"Chancygate": An Unfortunate Hoax

So it appears that the chancellor's email about Rush is a hoax, according to the Daily Illini and an email from Assc. Chancellor Kaler. Which makes sense from the perspective of certain contributing alum being part of the infrastructure known as Greek life, and it would be terrible to upset the contributors to university coffers.

But in all fairness, I am a first year graduate student, and I have yet to receive an official correspondence from the chancellor (or it was ages ago and I had deleted it, which amounts to the same thing pragmatically). So I didn't know about the typical format of emails from his office. Secondly, I was on my laptop in the union using the CITES express mail, and so didn't have access (nor any suspicion) to the e-mail header, which would've thrown red flags.

But here is a morsel for all you disgruntled anon's that disagree with my position toward Greek life. I know such blanket statements as I've made in person and the email made offend you. But you should ask yourself, did you fall within the roughly (or more) 70% of Greeks that comprise of the "stereotype", as research in higher education shows, particularly with regards to alcoholic intake and GPA? Could you see the concern of those with making diversity work on campus and developing an inclusive community on a university have some initial criticisms of the structure of first-year Rush?

And I know some of you are saying "I am not this stereotype". Of course you probably aren't. This is another instance of the description being a normal (or Gaussian) distribution. A good majority of Greeks have responded on surveys of being moderate to heavy drinkers, listing escapism and the desire for social inclusiveness (or "in-group acceptance") as two major reasons/motivations. Of course these reasons aren't dependent on simply being Greek; it exists in non-Greek social groups as well. However, there is a significantly larger frequency found amongst Greek members.

If you claim you are/were not a moderate to heavy drinker and Greek, then congratulations. You are beyond the normal distribution. But my next question would be when did you rush. This is important, because as time increases between starting college life and rushing, the less influential Greek life has on peer-group exclusivity and impact on GPA. This is also documented in the literature.

These are concerns which float in the minds of administrators when the topic of Greek life comes up in any meeting: drinking, academics, campus community. I have plenty of anecdotal stories about people who became complete failures after they rushed, and I have several anecdotal accounts of people who had great successes as being a member of the Greek community. But you have to ask yourself this: is it a "stereotype" wrongfully placed, or is it an accurate portrayal of the normal distribution of Greek members?

I know my answer. What is yours?