Should Fraternities Be Shut Down?

May 9, 2008 — -- For two Tulane University students, pledging a fraternity became a nightmare after the older members of Pi Kappa Alpha allegedly scorched them with boiling water, leaving them with second- and third-degree burns across their bodies.

Ten students from the New Orleans university are now facing felony battery charges after the Wednesday incident, which was reportedly intended to give pledges an opportunity to prove their pain threshold, according to The Associated Press. The incident occurred during "Hell Week," when fraternities try out prospective members.

Earlier this week, San Diego State University suspended six fraternities after drug enforcement authorities arrested several of the chapter's students on suspicion of dealing drugs on campus.

Police, who arrested 75 students in the drug bust, believe that one SDSU fraternity, Theta Chi, was selling cocaine to fellow students.

And while tales of pledging horrors make headlines — from the University of Texas student who fell to his death from a balcony during a hazing event in 2006 to a more recent University of Wisconsin-Madison incident where fraternity members allegedly poured buckets of human waste over their peers – many experts on Greek life still resist arguing for the abolition of fraternities.

"I think people make a very compelling case about the Greek system being a broken system," said Alan DeSantis, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky and author of "Inside Greek U: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power and Prestige." "But with all the vices, it produces a unique experience for young men and women looking for fellowship."

DeSantis, who has been a member of the Greek community himself for more than 25 years and has studied it for almost as long, says that the system's problems can be solved.

"Fraternities shouldn't be shut down, because they have the potential of doing some really good things," said DeSantis. "The problem of course is that many times these organizations do not live up to their potential.