Literature Review Blog #1
"Do Fraternities Have a Place on the Modern Campus?"
1. Visual.
2. Citation.
McMurtrie, Beth. “Do Fraternities Have a Place on the Modern Campus?” Pardon Our Interruption, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 3 Aug. 2015, www.chronicle.com/article/Do-Fraternities-Have-a-Place/232087.
3. Summary.
This article begins with the brief overview of the many forms fraternities have taken on campuses in their history, before focusing on addressing the form that fraternities take on campuses today. Following the trend in recent news about how Greek life has been put under the spotlight for misbehavior, many universities, fraternity national chapters, and parents alike are wondering as to what the continuing role of Greek life is to be. With the widespread bad behavior came a call for reform of the entire Greek system which is something has proved to be no easy feat. The Greek system was established on an unsteady foundation, and reworking that foundation in a way that will satisfy those calling for reform without hindering the spirit of the students has no certain path to progress. The article notes that while there are certainly positive changes being made, it is a slow movement as fraternities are so prominent and powerful among students on certain college campuses. Not only is this power of pro-Greek life focused solely on college campuses, but it is important to note how engrained Greek life is within alumni networks that were associated with fraternities in their own days. These alumni, often large contributors of university donations and/or people of power within the business world, have been putting pressure on the university administrators about what they see as the unfavorable approach many institutions are taking in restricting the freedom of Greek life. Many questions are posed on how to deal with the few unruly chapters as there seems to be no tried and true way to compromise both sides. In response to this uncertainty, college administrators and fraternity nationals are forcing these student run chapters to hold greater responsibility despite their minimal guidance from those who are supposedly overseeing them. However the article notes that while Greek life certainly has it's fair share of problems, it still seems to be in the students best interest to support this system. There may not be as much regulation to drinking culture and acts of hazing as there could be, but the fact that fraternities are held responsible for what goes on at their chapter does more than many give credit for. Without fraternities the dynamic of college culture would be a compilation of underground, completely unregulated groups with no responsibilities. Over the years there has been a pull and sway of different types of regulation from colleges on fraternities. Recently, the choice seems to be either supporting the students current habits with a safer approach then what has been taken, such as making the fraternities go through preventative measures, or enforcing a no pledging no alcohol policy on every chapter. There is an increase in educational seminars on topics that affect college students directly, such as hazing, drinking and sexual violence. There has also been an increase of 'in-house directors' within fraternities and sororities alike, to give an additional overseeing eye on day to day life. The article considers a lot of factors which go into this sometimes dangerous dynamic. The question of whether fraternities breed bad behavior or just attract those accustomed with bad behavior is one that currently has no answer. Another point the article brings up is the lack of staffing and budgeting to truly be able to address a safer future going forward with fraternities. In conclusion, the article ends with focus not on the trials and troubles there has been to regulate the future of Greek life, but all the gradual change that has been taking place in the meantime while there still is no one right answer on how to address the future of Greek life on campus.
4. Author.
Beth McMurtrie is a writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education, and has been writing with this publication for eighteen years. In 2003 she shifted her from her original focus, religion and international news, to higher education to which she has been writing about since. McMurtrie has a particular focus on "campus culture". Before joining the Chronicle of Higher Education however, McMurtrie did have prior experience writing about higher education within the publication News & Record in North Carolina. Over the course of her career she has won several small awards for series she has published. McMurtrie has experience reporting and has her Masters degree in Journalism which she obtained from the Columbia University School of Journalism.
5. Key Terms.
Binge-drinking: the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time.
Pledging: the act of a person accepted for membership in a club, fraternity, or sorority, but not yet formally approved. Usually are forced into activities meant to discomfort or embarrass the pledge, as a right of passage among older members of an organization. Goes hand in hand with hazing.
Hazing: the imposition of strenuous, often humiliating, tasks as part of a program of rigorous physical training and initiation.
6. Quotes.
"The inter-fraternity conference recently organized three task forces on hazing, sexual assault, and alcohol, which promise a surgical examination of fraternity culture, in which all treatments are being considered" (McMurtrie, 2).
"Yet college administrators caution against trying to do away with fraternities altogether, arguing that banning them could create a far worse alternative. 'It's in everybody's best interest to have strong, viable national fraternities and sororities,' says Mr. Kimbrough. 'Students will still have the right to associate. They will create unsanctioned, underground groups and that's going to be a nightmare for everyone'"(McMurtrie, 3).
"Then came Animal House. The 1978 movie touched off a renaissance of sorts, fueled by more relaxed attitudes toward drinking and sex. When the drinking age was raised to 21, in 1984, off-campus fraternity parties became a staple of college life, and the Greek experience changed profoundly. A landmark study conducted in the early 1990s found that 86 percent of fraternity members engaged in binge drinking. 'Kegs, party balls, beer trucks with a dozen taps along the sides, kegerators, 55-gallon drums filled with a mixture of liquor and Kool-Aid, ad infinitum. ‘Tradition’ became a common theme for parties, ranging from ‘tiger breakfasts’ to ‘heaven and hell,’ with variations'. That reminiscence comes not from a nostalgic fraternity brother, but from the Fraternal Information & Programming Group, a risk-management organization formed in 1987 by national Greek leaders who watched what was happening inside fraternity houses with growing alarm" (McMurtrie, 4).
7. Value.
This material helps me explore my research question because it directly relates to the time span that I am focusing on. The college drinking dynamic is one that has shifted and changed drastically over the past half decade, and this article helps me focus on where that shift is left off today. By using this text I will be able to focus on the modern controversies that surround college drinking culture, and the link between college drinking culture and Greek life. The modern controversies this article addresses includes the relationship between hazing, pledging and drinking, as well as how to deal with bad behavior from Greek life communities going forward in a way that will satisfy all those involved. Greek life is an incredibly big part of current college drinking culture, and so is an incredibly useful point to consider for my research paper.
1. Visual.
2. Citation.
McMurtrie, Beth. “Do Fraternities Have a Place on the Modern Campus?” Pardon Our Interruption, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 3 Aug. 2015, www.chronicle.com/article/Do-Fraternities-Have-a-Place/232087.
3. Summary.
This article begins with the brief overview of the many forms fraternities have taken on campuses in their history, before focusing on addressing the form that fraternities take on campuses today. Following the trend in recent news about how Greek life has been put under the spotlight for misbehavior, many universities, fraternity national chapters, and parents alike are wondering as to what the continuing role of Greek life is to be. With the widespread bad behavior came a call for reform of the entire Greek system which is something has proved to be no easy feat. The Greek system was established on an unsteady foundation, and reworking that foundation in a way that will satisfy those calling for reform without hindering the spirit of the students has no certain path to progress. The article notes that while there are certainly positive changes being made, it is a slow movement as fraternities are so prominent and powerful among students on certain college campuses. Not only is this power of pro-Greek life focused solely on college campuses, but it is important to note how engrained Greek life is within alumni networks that were associated with fraternities in their own days. These alumni, often large contributors of university donations and/or people of power within the business world, have been putting pressure on the university administrators about what they see as the unfavorable approach many institutions are taking in restricting the freedom of Greek life. Many questions are posed on how to deal with the few unruly chapters as there seems to be no tried and true way to compromise both sides. In response to this uncertainty, college administrators and fraternity nationals are forcing these student run chapters to hold greater responsibility despite their minimal guidance from those who are supposedly overseeing them. However the article notes that while Greek life certainly has it's fair share of problems, it still seems to be in the students best interest to support this system. There may not be as much regulation to drinking culture and acts of hazing as there could be, but the fact that fraternities are held responsible for what goes on at their chapter does more than many give credit for. Without fraternities the dynamic of college culture would be a compilation of underground, completely unregulated groups with no responsibilities. Over the years there has been a pull and sway of different types of regulation from colleges on fraternities. Recently, the choice seems to be either supporting the students current habits with a safer approach then what has been taken, such as making the fraternities go through preventative measures, or enforcing a no pledging no alcohol policy on every chapter. There is an increase in educational seminars on topics that affect college students directly, such as hazing, drinking and sexual violence. There has also been an increase of 'in-house directors' within fraternities and sororities alike, to give an additional overseeing eye on day to day life. The article considers a lot of factors which go into this sometimes dangerous dynamic. The question of whether fraternities breed bad behavior or just attract those accustomed with bad behavior is one that currently has no answer. Another point the article brings up is the lack of staffing and budgeting to truly be able to address a safer future going forward with fraternities. In conclusion, the article ends with focus not on the trials and troubles there has been to regulate the future of Greek life, but all the gradual change that has been taking place in the meantime while there still is no one right answer on how to address the future of Greek life on campus.
4. Author.
Beth McMurtrie is a writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education, and has been writing with this publication for eighteen years. In 2003 she shifted her from her original focus, religion and international news, to higher education to which she has been writing about since. McMurtrie has a particular focus on "campus culture". Before joining the Chronicle of Higher Education however, McMurtrie did have prior experience writing about higher education within the publication News & Record in North Carolina. Over the course of her career she has won several small awards for series she has published. McMurtrie has experience reporting and has her Masters degree in Journalism which she obtained from the Columbia University School of Journalism.
5. Key Terms.
Binge-drinking: the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time.
Pledging: the act of a person accepted for membership in a club, fraternity, or sorority, but not yet formally approved. Usually are forced into activities meant to discomfort or embarrass the pledge, as a right of passage among older members of an organization. Goes hand in hand with hazing.
Hazing: the imposition of strenuous, often humiliating, tasks as part of a program of rigorous physical training and initiation.
6. Quotes.
"The inter-fraternity conference recently organized three task forces on hazing, sexual assault, and alcohol, which promise a surgical examination of fraternity culture, in which all treatments are being considered" (McMurtrie, 2).
"Yet college administrators caution against trying to do away with fraternities altogether, arguing that banning them could create a far worse alternative. 'It's in everybody's best interest to have strong, viable national fraternities and sororities,' says Mr. Kimbrough. 'Students will still have the right to associate. They will create unsanctioned, underground groups and that's going to be a nightmare for everyone'"(McMurtrie, 3).
"Then came Animal House. The 1978 movie touched off a renaissance of sorts, fueled by more relaxed attitudes toward drinking and sex. When the drinking age was raised to 21, in 1984, off-campus fraternity parties became a staple of college life, and the Greek experience changed profoundly. A landmark study conducted in the early 1990s found that 86 percent of fraternity members engaged in binge drinking. 'Kegs, party balls, beer trucks with a dozen taps along the sides, kegerators, 55-gallon drums filled with a mixture of liquor and Kool-Aid, ad infinitum. ‘Tradition’ became a common theme for parties, ranging from ‘tiger breakfasts’ to ‘heaven and hell,’ with variations'. That reminiscence comes not from a nostalgic fraternity brother, but from the Fraternal Information & Programming Group, a risk-management organization formed in 1987 by national Greek leaders who watched what was happening inside fraternity houses with growing alarm" (McMurtrie, 4).
7. Value.
This material helps me explore my research question because it directly relates to the time span that I am focusing on. The college drinking dynamic is one that has shifted and changed drastically over the past half decade, and this article helps me focus on where that shift is left off today. By using this text I will be able to focus on the modern controversies that surround college drinking culture, and the link between college drinking culture and Greek life. The modern controversies this article addresses includes the relationship between hazing, pledging and drinking, as well as how to deal with bad behavior from Greek life communities going forward in a way that will satisfy all those involved. Greek life is an incredibly big part of current college drinking culture, and so is an incredibly useful point to consider for my research paper.
To make the literature review most useful to your paper, you should focus on the information that is most relevant to your topic. You do not have to give a general summary of the article -- especially when that summary seems to ignore the discussion of how the 1978 film Animal House and the change in the drinking age that followed in the early 1980s revived fraternities by making them less conservative and allowing them to become the main site of drinking on campus. These paragraphs are most useful -- yet you do not even mention this:
ReplyDelete"The 20th-century fraternity has gone through many changes. In the 1950s and early ’60s, their conservative values and traditions meshed well with the mood on college campuses, although as Mr. Syrett notes, they were also the source of a steady stream of racist and sexist behavior. In the tumultuous 1970s, their traditionalist views stood in increasingly stark contrast to the political shifts on campus.
Then came Animal House. The 1978 movie touched off a renaissance of sorts, fueled by more relaxed attitudes toward drinking and sex. When the drinking age was raised to 21, in 1984, off-campus fraternity parties became a staple of college life, and the Greek experience changed profoundly. A landmark study conducted in the early 1990s found that 86 percent of fraternity members engaged in binge drinking."
Am I allowed to/should I go back and edit this review to cater more towards my paper?
Delete