{"id":3861,"date":"2019-12-10T13:26:26","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T18:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/imprint\/?p=3861"},"modified":"2019-12-10T13:26:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T18:26:32","slug":"hazing-does-it-actually-have-a-place-at-ucf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/imprint\/hazing-does-it-actually-have-a-place-at-ucf\/","title":{"rendered":"Hazing: Does it Actually Have A Place At UCF?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Megan Gonzalez<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a school of over 67 thousand students, we are all searching for a place where we can belong. For ten percent<\/a> of college students, and sixty percent of my family, that place is within the four walls of a fraternity or sorority house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you ask, reasons for joining a\nsocial fraternity or sorority in college range from wanting to be involved in\nthe community, to wanting to make true friends, to wanting to make connections\nand network for post-college. Each of these reasons are familiar to the almost 800,000\ncurrent active members<\/a> of fraternities or\nsororities in the U.S. Each of these reasons are true. But if members of Greek\nlife give these answers for why they chose to join their Greek organization,\nwhy is it that when you ask someone else who is not<\/em> a member of a\nsorority or fraternity why they think people \u201cgo Greek,\u201d they often cite\nreasons such as accessibility to parties, drinking, and popularity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This stigma plaguing social Greek organizations is perpetuated by Hollywood, news headlines, and Instagram feeds, but it wasn\u2019t always this way. Greek organizations arose<\/a> in the 19th<\/sup> century to give male students a chance to socialize in a comfortable space, away from dorms and class. Soon after, the first women\u2019s fraternities\u2014now called sororities\u2014started with Alpha Delta Pi. In the mid-20th<\/sup> century, fraternities began becoming more inclusive with members to better represent the student body at their universities. They also started a process that is now called \u201crecruitment\u201d or \u201cpledging,\u201d which is a way for fraternities to continually gain new members so they can maintain the cost of their chapter houses.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is closer to what we know fraternities as today. Now, the recruitment process lasts around a week for most sororities, and sometimes months for fraternities. One member of a sorority at UCF stated she \u201cpledged\u201d to her sorority because she felt that they were genuine and \u201cwere interested in getting to know [her],\u201d rather than making her feel like nothing more than a cash cow. This may seem obvious\u2014sororities recruiting new members should be genuinely interested in the girls they give a \u201cbid\u201d to\u2014but that isn\u2019t always the case. Another sorority member of a different chapter said that during rush week the girls speaking to her forgot her name\u2014twice\u2014but that same sorority still asked her to return the next day. Finding a place that feels genuine is something that almost all interviewees stated as reasons for why they chose their particular sorority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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