We all know the horror stories about rape in fraternities — a recent statistic says frat brothers rape 300 percent more often than men who don't join fraternities. But this week, eight major fraternities around the country announced plans to focus on educating brothers about binge drinking, hazing, and sexual misconduct on campuses. This education is part of the "Fraternal Health and Safety Initiative," which hopes to enable over 30,000 men in fraternities to make better, more informed decisions about their actions every year.
In case you're curious, here are the list of fraternities participating:
- Lambda Chi Alpha, a national, social fraternity focusing on the "maturational development of today's college men."
- Phi Delta Theta, a national fraternity focusing on "helping every individual to meet his true potential."
- Pi Kappa Alpha, a national fraternity dedicated "integrity, intellect, success and high moral fiber."
- Sigma Alpha Mu, a national Jewish fraternity with a mission to "foster the development of collegiate men...by instilling strong fraternal values, offering social and service opportunities, encouraging academic excellence and teaching leadership skills."
- Sigma Chi, a national fraternity all about "Friendship, Justice, and Learning."
- Tau Kappa Epsilon, the world's largest college social fraternity, which focuses on building better men.
- Triangle Fraternity, a national fraternity focused on engineers, architects, and scientists.
- Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma, a national fraternity with its mission rooted in the idea of "The True Gentleman."
Upon looking at some of the mission statements about "building better men" and creating the "true gentleman," it's a little hard to not dismiss fraternities as institutions that are only capable of perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes, and creating the "bro" trope that most of the world has come to despise (or, at least, poke fun at). And while this is all true, there is absolutely no doubt that the fraternities who have selected to be a part of this are taking important steps forward to beat a system that they are all, directly or indirectly, a part of. It's especially important in response to the recent, horrendous behavior by some frats like Wesleyan's "rape factory" frat house. This is a good move, fraternities of America. Now lets just try to get the remaining 100+ frats on board.
