Last Wednesday I attended the café talk by Professor Daniel Schwartz on how to succeed in college. I was most impressed by his criticism of the Greek system, which I believe produces more negative than positive impact on college campuses. Greek life creates an environment of exclusivity that encourages discrimination towards those who do not fit society’s mold of elite, which is why the majority of people involved are white and upper-class. Faternities and sororities have been widely criticized for racially insensitive themed parties in which mostly white students participate in various forms of blackface and brownface. Because of the atmosphere of exclusivity, when new members are admitted they are encouraged to participate in acts of hazing because they want to be accepted by the majority. On college campuses across the nation, including Cornell, we have seen deaths of young students due to hazing in fraternities specifically. Fraternities are also where many cases of sexual assault occur. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted while in college. It was also found that over 90% of sexual assault victims on college campuses don’t report the assault. At one university, of the men who self-reported rape or attempted rape, 63.3% also admitted to committing repeat rapes. In my opinion, the hypermasculinity present in fraternities coupled with a need to fit in and be accepted, create a very dangerous environment for women who enter those spaces. By allowing this to occur, and by not giving victims the needed support, administrators across the country have failed in keeping women safe on college campuses. Despite all the terrible aspects of Greek life, administrators are unwilling to deal with its consequences. This may be because of the potential backlash from alumni or because of the attention from the media that comes with every instance of discrimination, hazing, or sexual assault in the Greek system. One could make the case that fraternities and sororities do philanthropy work and they provide a social group for college students. However, there are many other organizations that do philanthropy work without those negative effects and the need for a safe campus is more important, in my opinion, than maintaining a social network that is rife with discrimination, hazing and sexual assault.