Diversity and the Greek Community

This week’s additional reading assignment focused on the growing diversity of college campuses and emphasized a need for Greek organizations on college campuses to work towards incorporating that diversity into their communities. The article really harped on the statistics, that white college populations will only grow by 25% whereas other communities will grow by at least twice that number, with Hispanics leading the way at some 187%. The authors make the argument that to stay relevant to the college experience, Greek organizations must focus on not just accepting diversity, but working to promote it within themselves. My reaction to the article is kind of muddied.

On one hand, the need to be diverse is ultra important. I think Fiji is a better organization due to the wide variety of people we have in the chapter as well as viewpoints those people bring to the chapter. We are diverse in many ways. We have brothers from a huge variety of academic programs, many different kinds of communities, and several different ethnicities. We have brothers who are very religious and brothers who are not. We have brothers who are involved in honoraries, research, university affairs, and student government. We also have brothers who pour their effort into FIJI. Like we’ve talked about in class, our diverse group is united around our fraternal values and brotherhood. I wouldn’t change anything about it for the world. As far as encouraging diversity goes, I feel that our chapter is a positive example in the Ohio State community. In this respect, I agree with the assigned article because my experience with diversity in an organization has made my PhiGam experience that much more poignant.

That said, I feel the authors of the article push past being open to and encouraging diversity to suggesting we require diversity. At first that isn’t the most radical statement, but I think as they develop their arguments, they come off as though they need to force diversity down the throats of the Greek community. I’ve highlighted two statements the article makes that trouble me a little bit. Here’s the first:

            Fourth, fraternities and sororities espouse values of brotherhood, sisterhood,

and community. The Greek community, however, cannot exist apart from, or in

opposition to, the college or university community. Policies, mission statements,

standards, certain traditions, and goals all define what it means to be a member

of a college community; these proposals often include expectations of diversity

and inclusion. To continue to be part of the college community, Greek letter organizations must conduct themselves according to these goals.

Yes, we certainly can’t exist in opposition to the college community. However, should we have to change our missions, our values, and our traditions because the university says so? What if the university has a policy where they evaluate diversity solely by totaling the numbers of different ethnicities on campus, and they have a goal of x% for x ethnicity. Should a Greek chapter have to meet a quota on members of that ethnicity? I feel like the above statement assumes that if Greek organizations are not following university mission statements, standards, policies, traditions, and goals explicitly and exactly, then they must be completely opposing those policies. If z chapter isn’t going out of their way in the name of diversity, they must not care at all about diversity. This assumption is an enormous stretch. Next is the second statement that I find worrisome:

            Greek letter organizations must go beyond gaining an understanding,

however; they need to take action. They must commit to creating diverse learning

communities within the Greek system. They should also evaluate and

change recruitment, education, and social programs to reflect the interests,

needs, and sensitivities of the changing student population.

The part of this statement that really gets me is “They should also evaluate and change recruitment, education, and social programs to reflect the interests, needs, and sensitivities of the changing student population.” If one of our recruitment, educational, or social programs was disrespectful to someone’s race, religion, sexuality, et cetera, then yes it should be changed. But I what I see is an area where administration might nit-pick about whether or not some aspect of one of our social, service, or philanthropy events is diverse enough. Furthermore, while there needs to be some correspondence between our activities and the desires of the broader student body, we are still our own entities and I wouldn’t want to have to put on some sort of event because the student body at large wanted it when it didn’t align with something our chapter or our community was on board with. This probably isn’t the best example, but take the Ohio State community since we’re all familiar with it. Perhaps I am jaded, but my experience is that the some 10% of people who participate in the Greek community also happen to be a majority of people who are well involved at this university. I’m not saying that the Greeks are the only involved ones. What I am saying, is that the Ohio State student body at large is not well involved. Take a supposedly campus-wide event like Buckeyethon. If you surveyed the entire student body about Buckeyethon, more than half of them wouldn’t even know what it was. While the tools are there, a lot of people here just don’t seem to care. USG is another example. Everyone says they don’t do anything. Yet, when USG elections come around, nobody even bothers voting. Please don’t complain about your student government when you don’t even support student government. Perhaps if more of the student body cared about USG, they would pursue initiatives that reflect the student body’s interest. Anyways, what I’m getting at is I wouldn’t like to be pressured to change my organization’s programming to support a student body that doesn’t care.

To sum it all up, I agree that diversity is important. I agree that we should promote it and work to acknowledge it. However, I don’t think that the organizations that govern us – IFC or Ohio State – should feel it necessary to change the fabric of our organizations and what they do in order to promote diversity.

I’m looking forward to your comments.

With that I’ll leave you with a picture of what I think is one of the best looking Formula 1 cars of all time, and a video of it being driven by one of the best drivers of the 1980s-1990s: 4x F1 World Champion Alain Prost. Marvel at the sound of the Ferrari V12.