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This petition is a call to abolish Greek life (fraternities and sororities).

The system is broken. We cannot adequately reform Greek life. We must abolish it.

(the rest of this petition currently refers to frats only, but we are currently updating it to address sororities too!)

To start, let's do a simple thought experiment and imagine a world in which fraternities were not a part of higher education.

Then, imagine an 18-year-old waltzes into a dean’s office and says, “I want to start an exclusive club that doesn’t allow women and that is built for white and privileged students. Our primary purpose will be to control the social scene of the university and throw parties. Powerful men will control the alcohol, and sexual assault will be rampant. We’ll only let rich men, preferably white ones, join. We’ll allow in a few people of color, just for the photo-op! Oh, and we 100% promise to never haze any of our members. That would never happen.” (scenario adapted from here)

Now obviously, there is some exaggeration involved in this hypothetical example, and fraternities do have some positive aspects to them. But if we truly did reimagine high education from the ground up, we highly doubt that fraternities would play a part. So why have them today? They only exist today because they are “deeply embedded in college culture, they generate student programming and are supported by powerful alumni,” according to Jessica Valenti.

When you consider that fraternities exclude women, only inviting them to parties where men control the flow of alcohol and that men are largely not held accountable for their actions—when you consider that “73 percent of fraternity members were white, compared to only 47 percent of the student body,” and that racism is ingrained in fraternity culture—when you consider that fraternities are built as a bastion of privilege, then it is clear that fraternities do not belong in our universities.

Now, if you are a current fraternity member, you might be tempted to argue that your fraternity is the exception.

But is it really? Can you honestly say that none of your brothers have never and would never sexually assault someone? Can you honestly say that your fraternity is racially diverse and fully supports its non-white members? Can you honestly say that your fraternity is accessible to people who aren’t from generational wealth? Can you honestly say that your fraternity includes, serves, and protects marginalized people?

Then you are most definitely the exception.

But even if your fraternity is an exception, it is still part of a system that is deeply misogynistic, racist, and classist. Even if your fraternity really is better than the rest, it still upholds a system of fraternities. People can point at you and say, “look, things can get better.”

We all know that things won’t get better everywhere fast enough, if at all.

Compare a world with no frats to one with frats. Which would you like to see?

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