contrasting perspectives on nwu greek life

The official newspaper of Northwestern University has seen fit to publish a pair of articles presenting pro and con viewpoints on joining greek life at their school, to coincide with the beginning of formal rush. What a great idea! Maybe underclassmen will be more influenced by an op-ed piece written by someone they've never met than by what their friends say.

The "pro" position is enthusiastically espoused by Marc Snetiker, though with sparse meat on the bone. He never thought he was the sort of guy to join a frat. He doesn't know why he joined, though he suspects it was because all his friends were. (Ya think?) He didn't become some cartoonish caricature of a fratboy. He's learned Values such as Brotherhood and Loyalty, though he has enough self-respect to designate his litany mere "banal nouns" of "inherently corny qualities." And he dutifully affirms that he knows lots of unaffiliated folks who seem to be doing just great. All in all, sounds like Mr Snetiker is doing just great too.

The "con" position is presented with little nuance by Matthew Lieb, who evidently doesn't like baseball either. ("The prospect of getting excited about pledging felt about as possible to me—a Seattle Mariner fan, through thick and thin—as sitting in the bleachers of Wrigley Field and lustily cheering on the Cubs." As an Angels man myself and a visitor to the Friendly Confines, I can readily attest than any baseball fan, except maybe a White Sox fan, should love the Wrigley Experience.) He adverts to his fears of guilt by association with the group's "least outstanding member," though how this differs from anything other group in life is unclear. Perhaps Mr Lieb is more the loner sort. He rests his decision on the fact that a fraternity isn't "necessary to preserve or enhance the fun of college," but does little to argue against a valuable—if assuredly elective—institution. He went with his gut and opted out. Godspeed, Mr Lieb.

But there isn't much in either article to help out someone genuinely wondering if greek life is for them. Fortunately, there's a simple answer for that: see what your friends think. You're just going to do that, anyway.

Neither author impresses with his point of view; call it a draw. So to whom to give the title link? We publicly admit that we have a bit of bias towards the pro-greek point of view; that's why the title link is going to the pro piece. But let's just say we flipped a coin.

North by Northwestern: ProCon