Buying Opportunity: Greek Life’s Exacerbation of Inequality The founders of America’s universal education system prided themselves in building a system that offered everyone the opportunity to educate themselves in order to become mobile in class hierarchy. If someone is expressing interest in furthering a career, a common tip is to pursue higher education. Education is thought of as the “avenue to social mobility,” (Armstrong 12). However, the United States’ current educational model is contradictory to this premise, as money is arguably necessary to access opportunity. In the current model, students from working class homes often opt out of traditional universities for community college, or avoid college altogether in order to …show more content…
Eighty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have been Greek affiliated in addition to all US presidents, excluding Bill Clinton and Barack Obama (Chang). Greek organizations often attribute this success to the values that are instilled in their members. A Greek advertisement from California University of Pennsylvania marketed membership opportunities through connections, leadership and friendship (Cal U). However, these privileges come at a price, and Greek organizations fail to consider that success may be predetermined by the students able to access the system rather than by membership itself. High price tags discourage students of lower socioeconomic status and create a disproportionately affluent membership within the fraternity or sorority. Consequently, Greek organizations are giving privileged students additional benefits and disadvantaging poorer students. A selling point in “going Greek” is to have lifelong connections. Therefore, Greek life infringes upon class mobility, not only within the college, but throughout professional careers. National leaders do not have an advantage because of values, but because of connections that were only available to them due to their parents’ high socioeconomic status when they were …show more content…
African Americans, who make up roughly twenty percent of the population, have significantly higher incarceration rates and health problems, relating to struggles of the United States’ lower economic bracket (Davis). Rather than adopting methods to create a more inclusive environment, as colleges nationwide have done with Affirmative Action policies, Greek organizations do not acknowledge this problem. The National Panhellenic Council does not report the demographic makeup of fraternities and sororities. Princeton voluntarily provided these statistics and found 77 percent of its Greek students were white, even though whites made up only 47 percent of the overall student population (Chang). The success of the Greek system at Historically Black Colleges and Universities proves that under-representation is not due to lack of interest. Greek members at HBCUs have reported more student involvement and engagement than minorities independent of Greek affiliation at predominantly white colleges (Patton 112-123). While Greek life has many positive effects for members, it is important to evaluate who is
While going through the process of determining what college to go to many students focus on what majors are provided, location, an overall sense of the school, and several other things. One thing that is often overlooked is the option of going Greek. Many male students often do not even consider the option of going Greek because of false pretenses. One common misconception of going Greek is because the members are stereotyped to be party goers who do not do well in college. This could not be further from the truth. For members of the Kappa Alpha Order, there are several ambitious standards that must be maintained to stay in the Order. Also, joining Kappa Alpha opens members, both current and former, to several opportunities. Finally, Kappa Alpha is an Order that holds several beliefs that most southerners have faith in.
Throughout my exploratory essay, I found that there are many different perspectives when it comes to Greek life. I as a member of Greek life myself, feel that the positive aspects outweigh the negative. There are many positive advantages that come from being a part of Greek life. There are an abundance of networking opportunities that come from Greek life along with all of the incredible friends that you make throughout the recruitment experience. One may also gain leadership skills from being a member of the executive council and having to lead their chapter on a day to day basis. Being a member of Greek life also pushes you to be more involved on campus as well as in the community. Each Greek organization has a philanthropy that they support
While L, Patton; B, Bridges; L, Flowers’s 2011 article EFFECTS OF GREEK AFFILIATION ON AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS' ENGAGEMENT, discusses that African American organizations presence on campus. Have exposed great leadership, entrepreneurship, encouraged academic achievement and promoted community service. The organizations, believe that if their
When one first thinks of Greek life or a sorority the only thing that comes to mind is the social aspect. Most people don’t think of sororities as social institutions that envelop their own culture, with mannerisms, languages and customs that are unique to each individual organization. However, these institutions promote a common set of values that enable members to become connected in a way that has a more profound meaning than just social interaction. Greek organizations are good examples of how institutions can affect and be affected by social status and roles within the collegiate community. They are also a prime example of how race, class and gender can affect a social setting in both positive and negative manners.
With the growing importance of higher education, more people than ever are attending college. According to a middle-class parent, “[Higher education] seen as a means of developing a career and getting secure employment.” (30, Higher Education, social class and social mobility) Moreover, “parents believe that their children need a university education to get on in life… over the past decades (parents) fearful that without a degree their children will be in danger of downward social mobility. (32, Higher
Every year, thousands of new college freshmen join on-campus groups, in search of their “home away from home.” Some students chose jobs, while others join Newman groups and sports clubs. A popular choice for an on-campus “home” is the Greek community. College sororities and fraternities are often the subjects of hot debates: what can students gain by going Greek? Do they really do more, than just hold socials? Asel, Seifert and Pascerella wrote an article to answer these questions. While Asel, Seifert, and Pascarella wrote a high-quality article about Greek Life that provides an ample amount of evidence to support their opinions and a logical flow of ideas, the article falls short by having a bias favoring these
In a state with a greater gap in income inequality, youths of low socioeconomic status would have had a 30% lower income in their career compared to that of youths of the same status from states with less inequality. Likewise, individual in the former had a 8% chance of returning to school whereas there was a 10.6% with the latter (Kearney & Levine, 2016, pp. 347). Failing to identify role models in low socioeconomic communities can cause one to fail to identify with college. However, one could also be demotivated by living close to a household of higher socioeconomic status (Kearney & Levine, 2016, pp. 348-349). It makes the prospect on financial success seem comparatively unreachable. With lower obvious income inequality, there is a greater motivation to strive in education because one can feel more competitive with colleagues whose capabilities are not so superior to oneself. Ultimately, striving to achieve success through education was, as the researchers mentioned, “most appropriately considered a cumulative measure of ability, reflecting innate endowments, environmental influences, and the result of formal and informal human capital investment” (Kearney & Levine, 2016). If an individual cannot overcome the obstacles that are cast by
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, people who have earned Doctoral degrees statistically have the lowest rate of unemployment at 2.2%, and the highest median weekly earning of $1,623, whereas people with less than high school diplomas have the highest rate of unemployment, 11%, and the lowest median income at $472 (Education Still Pays: 2014). Clearly, higher education will, statistically speaking, correlate to a higher socioeconomic status and greater probability at achieving the “American Dream.” However, given the disproportionate demographics of who attends college, the “American Dream” is further away for some more than
Nowadays, the detriment in higher education has reached alarming levels. According to Suzanne Mettler, a political scientist at Cornell University, while students work hard on the side to be able to afford an education, they receive an inferior education because education has evolved into a caste system that doesn’t give them a chance to succeed. Mettler addresses this topic in her book, “Degrees of Inequality: How the Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream.” She analyzes the relationship between money and politics, greed, and misplaced priorities, and how education produces more inequality amongst students from different economic levels (HU, 2015).
The fundamental aim of obtaining a higher education in this country has been to prepare and educate young Americans to accept and consider productive and proactive roles in the workforce, to strengthen our communities and nation as a whole, to contribute to our domestic and international economic competitiveness and to enrich our lives to the very fullest. As part of the perception of the American dream of “opportunity for all,” higher education also plays an important role in the effort to dispose of, or at the very least to narrow, the gaps in the opportunity to obtain a higher education between the many people who are born into lower socioeconomic circumstances at
Humanities history is filled with notorious acts. We are always discriminating labeling and finding new ways and reasons to kill each other even though we all are the same. People with evil thoughts can corrupt people to think a certain way about another group. After they recognize there difference they start labeling them. Like how Hitler made all the Jews wear the David star so when ever they walk out in their society they are ridiculed ard hard core judged. This strategy is used to humanize this specific ethnic group making others have the mentality that they are everything but human and the ethnic group believe that they are deserve this treatment. After the people would be isolated from the world like how the jews were put in concentration camps and how the Nazis or non Jews were isolated to what is happening in their backyard. They had no clue. This is how genocides develop and they can happen right under our nose without us noticing.
In America, the prospect of social mobility is near impossible if one does not graduate from college and secure a stable job coming out of college. In the previous generations, many American families could own a house, a nice Chevy, and work at a nice paying job with a high school diploma. However, this would not be the case today since many who graduate out of high school will always be stuck in minimum wage careers. This partly due to jobs becoming automated and competitive career fields.
America prides itself in the "equal opportunity" it provides for its citizens. Anyone must be able to get a quality education, get jobs they want, and be productive members of society. However, there has been debate lately on how equal the opportunities are for the majority of American citizens. Many Americans have a harder time getting the quality education they deserve because of their social or economic status. Many employers value formal educations, but the majority of lower class citizens are not given the chance to pursue them due to their social class. The amount of money a family or community has is too prominent in America 's education system to truly have a fair chance for all. Brent Staples, in his essay “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s”, and Lynda Berry, in her essay “The Sanctuary of School”, are part of the nationwide discussion of how important money should really be in the education system. In our country, the economic status of a household dictates the education a person receives and how it shapes their lives because of what they, along with society, value.
Most human beings continually strive to achieve goals that they perceive as valuable. This theory is best illustrated by American culture where competitiveness and the drive for escalation in social status is apparent in just about everyone. American colleges and universities are often the breeding ground of competitiveness for jobs after graduation. By looking at the large number of students enrolled in secondary education, it can be seen that many Americans choose to receive schooling in hopes of making more money and gaining an elevated social status.
There is a “common sense” idea that a greater amount of education leads to more opportunities to secure a higher paying job. Thus, if more education often equates to a higher paying job, then the educational barriers for people from lower socioeconomic status limit upwards social mobility. In order to accurately critique the different ways in which the education system worsens or maintains social inequality it is important to assuredly demonstrate that there is a connection between the two beyond a “common sense” notion.