It's Winter Break! Bwog will be moving in slow motion.

Greek Life: Now Marginally Less Marginal!

greeksImagine our joy when, this morning, an "important update" dropped into our inbox from the Interfraternity Council: Greek membership has exploded from 550 in 2006 to an astonishing 823 today! That's over 50 percent growth in two years, to just about 10 percent of Barnard, the College and SEAS. There are comfortably over twice as many brothers as sisters, not counting members of the Multicultural Greek Council, which is composed of frats and sororities that carry an ethnic identity.

Curious to see who had cleaned up in fall rush, Bwog asked Interfraternity Council president Matt Heiman for the frat-by-frat membership breakdown, but was informed that the information was "not public." Heiman said that we "could try contacting the fraternities individually to get this information, but I think it will be difficult."

Heiman attributed the increase in membership to "strong leadership of fraternity and sorority presidents" as well as a more collective approach in increasing the Greek community's presence and involvement on campus. His own organization, the IFC, was only formed last year as a parallel to the girls-only Panhellenic Council (plus there's the overarching InterGreek Council...we know, it's confusing).


Posted by it sounds like : #1 · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 6:16 PM
by "not public" he means, i actually have no fucking clue.
Posted by ugh : #2 · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 6:34 PM (from campus)
more bros and hoes
Posted by CC'09 : #3 · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 7:33 PM (from campus)
I think this is a pretty fascinating phenomenon, because freshman year, parties, drinking, fun - was decentralized. You had several circles of friends scattered between casbah, nachos, 'stend, Mona's, 1020, Canon's, etc. On a Thursday night, Broadway would be packed with people moving between places and you'd run into friends. Parties raged in the dorms.

Then the War on fun happened, and everything is different. Maybe this explains the concentration of party-seekers in greek-life?
Posted by theory : #4 · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 8:22 PM
I think the "war on fun" hypothesis makes sense, but try on this, too: columbia's increased prestige has brought with it a more generically rankings-conscious student body...a student body that's less concerned with fitting into the school's predesignated social stereotypes.
Posted by hmm : #5 (in reply to #4) · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 9:08 PM (from campus)
The prestige has been high for a while ... I think the War on Fun may be more accurate. Easier access to a social network/parties.
Posted by I dunno : #6 (in reply to #4) · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 9:11 PM
two or three rankings and all of a sudden we have hundreds of frathouse rankings-conscious stepfords?
Posted by hii : #7 · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 9:14 PM (from campus)
I sort of by into the prestige theory, but not in that Columbia's has increased relative to comparable schools, but in the way the whole college selection process has been made into such a lovely consumerist/glossy ordeal.
Posted by Eureka! : #8 (in reply to #4) · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 10:21 PM
You must have hit upon it! After all, Columbia wasn't prestigious just a few years ago, and, as we all know, it's only the prestigious schools that have active fraternities and sororities.
Posted by am i the only one : #9 · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Am i the only one who thinks this is a bad thing?
Posted by Hmm : #10 (in reply to #9) · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 11:00 PM (from campus)
Actually, I think about the 90% of us who do not associate with greek life do too.
Posted by agreed : #11 · reply · track
November 13, 2008 at 11:15 PM (from campus)
one of the many reasons i chose columbia was for the low-key greek life
Posted by ... : #12 · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 1:06 AM (from campus)
this school needs some proper coops.
Posted by cc'09 : #13 · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 1:12 AM (from campus)
most of the parties at bars are often thrown by frats/sororities and non-greeks come too (even if you don't know it)...greek life here isn't overbearing at all, I hardly even notice it. I kinda wished I had joined one...at least to live in a brownstone
Posted by matt heiman : #14 · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 2:48 AM (from campus)
is so hot
Posted by i know : #15 (in reply to #12) · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 2:50 AM (from campus)
of at least one...
Posted by coops... : #16 · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 3:11 AM (from campus)
columbia DEFINITELY should have more coops... i was surprised how low key they are given this place's liberal history (berkeley has TONS of coops that are absolutely crazy)
Posted by matt heiman : #17 · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 7:40 AM
stop posting about yourself
Posted by newrepublican : #18 · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Would you consider commenting and subscribing to my blog?

[external link to thenewrepublicans.net]
Posted by interesting : #19 · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 11:24 AM
Why are you inviting a bunch of liberal democrats to join a "new republican" blog?
Posted by answer : #20 (in reply to #18) · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 11:35 AM (from campus)
no.
Posted by maybe : #21 · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 11:59 AM
it's because being smart has actually become socially acceptable, and, really, standard in some areas, so people who typically just cared about their social lives now have to start caring about school, too. that means more people at columbia who aren't just concerned with studying till their brains explode on a friday night
Posted by Gowb : #22 (in reply to #21) · reply · track
November 14, 2008 at 2:10 PM
It's pretty silly and a logical fallacy to assume that if you're not roaming around a party desperate to land some form of action and/get tagged into as many pictures as possible on facebook the next day that you're automatically at Butler's studying.

In between the two cliches there is a LOT to do in this city beyong our 3-block radius. For some people, like myself I guess, spending 4 hours in a crowded EC suite is not the best this city has to offer in terms of free entertainment.
Posted by wait... : #23 (in reply to #22) · reply · track
November 15, 2008 at 1:28 AM (from campus)
WE LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY?

holy shit...i gotta get out more!
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