Wednesday, April 22, 2020

The New Fraternity Culture Essays - , Term Papers

The New Fraternity Culture The New Fraternity Culture After drinking from a keg of beer stashed in the basement of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house at the University of Michigan last December, a group of pledges stripped to their boxer shorts and lined up, ready to endure their next torturous test of brotherhood. As two other fraternity members watched, a ?pledge educator? pointed what he thought was an unloaded BB gun at the pledges' various body parts. He was simply trying to scare them. When he approached the seventh student in line, the ?educator? pointed the gun downward, two inches away from the pledge's penis, and fired. Unexpectedly, a pellet shot out (Reisberg A59). Fraternities have been in existence for over a century. They were established to nurture pride, leadership, unity, and commitment (Nate 18). Although some fraternities still embrace these values, this does not make up for the dangerous behavior that most fraternities engage in. Alcohol abuse has become far too large of the college social scene and fraternities are its most publicized defendants. Rowdy keg parties have replaced the values and ideals that were once the basis of fraternities, as binge drinking becomes the core of their brotherhood. Each year on campuses throughout this country, binge drinking causes students to suffer academically while risking their health and safety, as well as that of the rest of the campus community. Contrary to the many members firmly entrenched in the fraternity culture, several national fraternities are trying to dispel this image. They have devised programs which emphasize academic development, leadership, and community service, while at the sam e time taking the focus off alcohol and hazing. The first of the Greek-letter societies, Phi Beta Kappa, was founded on December 5, 1776, with the aims of creating a ?scholastic, inspirational, and fraternal? society. The founders of Phi Beta Kappa named friendship, morality, and literature as essential characteristics. Laws provided for a ?reverent opening and conduct of meetings, encouraged sobriety, and demanded ethical ideals superior to those manifested by a rival society? (Voorhes 8-12). The growth of the system was gradual, for it was not until 1825 that Kappa Alpha, Sigma Phi, and Delta Phi were established. The decade of the thirties produced another trio of fraternities: Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, and Beta Theta Pi. The period preceding the Civil War witnessed the establishment of most of the remaining general fraternities of ?present larger extension? (Nate 18-38). Oliver Wendell Holmes, a student at Harvard in 1859, captures the immortality of loyal friendships and high ideals in a message to his classmates: Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray! The stars of its winter, the dew of May! And when we have done with our life-lasting toys, Dear Father, take care of Thy children, thy boys. The founding of the fraternities was at the hands of men who set up high life-ideals for themselves and those who would come after them. The more recent years have strengthened the chapters through the development of their national organizations and a more direct alumni co-operation (Nate 60). As fraternity chapters grow stronger, they are slowly losing sight of their fundamental purpose. The values and ideals that once served as the basis of fraternities have been replaced in some chapter houses by excessive drinking and brutal hazing practices. Through the new fraternity culture, binge drinking becomes interwoven into college life. The Federal Substance Abuse Prevention reports that undergraduate students currently spend $4.2 billion a year on booze ? far more than they spend on their textbooks. An advertisement being run in college newspapers by VivaSmart, an online textbook seller, actually features the headline, ?More on Beer, Less on Books,? accompanied by an explanatory text that begins, ?We know you have better things to do than blow your money textbooks? (Miller 1). This message promotes and legitimizes a college drinking culture that according to the Surgeon General Antonia Novella is spinning out of control'? (Elson 64). In a survey of students at 140 colleges b y researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health, forty-four percent of students reported binge drinking, which the study defined for men as consuming five or more drinks in a row within the previous two weeks, and

Friday, April 17, 2020

Sample Essay - Making Time to Make Your Essay

Sample Essay - Making Time to Make Your EssayAre you starting to do sample essays for college? If so, one of the most important parts of this process is making time. Making time on a daily basis is very important if you want to be effective. This is because when you make time to make your essay, you can make it as close to perfect as possible.One of the biggest challenges that you will face as you make your essay is making sure that you get it done on time. If you are not careful, you may end up taking too long to do it, thus missing important deadlines. There are several ways that you can make sure that you can make time and still get your work done.The first thing that you can do is try to make it on a daily basis. When you are writing an essay for college, you will make it as close to perfect as possible. If you try to make it once every other day, you may be able to make it on time. You may even be able to go back and add some important information, making it even better.Another thing that you can do is make sure that you create a schedule that you follow. Make sure that you write each day at a different time. If you write at the same time every day, it will make it easier to make time. This will help you make sure that you are making time to make your essay.Another way that you can make sure that you can make time for your essay is to create a system that you use to track your time. If you have a computer with a time card reader, you can use this to track your time. The card reader will give you a paper which will let you know how much time you have been working on an assignment. This will help you make sure that you are making time to make your essay.It is also a good idea to take notes as soon as you finish your essay. Doing this will make it easier to make time. This will allow you to record how long you worked on the paper, and it will also allow you to see how many minutes you were spending on a given paper.If you do not have time or want to make sure that you can make the most out of each hour that you spend, you should start by doing as much as you can in the morning. Take the time to get ready for school and make sure that you do some studying. After the early morning, you can work for another hour. You should make sure that you make this time so that you are able to make time for work.Finally, try to make time to make sure that you make the most out of your breaks and lunch breaks. If you have the money, you can go out and have lunch, but if you do not have the money for this, try to make it out of the classroom. These tips will help you make sure that you are making time to make your essay, and you can always make sure that you are getting the most out of each hour that you spend.