Bloomberg Compiles Master List OF Every Offense Made By Fraternities And Sororities This Year And We Call Bullshit

As we head into the summer, it’s usually the time when negative news surrounding fraternities and sororities quiets down. I mean, exactly how much trouble can we get in if we aren’t even in school right? And then when the fall comes, we start with something of a clean slate, because all of the negative publicity from a year ago seems so far away.

Not so fast. This year, we aren’t going to be able to take a break from the negativity, because the helpful folks at Bloomberg Business have dug it all up again, putting together an admittedly snazzy timeline telling the world exactly who fucked up, what they did, and when they did it. The categories include hazing, alcohol or drugs, sexual misconduct, property damage/mischief, death, offensive behavior, intimidation, and unspecified. You can search by school or by organization and find all of the incidents that took place in our little Greek world this year, ranging from the completely serious to the totally asinine. The middle gray line tells you the date each incident occurred and it’s color-coded by the type of incident. Take a look at the graphic in its entirety here, but below are a few examples:

I’ve got to admit, seeing all of our misdeeds laid out like this doesn’t look great. In fact, it looks damn bad. But let’s get a little perspective here: according to the authors of this piece, “just the spring semester of 2015, 133 fraternity and sorority chapters at 55 U.S. colleges were shut down, suspended, or otherwise punished after alleged offenses including excessive partying, hazing, racism, and sexual assault according to reports compiled by Bloomberg.” That seems like a lot, but according to the North American Interfraternity Conference, there were approximately 5,500 fraternity chapters across the US and Canada in 2011. So not taking any sororities or local fraternities into account, those 133 chapters account for fewer than 3% of Greek organizations. What organization is painted with the broad brush of negativity based on the acts of less than 3% of their population? But yet, it seems to happen to the Greek system all of the time.

None of us who are Greek for the right reasons – the sisterhood, the values, or the philanthropy – have any use for the people who partake in the acts that are described in this timeline. Good riddance to all of them, because that 3% isn’t our majority. They are the minority who get in the way of those of us who are here for the right reasons. We know that, and it’s time that the rest of the world did too..

[via Bloomberg Business]

Image via Bloomberg Business