”
Greek-life can be a double-edged sword. On the outside it exists to create a more social environment. However, the obvious result will be the exclusion of those who do not join, and the conflicts that may arise between the many different groups. Reed is fearful that Greek life would build barriers between students at Fairfield. He also feels that many students making their college decision choose Fairfield because of the lack of Greek life.
Reed said, “I don’t think frats and sororities are bad, I don’t think that they’re great either. They just make more sense at larger institutions where it’s easy to become a number.”
Surprisingly, most Jesuit universities in the country do have Greek life, including Georgetown University the oldest Jesuit institution in the country.
At most students do not even know about Greek life in general, so it has never been a major issue here. Kelli Rainey, director of student activities did admit that some students have inquired, but more interestingly, she gets many calls from nationals wanting to begin chapters at Fairfield.
Rainey herself is still an active member of her national sorority. She explained that her affiliation did not end at graduation, instead members find local chapters and continue to help in the community. “I can see the pros and cons of having it here. One reason many schools have it is to build communities. We have so many services here, Campus Ministry along with outreach programs, I think we’ve done a good job doing all the things Greek life would do.”
Nicole Hendrickson is a senior at Sacred Heart University. She explained to The Mirror exactly how Greek life works at SHU. There are no national chapters at SHU, instead, they were all started locally and each one has a specific cause that it does service for. These causes include increasing awareness about topics such as rape, AIDS, breast cancer, domestic violence, and the environment. Sacred Heart makes sure that each fraternity or sorority does a minimum of 1,000 hours of community service per semester.
“Without Greek life, our school would be missing a lot,” Hendrickson said. “Personally, I don’t think I would join Campus Ministry or a specific group like that at my school, but I still would like to do volunteer work. Joining a sorority lets me contribute to the community, but just as important, it gives me the social atmosphere that I want.”
Members of Hendrickson’s sorority go to The Carolyn House in Bridgeport every weekday and watch children of mothers learning to speak English. She says that it makes the volunteer work even better, since she is doing it with friends in her sorority.
Hendrickson also said that the sorority is not just service. “It definitely makes the social aspect of Sacred Heart better. It would be extremely boring and uneventful here otherwise; anything good going on is usually sponsored by Greek life.”
Students at Fairfield seem to be torn on a topic that isn’t often bought up. “I’ve been to frat parties down South, and they are incredible,” said Brian Nimer ’02. “We’re missing out by not having Greek life here, but on the other hand I don’t think it would work at a school like Fairfield. You need the big campus atmosphere.”
Joey Dreyer ’02, said, “With all the problems with housing on campus, building frat houses would just make sense, and it sure beats living in Claver as a junior.”
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