Think of Greek Life in college and describe what comes to you when you think about it.

Parties.

Basic girls and frat boys.

Mistakes that end up all over the news.

All of these things are terrible things to think about and highlight the issues with Greek Life. While this is happening, no one seems to notice the positive things that come with being in a sorority or fraternity.

There are many standards upheld by houses on IU’s campus. With things that have been happening on campus in general, not just in houses, greek organizations are taking extra new measures to ensure nothing terrible is going to happen. Among those things include closed socials, wristbanding people over 21 at parties, and providing rides to and from parties. While this is true, that is only the social aspect of sorority life.

To be in houses at IU, you must first have decent grades and be a well-rounded student.

In order to go through recruitment alone, you need a 2.8 grade point average. While this is not difficult, this is only the minimum GPA. Other houses can have requirements of a 3.0 or a 3.2. If you fall below this GPA while in the house, you will likely get sent to your VP of Scholarship where you will have weekly meetings requiring you to raise your GPA. Some houses do it differently, but most take a course of action helping you to do better work and bring it up.

Another crucial thing houses do to help you focus on your school work is study hours. In my house, we are required 3 logged study hours per week. Of course, this is not too difficult, but it forces students to go to their library or sit down in their house and log the hours they spend studying.

Sororities also place a huge emphasis on their philanthropies and volunteering. This helps members focus on things outside of school that are important in making students a well-rounded person. In my house, we are required to get 12 service hours per semester. Whether it is through going to a site or doing projects in your house for some of the hours, this is a great way to get involved!

Being in Greek Life is not all parties and booze like the media makes it out to be. It is focused on personal growth and self-improvement. The women and men in the houses are intelligent and work hard in school. You can find this in a house somewhere, I’m sure of it.