In this op-ed Syracuse University senior Matt Gehring explores how a recently surfaced video of fraternity behavior at the school has confirmed some students' fears about Greek life and what can be done going forward.
A fraternity at Syracuse University has become the latest Greek organization suspended on Wednesday for racist behavior. The college’s chapter of Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity, was filmed what appeared to be performing a ritual that attacked countless communities, including people of color, queer people, Jewish folks, and people with disabilities. The Daily Orange, Syracuse’s independent student newspaper, published the video, which some audiences may find disturbing.
While Syracuse University immediately announced the fraternity’s suspension in a scathing statement, protests erupted on campus on Wednesday evening and lasted well into the night. Members of many of the mentioned marginalized communities were angry that an environment exists on Syracuse’s campus that would lead to the behavior in the video in the first place. And though the behavior we’ve now witnessed was disgusting, few of us were surprised.
As a gay student on Syracuse’s campus, I’ve always felt uncomfortable walking past frat houses. It’s a feeling that takes over my entire body, a feeling I haven’t been able to shake for the past four years. My chest tenses up. My breaths get shorter. I walk faster as my mind plays out the scenarios that could occur when a stereotypically masculine fraternity member runs into a flamboyant, gay guy like me.
Of course, this was just a feeling based on expectations, not reality. I hadn’t been subjected to the kinds of violence or harassment I imagined. I wasn’t aware of actions of those sorts happening to my fellow queer students. I walk with immense privilege as a white guy on the Syracuse campus, even if I’m marginalized as queer. I was told that Greek life had gotten better, that many of our campus fraternities accepted queer members and that they were doing just fine. I believed all of this, but my body still tensed up while walking past their houses.
It wasn’t just me that has felt this way. Through conversations on campus, many of them since the Theta Tau videos were made public, I’ve learned that many of my female friends felt the same in the presence of fraternity members, and some of them had been subjected to catcalling and harassment countless times. Many of my professors said to me that they avoided walking down “fraternity row” whenever possible. Many of my friends of color said they avoided joining prominently white Greek life organizations altogether. Few of us experienced violence or harassment perpetuated by fraternity members, but we still dreaded walking past their row of houses each and every day on campus.
Now, our embodied fear feels justified. Every time we walked faster, looked down, and avoided “fraternity row” feels justified. We may not have known it at the time, or at least never had the evidence to prove it, but now we have proof of the marginalizing behavior and actions that have been going on behind closed doors at Syracuse’s fraternities. Our fears are now based on at least one piece of reality, not just expectations.
If this is the kind of behavior perpetuated at a professional engineering fraternity at Syracuse, it leads the marginalized members of our campus to wonder what else might be going on within Syracuse’s professional and social Greek life organizations. We question the circumstances, oversight, and influence of Greek life that led to what Syracuse University chancellor Kent Syverud described as behavior that was “extremely racist, anti-semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.” How many times has this happened in the past without the community finding out, and how often is it happening right now?
Greek life organizations may not be inherently damaging, but the environment they cultivate is a breeding ground for countless similar incidences. While they may tout ideals of brotherhood, sisterhood, philanthropy, and networking, when something goes wrong, it seems as though the top priorities for Greek life organizations are merely public relations and reputation. In the last 24 hours, I've heard of multiple Greek organizations telling their members that they aren't allowed to comment on the Theta Tau incident. These are rules apparently coming from their headquarters, seemingly because they don't want to be related in any way to a story about a racist fraternity. There is no doubt that some good things come out of Greek life, but it doesn’t matter what the organizations may claim: when they close rank instead of addressing problems within their own communities and allowing members to do the same, they are not upholding the principles their groups are supposedly built on.
This problem is bigger than Greek life, but it’s on Greek life members first and foremost to address the problem. If your instinct as a member of a Greek organization is to defend yourself as a “good” member, you’ve successfully fulfilled the organization’s public relations and reputation priorities. Instead, speak out against marginalizing behavior at other Greek organizations in addition to your own. Admit the ways your organization could be doing better and how you can play a role in a solution.
Our fears may be justified now, but that isn’t the end-game. On Syracuse’s campus and beyond, folks witnessing these incidences are angry, too. We’re demanding stronger oversight over these organizations that hold too much power and influence on college campuses. We’re asking members of Greek life organizations to not be bystanders, but to speak out against injustices and intolerable behavior within their own organizations. And we’re requesting that colleges create better ways for members of Greek life organizations to report these issues, without members being shamed, ridiculed, and ostracized for doing what’s right.
I may walk more quickly past frat houses this week, but I’m walking with an end goal in mind. We couldn’t fix a problem that we couldn’t see. But now that we have, we will solve these problems, because we won’t let our embodied fears be justified much longer.
Related: Penn State Students Respond to Greek Life Sanctions After the Death of a Student
