Greek culture

[Maister]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...r-own-safety-while-fraternity-brothers-party/

Okay, I'm almost a year behind the times, but I recently heard about how some sororities at UVA swore off partying with fraternities on campus. The national orgs apparently came down with this decree following a string of sexual assaults at various campuses.
I don't know about you but that decision seems rather out-of-touch, but it does bring to light some questions the non-greeks among us may have.

Do certain sororities tend to date only members of certain fraternities?
Are there any differences in how fraternity/sorority parties are conducted versus non-Greek parties?
Do non-Greeks ever get invited to Greek parties (I know I was never invited to one, but that doesn't mean that's the case for everyone everywhere)?

For the most part my impression/experience of greeks on campus was that they had little to do (socially) with folks that weren't fellow greeks, but then again that was just my impression.
Anything else you can share (good or bad) concerning Greek culture?

 

[DVD]

I wasn't a traditional student so I had no time for greek life. It seemed to me that the frats/sororities focused on recruiting from the business and education college. Never saw a table near the engineering, science, or architecture buildings. My guess, engineering students don't have time for that stuff. They're actually there to study and pass.

I did crash a few College of Charleston frat parties back in my Navy days. They wouldn't let you in the door, but the balcony was an easy entrance and once inside, no one cared. Typical party to me. Lots of beer drinking, some game playing, some sex in the bedroom (that didn't stop when we walked through the room from our balcony entrance). All the usual stuff.

 

[Suburb Repairman]

I got invited to a few frat parties, but I was a GDI (god damn independent). I was the exception though... very few non-greek males were invited to frat parties. The only reason I was resulted from me being friends from high school with the guy that organized most of their parties. I honestly only went to one or two because I couldn't stand most of the guys that were in them. Many were misogynists, bigots or racist (especially with a few cans of truth serum in them).

At my university, the fraternities and sororities did tend to generally pair off... there were tiers of fraternities/sororities, almost like a caste system. Frat guys almost exclusively dated sorority girls. Sorority girls would date outside of the greek system though... in fact I think most serious relationships for sorority girls were with guys from outside of the greek system. Most fraternity members were in the business school, construction technology, political science and marketing/communications; it was rare to encounter one from the liberal arts school, sciences or engineering/design. Sorority girls came heavily from the school of education and school of health professions.

There wasn't anything particularly special about the frat parties compared to many other college parties, other than the almost stunning lack of diversity in the crowd. In fact, they tended toward the tame side considering I was friends with several rugby players and went to their parties regularly.

 

[Whose Yur Planner]

When I was in college, I wasn't exactly Greek material. The group I fell into at college was made up of the geeks, rejects, nonconformists, poets, free thinkers, dreamers, romantics, and other misfits. We made fun the Greeks and all their monied pretense.

 

[DVD]

I got invited to a few frat parties, but I was a GDI (god damn independent). I was the exception though... very few non-greek males were invited to frat parties. The only reason I was resulted from me being friends from high school with the guy that organized most of their parties. I honestly only went to one or two because I couldn't stand most of the guys that were in them. Many were misogynists, bigots or racist (especially with a few cans of truth serum in them).

At my university, the fraternities and sororities did tend to generally pair off... there were tiers of fraternities/sororities, almost like a caste system. Frat guys almost exclusively dated sorority girls. Sorority girls would date outside of the greek system though... in fact I think most serious relationships for sorority girls were with guys from outside of the greek system. Most fraternity members were in the business school, construction technology, political science and marketing/communications; it was rare to encounter one from the liberal arts school, sciences or engineering/design. Sorority girls came heavily from the school of education and school of health professions.

There wasn't anything particularly special about the frat parties compared to many other college parties, other than the almost stunning lack of diversity in the crowd. In fact, they tended toward the tame side considering I was friends with several rugby players and went to their parties regularly.

I did date a couple sorority girls back in my younger days. Advice, don't date two girls from the same house. I didn't know there will factions within the house and one was using me to play the other. Good times for me, but I was banned from the house for all the problems the girls caused each other.

I'd have to say the best parties I've been to for general drunken craziness have been military parties (both Navy and Marine). When you start playing with flares then you know it's a party.

 

[AG74683]

I joined a fraternity in college. I was/am a member of Alpha Tau Omega (ATO). I joined it right at the end of their time on campus. They owed a serious ton of money to Nationals and that eventually got us shut down. It was actually a really good group of guys. I don't keep up with any of them anymore, mostly because the time I was in it to the time they got kicked off campus was maybe a year or less. Apparently, prior to their dark days, they were basically Animal House. Seemed like a lot of fun then. The chapter started back up a few years ago and it is doing really well. I guess they won the campus fraternity of the year and do a lot of philanthropic work. Seems they got their act straight now, so I probably wouldn't join if I was up there today!

Our parties were generally low key, mostly because of our reputation for being basically worthless. No sorority wanted to associate with us because it would bring down their image.

 

[DVD]

I joined a fraternity in college. I was/am a member of Alpha Tau Omega (ATO). I joined it right at the end of their time on campus. They owed a serious ton of money to Nationals and that eventually got us shut down. It was actually a really good group of guys. I don't keep up with any of them anymore, mostly because the time I was in it to the time they got kicked off campus was maybe a year or less. Apparently, prior to their dark days, they were basically Animal House. Seemed like a lot of fun then. The chapter started back up a few years ago and it is doing really well. I guess they won the campus fraternity of the year and do a lot of philanthropic work. Seems they got their act straight now, so I probably wouldn't join if I was up there today!

Our parties were generally low key, mostly because of our reputation for being basically worthless. No sorority wanted to associate with us because it would bring down their image.

Were you on double secret probation?

 

[michaelskis]

I joined a fraternity in college. I was/am a member of Alpha Tau Omega (ATO). I joined it right at the end of their time on campus. They owed a serious ton of money to Nationals and that eventually got us shut down. It was actually a really good group of guys. I don't keep up with any of them anymore, mostly because the time I was in it to the time they got kicked off campus was maybe a year or less. Apparently, prior to their dark days, they were basically Animal House. Seemed like a lot of fun then. The chapter started back up a few years ago and it is doing really well. I guess they won the campus fraternity of the year and do a lot of philanthropic work. Seems they got their act straight now, so I probably wouldn't join if I was up there today!

Our parties were generally low key, mostly because of our reputation for being basically worthless. No sorority wanted to associate with us because it would bring down their image.

I too was in a fraternity in college. (Phi Kappa Tau) However it was not the same as you see in movies because the entire Greek Culture at my undergrad school was in massive decline after the university cracked down on frats in the 70s and 80s. By the time I got there, there were no frat houses on campus and all of them were rentals instead of owned by the fraternity, so none of them were permitted to put their letters on the the outside. We were still an official organization on campus, but the restrictions were so tight that if any member was caught doing anything illegal or in violation of the student handbook while at an event, the University would eliminate our status. This included underage drinking... thus no parties held by frats.

We lost our charter going into my final year due to low and declining membership.

As for your question, I did not see any of the dating preferences but it was something in common so that helped break the ice.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I was in ΥΣΜΧ. Some of the hazing rituals were brutal!

I think Maister and I were frat brothers from different years.