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Fraternity reputations stained by stereotypes

29 January 2008 | By Max Fisher, Flat Hat Chief Staff Writer | The Flat Hat » opinions

Two things about stereotypes we all know to be true: they are unfair and they happen anyway. But sometimes we can learn just as much from the way those stereotypes are generated as we can from the half-truths they represent.

One community at the College is having its ugliest stereotypes reinforced this week and, unfair though it might be, it creates an opportunity of introspection for that increasingly troubled group. I’m speaking of the College’s network of 16 fraternities, which used to count senior William McClain among its most esteemed members until he was arrested Jan. 18 for embezzling several thousand dollars from a student-run charity.

McClain, former vice president of Beta Theta Pi, is another in a series of embarrassing blows to the reputation of the College’s fraternities. Every week, The Flat Hat’s Police Beat fills with reports from fraternity housing: vandalism, theft and disorderly conduct seem ubiquitous. A deeper, more troubling trend emerges in the bigger scandals.

There have been assaults, large-scale drug busts and the seemingly annual College tradition of a fraternity brother leaving campus due to accusations of rape. There were two incidents in the same memorable night back in April, when human excrement appeared on the crowded Theta Delta Chi dance floor. Soon after, a Phi Kappa Tau brother was caught shouting homophobic slurs at a large group outside of TDX.

For the non-Greek majority, these stories define the fraternity system. But the truth, as is always the case, is more complex than the stereotype.

Fraternities, by their own choosing, are heavily oriented toward partying. Their self-designed role in the college community is to provide weekend entertainment in the form of dancing, music and a lot of cheap beer. This, in and of itself, isn’t a bad thing — my freshman year would have been much duller without it. But the cramped, uncomfortable fraternity housing — along with the sometimes overbearing emphasis on getting fall-down drunk — made me, and many of my classmates, move on after freshman year. Most students attend fewer fraternity parties once they make friends who have off-campus apartments and stop going altogether once they are old enough for the Delis.

Even upperclassmen within the fraternities tend to move out, deactivate or find new social outlets. The few who remain involved and dedicated through their senior year are viewed by the majority as a little strange. Maybe this is an unfair stereotype, but fraternities aren’t doing much to combat it. Older fraternity brothers seem to appear in a lot of unflattering news stories — embezzling money and denying accusations of sexual assault to name a couple. These few bad apples may not be representative of the whole, but they represent fraternities anyway.

It would be false to cite people like McClain as evidence for the growing suspicion around campus that fraternities produce the worst of the student body. However, it would be sadly accurate to call that an understandable misperception. Fraternities do get a bad rap. But until they give the rest of the student body a reason to take them seriously, to regard them as contributing something more than a social outlet for freshmen, their reputation will not improve.

Fraternities must seriously rethink what they look for in their members. Anyone immoral enough to steal money from a service group should never have been admitted to a fraternity, let alone elected vice president. While it would be unreasonable to expect his fraternity to foresee embezzlement, Beta Theta Pi clearly used the wrong set of standards in selecting McClain as a member and officer. People do not become this despicably corrupt overnight, and Beta Theta Pi chose to overlook his poor character in favor of other attributes. If I had to guess, I would venture that McClain is probably sociable and fun at parties. Both good qualities, to be sure, but qualities that the fraternity system — and not just McClain’s — has overemphasized to its own peril.

As McClain himself told The Flat Hat in a September article on fraternity rush, “We … mix a casual and friendly atmosphere with the important and serious principles we hold dear and expect to find in our potential new boys.”

McClain had obviously not given much thought to defining those principles, and I worry that he is not alone among fraternity leaders. Those officers who still have a chance to improve the role of fraternities in the College community should take this as an opportunity to consider very carefully what principles they hold most important and what their past misjudgments have wrought.
Max Fisher is a senior at the College.

1. McClain’s arrest has nothing to do with fraternities. Its clearly an isolated incident, which you are manipulating to form some warped sweeping conclusion. This article is stained by personal bitterness, unfounded claims, and misguided idealism. Fraternities are fraternities. Get over yourself.

   
   — Kirk    Jan 29, 06:58 PM    #

2. McClain was also a member of the Student Assembly and an orientation guide, but Mr. Fisher doesn’t see fit to criticize either of those two organizations as if McClain’s actions are characteristic of their goals and ideals. This article reads as if McClain stole from the philantrophy in his capacity as a Beta Theta Pi or a fraternity man, which is not the case. You can’t point to one bad apple as evidence that a system supporting hundreds of students on this campus and millions nationwide is flawed.

   
   — Brian    Jan 30, 12:15 AM    #

3. Fisher, too bad you are not a double major because you fail in English in just about every aspect.

   Seriously, this is a horrible article with logical holes everywhere. You need to work on using your evidence to help support your conclusion. You jump from A to F, without talking about points B, C, D, and E.

   I would suggest buying a “Logical Reasoning for Dummies” book and dive in. I think you can find that in the children’s section.

   Read it before your next article. Or just stop writing- that would be just as effective.

   God knows how you got to your position as Flat Hat Chief Staff Writer. Is that a new position this year? Or is that the position that all failed FH editors get?

   
   — Joe    Jan 30, 08:46 AM    #

4. O R they, Fisher?

   You were a loner at Rushmore too.

   
   — Andy    Jan 30, 04:00 PM    #

5. Adios, fraternities, you’re next on the PC hit list. I was betting they’d go after you after the sex show but it seems you’ve been moved ahead on the schedule. I feel another Nichol speech coming about how you’re not “inclusive” or “welcoming”. When you hear the “O” word (offensive) you’re outta here like a cross in a chapel! Don’t pack your bags just yet (but I wouldn’t by any new carpet or furniture).

   
   — skukuza    Jan 30, 07:11 PM    #

6. Aw, poor guy. I really feel for this Max guy. He obviously devotes his life to the betterment of all the downtrodden stereotype victims on campus, and in the world actually, and all the fraternities do is point out the fact that people are different. We need a PC policeman like this to rescue us from the evils of stereotyping.

   I think we should all echo Max’s sentiment, and Nichol’s for that matter:

   Don’t tolerate! Whine! That’s the only way to ensure a world where everyone smiles and dances on clouds and eats candy. YAY!

   
   — BA    Jan 30, 09:14 PM    #

7. “I really feel for this Max guy. He obviously devotes his life to the betterment of all the downtrodden stereotype victims on campus, and in the world actually, and all the fraternities do is point out the fact that people are different.”

   BA, I do not understand what you mean by this.

   
   — James Damon    Jan 31, 10:27 AM    #

8. James – BA is being facetious. He thinks Max is a self-important jerk. He does NOT really think we need a PC policeman. Unfortunately, Nichol is already the PC Police Chief, which is why toadies like Max are rushing to get their genuine, official PC badges, billy clubs and cuffs. Max is warming up the crowd in preparation for Nichol’s next batch of anonymous “offended” persons who’ll claim to have been wounded greiviously by some frat person, event or incident. No Freedom of Information Act will ever reveal any actual proof of said “offendees”, but Nichol will begin huffing and puffing nevertheless. Then comes the “inclusiveness” & “welcoming” speech. Works to remove crosses, demote department heads (Philosophy), and publically scourge professors. It’ll blow through the frat boys like tornado in a trailer park!

   The PC juggernaut continues along and all in its path will be crushed. Think “Cloverfield” on fraternity row. Nichol’s the big one. Max is a spidery slime-dropping, crawling along through the sewers picking off the easier targets.

   
   — e i e i OH    Jan 31, 11:16 AM    #

9. eieiOH, I understand that BA was being facetious, what I do not understand is his point about fraternities.

   He says that “all the fraternities do is point out the fact that people are different.”

   I completely agree that there are dangers associated with being politically correct. However, I do not understand how Max Fisher is being particularly PC. An argument can be made that he generalizes too much to make his point. but his point is not to rally students towards political correctness. His aim was to critique what he sees as a problematic fraternity culture on campus.

   For the sake of understanding though, lets assume you are right. If Nichol and Fischer were part of “the PC juggernaut” why would that prove a threat to fraternity culture in particular? I am curious to know.

   
   — James Damon    Jan 31, 01:10 PM    #

10. Alright… All kidding aside, my statements were merely to point out the utter hypocrisy of Max’s article. A better, more informed view of this kid’s aim would perhaps serve you to understand my point which, I will concede, it not all that clear. I just chose not to write a dissertation on Max’s social anxiety with regards to fraternities.

    This guy has been trying to get a reporter to “pledge” a fraternity in hopes of releasing some “dateline-esque” report on the evils of fraternities. My comment targeted the fact that this kid, who obviously loses sleep at night because of what he feels fraternities stand for, was obviously left feeling quite alienated by the process (perhaps he didn’t get a bid or something, or maybe, as he has done in this article, he associated the actions of a couple of fraternity kids on campus and proceeded to alienate himself from the entire scene… who knows?).

    My statement is less about the effect fraternities have on PCness and more about the irony of his article as a whole. Who does this kid think he’s kidding? Does he really want us to believe that people are unfairly applying a stereotype to fraternities based on this incident? What the hell? He’s the only one suggesting a correlation between fraternities and this incident. THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IS PROMOTING THE CORRELATION BETWEEN EMBEZZLEMENT WITH FRATERNITIES. I’ve talked to numerous people about the guy who was arrested and not one of them was ever like “Damn those fraternity bastards and their embezzling!” Max, you need to see a therapist because you are nuts, and I want to apologize on behalf of all Greeks for whatever happened to your head during rush, because you clearly haven’t let go.

    
    — BA    Jan 31, 02:43 PM    #

11. “But the cramped, uncomfortable fraternity housing — along with the sometimes overbearing emphasis on getting fall-down drunk — made me, and many of my classmates, move on after freshman year.”

    How is it the fraternities’ fault that the school forces us to live in awful on-campus housing? That point doesn’t make any sense.

    Also, you claim that Beta should have not let McClain in because it was in his character to embezzle. We don’t live in the world of Minority Report, you crazy idiot. Think about all the criminals (pedophiles, murderers, etc) that family and friends described as wholesome, genuinely nice people. You simply cannot place any blame on Beta for “letting him in.”

    “But until they give the rest of the student body a reason to take them seriously, to regard them as contributing something more than a social outlet for freshmen, their reputation will not improve.”

    I can assure you that fraternities are not concerned in the slightest with trying to appear “legit” to people who write whiny, illogical articles for the Flat Hat. I guess hosting philanthropies and providing the ONLY social outlet aside from three sandwich shops in Williamsburg just isn’t enough to please people like Max Fisher, but who gives a shit?

    
    — Rob    Jan 31, 02:58 PM    #

12. “This guy has been trying to get a reporter to “pledge” a fraternity in hopes of releasing some “dateline-esque” report on the evils of fraternities.”

    I’m always happy to see people posting comments on my columns, whether they agree or disagree (or misconstrue my argument entirely, as the case may be), because generating dialog about these issues is more important than any individual stance thereof. I wish the dialog could be more civil sometimes, but people have the right to choose their own tone.

    That said, one thing I can’t tolerate is dishonesty. The statement quoted above is entirely untrue. I have sent BA a private email but felt I should correct the record for the benefit of readers.

    
    — Max Fisher    Jan 31, 03:23 PM    #

13. Max’s private email to me was to inform me that I need to report myself to the Honor Council for lying with the intention of scaring people away from the Flat Hat website. Well, despite the fact that this is utterly false, I cannot imagine how long I would have to have pondered long nights away to come up with something as “entirely untrue” as that statement. As I told Max, and I’m sure you’ll agree, the article would attract readers by virtue of its controversial nature, and I think it’s a great idea.

    Anyway, this just goes to show that hypocrisy knows no bounds, and that even if you want to defame a network of 16 organizations through rhetorical manipulation and falsely correlating the events of individuals with select organizations with which they are associated (which is, in logical terms, lying to the fullest), that doesn’t mean you can’t attack people for allegedly defaming you. Bravo, Max. See you at 6 when I come to get my picture taken for the article.

    
    — BA    Jan 31, 04:33 PM    #

14. Quite a bit of the vitriol that’s flying about this comments board concerns the logical form of Max’s argument. Strangely, I have yet to see an attempt from the jeerers in the gallery to skewer his position on a formal level. Or maybe I’m allergic to ad hominems and straw people. Either way, let’s try to tease out the mechanics of this opinion piece.

    Max’s ultimate claim is a normative one, that “[t]hose officers who still have a chance to improve the role of fraternities in the College community should […] consider very carefully what principles they hold most important and what their past misjudgments have wrought.” How does he predicate this statement?

    The column begins with a recap of the news, so we get two empirical data:

    1. McClain was the vice president of a fraternity until his arrest
    2. McClain was arrested for embezzlement.

    From there, Max zooms out, encompassing within his next few statements College fraternities as a category.

    3. Instances of theft, vandalism, and disorderly conduct, assaults, and drug use in fraternity housing and among fraternity brothers are ubiquitous.

    4. Fraternity crime contributes to an unflattering stereotype of fraternity members among non-Greeks.

    (3) may be more useful in this analysis if we read it as, “Instances of theft, vandalism,” etc. exist, removing a logically squishy mention of rate, but we’ll keep it as is for now. Next we see a number of claims about fraternity values:

    5. Students eventually stop going to fraternity parties in reaction to uncomfortable settings and an emphasis on binge-drinking, as well as because fraternity reputation is bad.

    6. Fraternities’ reputations will not improve unless they proactively tailor their public images.

    Let’s take a look at how statements 1-6 relate to Max’s conclusion. It seems that we can immediately throw out (1) and (2), since these are just contextual data easily subsumed by subsequent propositions. (4) is a causal statement, but can also be expressed as a conditional—If some event is an instance of misconduct by a fraternity brother, then stereotypes about Greeks will worsen—and from (3), we can conclude that fraternities are getting bad raps. Assuming fraternities desire a positive public image, the course from here to Max’s conclusion proceeds rather readily. By (6), if fraternities are not proactively tailoring their public images, their reputations will not improve. Of course, now we see a potential hiccup in Max’s argument structure: By (6), image-adjustment is a necessary condition for reputation improvement, but it is not sufficient; clearly, some other conditions must obtain before fraternities’ reputations improve. This need not, however, detract from Max’s normative claim: If fraternities want improvement, they must play a part in it, even if their involvement won’t guarantee any sort of appearance sanitation.
    I’ve ignored statement (5), since its role in Max’s argument as I interpret it is not as clear. It seems that people stop going to fraternity parties for reasons other than a besmirched reputation at the hands of rampant crime, and that reputations extend beyond considerations of the comfort of the Units.
    Anyway, Max’s reasoning seems straightforward enough: a reputation for crime destroys fraternities’ public image, and will do so unless fraternities do something about it (that is, curtail the crime). Nothing from the above interpretation suggests that Max harbors any sort of antihellenic grudge. Whatevs.

    
    — Paul Gottschling    Jan 31, 06:57 PM    #

15. Max, I know we didn’t give you a bid, but you need to just get over it.

    
    — The Pledgemaster    Feb 1, 04:52 PM    #

16. Max,
    As a member of the Greek community myself, and someone who knows the victim(s) of your article, I can tell you that some college guys will always be boys and some will be men, regardless of greek or non-greek affiliation. Same with females. The point is that Will McClain’s situation is irrelevant to his membership in the greek community. Your comment, “While it would be unreasonable to expect his fraternity to foresee embezzlement, Beta Theta Pi clearly used the wrong set of standards in selecting McClain as a member and officer. People do not become this despicably corrupt overnight, and Beta Theta Pi chose to overlook his poor character in favor of other attributes” is disappointing. Not in the fraternities, but in you and others who hold the same opinion. Yes, Will McClain made a mistake, but I think your issue is about you grappling with something else. I know you needed something to write about, and Will was the perfect target. Have you imagined yourself in Will’s shoes or even investigated for yourself about what the explanation may be? I think this was just a golden opportunity for you to finally voice what has for so long been concealed. I apologize if you have bitter feelings towards the greek community, but I can tell you ours is like none other. If you think about it, similar drama-filled situations occur outside the greek community as well and just as often.

    Max, what is your solution to your problem? What is the real issue at hand? What are you doing to make things better?

    
    — KC    Feb 3, 01:32 PM    #

17. I think I agree with Max.

    The Fraternities aren’t necessarily bad organizations, nor or their members bad people.

    However, in my time at the College, Frat Row certainly hasn’t been doing itself any favors in terms of its public image, and the entire scene strikes me as being somewhat immature.

    I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are legitimately good and useful organizations, although considering the amount of negative attention generated by the actions of their members (however irrepresentative those members might be of the whole) the Frats need to do a bit more to generate some positive publicity in order for them to be taken seriously and to guarantee their survival at W&M.

    
    — Andrew Schmadel    Feb 4, 04:15 PM    #