Fraternities have long been a staple of college life, but have recently come under fire due to multiple scandals. University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon was videotaped singing a racist song, members of Penn State’s Kappa Delta Rho posted nude pictures of unconscious women in a Facebook group and a University of Maryland’s Kappa Sigma member wrote an email that included racial slurs and encouraged sex with women regardless of their consent. And these are just a few examples. These disgusting actions are inexcusable and the students and fraternities involved have deservedly received punishments that have included the suspension and expulsion of both individuals and fraternities.

Greek life has the potential to be a positive aspect of college life by providing a sense of togetherness for its members and helping them make friends. Some fraternities and sororities make a significant difference in their community by holding fundraisers for charity and volunteering locally. However, the benefits of Greek life have been canceled out by its negative aspects.

Fraternities are well-known for their parties, which is a major reason why students join them in the first place. Greek life has long been infused with a binge-drinking culture and being part of a close-knit group only increases the pressure to drink heavily, especially since drinking in college already is widely prevalent. This group pressure may occasionally help some students keep up their grades to stay in their fraternity, but it is also a prominent cause of hazing, offensive behavior towards minorities and heinous crimes against young women.

Multitudes of people, from university presidents to college students, are declaring that the Greek system needs a monumental reform. They believe that harsher punishments must be handed out to show that the universities do not condone these deplorable and often illegal actions. They suggest that heavily fining the fraternities for racist acts will encourage them to stop the behavior themselves and that suspending students involved in any type of inappropriate sexual behavior will teach them to not repeat their crimes. However, many high school students look forward to being a part of Greek life and believe that colleges should only shut down the fraternities at fault.

Even though these viewpoints are moving in the right direction, they do not go far enough. Reforms may solve a few problems for a brief period of time while fraternities are under the spotlight, but would not eradicate the issues completely. The entire Greek system is a broken, outdated part of the college experience and does more harm than good. Removing fraternities on college campuses will greatly decrease the present group mentality that encourages such horrible behavior and crimes that have been apparent in recent months. With the disappearance of social fraternities, students will make more diverse friends on their own, and more importantly, will not be as pressured to participate in inappropriate acts.