Greek life must challenge stereotypes

The Greek community faces stereotypes that we don't like to be associated with. We spend a lot of time arguing against them and making the claim that "the stereotypes aren't true." As a member of a fraternity, I absolutely hate being called a frat boy, because the first image that pops into my head is that of "Animal House" or a guy with a sweater tied around his waist with his nose in the air.

I know that members of my chapter are not like that. I know that the other chapters at the University of Northern Iowa aren't like that. Most of us are just "normal guys." But too often we don't show it. In fact, more often than not, we encourage the stereotypes with "themed parties" and stupid pictures on Facebook.

It seems we always forget about the image we portray when we don't realize it, when we weren't thinking about what we were doing because we were being a normal college student. That is the biggest challenge facing fraternities and sororities. Our members are put on a pedestal because we have put ourselves there. And as soon as we pick up a beer in public, we have assumed the stereotype.

People are always watching. You can do all the community service hours in the world and write a nice article about it. But that isn't going to make the headlines of the newspaper the next day. Far too often the story about a fraternity or sorority hazing incident or alcohol-related death makes the front page of newspapers while the majority of positive aspects of Greek life are completely ignored. Movies and TV shows do this as well. Toga parties, beer bongs and women that are only half-dressed become the image that society associates with "going Greek." For all the positive images we might put out, they will always be drastically overshadowed by the one negative image that occurs.

Fraternities and Sororities know we have a lot to offer and we put it all on the table when we recruit new members. Last year, the Greek community at UNI contributed more than $45,000 to charitable organizations and performed more than 5,000 community service hours. The Greeks on this campus do amazing things. Four of the past six student body presidents have been Greek. The Greek community GPA for last semester was a 3.0. But my guess is that we didn't tell you about these things. I'm guessing what you saw when you went past our houses were guys standing in front of the letters on their houses, drinking and playing bags.  

While the media and society have exaggerated the negative stereotypes with fraternities and sororities, we as Greeks don't do enough to battle these images. If anything, we do more to feed into them. At UNI we know we aren't the normal Greek community and we need to do more to show it. It's time we step up and take responsibility for the images we present. We need to own who we are and what we can offer.

Being in a fraternity or sorority means you are a part of something bigger than any one individual. We are a part of a Greek community, and in the end, that makes those of us that are members part of a family. It's time our family stands together and takes pride in itself.