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Lily Armington

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

2/12/17

Topic Proposal: Go Greek or Go Home

Introduction/Overview

I will be examining Greek life on college campuses, specifically, how participating in

Greek life positively influences a students academic success and prepare them for their future

career. When people think of sororities or fraternities, they tend to associate them with partying

and a way to buy friends. My goal is to show the reader that there is so much more that Greek

life offers. There are several aspects of Greek life that, if taken advantage of, can drastically

improve a students academic performance in school and provide them with life skills they will

need for their future. Taking part in Greek life can make people feel like they are part of

something bigger, thus give them the confidence they need to try and explore new things.

In fact, some very successful women have been part of a sorority during their college

years. For example, the first female senator took part in Greek life (Glass). Greek life can help

build a person up. In the article Examining the Benefits of Greek Life it stated that a group of

men came together to form a society that would help prepare themselves for their future career

that their professors didnt train them for. In addition to career preparation, Greek life can also

provide their members with networking resources and supporters (Glass). For example, I am part

of a sorority, and many of my sisters will let everyone know of places that are hiring that are in

the area, job shadowing and internship opportunities, and nanny/babysitting opportunities.

Another major aspects of Greek life is the opportunity to grow leadership skills (Glass).
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Sororities and fraternities provide endless leadership positions such as executive member

positions, chair positions, committee positions, and council positions. By taking advantage of

these different positions, it can help members develop leadership skills, which is vital to

succeeding in their future.

There are several requirements that sororities and fraternities put in place for their

members in order for them to succeed during their time in school. One of the main requirements

that are set in place for every Greek organization is a minimum GPA that must be met at the end

of each semester in order to remain in the sorority or fraternity (Jacobs). This allows the

members to strive for the best possible GPA. In addition, the minimum GPA that is set by the

organization is usually higher than the universitys minimum GPA (Williams). By setting a

higher minimum GPA, it shows that Greek organizations hold their members to a much higher

academic standard. For example, college graduation rates are 20% higher for students that are

affiliated with Greek life (Glass).

Another main aspect of sororities and fraternities is community service. The main way

Greeks give back is through the philanthropy that is linked to their organization. Each Greek

organization has a philanthropy in which they partner with different non-profit organization that

supports their philanthropy. Through this, sororities and fraternities will hold various

philanthropy events that raise money and awareness to support their philanthropy and non-

profit organizations that they are partnered with. According the National Panhellenic Conference,

in the 2014-2015 academic year over $34 million have been raised for philanthropic causes and

nearly 3 million hours of community service hours for non-profit organizations have been

completed. Giving back through community service not only promotes personal growth and
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experience, but it also provides professional experience and leadership opportunities. Both

professionalism and leadership skills are vital in order to be successful in future careers.

The majority of my research came from articles and online publications. The articles that

I obtained information from were published on USA Today and Business Insider. People that had

previously been a part of Greek Life wrote these articles. I also visited the Vanderbilt University

and found an article that gives information about Greek life on their campus. Lastly, I found a

study that was performed by Gallup-Purdue University of over 30,000 college students on the

effects of Greek life. This study provided me with various statistics of people who are affiliated

with a sorority or fraternity, versus, people who are not. During class, when we were sharing our

topic ideas with other peers, one mentioned that this particular topic would be successful due to

the amount of information there is, and my personal connection to Greek life and its impact

students across college campuses. Initially, I wanted to just focus on Greek life as a whole.

However, I realized that would be too broad of a topic, so I narrowed it down to the positive

affects that Greek life has on a students academic performance and preparing them for the

future.

While there are countless benefits to being in a sorority or fraternity, there are also some

negative aspects that people tend to focus on more than the positive ones. Typically, partying,

hazing and drinking are three of the most common stereotypes associated with Greek life

(Glass). It is also stated that hazing scandals often make headlines, rather than fundraisers or

philanthropy events (Glass). For the majority, the people who chose to pay more attention to

these aspects of Greek life rather than how helpful it can be for a student, are the people who are

not involved in Greek life. Most of these debates and conversations are in the form of articles

written by those students. Personally, I have never experienced hazing of any sort. My sorority
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makes it their goal to advocate that they are against hazing (as well as the other sororities on

UNCCs campus.)

Initial Inquiry Question(s)

help them become more prepared for their professional future (such as a career)?

My Interest in this Topic

UNC Charlottes formal panhellenic sorority recruitment. In never thought I would be the type of

girl to join a sorority in college. It wasnt until 3 days before recruitment stared that I signed up

to participate. However, I can now confidently say that joining Greek life was one of the best

decisions I have made since coming to college. My grades so far have been much higher than

expected, I have over 160 sisters that I can talk to about anything, and it has made me become

more involved on campus.

There are a lot of negative thoughts associated with sororities and fraternities. I want to

have people focus more on the positive affects Greek life can have on people rather than the

negative thoughts. Not all sororities and fraternities are the same, and that what I want people to

see. Members who choose to take full advantage of what their organization has to offer often

excel in in their academics, and are more prepared for their future career. Unfortunately, the good

grades and career preparation gets overshadowed by the one hazing scandal that occurs and

makes national news. Our society should stop judging the entire Greek life community from one

scandal that happened at one school.

Through this extended inquiry project, I hope to learn more specifics about the benefits of

joining a sorority or fraternity. I want to learn about people who were part of Greek life during
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their college years and what it has done to help them in their future. I want to know what kind of

life skills they have gained from it and how they use those skills to improve their everyday life.

Next Steps
I plan to visit the UNCC library websites database to find a peer-review article about my

topic. In addition, I will also be searching for more articles on USA Today from students

reflecting on their Greek life experience. I will continue to look over the National Panhellenic

Conference website to find more information about the academic, social, and leadership benefits.

Lastly, I will visit various university websites, as they provide information about Greek life on

their campus.