Henry Gargan, the editor in chief of Thrill City, recently penned this column in an attempt to debunk UNC's Greek system. What began as nothing more than a weak attempt to defame Greek students — citing exclusionary privilege — quickly spiraled out of control into a reckless, baseless accusation that Greeks are essentially the scum of the earth. At no point in his nearly 2,000-word column does Gargan cite any source, quote, fact or data from which he makes such dangerous allegations — including calling fraternity men rapists. The article is an illogical account founded on hearsay, saturated with stereotype and devoid of fact.
As one person told me on Twitter, "If I made accusations half that serious with such an empty supporting argument, I would be fired. And rightfully so."
Gargan's attempt to criticize the Greek system is not a novel attempt, but it's quite easily the feeblest one I've seen. As a writer and aspiring journalist, he should be embarrassed that he produced this work — just as I am more embarrassed to call myself an alumnus of the UNC journalism school after reading this piece.
Gargan's intent with this column was to make us ask "How can the Greek system change to improve overall campus life at UNC?" Instead, I was left with no other question than, "Who hurt you, Henry Gargan?"
There are several things I could say about the inaccuracy of this column, the character of Gargan and the sheer lack of professionalism that went into this article. But, alas, I will stop here and offer a simple deconstruction of it, section by section.
I have a problem with Greek life.
So, Mr. Gargan has a problem with something he’s never been a part of or even considered joining. Kind of like saying you hate sushi, although you’ve never tried it because you think uncooked fish is gross, no?
I should first be clear that I don’t necessarily have beef with the individuals who belong to these societies. I count a significant number of those students among my friends, and they have proven to me that any claims I make about the nature of Greek life at UNC should not be and cannot be construed as universally applicable. There are good people and terrible people involved in fraternities and sororities, just as there are in similar proportions in the general student body and elsewhere in the world. This is not a critique of them; I will instead explore the effects these uncommonly influential institutions can have by providing their members with uncommon and arbitrary influence.
Except when you’re trying to put an entire community on blast, you are directly indicting those involved. Every sweeping and unsubstantiated allegation you make against the Greek community is an attempt to defame the character of those involved in Greek organizations. You can’t speak to a “system” — in other words, a community of students — without speaking to those who compose it.
I believe that as they exist and operate now, social sororities and fraternities are destructive with regard to the advancement of social justice and the purported aims of the University of North Carolina.
The Greek system perpetuates and celebrates privilege in an exclusionary way.
It is often prohibitively expensive to belong to a sorority or fraternity where dues cost thousands of dollars per year. Of course, many organizations charge expensive membership fees, but the nebulous purpose and benefits of belonging to social Greek organizations are what differentiate them from, for instance, the men’s rowing club.
Where is your data comparing a Greek student’s dues to a non-affiliated student’s budget? That’s a cop out to call something prohibitively expensive when you have no idea how much it costs to join a Greek organization or how that money is allocated. In the spirit of transparency — something you clearly don’t believe in, most likely because you have no legitimate facts to back up your significantly slanted position — I’ll disclose my personal financial obligations when I was in a fraternity.
I was paying about $4,000 a semester, give or take, when I lived in the fraternity house my sophomore and junior year. Out of that, $1,000 went to my meal plan at the house. Our meal plan gave us 14 meals a week and afforded us short-order options to fit into our class schedules during the week. A 14-meal plan through UNC dining services costs $1,725.
Of the three grand left, $2,000 goes to rent. For a four-month semester, that comes out to $500 a month, and that includes all your utilities. Not to mention, location drives prices in Chapel Hill. There is no better off-campus location than a Greek house. The closest apartment you can find to campus runs you $675 a month plus utilities.
So far you’ve saved $700 on meal plan and living alone. The remaining $1,000 goes to your social dues. That pays for all your social events for a semester — recruitment, parties, cocktails, tailgates, formals, etc. — as well as fixed costs toward philanthropy events, national affiliation dues, house maintenance, security, intramural fees and individual development programs. So, unless you’re spending fewer than $300 on your social life, IM sports, community service involvement, etc., it’s actually less expensive to be in a fraternity.
Damn, son, you’ve ruined your credibility and we’re just hardly getting started.
In my opinion, the (perhaps unconscious) purpose of belonging to a social fraternity or sorority on campus, for many members, is to provide students who were wealthy and popular in high school a space in which to continue feeling wealthy and popular with one another. That space would not come to exist organically at such a large public university. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems that the Greek system uses the wealth of its members to consolidate privilege among the people and families it has deemed worthy of enjoying that privilege through the rush process and hazing rituals, which in turn are used to determine which prospective members would best uphold the exclusionary structure of the organizations to which they are applying.
At this point, your column is 100 percent based on stereotypes, something you attempt to be so righteously indignant about in this article. I’m glad your source on Greek members is young-adult Netflix movies. There are wealthy people in fraternities. But, the majority of Greek members come from perfectly middle-class backgrounds. I went to a public high school, both my parents worked their asses off to support my family, and I’ve had jobs since my junior year of high school to afford my personal life. I have friends who are in school on student loans, work through school and needed scholarships to afford college. You are not in a fraternity, nor do you even keep the company of affiliated friends. So, you don’t know the type of people who form Greek houses.
This is a rash generalization. Have you ever thought that Greeks aren’t exclusionary, but rather you hold such a prejudice against them that you’re predisposed to believe this no matter what happens?
My freshman year, a friend told me that he had been denied a bid to a fraternity because he would not agree to dump his longterm girlfriend as a condition of membership. This, he said, was not an isolated incident.
Who are your sources? Do you have a quote? What fraternity was this? Do you have any details at all? After being actively involved in the Greek community and the rush process for four years, I can guarantee either you or your friend fabricated this anecdote.
Through the influence of their alumni and their legacies, Greek societies confer upon already well-off students the privilege of still greater preferential treatment in the business world, in the classroom and in campus life in return for their agreement to bestow that same favoritism upon future members down the line. Greek societies are yet another strike against the myth of the meritocracy — a myth that their members, by and large, earnestly believe in.
What fantasy world do you think exists in Fraternity Court? I hope you don’t actually believe that things are just handed to Greeks because of their membership. Doing that is a slap in the face to affiliated students who work hard for everything they achieve. Law schools, med schools and businesses don’t give a shit if you were in a fraternity. Professors roll their eyes at Greeks; they aren’t changing grades when they remember that a girl wore a Tri-Delt shirt to class the day of the exam.
There are more explicit examples in the daily conduct of some of these groups that align with the institutional effects Greek societies have by merely existing. I have personally been harassed while biking past Frat Court on multiple occasions for no reason other than my apparent lack of membership in their exclusive societies (us GDIs are notorious for our bike-riding). I have seen black and hispanic students denied access to fraternity parties multiple times while their white counterparts were ushered inside. One of my friends attended a fraternity party at the beginning of the semester with a male friend who identifies as gay. They were greeted by a fraternity brother yelling: “No faggots allowed!”
Again, let’s get some details. Also, do you comprehend the concept that fraternity members are throwing parties in their own house? That the bands/DJs, alcohol, security and everything else involved is paid from their own pocket? I’m sure whenever you have a party at your apartment you let every single stranger walk through the door. Are their Greeks who are racist and say hateful things? You betcha. Are their non-affiliated students who are racist and say hateful things? You betcha. Where is your tirade against the UNC student body?
In the famous case of the former Dartmouth fraternity brother-turned-whistleblower, his efforts to have hazing rituals thwarted by the police were in turn thwarted by a senior member of the Dartmouth administration, a fraternity alumnus who tipped off the fraternity the night it was supposed to be engaging in its most vile round of hazing. Privilege that allows already privileged men to be exploited by other privileged men in return for the guarantee of further privilege is wrong. This is not to say that those specific atrocious acts have occurred at UNC, but the power dynamic is identical everywhere these societies exist.
You even said these events haven’t happened at UNC. If you did any research at all, rather than writing a feature-length column based on personal opinion and nothing else, you would know that the UNC administration has taken great strides in recent years to improve the Greek system, and Greek members have been actively involved in those discussions.
While the perpetuation of white, gendered and wealth-related privilege is likely not the expressed intent of most Greek members, that is nevertheless the effect these organizations have upon our campus and our world. The cost and culture of Greek life has the effect of exaggerating the socioeconomic disparities that correlate most strongly with race. To be sure, there are people of color who belong to these societies, but they are very few — apparently too few to affect the institutional framework of Greek life. Remember a certain sorority’s sombreros last year?
Sure, there aren’t too many people of color in Greek organizations, but how many of them come out for rush? Are you aware that by trying to put the Greek community on blast, you’re roping in multi-cultural fraternities and sororities, of which IFC and Pan-Hel organizations often join in fundraising efforts?
You haven’t made a single statement based upon data or fact yet. Again, you assume that all Greeks are prejudiced while dismissing the quite-blatant stereotypes you hold, yourself.
The Greek system is sexist.
The relationship between fraternities and sororities is hierarchical and reinforces the subservience of women, even wealthy women, to wealthy men. The Greek conception of gender roles is cut and dry and lifted straight from the 1950s.
Exactly how? Why don’t you define the Greek conception of gender roles to substantiate this claim? It’s because you can’t. You don’t know what interactions between fraternities and sororities are like because you aren’t a part of the community. This is another sweeping generalization. Making this statement is an insult to the hundreds of progressive, independent women in sororities.
Speaking with people who have been on both sides of the sorority rush process, I have learned that the offer of membership in Panhellenic sororities is, at least in part, often dependent on the prospect’s physical attractiveness and body type.
Once a part of Greek life, sorority women are encouraged, implicitly and explicitly, to stay in good physical shape for the purpose of remaining attractive to fraternity men. At that point, sorority women are at once degraded for being either sexually active or sexually inactive within the Greek system.
They are also sometimes encouraged to socialize with members of one fraternity rather than another, and vice versa. The codes of sexual and romantic conduct between sororities and fraternities deprive sorority women of the agency ideally enjoyed by both parties of a romantic relationship.
The effects of this oppression, generally speaking, have been the tacit acceptance of rape culture and the general objectification of women. Fraternity brothers accustomed to getting their way at times seem not to stop and consider the possibility that the woman toward whom they are making drunken advances might not appreciate them, no matter how wealthy their fathers may be. The fact of the matter is that rape is occurring at UNC as a result of structures that glorify party culture at the expense of consent. I know women who have been raped at fraternity events. How must they feel walking past Frat Court?
At UNC, sororities are not permitted to serve alcohol in their houses or have men sleep over. Fraternities are allowed to both host women and provide alcohol. In a society where even buying a woman dinner is grounds for expecting some sort of sexual reciprocation, fraternity men hold the keys to the bedroom, so to speak, when it comes to distributing social lubricant among their guests and setting the agenda as the night goes on.
Sex within the Greek system often seems to operate on a bartering system, one which creates artificially high demand for the affection of fraternity brothers. This is often accomplished by freely admitting women to parties while denying admission to most male non-members, particularly those they perceive as threatening their chances of getting laid that night.
It is nearly always men, not women, who control the supply of alcohol in situations where women are most vulnerable, and it is a significant number of those same men who aim to inebriate women for unsavory purposes. There is an expectation that alcohol can be exchanged for sex. This is not to say that members of Greek societies are the only ones who take advantage of this expectation, but the relative power dynamic between fraternities and sororities ensures that attendance at their events depends on one’s acceptance of a male-dominated culture of sexual exploitation.
Everything you just wrote is 100 percent built on hearsay. As an alumnus of the UNC journalism school, I know this isn’t how you were taught to write. You cannot write this without sources, facts or data. Not only is this nearly libelous, it’s disrespectful to sorority women and their values and character. You position yourself as such a champion of gender equality, yet you write as if women are incapable of making their own decisions, reduced to a life of dependence on men. You’re so biased that you can’t even fathom the idea that 20-plus-year-old women can form their own identities apart from their sororities.
Furthermore, your attempt to defame every fraternity man is wild and dangerous. You add to the division in the UNC student body when you believe that everyone in a fraternity is a rapist. I guess you have never bought a drink for a girl or taken her out to dinner. If you have, then why aren’t you writing about how you, yourself, are a rapist, Henry?
And, who are you to say that women only go to fraternity parties seeking sex? Do you think so lowly of women that they can only bounce from fraternity to fraternity willing to have sex in return for admittance to a party? Do you really believe that basic friendship can’t exist between males and females in Greek organizations?
Your not-so-subtle shots at fraternity members illustrate that your challenge of the Greek system in this column isn’t built on an institutional problem, but rather your reckless disdain of 18 percent of the male student population at UNC — a disdain that likely stems from your inherent beliefs about Greeks rather than legitimate personal interactions.
The Greek System needs to change.
All that being said, I do not want to abolish the Greek system. There is a long history of philanthropic work, academic achievement and lifelong friendship within Greek life which I’m sure many will argue has been prominent enough to overshadow, if not justify, the ills I have described above. I would ask that readers who are members of fraternities and sororities consider how their organizations could further emphasize those values.
I don’t think anyone could argue that the conditions I have described are not present to at least some extent, though. If there is any way Greek institutions either permit or encourage those conditions, that needs to be forcefully addressed.
I take pride in going to UNC. I grew up in Chapel Hill, and I still love it here after 20 years. But even to attend this university is to participate, to some extent, in an exclusive society that allows us to take four years of classes in a field we might not even work in.
My fellow UNC students and I are all Tar Heels, and that’s a privilege. At the very least, though, it is our duty as students and as members of student organizations to work toward a campus where the privilege of being a Tar Heel is experienced in equal measure by every student.
Greeks don’t detract from your experience as a Carolina student. If the worst thing that’s ever happened to you at UNC is somebody making fun of you for riding a bike, then you’re probably doing all right.
It’s humorous that a white male who grew up in Chapel Hill and goes to UNC is trying to bash the Greek system for being privileged. If you actually took the opportunity to engage the community, rather than spreading hearsay and making wild accusations about their lifestyle, you would realize that there are a whole lot of people just like you, if not less privileged.
Your hypocrisy in this column is telling of your blind prejudice against Greeks. You present unfounded anecdotes as evidence that Greeks are assholes, misogynists and regressive socialists, but even these statements — founded on hearsay and nothing else — are applicable to the entire UNC student body.
You’re clearly biased against Greeks, and that’s OK. However, you can’t write this column filled with wild accusations — none of which, I must repeat, have any sort of factual backing — and have it come across as anything else than a whiny rant. You should be embarrassed to have your byline associated with this column, and you should also hold remorse that you put your publication in such a poor light.
