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In my previous article covering the Greek system at Wesleyan, I noted the uncertainty surrounding its future because the college’s administration was planning to force co-education.
Wesleyan’s two remaining fraternities last semester were Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) and Psi Upsilon (Psi U). Both are now gone, and as a result Wesleyan has officially done away with Greek life all together. DKE was kicked off campus because of their reluctance to admit women, and are now filing a lawsuit against the university. Wesleyan later suspended Psi U, even though they had admitted women, for an ongoing drug investigation that began in August.
Clearly, the admittance of women into a formerly all-male social fraternity did not solve the alcohol and drug abuse problem of Wesleyan’s fraternity system. And, one may also ask, is the drug and alcohol problem especially inherent to fraternities or just to college life in general?
I recently visited Wesleyan’s campus to see a friend on a Friday night. We were fortunately still able to find things to do that night although fraternities were no longer an option. According to my friends, the social scene options on campus were basically nonexistent, so all of them went to off-campus locations on the weekends. Off campus, they students less regulated and less within reach of emergency services. I saw many signs of drug and alcohol abuse at these off-campus locations, evidence enough of how these activities, despite the best wishes of Wesleyan’s administration, are still very much a part of life in Wesleyan wholly unchanged by elimination of fraternities.
The alcohol served at the party included punch, liquor, and beer. To combat high levels of intoxication and alcohol related sexual abuse, Wesleyan could have regulated fraternities by banning liquor at events, like Cornell’s fraternity policy. This would have decreased the obscenely high number of people stepping outside to rid their bodies of the toxic liquid at the off campus party I attended. However, Wesleyan cannot regulate their students when they venture off campus to party and drink, so alcohol, drug, and sexual abuse will most likely worsen as a result of the college’s decision to end the fraternity system.
It is important to consider the unintended consequences of sweeping administrative action. The elimination of fraternities at Wesleyan seems like no accident on the part of the college’s administration in an effort to cut down on alcohol and drug abuse, but it’s now obvious that those problems still exist. The cause, therefore, is not the presence of fraternities, and as such they should not be punished.
