That it is summer means that the recruitment chairs for fraternity and sorority chapters as well as the chairs for the corresponding college/university coordinating councils (Panhellenic, Interfraternity, Multi-Cultural, PanHellenic, etc.) are hard at work spreading news on social media. This summer a new graphic has joined my old nemesis, the poster entitled “The truth about Greek life.” The new graphic features a red cup but also includes many of the erroneous “facts.”
In the 1970’s, Wilson Heller, who wrote the Fraternity Insider newsletters, was railing about the “all but 2 U.S. Presidents” stat touted on the poster and in the red cup graphic below. Heller was calling the statistic inaccurate in the 1970s and he was correct. The statistic hasn’t been valid since the 1960s, and, even then, Heller took offense because some of those Presidents were honorary members. More than 40 years later, that stat is still being touted as true, when it is patently false. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know it’s one of my pet peeves. (See http://wp.me/p20I1i-Vb and http://wp.me/p20I1i-11G)
Another untruth used on recruitment tools is “Both female U.S. Supreme Court Justices are Greek.” News flash, folks, it’s 2015 and four women have served as U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Only one, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Alpha Epsilon Phi, is a member of a National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organization. Although there are rumors to the contrary, Sandra Day O’Connor is not a sorority woman. She attended Stanford University when there were no NPC chapters on campus. (A few of my archivist friends and I share common experiences searching for Sandra Day O’Connor connections, in pre-internet days, to our organization because our alumnae were absolutely certain she was a member of our respective organizations. It was funny when we all compared notes on this!) (A friend added this point of information. “This poster bothers me, too. Supreme Court Justices – at the federal level – are NOT ELECTED. Jeez… maybe a civics lesson is needed in new member education as well.”) (Edited 10/27/2020 – Amy Coney Barrett is an initiate of the Kappa Delta chapter at Rhodes College.)
Another incorrect “fact” is that the first American woman in space was a sorority woman. Sally Ride was not, but there have been many others who are. See http://wp.me/p20I1i-le for that list.
Fraternity and sorority life has so much to offer and I consider myself a cheerleader for the experience (and if you doubt me, read the other 600+ posts on here), but I cringe when I see these claims. The truth is much more effective and compelling than these outdated, specious statistics.
While some of these “facts” are true, others clearly are not.
It really should be called the “Not So Truth”
Using incorrect information is shooting ourselves in the foot. If your college/university council wants to use these items in social media, please alert the person who posted the information that these “facts” are not true. Let’s put this false advertising to rest.
Fraternity Stats At A Glance (from the North-American Interfraternity Conference website)
- Total Undergraduate Fraternity Membership: 372,090*
- Number of Men Initiated in 2013-2014: 98,561*
- 6136 Chapters on roughly 800 campuses*
- Community Service Hours: 3.8 million hours*
- Philanthropic Dollars Raised: $20.3 million*
- All-Fraternity GPA: 2.912 versus All-Male GPA: 2.892^
- Greeks in 112th US Congress: 42 Senators (42%), 101 Congressmen (23%)
- Greeks in 113th US Congress: 39 Senators (39%), 106 Congressmen (24%)
- 50% of the Top 10 Fortune 500 CEOs are fraternity men; 15% of Fortune 100 CEOs are Greek
- 44% of all US Presidents have been members of a social fraternity
- 31% of all US Supreme Court Justices have been fraternity alumni
(*) Compiled from Member Fraternities in the NIC Standards Compliance Report for the 2013-2014 Academic Year
(^) Compiled from campuses submitting the NIC Academic Report form for the 2012-2013 Academic Year
National Panhellenic Conference statistics from 2013-14
• 575 College Panhellenics
• 672 total campuses with NPC chapter(s)
• 977,567 hours donated to community service efforts
• $5,793,394.84 raised for philanthropies
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
