March 05, 2004

• Well, this is just another example of the repulsive smegma that the monstrous frat boys of Delta Kappa Epsilon have foisted upon an unwitting nation.
• The idea of frat houses (or whatever you call them) is so odd. Is everybody at university a member of one? For a friendless fool like me, they sound damn frightening, really.
• The idea of frat houses is to give the popular kids their own separate society in college so that they don't interfere with the learning process.
• Now I see. In Britain, thats what the rugby and football teams are for...
• Q. What do you call a frat boy in a suit? A. The defendant.
• Or seemingly from this list, the President. Or Congressman. Or...
• Nice post. You can also download an Excel spreadsheet version.
• Curious. The Dekes were something of a joke at Yale in the mid-80s, being the only Greek society then operating on campus, however feebly. The atmosphere must have been different in GWB's day; it certainly is today, as the Greeks have returned with a roar. Ugh.
• Obligatory frat humor link.
• good one, timmus. I think the greek thing tends to vary from school to school. a friend of mine went to a small private school where EVERYONE joined, so the frats & sororities were very varied & reflected the different facets of the student body. I, on the other hand, went to Rutgers, big state U. there, if you were a certain type of person you joined a frat or sorority, and no one else (like me & myriad other weirdos) did.
• I'm curious - they've got lists for Congress and the White House, but nothing on the Supreme Court? That's almost like a fraternity, what with the special outfits and lifelong membership. And I bet they hazed the heck out of O'Connor.
• UC Santa Cruz had no fraternities or sororities when I first went there in fall of '99. When I went back two years later there were several sororities (but I don't think there were any frats), comprised solely of Asian students. I think in that particular case it was more a way of maintaining a cultural solidarity than...whatever it is that sororities usually do.
• Fraternities and sororities are practically nonexistent at my school (NYU), dng; only a few hundred kids out of tens of thousands participate, and those are almost invariably branded huge assholes the minute mention of their frat slips out (and usually rightly so).
• My university did not ban fraternities or sororities per se, but they did refuse to recognise any student organisation which discriminated in accepting its membership. If you were willing to take all who wished to join, you were allowed.* The fact that no fraternities or sororities were willing to abide by these rules kind of puts lie to any claims that they wish to be just like any other social organisation. (Though perhaps if any of the service associations had been on campus, they would have been happy to abide by it). The only groups allowed to be selective were the departmental students' associatons, which were allowed to limit themselves to majors. But even then, I thought that was a bad idea, as many non-majors would still be taking courses in the department.
• In a mid-sized city in North Carolina where I went to school, fraternaties could have houses off campus but sororities were not allowed. Why? Because the local ordinances considered more than four women living in the same house to be a house of prostitution. No lie. so glad I don't live there any longer...