A fraternity of smart people — an ethnographic vignette
The life of people in fraternities and sororities is seen as something of misunderstanding. Greek life to many consists of a homogeneous group of people that want to advance others on similar life paths. While one looks at photographs of the whitewashed composites (sorority profile photos), and lineage photos they only see one type of greek life.
This is the overarching struggle that people in greek life (especially at UMBC) try to fight against. Due to the historical background of fraternities and sororities there is an ongoing struggle with the changing populations of American universities being represented within these groups. Especially due to the fact that many were founded by well to do white, anglo-saxon christian men and women.
UMBC’s diversity consists of:
- White: 45%
- Asian: 24%
- Black: 14%
- Hispanic: 7%
- Other/unknown: 6%
- International: 4%
This diversity breakdown is not true of all universities, to UMBC’s greek community this is something that greatly reflects the goals and values of the community as a whole. This is important because if a fraternity or sorority was to base it recruitment strategies off of the other more historically based chapters they would not change their diversity at all. Recruitment would continue to go along never changing goals based off of others similar to that of the spectator theory. When one sees the overall “white” or “black” sororities, they lose so many other people and cultures.
Honing in on the idea that UMBC is focused on inclusion and gaining diversity of all types in major groups on campus, the greek community does not follow the spectator mentality. Diversity and inclusion are important to many of the greek groups on campus. On top of diversity, UMBC prides itself in being a “smart school” within greek life at UMBC. “A fraternity of smart people,” that advances resources and opportunities to many people from all different walks of life. While within the aims and goals of many chapters diversity is not inherently stated it is felt on the presence of a diverse university.
UMBC allows for this growth in representation but it is not something that is echoed throughout the surrounding universities of even within the entire country. When the Epsilon Tau chapter of Alpha Sigma Alpha joins other chapters within the same region they stick out like a sore thumb. The Delta Iota chapter of Alpha Sigma Alpha is from the University of Delaware and has very little diversity in their chapter. This could stem from the fact the the University of Delaware is 75% white and therefore their chapter will reflect similarly.
This is something that I will have to study within my research of the diversity that exists within fraternity and sorority life at UMBC. The makeup of an institution can greatly impact the makeup of organizations and the goals that said organization have. The idea of one not understanding something unless they experience it is of great importance to our community but is even more important to the advancement and growth of the emerging leaders that are a part of greek organizations.
UMBC does not experience race in the world of fraternities and sororities in the way that many others believe they do. This plays into my examination of how racial minorities experience greek life and how they may not align under the same “facts” that white greeks do. UMBC students experience greek life under the same umbrella that their counterparts all over the nation do, but they do not have the same outlooks on traditions due to their own experiences. This is similar to the Friday and Saturday Masowe tribes and their respect for the same foundation but different ways in which they respect it.
From this there a disparity within the experience of greek life from college to college based on the said colleges make up. The problem that this places on students from diverse universities is that when faced with interactions from a predominantly white school, from a chapter with a predominantly white founding they are forced to be placed back into an awkward situation in which they again do not feel accepted and and do not “feel at home” because they again do not have a connection to their history or their sisters.
