One blog post must address what happened this week in regard to your campus organization and semester research project. (Did you have any meetings? Did you come up with any new ideas? Did you find any good resources to address your research topic?)
This week I attended a couple of social events at theta chi's house. We met up with other frats and a couple of sororaties, and discussed the low turn out of minorities. While this was due to no fault of their own, they commmented that most frats and sororaties lack the intrest of minority students. While they attribute this to the tendancy of people to go where there are people of the same cultural upbringing and heritage, just like back in when hundreds of thousands of immigrants were settling here in the US. While I don't think that I found any resources for my topic, I did gain first hand experience in finding out what Greek life is about and how welcoming they are of all people.
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Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "most frats and sororaties lack the intrest of minority students", do you mean that minority students are not interested in joining fraternities and sororities? Do you mean that fraternities and sororities have traditionally not been seeking minority students as members? Do you mean both?
Do you have any statistics to prove that minority students are not interested in joining fraternities and sororities? I would like to see those.
I think it is a big assumption to say that students seek out other students of their own backgrounds to socialize with. If that was the case, then all of the African-American students on campus would join the Council for African American Students. Ashlee and Nadiea can both tell you how participation in this organization at SCSU is very low!
For the record, there are no fraternity or sorority chapters at SCSU for minorities at this time. Fraternities and sororities for people of color do exist, though!
To compare immigration patterns to student socialization is interesting, but not totally accurate.
Immigrants often settled in their own communities because they either were encouraged to come to the US in large groups to settle the land or work on large projects such as railroads or construction, or because the English speaking US was a hostile environment for them and they needed the support of their countrypeople in order to get started in a new country.
Students, on the other hand, are often limited by where they can attend college by finances, distance from home, grades, parental expectations, and where their high school guidance department steers them (if at all). Whether or not students seek out classmates of their own background for socialization or mentoring depends on the individual. Depending on the student's ethnicity and where they go to school, sometimes it is not even possible. If the student commutes to school and is not living in the dorms, that also affects how and if a student will socialize with their classmates.
At the same time, many students outside of the fraternities have misunderstandings and a lot of misinformation about fraternities, and some even feel that fraternities and sororities are a threat to them.
Does the fraternity itself, or fraternity members, feel that they are discriminated against? They might want to explore this avenue as well.
What do you think?
R. Wexelbaum
Professor,
ReplyDeleteTo start off, I appreciate your comments. However I believe that you over looked the fact that a lot of this is opinion based. While I would love to find research to support my opinions and ideologies, yet I have searched the library and other sources and most data is out of date if I find any at all.
Working on this topic is very challenging as there is limited data and substantially less that is even close to being current/up to date. Most of the research that I have found have been from the 1970's. However I do have it on my agenda to talk to the person in charge of csold here soon when I have a few extra minutes and can make a meeting. If you have any direction that you could steer me in I would much appreciate it.
Hi Blake,
ReplyDeleteNo doubt--it is going to be challenging to find information for your research project. If it does turn out that the statistics you are seeking only date from the 1970s, this will actually add great value to the research proposal that you will present.
It is also possible that some of your research findings that will help shape your research proposal will come from news articles, interviews, and personal stories.
Have you tried the Education-related databases, as well as Google News, to get some leads for what other fraternities in the US may be facing? You might also want to look at the following:
AFA: Association of Fraternity Advisors:
http://www.fraternityadvisors.org/
What issues are fraternity advisors in the US aware of that they are attempting to address on college campuses?
Along the way, I also found:
NALFO: National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations
http://www.nalfo.org/
National Panhellenic Council (for African-American fraternities)
http://www.nphchq.org/
Delta Lambda Phi: National Social Fraternity for Gay, Bisexual, and "Progressive" Men
http://www.dlp.org/national/
It is possible that the founders of these organizations have done research on similar issues, and they might also know where you can look further.
Please let me know what you find out. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
R. Wexelbaum