[SuperJon]

Me and TD are talking about this right now on AIM and I've had the discussion before with other people, but what do you guys think of Greek life at LU?

I think, if regulated the right way, frats and sororities would be a huge boost to the campus. The Liberty Way would still be applied to them and everything. As things continue to get built, the school could possibly turn a building on East into the "frat house." The president of the frat would act as an RA, etc. Or the Liberty Village could be turned into "Greek row" or whatever. These are just rough ideas of what could be done, because frat houses aren't a necessity.

I doubt I would pledge, but I think Greek life adds a ton to campus. They're required to do even more community service than the 20 hours every student is, they are supportive at games, they would be in the Homecoming parade, etc.

Discuss.

[ATrain]

Great idea, but I think its been tried before. Don't see it happening.

[LUconn]

frats - drinking = who would join?

[SuperJon]

That's the thing, frats aren't just about drinking. There are other reasons for going Greek than drinking.

[LUconn]

explain

[SuperJon]

People join greek life for the brotherhood/sisterhood. A lot of people call that "paying for friends" and in some cases, it may be true. However, your brothers/sisters are people that are always there for you and hold you accountable for the things that you do. These people stay with you for the rest of your life. It's also something that sticks with you as you grow older. If an employer was Greek and you are too, chances are you may get a nod over someone if you two are equally qualified for a job.

[TallyW]

Like it or not the biggest thing Greek is known for is the partying scene. Besides. Greeks from around the country would likely think it stupid to have greek at LU. The brotherhood stuff would be like a red-headed stepchild compared to the other frats.

One of the things I loved about Liberty was that it doesn't have the greek life and for the most part people are friendly and open to getting to know you. I can't see enough benefit for the school to get into that.

[SuperJon]

Other Christian schools have Greek life so we wouldn't be the red headed step child. The partying scene is what is portrayed in movies and tv and yea, some frats are bad about it, but most don't base everything around alcohol.

[PAmedic]

might be good in helping develop contacts for careers AFTER college.

think- "the Skulls" only without the sex and killing stuff.

[FlamingYalieWahoo]

Let me suggest an alternative - the residential college system. Yale does not have a thriving greek system or at least a very, very small one. Skull and Bones is a "club" of sorts which exists for the elite of the elites. The residential college system works by grouping students under the umbrella of a named "college.' At Yale there's several - Timothy Dwight College, Jonathan Edwards College etc. All incoming freshman (or whatever the politically correct term for freshman is) reside on what is called old campus but they are assigned to a particular college upon acceptance. The second year you move to your college's dorms. Each college is made up of about 400 -500 students, has its own dining hall, living space, and social events. The college has its own system of academic advisors and a faculty member who serves as the "master." He or she lives in a house or area within the college. You carry your college name with you for the rest of your life and it forms your social network as well as your alum connections. I think in fact Yale undergraduates number about 5200 (there are a grand total of 11,000 students in undergrad, grad, and professional schools). It basically breaks the university down into smaller, more manageable portions which is one reason Liberty needs to move in this direction. With as many students as LU has and as disconnected as they are eventually there will be a break down in cohesion and morale as students feel more and more disconnected. I'm not saying that LU would have to follow some rigid pattern - given the uniqueness of LUs layout it would take a creative effor to devise some sort of system like this.

I think this system works well and doesn't have quite the stigma that the greek system carries. UVA has a residential college system and a greek system but its mainly the drunks in the greek system that get the attention (Brown and Monroe colleges are a couple). The residential college system also does a better job of promoting what university life should be about - academics but in a FUN way. Seriously the students handle all or most of the social stuff that takes place and they. Plus each school has its own crest and mascots and all of the sort of tradition, rivalries of intramurals between colleges (think Hogwarts).

From Yale's residential life website:
"Yale's residential college system, now more than seventy years old, is perhaps the most distinctive feature of the College. The residential colleges allow students to experience the cohesiveness and intimacy of a small school while still enjoying the cultural and scholarly resources of a large university, fostering spirit, allegiance, and a sense of community. Before freshman year, all incoming undergraduates are randomly assigned to one of Yale's twelve residential colleges. Students remain affiliated with their residential college for all four years (and beyond). Yale makes every effort to represent, on the level of the college, the diversity of the entire undergraduate community. In this sense each college is a microcosm of the larger student population. The residential college system offers students a familiar, comfortable living environment, personal interaction with faculty members and administrators, and exciting opportunities for academic and extracurricular exploration.
Every residential college has its own master and dean, both of whom are Yale faculty members who live in the college with their families and eat their meals with students in the dining hall."

[ATrain]

We have something similar to the residential college system, except everyone eats at the same place and you get to pick: East Campus, Circle, Hill, Quads/Senior Dorms. Though the rivalries have died down a little bit (i.e. Circle/Hill-which died when East became what it is, and East/Circle-which started in Christmas Convo one year and this year is rather dead).

[SuperJon]

ATrain, those people only live together. There's no unified social gain from living in either section.


The closest we have to frats/sororities right now is each individual hall. I have never seen a school with their dorm life being so sectioned off before. That's good and that's bad.


What YalieWahoo was talking about would be the Hill having their own set academic advisors, their own social gatherings, and basically their own college within the university.

[PeterParker]

I've mentioned the advantages of Greek Life on here before, namely the point SJ made about career networking...it really does help. I had a friend who's husband applied for a Boeing job, and upon learning that he was of the same frat as the hiring manager, he was offered the position--so all things being the same on a resume, that extra boost is a boon.

Having said that, I actually like that Yale system over the frat thing after reading the explanation. If they could build the infrastructure to house that while the current East Side dorms house the freshman, I see that idea working better within the stated framework of LU. If done to the T of the Yale system (namely really working to establish the traditions within each "resident college"), I think that would be a great asset to the university, and to the students. The networking thing would be a boon, though on a smaller scale, and the affinity that each student would have with their "resident college" would do wonders for cohesiveness. When alumni come back to games, they could attend with the "section" that their "resident college" brothers/sisters. I believe this would help foster a bridge between current students and alumni.

I also think that if new bigger dorms are built to house that idea, they should do what Messiah and other christian colleges have done: build dorms with a central atrium area with halls off of it; in keeping with LU's non-coed dormroom preference, each Hall would be by gender, while the atrium/central area would have lounge areas, computers, group study areas, and quiet rooms so that if you wanted to study with a group or Heaven forbid, someone of the opposite gender, you could do so in the atrium area without having to trek all the way over to DeMoss.

[FlamingYalieWahoo]

Peter, I'm glad you could make sense out of my post. After way too many days of decongestant and narcotic-derived cough medicine, I'm surprised that my typing isn't slurred. At least I could still manage to cut and paste from Yale's website. One other thing that's nice about the residential college system is that faculty (even those who didn't attend the university) can apply and be accepted as a "fellow" of a particular college, establishing yet another connection with the university. As a student at the Divinity school for 3 years, I got a little taste of this because it was basically a residential professional school. We had our own groups and refectory (fancy word for dining hall) and a chapel. (I helped start the Yale Div Evangelical Fellowship back in 1990 - it made me very popular with the Gay, Lesbian, Transsexual, straight coalition - God bless those liberal Protestants).

[jimflamesfan]

The marching band had a fraternity for a while...but it didn't really work, because any activities they did were normally open to all band members...so there was no point...other than they got different jackets.

[Purple Haize]

Greek life is great for more than drinking. Having that on your resume can open doors when you head out to get a job. IF the person reviewing your resume' is a "brother" you have a better shot at getting an interview.
Having said that Residence Life type would be good, but lets look at the condition of some of the housing. Long term it would be a great idea
IN the meantime, I suggest you satiate your desire by enrolling in the Intro to Greek class I am sure the religon department offers. (I prefered Hebrew myself)

[PeterParker]

It would be good for them to work toward that ideal, in the meantime, as a bridge, they should have some time of network deal for career networking, finding an alum in a city you are traveling to in order to crash, or benevolence. Perhaps they could call it Liberty Alumni Network or Flames Alumni Network---Connecting LU Grads in the Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness. (Pursuit of Happiness is still allowed for all the good conservative folk on the board, right?)

[ATrain]

They have alumni chapters listed on the website. Current cities are:
Burlington, NC
Jacksonville, FL
Lynchburg/Forest
Chesapeake
Orlando, FL
Washington DC

[Fumblerooskies]

Here is what I believe the official party line would be...
..."We are all part of the brotherhood of Christ."

I'm not trying to make light of that remark at all, but as a distinctly Christian university, we should not need fraternity life here at Liberty.

[Libertine]

Here's why Greek life won't fly at LU. In order to admit people to a fraternity/sorority, you have to exclude someone else. Unless your frat is going to let just anyone in, it smacks of exclusivity which, depending on who you talk to, kind of goes against the inclusive message of Christianity. If they won't even let us put the football players in one dorm, I don't know how frats would get the OK.

On a personal note, I would oppose frats and sororities for two entirely different reasons:
Frat guys = [Edit: Feminine hygiene products - Sly]
Sorority chicks = [Edit: Feminine hygiene products' ditzy girlfriends - Sly]

[Fumblerooskies]

I would add a third reason...
...You're paying $20,000 to go to school....
...then you are going to pay extra money just to have friends???

Wait until you get your degree and then join an exclusive country club...
...at least then, golf is involved.