Katherine Huber

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd. 2

7 December 2018

Fraternities Are Slowly Destroying Their Own Reputations; They Should Be Cut!!

Would you want your child going to college to be in a fraternity where sexual assaults are

occurring? How about them being in fraternities where hazing is leading to deaths?1 Well,

between 2011 and 2017 three hundred and five sexual assaults occurred on college campuses and

students have died due to fraternity hazing events. Fraternities are causing more problems every

year simply because students want to “prove themselves worthy” to their fellow “brothers.”

Overall, fraternities should be completely cut from colleges because more and more problems are

occurring, especially misogyny, rapes and sexual assaults, and hazing which leads to murders.

“Fraternity deaths drew intense media coverage in 2017. Last year four fraternity pledges

died in what were alleged to have been hazing-related incidents2”(Biemiller). Timothy Piazza

was a Pennsylvania State University pledge at Beta Theta Pi. His final hours happened to be

captured by the fraternity house’s security cameras and brothers Snapchat posts. Piazza wasn’t

thinking clearly when his death took place because of being hazed into drinking alcohol. As can

be seen, fraternity pledges are willing to do what it takes to be just like everyone else. Piazza

wanted to prove his loyalty and willingness to be like the other members/brothers. On another

note, Maxwell Gruver was 18 years old at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. He hoped

1 Rhetorical Question-This is trying to get the reader to understand what a huge problem fraternities are causing.
It's getting the reader to question whether their child should go to fraternity events.
2 Exemplum-This is an example of a few students who died do to hazing events. It later explains what these

students did to die at such a young age.

to be a sportswriter and was a Phi Delta Theta Pledge. Gruver was declared dead at a hospital in

mid-September due to an over-intoxication of alcohol. Just like Piazza, Gruver’s brothers were

also convincing him to haze his helped lead him to his grave (Beimiller). Overall, fraternities

should be cut from college campuses to avoid more deaths. These deaths just happen to be

hazing-related incidents which is becoming more common throughout the United States.

On the contrary, the bond that is created between member as a result is certainly visible,

durable and genuine; the relationships between brothers are bonds that last a lifetime. Aside from

having strong ties with current students, Greek organizations are also great ways to connect and

network with past and future students not only from the chapter of the school people attend but

also chapters from other schools (Park). People are getting to know others outside of their

community which is leading to connection and speaking skills. Bonds are being created by

fraternities, but these bonds are leading to dangerous acts that are resulting in deaths. Students

want to be like everyone else, so they do things to make themselves worthy of being part of the

group. Whether its drinking too much or doing a stupid task, these students are willing to put

themselves forward to do the impossible. They don’t care what could be in their way or what

could happen consequently. But on the downside, the impossible is so impossible that it is

leading to deaths and injuries. In the year of 2017, 4 students died at nearby college fraternity

parties from being intoxicated and doing stupid things. Two of the boys were caught on film and

nobody did anything to stop them. All they wanted to do was be just like everyone else. Most of

these deaths are hazing related incidents. In an article about hazing, an author says, “Hazing that

is potentially deadly is far more common today. It’s only a fraction of the cases that come to our

attention, when there’s a serious injury, or a parent intervenes, or by chance campus police catch

something,”(Biemiller). As had been told, fraternities are a good way to create friendships and

bonds but the bonds they are creating are the wrong ones to have.
 “Many fraternities have multiple rape cases. Women have been sexually assaulted,

harassed, and abused by fraternities across the country,” (Rekic). In January this year, an athlete-

Brock Turner-from Standford University sexually assaulted a 22-year old woman at a fraternity

party3. He wanted to be known as a “big dog.” Not only are college jocks raping women but also

at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, police are investigating a fraternity after several

women were found labeled with red and black X’s on their hands after they had to be

hospitalized with memory lapses from intoxication at a fraternity party (Park). Men in fraternities

are sexually assaulting and using women to be loyal and a true “brother.” They will do whatever

it takes to be like them. The bad part is that no guy will think to stop this from happening. If the

older fellows tell them they need to “take on” a woman while intoxicated with alcohol, then they

will do it. No one cares about how the women feel, they just are happy to have gotten into the

fraternity. Fraternities should be shut down because they are promoting rape and sexual assaults

as being an alright thing to do.

Subsequently, some people are saying fraternities are safer nowadays. Most Greek

organizations are located on campus, and, as a result, there are far fewer serious alcohol-related

incidents. There also is a decrease in the amount of rapes and sexual assaults on campuses

(Bommarito). Everyone knows that fraternities are dangerous and are causing hazing related

problems from alcohol. On another note, there are at least 4 out of every 5 women who are

getting raped at a college campus (Martin) 3. So, how can people say that college fraternities are

safer when there are multiple cases and deaths per year around the country? Women are being

tortured and discriminated at fraternities' parties and no one does anything. These women don’t

deserve to be treated this way while men get to say they got a “score.” Just because these college

3 Logos- This uses information about how many women are abused per year out of 5. It gives the audience and
idea of the actual facts and statistics that are going into this research paper.
boys are drunk, doesn’t mean they can overuse their power. People in this country, mainly

fraternity owners have been claiming that we people are too sensitive, according to lawyers of

Georgia Tech, the complaints about the sexist and misogynistic chants are typical cases of

female “hypersensitivity.” If you get too worked up over these chants, then you are too sensitive

of a person to be in a college. Given these points, fraternities are not becoming safer, they are on

the downslope and becoming much more dangerous each year.

All in all, fraternities should be completely cut from colleges because more and more

problems are occurring especially misogyny, rapes, and hazing which is leading to multiple

deaths each year. There have been countless cases of misogyny and sexual abuse in fraternities,

and the numbers are only rising. It is up to as a country to remove fraternities as a whole in order

to remove their misogynistic and sexist views. Fraternities are promoting misogyny and sexual

assaults as being alright and Piazza and Gruver were two students who died due to hazing events.

There has been at least one school-related hazing death each year in the United States since

1961, according to Hank Nuwer, a Franklin College journalism professor and the author of

multiple books on hazing. Most, but not all, have occurred during fraternity initiation events.

Whiles others may say that fraternities help create bonds and are much safer than in the past, the

truth is pretty obvious that fraternities will always be and always have been a harmful threat to

colleges as long as they are around.

Works Cited
Biemiller, Lawrence. "Spotlight on Hazing." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 Mar. 2018, p.

B27+. Academic OneFile,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532528274/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=AONE&xid=ca

5b8e83. Accessed 21 Sept. 2018.

Bommarito, Teddy. “4 Reasons Why Fraternities and Sororities Really Do Matter On College

Campus.” Mic, Mic Network Inc., 26 Oct. 2015, mic.com/articles/9881/4-reasons-why-

fraternities-and-sororities-really-do-matter-on-college-campus#.mK6Jv0H9q.

Martin, Patricia Yancey, and Robert A. Hummer. “Fraternities And Rape On Campus.” Gender

& Society, vol. 3, no. 4, 1 Dec. 1989, pp. 457–473., doi:10.1177/089124389003004004.

Park, Madison. “Brock Turner Loses Appeal in Sexual Assault Case.” CNN, Cable News

Network, 9 Aug. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/08/08/us/brock-turner-appeal-

rejected/index.html.

Rekic, Denis. “Why Fraternities Promote Misogyny and Should Be Removed.” The Northern

Times, 25 Jan. 2018, thenortherntimes.net/1467/opinion/why-fraternities-promote-

misogyny-and-should-be-removed/.