penn publishes survey of greeks in the ivies

Though the Ivy League is often portrayed in the media as some kind of monolithic cabal of ancient elitist institutions, the reality is rather different even in the microcosm of greek life. (Actually, it's a rather diverse cabal of ancient elitist institutions.) A survey from the University of Pennsylvania illustrates the differences: Penn and Cornell are by far the most populated, with 52 and 70 greek organizations respectively, these totals including IFC fraternities, NPC sororities, NPHC greeks, other multicultural greek council (MGC) groups, as well as a smattering of co-ed societies of various sorts. Participation in greek life runs at about 33% at Cornell, and 28% at Penn.

Yet organizational numbers are not everything. Columbia and Dartmouth have similar populations of greeks—32 at Columbia and 30 at Dartmouth—but student affiliation at Columbia is only 10-15%, while Dartmouth enjoys the highest participation of any Ivy with over 60% of students joining by their sophomore year. The huge discrepancy probably reflects that Columbia is far and away the most urbane Ivy, located in Manhattan and thus providing myriad off-campus distractions to its student population, while Dartmouth squats in frigid Hanover, New Hampshire, where social life beyond the greek system is sparse at best.

Harvard, Princeton and Yale are are bastions of the ultra-elitist eating club systems, the legacy of late nineteenth century eradication of fraternities at the instigation of faculties worried about losing sway over the student body. Accordingly, none of them recognizes greek organization, with Harvard adding for good measure that it cannot ratify any organizations that discriminate on the basis of gender. While greeks still openly exist at these institutions, the survey does not advert to any necessarily unofficial numbers.

Brown, finally, always the red-headed child of the Ivy system, neither bans greeks nor seems to have much use for them, counting only ten on its campus and single-digit participation rates from the student body (euphemistically cited in the article as "about 10 percent"). Surely the reason cannot be attributed to the wildly eclectic party scene of Providence, Rhode Island.

Daily Pennsylvanian