I have spent a majority of my time in a greek organization trying to break down the stereotype that all we do is drink beer, fight and break shit. While there are several people I know that are the poster children for this assumption.
Then when nine members of MY greek organization decide to make national news to further expand on this negative attention.
Nine pledges of The Delta Chi Fraternity at the University of Colorado caused $10,000 worth of damage to one hotel room in Estes Park, CO. The nine pledges had their own keg and several bottles of alcohol were found in the room. HOLY CRAP.
I spent this previous weekend at a greek leadership conference in Chicago and this subject was brought up. We were encouraged to try and distance ourselves and not put ourselves in these types of situations. Easier said than done.
What sucks is that this is what most often gets published about greek organizations. There are very few instances where you see an article talking about a positive impact made by a greek organization, because that is not interesting and won't keep people reading. No one wants to read that the KU greek organizations have had a higher GPA average than non greek students for the past 25 years. Or the over 100 charity events that KU greek organizations put on each year.
As a member of The Delta Chi Fraternity at KU we have received several emails from our national chapter on the situation. They have also expressed their frustration and said that former members were questioning if fraternities were even still relevant on a college campus. It is frustrating to realize that a couple of bad apples do spoil the whole bunch and coming to the realization that no matter how hard we try the stereotype for us "frat guys" will most likely always stay the same. Thanks brothers.
I definately see how you could be frustrated by this situation! It only takes a couple bad members of an organization to make the whole chapter look bad. Now, whenever people hear Delta Chi they may only think about this situation. The same goes for many other fraternaties and sororities. As a member of Gamma Phi, I have not personally seem the impact of a national situation. I have seem the impact that a few members can do for the whole organization though. Just because one girl does something or acts in a certain way, the whole chapter takes the blame. People stereotype the whole chapter after one event. It is very frustrating that people can't look at the whole picture. Yes, some members may make mistakes and not think about their actions, but this doesn't mean that the whole organization should suffer. Like you said, people don't remember the chapter's GPA or the fundraisers they have done, ther remember these mistakes that members make!
Stereotypes are interesting because they are true and untrue. They are true because the actions are not made up people acted like that at some point in type to earn those stereotypes but they are untrue because stereotypes always focus on the negative. There are probably only a few people in any group who act like the stereotype but instead it seems like everyone acts that way. Plus in our society everyone focuses on the negative things that you do and there is little focus on the positive. In this story the bad thing about stereotypes is that this story will be heard by many people and then attract the wrong people to greek organizations. The right people may not join because they do not want to be part of a group with that stereotype. It sucks because it will seem like you are always fighting an uphill battle but for now everyone in greek organizations needs to do what they can to help break the stereotype.