College fraternities: from pranks to public service
A reporter returns to his college fraternity to find knee-slapping reminiscing and what-were-we-thinking introspection.
from the June 26, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
"My recollection is that most of us were middle-class kids as opposed to kids of privilege, and that our rebellion then did not translate into a life of 'tuning in, turning on, and dropping out,' " says Jim Narduzzi, class of 1975, a dean at the University of Richmond. "Quite the opposite, in fact. We became a bunch of hardworking family men. Who'd have thunk it?"
Everyone, for the most part, looks and feels the same as 30 years ago, except that they've all been sent to central casting for a little gray on the sideburns and ballast around the middle. Curiously, many at the reunion revert to the old hierarchies: If one guy was "cool" in college, others here who may have surpassed him in life on the success scale still kowtow in the old ways.
"There were many relationships that were exactly the same, mostly in good ways," says Scott Sedam (1974), a Michigan home builder.
To more than a few here, the biggest benefit of having lived in a fraternity was the social milieu – learning how to live with a diverse group of guys, even if you didn't want to break Swedish meatballs with all of them.
"Living in close quarters under all kinds of social and academic pressures at such a formative time forces you to grow," says Mike Stanley (1969), a career businessman and now a lay minister in Powell, Ohio. "I got into leadership positions early on in business because I learned about getting along with people – some of whom I liked and some I didn't."
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Today's fraternities seem as likely to attract new members for academics and altruism as shenanigans and debauchery. At least that's the view of national fraternity officials, who portray the typical Greek house as a sort of UNICEF rather than something John Belushi would inhabit.
"Those fraternities which are marketing high scholarship, community service, philanthropy, and ways to develop leadership are the ones that are attractive to today's millennial student," says Mr. Williamson. "The [fraternities] which have the reputations as partyers are more often the ones that are struggling."
Could be. But it's not hard to find undergrads from Boston to Berkeley, Calif., who say partying is in no danger of vanishing.
From 1990 to 2000, membership in undergraduate fraternities in the US dropped from 400,000 to 300,000. Today it has edged back up to 350,000. Still, it's a tougher sell. Many students don't relish communal living, opting instead for virtual communities on websites such as MySpace.com and facebook.com.
But for one generation, for at least one weekend, the old face-to-face method was what felt right. As John McHugh (1974), an auto executive, put it: "How different we all are. And how I wish we were together, again."
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