Greek Life organizations on college campuses create much controversy based on their alleged advantages and disadvantages.  One central argument about such organizations focuses on the perpetual debate of discrimination, specifically racial prejudice.  Despite the many benefits of membership, Greek-lettered chapters show many instances of discrimination, as seen through new member statistics and news castings that exploit racial occurrences.  The problem with this discriminatory atmosphere is the establishment of racial mentality that is not bounded by the university grounds, but subconsciously carried out later in life.  The evident discrimination in the Greek System perpetuates the systemic racial issues beyond the barriers of the college campuses and must be dealt starting with current members by implementing various methods to counteract this regression to racism, such as seminars, alterations in recruitment, and illuminating diversity as a positive aspect of the chapters.

Before attempting to seek a solution to this issue, the general public must be willing to agree on the presence of a problem in order to implement further action.  Although there is a multitude of claims that encompass this ongoing debate, most opinions can be categorized into two opposing claims: that the racial inequities override the benefits of membership and the reversed view.  Those enforcing the importance of Greek-life integration emphasize that general "racial exclusion and racism appear to be prevalent among white Greek organizations, creating a backlash in many black student communities" (Hughey, "Crossing the Sands" 57).  This claim stresses that the predominately white Greek-lettered organizations create an unfavorable social stigma toward the underrepresented minorities.  Whether minorities become fearful of rushing a group because of being exceedingly outnumbered or rejected altogether, or the organizations simply advertise their strong discriminatory values.  The chapters publicize this unethical mentality by restricting advanced rounds of recruitment to only one racial group or revealing recruitment videos that glorify a specific type of student.  Contrastingly, arguments on the opposing side of the issue fixate on the perks of membership including academic expectations and service opportunity.  

The prejudicial ideology can be seen through many instances in which Greek life "is filled with racial stereotypes and innuendoes" (Hughey, "A Paradox"  665).  For example, Roy Lyle's article, "Seeds of Racism in Greek Life," discusses the palpable discriminatory atmosphere in an Alpha Phi sorority promotional recruitment video from the University of Alabama.  The video displayed a select few members of the chapter who fit the common sorority girl stereotype, rather than "trying to represent all types of girls or even attempting to highlight the achievements of Alpha Phi members, the girls have, unwillingly or not, created an exclusionary image of their sorority based upon looks" (Lyle).  Even more shockingly, Lyle's article reveals that the Greek system at the school has not offered a "bid" to a woman of color in over thirteen years.  These statistics portray the sizable gap between the percentage of minorities and the percentage of white students welcomed and involved in the Greek-lettered organizations.  

The University of Alabama is by no means the only school that falls under the category of racism and exclusivity.  Many universities, predominately in the southern regions, exemplify the unethical mentality of keeping the sororities and fraternities restricted to a particular type of student.  In addition, the Greek system does not only refrain from African American membership, but to all minorities.  Julie Park's article, "Race and the Greek System in the 21st Century: Centering the Voices of Asian American Women," concentrates on the "racial barriers towards Asian Americans [that] have evolved significantly since the time of official discriminatory clauses against people of color; nonetheless, Greek letter organizations are still a site in which race and racial identity continue to matter" (20).  Although the injustice surrounding Asian American women may be more subtle than African Americans, the limitations set become extremely significant.  These restrictions on minority groups can and will be embedded in the members' mindsets and exist in the future.

On the other hand, multicultural fraternities and sororities on college campuses provide the same academic and philanthropic advantages as the predominately white chapters.  Fred A. Bonner's article, "The Historically Black Greek Letter Organization: Finding A Place And Making A Way," discusses the dynamic of predominantly African American fraternities and sororities.  He emphasizes "that the major advancements in education and civil rights were influenced by these groups is an understatement" (17).  These groups provide safe havens for students of color to make their university smaller and more personal.  It allows them to group together to voice their opinions if need be.  However, similar to the predominately white chapters, the African American organizations can be extremely exclusive. Most of these organizations do not allow for other ethnicities to "rush" their chapter.  Both sides to the Greek System show a high degree of exclusivity, rather than allowing for groups to mix and create more powerful and productive members.  

Though some students express that they do not see a racial issue within the Greek System, ultimately, there is still an established stigma placed on minority groups.  Julie Park's article, "Race and the Greek System in the 21st Century: Centering the Voices of Asian American Women," offers opinions from those for and against the Greek System's structure.  One young woman, a member of a sorority, mentioned in the article expresses that "it doesn't really matter what ethnic background [one is]. I think a lot of it just has to do with how comfortable" one is in a Greek-lettered house (22).  This argument seems logical, and many "rush" programs emphasize this as the reason to join a particular chapter.  However, how can one go about being comfortable in a Greek-lettered chapter when he or she belongs to an already-underrepresented minority group?  The stigma previously established upon minority groups restricts them from surpassing that unwelcoming barrier to a place of comfort.  Thus, the idea of a nonracial chapter seems far out of reach at this point due to the impossibility of eliminating the stigma already placed on minority groups on college campuses.  This continuous cycle can only be overcome with drastic alterations to the recruiting process in the Greek System and the willingness of the many individuals involved.

Many members or former members of the Greek System look past this racial issue due to the many benefits of membership.  These advantages include the enhancement in leadership, scholarship, and service work.  These aspects exponentially enhance the student's experience and surrounding community.  Looking at the latest National Panhellenic Council, sororities "raised over $5.7 million for philanthropies and reported nearly 1 million hours of community service" last year" and fraternity men "raised $20.7 million for philanthropies and completed 3.8 million hours of community service" (Musulin).  These contributions prove to truly improve society as a whole and help hold members of the Greek-lettered chapters to a higher standard that can be executed into the real world.  

Furthermore, Christopher Moore's Ted Talk entitled "Diversity in Greek Life" suggests that Greek organizations offer advocacy, equality, manhood, and achievement, which trumps any negative effects imposed on them.  Moore offers a different approach to this subject because he is an African American man who pledged a fraternity.  He spoke about his positive experiences while involved in the Greek System.  It becomes evident that these organizations genuinely help its members in many different aspects. The organization pushes certain college students to strive for higher achievement and leadership.

There is a positive correlation between the membership of a Greek-lettered organization and college graduation rates.  The Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare conducted studies that found that "membership is positively related to college graduation ... this finding supports a social capital framework in which membership in voluntary organizations provides interpersonal resources that aid members in achievement" (Severtis 111).  These statistics emphasize the scholarship aspect of joining a Greek organization on college campuses.  Although the results seem positive, it raises many questions for how students involved utilize their intellect beyond graduation and if they channel their academic efforts into critical and meaningful issues.

However, despite all the exceptional qualities of inducting into a Greek-lettered organization, none of these elements remain viable if the students are not able to adequately utilize them in their years beyond the college campus.  The Greek-lettered chapters highlight the leadership, academic, and philanthropic skills that members will be taught.  Yet, how can one claim he or she excels in leadership if he or she cannot influence the movement against obvious racial inequities?  It seems as though the discriminatory ideology among such sororities and fraternities is outdated in the nation as a whole.  The country appears to be moving farther away from the obsolete mindset of segregation, or at least working to solve the issue.  In Greek life, the issue is still extremely predominant and does not appear to be reducing by any means.  The students pledged into these chapters are taught to take advantage of their abilities while being active members.  They are supposedly taught within the Greek chapter to focus their leadership ability to initiate imperative movements, centralize their scholarly capability into advanced problems, and concentrate their philanthropic mentality into positive changes for the society.  However, if said students live up to the leading, scholarly, and philanthropic individuals they allegedly strive for, why are there not more students from the Greek System acting as intellectual leaders who speak for justice? 

Members of Greek-lettered chapters who do not speak out for this injustice are exponentially hindering positive action toward integration.  College allows students to explore their interests, values, and goals.  They center focus on a specific major or directed study.  These four or more years provide students with the vital resources for them to mold into a unique member of society.  Although membership in the Greek System allows for much improvement and enhancement to a student's college experience, it normally enforces a racial mentality on its affiliates.  Students learn discriminatory values that will inevitably be executed into their future career as a contributor to society.  If the Greek System community continues to allow these prejudice attitudes to be implemented on each pledge class inducted into the chapter, more and more immoral classes will graduate and subconsciously apply their racial notions in careers.  These students will soon be the leaders and officials of this nation, and the Greek System allows them to bring their learned racist ideology into society.  However, the Greek-lettered organizations do indeed offer exceptional advantages of scholarship and service and encourage its members to excel within the university.  Thus, the system should not be removed altogether, but simply eliminate this sense of racialism.  Action must be taken to solve this issue to create a truly remarkable and beneficial organization.

Much research has gone into resolving society's inequities.  From religious discrimination to sexism, many activists have attempted to eliminate the bias occurring in modern society. The obvious and simple solution to the racial issue among the Greek System is to implement quotas for each minority group to be inducted into each chapter.  Mona Lena Krook and Pippa Norris developed a literary work, "Beyond Quotas: Strategies to Promote Gender Equality in Elected Office," that analyzes the effects of quotas as it pertains to gender equality in the political world.  The article adequately illustrates various case studies performed on the subject.  The authors concluded that quotas on the amount of women elected into office prove to be extremely effective in this scenario.  However, just simply adding quotas does not completely eliminate the prejudice issue.  Further action must be taken in addition to the quotas to alter the mindsets of individuals to see past the unofficial discrimination that occurs.  In the gender bias scenario, the authors stress the necessity to enforce awareness of the issue and recruitment alterations.

Quotas have proven to be an effective way to jumpstart the movement towards counteracting inequities.  A set minimum of minority students determined by the National Panhellenic Board should be implemented on the sorority and fraternity recruiting process in order to turn a corner against the occurring racial discrimination.  As seen through case analysis in "Beyond Quotas: Strategies to Promote Gender Equality in Elected Office," quotas have positively affected the gender inequities throughout politics.  Many women were soon allowed more political opportunity and have established their presence in the field. Implementing the same tactic towards Greek-Lettered organizations may be even more effective because they are more personal and member-interactive groups.  Once members are adapted to the integration that quotas bring, they will be able to network with a more diversified group, and may value diversity much more.  After shifting the Greek System's members to a more welcoming mindset, quotas will not appear to be a burdensome requirement, but a goal.

Along with set quotas, the Greek System must take further action to increase variety.  Minorities must feel welcomed into an organization, and the Greek system should support integration as a social norm.  Anthony W. James's "The College Social Fraternity Antidiscrimination Debate, 1945-1949" is a narration of the author's college experience affiliated with a fraternity.  During his time in the chapter, he witnessed many instances of racial slander.  Appalled by the displayed discrimination, he attempted to fight the executive board to put stop to the injustice.  Awareness must be advertised about the issue.  Sororities and Fraternities should market their diversity, just as universities do for applicants.  The importance of diversity should become a trend and a positive addition to a chapter, just as exceptional grades and valuable philanthropy events.  With this method, diversity can become a norm in the Greek System, in fact, something to strive for.  The chapters must gradually alter their mindsets to break the chain and enforce the induction of different kinds of individuals.

Recruitment alterations should be enforced to diversify the process.  A research article on college admissions suggested the concept of making the admissions process racial-blind and found that "economic affirmative action and percentage plans could actually produce greater levels of racial diversity than racial plans" (Kahlenberg 13).  Thus, if universities focused on an applicant's financial state, along with the college's economic budget while practicing a race-blind admissions process, than the university would diversify more than simple anti-racial action will.  Chapters normally base the first round of recruitment on academics, so they can have racially-blind first rounds, where they base decisions solely on resumes, and appearances have no effect.  Then, once the chapter has invited back without basing their decisions off appearance, they can use quotas to fill the minority requirements in the rest of the rounds.  With this method, minorities may feel more comfortable to "rush" because they can utilize their previous achievements rather than be nervous about not being invited back to a house based on racial prejudice.  Also, if a student belongs to a minority group and is invited back to a chapter after the first round, than he or she will feel more welcome at the chapter.  

In conclusion, there must be action taken to diversify the Greek System on college campuses.  The evident discriminatory mentality can be seen through statistics of page classes and previous events of racial profiling.  College students will become the next generation to lead this nation, thus universities must set them up with moral mentalities and a broader appreciation of culture. Advantages of doing the Greek System, including high academic standards, leadership, and philanthropy are excellent aspects to enforce on young adults; however, a racial mentality will be detrimental to this country when said students become grown and active participants of society.  To solve this issue, the Greek Life chapters should continue to advertise their excellence grades and service, in addition to diversity and make their initial decisions race-blind for the first round of recruitment.  Then the National Panhellenic Board may implement quotas on these chapters for the rest of the "rush" rounds to hold a considerable amount of variability among the members.  Using this method, college campuses can gradually diminish the issue of discrimination in the Greek System and create a more welcoming environment to all students.  In addition, these students can network with other students that they may have not had the opportunity to meet, and the chapters can grow in its already established advantages.  

