​What Would Happen If Your School Banned Greek Life?

29 Harvard University faculty members recently recommended that the school ban students from joining fraternities and sororities in an attempt to phase out greek life by May 2022. Other schools are also flirting with prohibiting greek life. From the schools’ standpoint, yes there would likely be benefits to this move. Yet, are they weighing the negatives of such a decision? Here are 5 potential unwanted outcomes if your university decided to get rid of greek life.

 
Grades might go down
On most campuses across the country, the average greek GPA is higher than the average student GPA. Fraternities and Sororities have GPA requirements that remind members of the ramifications of letting their grades slip.
 
Philanthropy efforts could take a huge hit
Greek life philanthropy events are often the largest grossing charity efforts on campus. Some of these events can bring in over $100,000 in a single day. This is sad to say, but one has to question if the members would keep up their philanthropic efforts if they weren’t within the construct of a sorority or a fraternity.
 
Accountability of moral standards would be in jeopardy
Each organization holds its members to a high more code. This code usually encompasses core values that stress honor, leadership, citizenship, scholarship, etc. Would students stop practicing these values if greek life ceased…hopefully not, but it certainly helps that while as a member they are constantly reminded of these worthy values.
 
Leadership opportunities could decrease
Everyone has seen the statistics, there is a disproportionate number of former greeks in leadership positions in the corporate and civic arenas. Many of their first leadership experiences were while they were in a sorority or fraternity. Keeping 100+ brothers or sisters in check is one heck of learning opportunity.
 
Scholarship opportunities might suffer
College is only getting more expensive. Successful graduates donate a lot of money to sorority and fraternity scholarship funds. If greek life went away, would they still be donating this money to the school for the benefit of the students? We can’t be too sure.