Opinion
Fraternity culture catalyst for drinking tomfoolery
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It seems like some University of Wisconsin students have grown tired of the “glass half-full” mentality and now their Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are defined by how full their eighth, ninth or 10th cup is by the end of the night. This of course is not unique to
The surreal archetype of the typical frat guy at a raging party with umpteen beer kegs has been woven into our culture with movies like “Animal House” and “Old School,” which parade bands of bros who suckle beer bongs like infants to their mother’s teats and who are infinitely more coordinated doing a keg stand than standing among friends. These images are definitely exaggerated for elements of comedy, but there is truth in the connection of fraternities to their epic parties, which by and large include copious drinking.
The idea of alcohol may be foreign, familiar, nostalgic or distant to different people, but for most college students, they thrive on it. Alcohol consumption in itself isn’t necessarily a morally wrong thing, and attempting to argue against that timeless reality would be useless and annoying. It’s part of college culture, but people have to remember the responsibility part that comes with college and with drinking.
In an effort to not sound like a parental broken record, I raise a new question: when a student dies as a result of drinking too much at a fraternity, is the confiscation of the fraternity and the disbandment of the brotherhood warranted on grounds that they were responsible for the death by some extension?
Such was the case with 18-year-old freshman Johnny Smith at
Speaking with several students from different fraternities, it’s rarely the case that fraternity brothers shove a beer bong down a pledge’s throat, and if it is, that’s just cruel. But even though the fraternity brothers are not imposing alcohol on others, they are providing it, and in a legal sense, they’re responsible.
In another sense, which is likely more problematic for all college campuses, the fraternities that throw parties and provide alcohol to others have created a conformity of drinking that makes them in part responsible for their peers’ drinking. While being surrounded by alcohol does not necessarily make one expected to drink, alcohol has become something to make a person feel welcomed in a fraternity, where friends are really brothers. The same may hold true for sororities and even other student organizations, but the reputation of fraternities makes them even more responsible because their reputation feeds the presence and consumption of alcohol.
Scientifically speaking, this connection has been shown through multiple studies. Self-reporting studies have shown that alcohol use is more prevalent at sororities and fraternities, with fraternities boasting the heaviest and most frequent drinking patterns, according to a self-reporting study. Another study even illustrates the effects of perceived pressure on drinkers, revealing that students who did not have friends who discouraged drinking were more likely to become drinkers if they lived in fraternities than those who did not participate in Greek organizations. Another study showed that Greek participants have used alcohol as a means to friendship, social activity and sexuality, none of which is too surprising.
To be fair to fraternity members, they’re just trying to have fun, and many are of legal drinking age. Fraternities have made surprising efforts to ensure safety, uphold respect, teach academic merit and harbor well-being in college, but they are also an integral part of the problem of binge drinking. Do I think they should stop drinking so younger, more inexperienced drinkers do not feel like drinking will help them fit in, bringing the consequences of their poor decisions? No, because the perceived pressure to drink is too indirect of a reason for making people drink more.
Some students are widely unconcerned with the effects their drinking has, and while when “everyone” is taking a round of shots, the sober wallflower is standing there feeling left out waiting for their opportunity to feel like they can fit in among their college counterparts. Be conscious and sensitive to the pressure put on others with alcohol, and to those who do, I raise my glass to you.
Patrick Johnson (prjohnson3@wisc.edu) is a freshman hoping to major in journalism.
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Freshman? Dude, you’re not even old enough to have an opinion on the drinking culture.
Anyway, free flowing alcohol is college’s greatest weeder course. Some pass, some fail; beer does a better job than the GPA.
Wow, this is a terribly written article. I would really expect nothing less from a Freshman. As usual, fraternities are the scapegoat for the drinking culture on campus. At this point such accusations are just trite and are devoid of all meaning. Way to break this big story; great journalism, Sy Hersch (and, see this is sarcastic because he broke the My Lai Massacre and got a Pulitzer for it, but we can’t expect Freshmen to know such things).
Mentioning frats in a column: Instant flame bait.
Wow. Way to be extremely holier than thou. Stop judging others and just live your own life
i agree with you completely
When you gain experience at this university and get to know the Greek system a little better, write an article.
Breaking news: frats should use caution with extreme drinking. Good to see that Captain Obvious is now writing for the Badger Herald.
I actually agree with the person beneath me; the people who are too big of screw-ups to make it in the real world normally drink themselves into a third-shift job by their second year.
Also, where are all these “studies” that you cite? I’d like to see the way these numbers were manipulated; the average all men’s average GPA on most campuses is below that of the fraternity men’s average GPA. That can be found on any university Greek life website.
Another infantile attempt to blame fraternities for the drinking problem. Yes, its a problem, but will someone atleast make a cogent argument?
Losers who don’t have many friends, are poor with members of the opposite sex, and sit at home every Thursday through Saturday night get jealous of those that are out having fun and write articles like these. A freshman in his first semester writing an anti-drinking article?….as if you would know about these things already. Don’t hate the players, HATE THE GAME.
As usual, another pythetically written article by a pythetic journalistic entity. Honestly, what more can you expect from UW. First, I’m not sure why fraternities get the brunt of the blame considering that their importance and “standing” is nothing compared to what it was 10-20 years ago. Most people who attend huge campuses like UW, couldn’t care less anymore about fraternities. For example, I went to UW, got a great degree, drank a ton, made tons of friends, and didn’t know one person in my 5 years there that was in a fraternity, if you see my point. Second, this idiot’s problem seems to be with the “binge” drinkers on campus, and not specifically fraternities. The bottom line, and we could start a whole other conversation based on this, is that binge drinking and house parties will never go away as long as the drinking age stays at 21. To begin with, all one needs is Psych 101, to realize that students, especially Freshmen, are going to do what they legally aren’t supposed to; which in this case is drinking. I personally think that there would be less problems if the drinking age were lowered back to 18 or at least 19. That way the majority of the drinkers would be in bars, which is actually a much more controlled environment than a house party or etc… The reason binge drinking among minors is such a problem is because they are at random houses and they end up usually roaming around aimlessly causing problems for the whole night. Obviously, problems wouldn’t be completely eliminated with these people in bars, but they’re at least in a “controlled” environment and their amount of drinking is limited by $$$. Anyhow, one could pick apart this article by this idiotic freshmen for hours, but who really wants to waste the time. If this guy doesn’t want to drink, then he shouldn’t drink. However, he should try to be a man and stop bitching about it like the little freshmen baby that he apparently is.
So Greeks use alcohol as a means for social activity? I don’t know how I could have guessed that without your infinite wisdom. Maybe their need to drink in order to have friends is what drove them to join frats in the first place, hence why Greeks tend to drink more.
C’mon, it’s not too hard to figure out.
I… just… wow. Are you kidding me? I thought the Badger Herald was better than crap like this.
This entire article shows your ignorance about Greek life. Every fraternity is held responsible for their actions. Any parties that a fraternity holds has to be registered with the IFC(Interfraternity Council) a week or more ahead of time. In addition to registering, they have to have submitted a guest list as well. Each frat’s house has a size limit to how many people they can have, and most aren’t even allowed to have kegs. Sororities aren’t even allowed to have parties in which they supply the alcohol. If they want alcohol at their events they have to have them at 3rd party vendors. For you to make the generalization that Fraternities are the cause of UW-Madisons reputation is absurd. UW-Madison only has an 11% greek participation. Am I to believe that the other 89% of the student population are not drinking? Maybe you should do some investigating before you write something that you clearly know nothing about.
To follow up on my last comment, I forgot to touch upon a specific line. “alcohol has become something to make a person feel welcomed in a fraternity”- This definitely shows you don’t know what a fraternity is about. First, fraternities have a dry rush time period. That means when you are trying to recruit, you can’t serve or offer alcohol. Brothers are there as a support system, whether it be academic, social, or emotional. You network through fraternities. To suggest that any brother would not be accepted or welcomed because he doesn’t drink is just stupid and is considered hazing. So, once again, do your research before you write an article. Your too new to this campus to fully understand how things work around here.
FRATS RUULLLLEE EEEOOO
choir boy
First of all…..You’ve been here for 4 months and think you have it all figured out? You don’t know anything about college life, especially this campus. Secondly, in the war-stricken, economically devastated, scandal filled, celebrity country we live in, this is what you want to write an editorial about? Just goes to show that the Badger Herald is one of the worst pieces of journalistic garbage around.
“when “everyone” is taking a round of shots, the sober wallflower is standing there feeling left out waiting for their opportunity to feel like they can fit in among their college counterparts.”
After spending four years at UW, I can say that this is just not true. Come on BH, I thought you were better than this, letting someone with such little experience at UW write this article…
Ha, I heard about your article from Sonneman’s piece today… didn’t bother to read yours because apparently you have no idea what you’re talking about. Comments are great though. Good luck brah.