Brian King Source 1

Brian King Source 1

What is the worth of fraternity / sorority life?

Havel, Michael S., Georgianna L. Martin, Dustin D. Weeden, and Ernest T. Pascarella. "The Effects of Fraternity and Sorority Membership in the Fourth Year of College: A Detrimental or Value-Added Component of Undergraduate Education?" (2015). Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

This article explores various studies on Fraternity and Sorority life and the effect that membership has on academic success, morality, social life, and many other aspects of life. Some studies concluded negative effects from greek life membership; "In the senior year of college, fraternity men’s GPA significantly lower than unaffiliated men’s, but no difference between sorority women and unaffiliated women," and  "fraternity membership was responsible for lower-than-expected critical thinking skills compared to unaffiliated men at the end of the first year of college." Some other studies conducted and reviewed in this article, however, pointed to some positive effects of fraternity and sorority life; "senior fraternity/sorority members demonstrated more academic effort, more involvement in departmental clubs and professional organizations, and higher ability to function in groups." There were also numerous tests given on morality, reasoning, comprehension, etc. to members of fraternities and sororities. In the end, the article finds no direct effects, but some condition effects that leaves greek life with few positives and many criticisms. 

In the beginning, I designed my question with the preconcieved notion that greek life was detrimental to academic success, hoping to be proven wrong throughout my research by finding sources that proved the worth of fraternities and sororities. This article, however, furthered my suspicions that greek life is harmful rather than helpful during a student's academic career. This article did, however, add aspects that I had not thought about before, such as how fraternities and sororities affect morality.

The article also covers direct effects and conditional effects, which has affected how I will view my research from now on. I do not have a complete answer, but I now have a clearer view with solid research and numerous studies to come closer to a conclusion. Some questions remain that the article brought up but did not answer; is there correlation between greek life membership and sexual assault? Is there a correlation between greek life membership and drug abuse?