Research + News | Topic: Greek Life

University Of Alabama Sorority Rush Has Taken Over TikTok. Users Can’t Look Away.

Many of the videos, which in the last week have flooded the feeds of TikTok users across the country, show potential new members — or PNMs, as they are called in the sorority and fraternity community — showing off their outfits for themed events and naming the brand or store each item comes from. Other videos show behind the scenes of how they get ready for the events and, in some cases, attending them. Read the article here.

‘Frats Are Being Frats’: Greek Life Is Stoking The Virus On Some Campuses

Universities are struggling with how to prevent tightly packed sorority and fraternity houses from turning into virus clusters. Read the article here.

Party Killers: Colleges Hope New Rules Slow COVID-19 Spread, Students Aren’t Convinced

The University of Texas at Austin has banned parties both on campus and off, saying they put “the health and safety of our community at risk and raise anxiety levels.” Read the article here.

Old Dominion University’s Sigma Nu Frat Suspended During Probe Into Sexually Suggestive Signs

Crass, sexually suggestive banners “welcoming” freshmen women to a Virginia college last week have sparked outrage and led to the suspension of at least one of the school’s fraternities.

Read the article here.

The Dark Power of Fraternities

No doubt, John Belushi’s “Bluto” is the best known brother in any fraternity film ever made. The character in the 1978 film Animal House might even serve to define expectations for students arriving on campus who are considering rushing a frat. In a recent edition of The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan takes a look into the origin and development of Greek life in America, including a sobering look at how this campus culture has become a place of danger, debauchery, and carefully crafted legal wrangling. Her article, “The Dark Power of Fraternities”, should be required reading for any parent sending a child off to college.

Read the entire article here.