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May 20, 2011

Fraternities = Bad

No doubt some virtue comes from college fraternities. The virtue is drowned by the institutions' unwholesomeness, snobbery and misogyny. As a former proud, dues-paying member of a college fraternity, I kinda agree with Caitlin Flanagan on this one, regarding the troubles of the Yale DKE chapter:

The Greek system is dedicated to quelling young men's anxiety about submitting themselves to four years of sissy-pants book learning by providing them with a variety of he-man activities: drinking, drugging, ESPN watching and the sexual mistreatment of women. A 2007 National Institute of Justice study found that about one in five women are victims of sexual assault in college; almost all of those incidents go unreported. It also noted that fraternity men—who tend to drink more heavily and frequently than nonmembers—are more likely to perpetrate sexual assault than nonfraternity men, according to previous studies. Over a quarter of sexual-assault victims who were incapacitated reported that the assailant was a fraternity member.

Williams College made a very wise decision when it abolished frats in the 1960s.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 11:49 AM | | Comments (1)
        

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About Jay Hancock
Jay Hancock has been a financial columnist for The Baltimore Sun since 2001. He has also been The Baltimore Sun's diplomatic correspondent in Washington and its chief economics writer. Before moving to Baltimore in 1994 he worked for The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk and The Daily Press of Newport News.

His columns appear Tuesdays and Sundays.
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