Interview Summary
Vanessa is a freshman at Indiana University, who was recently initiated into one IU’s 22 sororities on campus. Vanessa was hesitant about being a part of greek life, however, after her sister’s positive experience within greek life she decided to go through the recruitment process. Even though she is aware of the problematic practices that greek life permits, she concludes that, for her, the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones. Vanessa has found a sense of community and a support system through the chapter, something she finds to be difficult at a school of Indiana University’s size. Vanessa and her surrounding pledge class were congratulated and celebrated by friends and family after being offered a bid and following initiation.
The Greek Influence
When dissecting this interview, it is important to call attention to the sociological perspective of gangs. Which is something that can be seen in reference to Jankowski's piece "Gangs and Social Change" which calls attention to the way in which in terms of socio-economic status members of Greek life are consistently apart of upper classes, which is the direct opposite of gang members, which is something of which that remained consistent through conducted interviews. It is this distinction between socio-economic status that breeds the stereotyping of gang members. Have you ever considered how socio-economic status plays into prejudices? How does this information shift the way you see the root of both gangs and sororities and fraternities.
Full Content of interview
How common is Greek life on your campus?
Why did you join a sorority?
Did you feel influenced by the media?
Do you feel as if the positives outweigh the negatives when it comes to Greek life?
Did you understand what you would have to do when you joined?
Do you think greek life is acceptable in American cities?
- I would say that Greek life is prevalent at Indiana University, I do not know off of the top of my head exact percentages of the amount of students involved in Greek life, however, I can remember from recruitment that there are 22 different sorority chapters alone.
Why did you join a sorority?
- If I am being completely honest when I started at Indiana University I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to be apart of one but there were two major things that impacted my decision to go ahead with recruitment, I was an out of state student and my sister had a positive experience in greek life at Indiana University. So I guess going back to your question of why I decided to join I would say that I was joining looking for a group of girls that would support me and that would provide me with a sense of community that I felt was lacking in the beginning of my time at IU.
Did you feel influenced by the media?
- In a way I would say that I was influenced by the media because I feel like there is this message that is put out that everyone in greek life is a carbon copy of one another and the and while I think there is some validity in this when looking at specific chapters I have found that it is not always the case. With that being said I would like to acknowledge that I understand I do that there is definitely privilege in having the opportunity and resources to be able to join a sorority. And like with that I am additionally not here to deny that there are some problematic practices of greek life
Do you feel as if the positives outweigh the negatives when it comes to Greek life?
- Kinda going off what I was just saying I can acknowledge that there are negatives to Greek life but for me personally I would say that the positives outweigh the negatives because I was able to find a solid group of girls who will support me and be by my side no matter what which was something I really appreciated when being at such a big school.
Did you understand what you would have to do when you joined?
- While I wasn’t sure what the initiation process would look like exactly I had my sister to reference and ask questions to. Also yeah the chapter that I am a part of does not haze so in that regard I was never surprised by any hazing practice, but as we know that unfortunately is something that still happens in many other chapters. Seen through the recent information that just recently came out about Kappa Kappa Gamma at IU. So yeah I guess I would say while I knew what the implications were that is not always the case when looking at Greek life.
Do you think greek life is acceptable in American cities?
- While I think that there are sometimes light jokes made about greek life and certain chapters are called out when they do something wrong. I definitely think that is something that is acceptable in American cities and it is even almost something that Is celebrated by friends, parents and other affiliates of the chapter, like initiation was a big thing when joining my sorority and older girls from within the chapter as well as like family friends would congratulate you.