Assignment 4

Corina Roman
Professor Gomrad
ENC 1102
April 12, 2015

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Introduction
As Greek life continues to grow so does conflicting opinions of what Greek life
promotes, or consists of. In this review, the negative stereotypes and degradation of Zeta
Tau Alphas sisterhood is investigated to determine how and why these stereotypes are
formed. Being a member that is judged just by the letters I wear is what has concluded
me to search for the root of negative stereotypes to search for why they are formed and
how they can stop. Generally, people assume every news articles and news clips they see
depict an entire chapter, they are then shared on social media or word of mouth and
subconsciously create a negative connotation associated with sororities.
Background of Stereotypes
With the formation of Greek life dating back to the early 1800s, the findings of each
individual chapter continues to expand, even though the values of each chapter are one in
the same. But with the values of each PanHellenic chapter being so similar, the question
comes up of why women chose this specific house over another. Merriam-Webster
defines a sorority as:
A women's student organization formed chiefly for social purposes and having a
name consisting of Greek letters a sorority can be seen as solely founded for
social purposes.
Morgan Legel, Butler University columnist, makes reference to Merriam-Webster
describing a sorority as solely founded for social purposes. These purposes give rise to
stereotypes for each house and how they are perceived in the campus community. Part of
the reason stereotypes exist is because somebody sees a negative action performed by a
member that is usually connoted with something negative, they then continue to spread

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the actions they have witnessed through hear-say and the stereotype grows. The average
chapter size of sororities at the University of Central Florida is more than 150; these
stereotypes should not be as important as they are. It is clear they do not describe an
entire house. They should not be thought of as fact, for there are far more principal issues
to deliberate upon (Legel). Pre-existing stereotypes can get in the way of a womens
perception of the sisterhood in a house. Historian of the Eta Kappa chapter of ZTA,
elaborated on why people have chosen to associate one members mistakes towards the
entire chapter:
People choose to remember the negative so when word spreads they dont
remember that we have broken philanthropic records, they remember the bad
decisions made by one or two girls. These bad decisions are remembered for
years. Im in charge of social media and I really make an effort to portray our
chapter in the most positive light to rid of these negative stereotypes. Another
aspect of breaking these stereotypes is the attitude of the rest of the Greek
community. If they arent willing to recognize our efforts to rid of a negative
stereotype it will most likely stay, regardless of the good we do.
With social media being a big part of where people get their stereotypes from, it is
someones choice to form a negative connotation of something that may or may not have
happened. Holding members accountable for keeping their personal social media
accounts appropriate as possible is a huge contribution to how our sorority is perceived.
Stereotypes should not be seen as facts, they are far more important aspects about a
sorority to be concerned with.

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The main pre-existing stereotype is connected with hazing and Greek life not being
beneficial to a students future. In movies and television, hazing is depicted as the most
self-esteem depleting action a young women could possibly endure. Most campuses
across the nation have implemented strict policies on hazing and any chapter rumored of
hazing will be investigated and have their charter revoked. According to Colleen Murphy,
columnist for The Signal, at least 59 students have died in incidents involving fraternities
since 2005, with six others getting paralyzed (Bloomberg News). Despite statistics,
people are joining in record numbers. UCF is a campus that absolutely does not tolerate
hazing in any form. Movies such as Dead On Campus, depict pledges of a made up
sorority enduring hazing after accepting their bid, creating the false interpretation that
hazing is tolerated in secret. Potential new members do not want to be associated with the
stereotypes depicted of certain chapters in the public eye. The hierarchy associated with
stereotypes is also connoting negativity among Greek life. Jason Menayan, author of
HubPages, states common examples of how each chapter ranging from only accepting
certain races, not invested in philanthropy, and partiers, to where they fall on the tier
charts depending on each campus. Students who participated in recruitment and did not
receive a bid from their desired house, may choose not to continue in becoming a
member of that house and re-rush next year or lose faith in recruitment completely.
However, one should be sorry for having biased perceptions about Greek Life, the
individual houses, and independent students. Those who continue to judge an entire
house by its perceived stereotype have no place in the Greek system. This practice
violates the principles of brotherhood/sisterhood and campus community (Wyllie). An
individual's Greek affiliation should be used as a medium to improve the university. An

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affiliation has greater value for students who intend to promote academic excellence,
campus involvement, and leadership. The status, whether negative or positive, does not
come from the letters one wears. Above all, the content of an individual's character is
more important than the house someone intends to pledge (Wyllie).
In relation to the content of a students character being affected by the house a student
intends to pledge, a study conducted by the National Center on Postsecondary Teaching,
Learning, and Assessment in University Park, Pennsylvania, examined the cognitive
effects of fraternity/sorority affiliation on 2,293 first-year college students at 18 four-year
institutions in 15 states. It assessed the net effects of Greek affiliation on standardized
measures of reading comprehension, mathematics, and critical thinking, and sought to
determine if the cognitive impacts of Greek affiliation differed for students in different
institutional contexts or for students with different characteristics. The study found that
Greek-affiliated men had significantly lower end-of-first-year scores on standardized
measures of reading comprehension, mathematics, critical thinking, and composite
achievement than their non-Greek counterparts. The impact of Greek affiliation on nonwhite males, however, was slightly positive. Women who joined sororities had lower endof-first-year scores on all four cognitive measures than non-Greek women, but only the
differences in reading comprehension and composite achievement were statistically
significant. The findings suggest that the normative peer culture and socially-orientated
time commitments of Greek life often are inconsistent with the educational and
intellectual mission of colleges and universities, exemplifying that Greek life can have
negative effects on a students academic endeavors.

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Implicit Association Test
Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz (1998) developed an Implicit Association Test
(IAT) to unobtrusively measure people's implicit attitudes. Their research has shown that
stereotypes and prejudice can operate without conscious awareness, even among those
who explicitly renounce prejudice. The IAT has effectively measured implicit attitudes
based on topics ranging from race to sexual orientation (Jellison, McConnell, & Gabriel,
2004). The purpose of this study was to broaden the scope of the IAT by measuring
implicit attitudes towards members of social fraternities and sororities. The IAT is
perhaps the most widely accepted implicit measurement test and it works by measuring
the strength of associations between specific known groups and pleasant and unpleasant
attributes. The IAT demonstrates how stereotypes operate with some degree of
automaticity; participants had to exercise conscious control to override the implicit
association which added to response time.
To complete the test, participants must generate the same response (pressing an
assigned keyboard button) for groups and positive attributes during one block of trials,
and again with negative attributes for another block. Implicit attitudes can be inferred
from the different responses in the group-good and group-bad condition. Abrahamowicz
(1988) found that members of student organizations, such as athletic teams and social
fraternities and sororities, had significantly more positive perceptions of their
relationships with other students and faculty as compared to students who did not belong
to such groups. Moreover, members of these groups had a more positive perception of
their feelings about learning and college in general. Overall, student organizations are
crucial for a healthy student development; however, participation in these groups can

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have a segregating effect or serve as a convenient means for stereotype labels (Chang &
DeAngelo, 2002). When student groups have limited diversity, stereotypes about those
groups can easily develop.
Philanthropy
Not only do sororities focus on developing friendships and womanly character, but they
also focus heavily on Philanthropy. Each national sorority has a philanthropic cause that
all its members raise money for, Zeta Tau Alphas national philanthropy is Breast Cancer
Education and Awareness. Philanthropy is the main focus for many sororities. By
participating in philanthropic events not only are young women held responsible for
themselves in raising a certain amount of money, but they are also responsible for the
cause they are raising money for. The outcome of philanthropy all depends on how
willing sororities are to help others. From survivor recognition activities to pink-out
games on campus, lemonade stands to golf tournaments, ZTA collegiate and alumnae
chapters hold over 500 events to raise funds for, and increase awareness of, breast cancer
(Our philanthropy). But with all of those examples being said, women going through
recruitment essentially do not see philanthropic achievements as big of a deal as they see
negative stereotypes (Legel).
What Can Be Done
As much research as there has been to discover why stereotypes form and continue to
grow, why has no one proposed a way of remedying the problem?
Murphy states, I certainly dont think we would have this many people joining and
committing so much of their time and energy if it were a bad experience, or if people

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were buying friends, or were all very shallow or whatever else. There has to be some
deeper root piece to this.
Specific chapters have made efforts to focus on strictly advertising positivity of their
chapter, but changes can only be made within yourself. Students need to do their own
research on each house, talk to each organization they plan to pursue and form their own
opinions on all of the facts. Realizing, their own mistakes they make in public does not
represent their entire friend group, just themselves as one action of one member of a
chapter does not represent an entire house, just one member. ZTA chapters nationwide,
continuously makes efforts to diminish negative connotations and emulate the positives.
Every chapter uses the quote, You are Always Wearing Your Letters, and heavily
implies it during the new member process to ensure we are making positive opinions into
the future new member classes of our chapter, the future of Greek life. Implying that you
are always wearing your letters is a way to remind students that every action you decide
to partake represents something bigger than just yourself. Our responsibility as a member
of a sorority is to take pride in the letters you represent, the people in your chapter you
represent, Greek life as a whole, and most importantly, the foundation that your founders
built your chapter upon. Everyone is accountable for their actions, but there can be
mistakes that happen, that can affect not only your future but the future of Greek life.
The University of Maryland at College Park set standards for supporting Greek life on
campuses. They believe that the organizational ideals and goals they presented here will
promote personal development and a strong sense of identity within the institution. The
ideals and goals outlined here include scholarship, leadership, community service,
individual and group initiative, self-governance, and interpersonal and social skills

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development. It argues that fraternities and sororities can provide unique learning
opportunities for students and that such students can become productive members of the
alumni and student communities, helping to provide solutions to my research question.
Despite all the negativity involved in Greek life, chapters continue to flourish on
campuses nationwide. The more research done by an individual, the more positivity seen.
As fast as negative stereotypes can grow, positive stereotypes can grow just as fast if the
effort is put in. People with different personalities or different levels of self-esteem will
look at recruitment with different reasons.
As Legel states, ask not what your sorority can do for you through how outsiders see it;
ask what you can do for your sorority by how it is seen through your own eyes.
Methodology
The primary research method I selected to measure differing opinions of the
community was survey statements and interviews. You will find my interview questions
in Appendix 1 and my survey statements in Appendix 2. I selected these research
methods because it was a way for people to answer truthfully and stay anonymous, as
well as provide an outlet for me to interview certain individuals that oppose or support
Greek life. By generating a survey through surveymonkey.com, I was able to measure my
results from the differing opinions of students. By conducting interviews, I was able to
achieve a more elaborate and thoroughly explained response as to why they have formed
the opinions they have. I chose participants that were members of the UCF community
involved in Greek life and students that were not involved in Greek life. Through my
survey I was able view the percentage of female or male students took the survey, what

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percentage were involved or not involved in Greek life, and what percentage would be
interested or not interested in Greek life given different values represented by chapters.
The results I received support the ideas of what the University of Maryland at College
Park was trying to implement. The values of scholarship, leadership, community service,
individual and group initiative, self-governance, and interpersonal and social skills
development made 65% of unaffiliated students interested in Greek life. This substantial
statistic proves that more students would be interested in Greek life if it represented
positive core values. In an academic view, while 49% of students did not believe that
students in Greek life have a higher GPA than unaffiliated students, 50% of students
agreed that that fraternities and sororities can provide unique learning opportunities for
students and benefit their future. So, while half of the community believes Greeks may
not make up to par grades, they still believe that it is beneficial for a students future.
Proposed Solution
My proposed solution to try to remedy the negative stereotypes connoted with Greek
life is to create new rules to be shared and followed nationwide. These rules would
promote alcohol and drug free socials, recreational, and extracurricular options in regards
to public service to create a social/academic/residential environment that promotes
healthy social activities. Implement alcohol availability limitations in order to limit the
marketing and promotion of alcoholwhich would also limit the potential social media
advertisement of alcohol. My audience would be the National PanHellenic communities
so they could create their own chapter specific guidelines so chapters nationwide can
change how they are perceived. Campus security and university officials could also call a
plan into action to implement the new rules and create stricter penalties to the chapters

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that disobey the rules. Creating stricter rules will reduce the negative environment that
alcohol creates. Omitting of the items that can create a negative environment will
improve chapter morale, and if chapter morale is improved, students will have greater
interest in being involved in the community outside of involvement only in the chapters
extracurricular options. Improving involvement outside of the chapter gives opportunity
for other students to see the positivity in Greek-affiliated students and their actions. On
the survey that I generated through surveymonkey.com, I asked students:
If you found a sorority or fraternity that was truly about intellectual excellence, high
standards of moral conduct, and responsible citizenship, would you be interested in
joining?
65% of students said yes, they would be interested in joining and 22% said maybe. If all
the chapters in the National PanHellenic community truly emitted intellectual excellence,
high standards of moral conduct, and responsible citizenship, this percentage could
increase from 65% to 87%... thats a substantial increase in more students getting
involved with Greek life. Proving preconceived assumptions false using evidence, will
make the negative perception of Greek life a thing of the past. Students want to see more
positive impacts than negative by their fellow students, while students aspire to make
college the best experience of their lives, if more opportunities interested them by
aligning with their values, the whole community could make a drastic impact for future
students and years to come.
Opposing Views and Justification

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People in opposition of my solution may include members of chapters that do not want
their system to change or more rules to be enforced. Many members of chapters become
so comfortable in their accustomed culture of their sorority they are not open to change.
Seniors for example, went through recruitment when rules were not enforced and they
may have been involved in incidents that are no longer acceptable in todays culture of
Greek life. Seniors may be against enforcing rules because they want all the people in
their chapter to endure the same process they did despite perceptions changing over the
years. Others that may oppose this solution of new rules would be the people that are
looking to be involved in Greek life for the wrong reasons, these are the students that
would want to be involved in Greek life for the party aspect of it, not the values. These
students that are not interested in the values, are not the students Greek societies want to
entice, making strongly enforced rules a filter between the students that are interested for
the right reasons. Filtering the students there for the right reasons versus the students
interested for the wrong reasons can aide in the solution of changing the perceptions of
Greek life. For example, if a sorority is recruiting girls that want to party and do not care
about their values, then the new recruiting classes will consist of girls with the same
mindset which would continue the negative perception of them. If a sorority of high
moral standards and leadership were strictly recruiting girls with aligning values, then the
chapter would consistently be achieving a respectable and positive perception.
My solution should be implemented because it addresses why negative connotations
are associated with sororities. From what people perceive is what they form their
opinions from, once opinions are formed they are spread through word of mouth. If rules
would promote alcohol and drug free socials and extracurricular options in regards to

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public service, it would create an environment that promotes healthy social activities.
Implementing alcohol availability limitations in order to limit the marketing and
promotion of alcohol would limit the potential social media advertisement of alcohol. If
people are witnessing positive actions and representation, they will have nothing to
formulate a negative opinion from. If beneficial actions are constantly promoted, it will
attract like-minded students who want to become involved and will be proud to be
involved with that subculture. If chapters had stricter penalties for disobeying the rules,
such as revoking their chapters charter, members of the chapter would refrain from any
action that could put their house at risk knowing disobeying the rules is not worth losing
their house over.
Conclusion
Various aspects of sororities such as social media photographs, movies and television
were discovered to have had an enormous impact in creating a negative stereotype. No
solution is guaranteed to work but trying an applicable solution is the first step in making
a solution work. The only way to change the actions of a subculture from negative to
positive is to enforce stricter rules and stricter penalties for those rules, as well as holding
chapters/individuals accountable. Making it less desirable to disobey the rules will start to
mediate the issues involved with the negativity of the environment. If what is promoted
on social media and spread through word of mouth, is positive actions of a chapter
benefitting the community, then it will attract more students. Attracting more students of
high morals and character will create a subculture of positively influential people, if this
subculture is constantly portraying a positive self-image then there is nothing to
formulate a negative connotation from. This subject is relevant and important among

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campuses because it holds the potential of the Universitys repertoire at stake. Greek life
being so heavily involved with different philanthropic societies, has changed so many
lives and will continue to as each chapter grows.

Attatchment 1: Survey
(survey generated through surveymonkey.com, yes/no/maybe answer descriptor)

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What grade level are you?
What is your gender?
Did the presence of fraternities or sororities have an impact on which university you chose?
Are you a member affiliated with an organization under the National PanHellenic Council?
If you are not affiliated with a fraternity or sorority, are you interested in Greek life?
Do you think being a member of a fraternity or sorority is beneficial to ones future?
If you found a sorority that was truly about intellectual excellence, high standards of moral
conduct, and responsible citizenship, would you be interested in joining?
Has your estimated cost per year of participating in Greek life affected your decision whether to
participate?
Do you think students involved in Greek life have a higher GPA?
Do you think students in Greek life go out more than non-Greek life students?

Attatchment 2: Interview

What are your views of your universitys Greek system?

What was your main reason for/for not seeking out fraternity or sorority life?
What positive impacts do you feel fraternities and sororities create in the community?
What negative impacts do you feel fraternities and sororities create in the community?
Where do you base your opinion of Greek life from?