Getting a true ‘college experience’ can be crucial to the first-year student stepping onto the campus of their new home for the next four years. Working toward a future career is just one small part of what makes up the ‘college experience.’ The rest revolves around making new friends, being independent and participating in social activities such as sports, clubs or Greek life.
North Central College thrives in the heart of Naperville, surrounded by neighborhoods and a downtown area. The school is your typical college: it has clubs, sports and academics, but there is one thing it does not have: fraternities or sororities. While not all schools have Greek life as an option, many do such as Indiana University, Carthage College and Arizona State University, so it’s a subject that does not go unnoticed.
Photo by Madeleine O’Connell
According to Kevin McCarthy, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students, the subject of bringing these forms of Greek life to campus has been brought up in the past, but has never been seriously considered.
“Culturally and historically, it has been the decision not to go down the Greek life path,” says McCarthy.
Greek life can bring advantages such as unity, leadership, connections and fundraising to a college campus. McCarthy believes that even without having fraternities or sororities, the College is still able to incorporate all of these benefits into their community.
For example, unity and leadership can be formed on campus through clubs, organizations, sports and classrooms. While there are no fraternities or sororities, the College is still involved with honorary Greek organizations. There are philanthropic societies that students can become a part of that relate to both leadership and academics such as Psi Chi, Delta Phi Alpha and Chi Alpha Sigma.
The social aspect of Greek life can also come with some negative factors such as increased consumption of drugs and alcohol and risky behavior. A study was conducted in 2007 to determine the amount of alcohol consumption by a Greek member vs a non-Greek member. In the study, 1,595 undergraduate students were asked to take a daily drinking questionnaire. The results of this study concluded that “Greek members drank more alcoholic beverages on a typical drinking day and engaged in heavy episodic drinking more frequently in the past 30 days compared to non-Greek members.”
According to McCarthy, many students come to the College because the social Greek life is not on offer. “If there was this massive call from our student population and from Student Governing Association… would we entertain the question more? Absolutely,” says McCarthy.
