Research Blog 10: Abstract, Bibliography, and Link to Paper

Abstract:

After careful and extensive research on Greek life on college campuses and the benefits it holds for students, I have developed a main idea for my research topic. The main topic for this research assignment is the link between certain social skills needed to succeed in the workforce and how Greek life correlates to these skills. The main research question for this paper is “Can Greek Life Organizations, on college campuses, have a positive impact on the young men and women once they graduate and search for jobs?” Based on research from multiple sources I have found that Greek life directly correlates to obtaining a job after graduation. The skills needed to thrive in the workforce are enhanced through involvement in Greek letter organizations. I also found that fraternities and sororities look for these certain skills through out the new member recruitment process. Based on these findings Greek organizations do have a positive impact on the young men and women on college campuses. 

Works Cited 

DeSantis, Alan D. Inside Greek U: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of of Pleasure, Power, and Prestige. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Frankel, Kevin. "Self Perpetuating Success of Social Fraternities." The Lamron. 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

"Fraternity Membership And Labor Market Outcomes." Monthly Labor Review 135.12 (2012): 39-40. Business Source Premier. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

"Fraternity & Sorority Life." Why Go Greek? Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://www.hofstra.edu/StudentAffairs/StudentActivities/greek/greek_whygreek.html>.

Glass, Nicole. "Examining the Benefits of Greek Life." USA TODAY College. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://college.usatoday.com/2012/05/08/examining-the-benefits-of-greek-life/>.

"Greek Life Statistics." The Fraternity Advisor. Greek Advisor. Web. 5 Dec. 2014. <http://thefraternityadvisor.com/greek-life-statistics/>.

Huhman, Heather. "The 10 Unique Soft Skills Employers Desire in New Hires." Entrepreneur. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234864>.

"Interpersonal Skills Most Important Factor in Career Advancement." IAAP. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://www.iaap-hq.org/resources/interpersonal-skills-most-important-factor-career-advancement>.

Irving, Michael. Personal Interview. 17 Nov. 2014.

Jacobs, Peter. "I Joined A Fraternity And It Was One Of The Best Decisions I Ever Made." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.

Long, L. D. (2012). Unchallenged, professed core values: Do undergraduate fraternity/sorority members actually benefit in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, and friendship? College Student Affairs Journal, 30(2), 15-30.

Robbins, Alexandra. Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. New York: Hyperion, 2004. Print.

Sportelli, Natalie. "Buying Into Greek Life: Is It Worth It?." Forbes.Com (2014): 5. Business Source Premier. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14JsyijHHqrs3FWturtbpRBz66RvRv5vRRwANIN3axUU/edit  

Literature Review 5

Long, L. D. (2012). Unchallenged, professed core values: Do undergraduate fraternity/sorority members actually benefit in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, and friendship? College Student Affairs Journal, 30(2), 15-30.

This article is about the idea the fraternities and sororities enhance the areas of scholarship, leadership, and friendship. The author thought Greek Life didn't play an important role in enhancing these areas but further research disproved the authors ideas. Research proves that if you were in a fraternity or sorority you have better scholarship, leadership, and friendship skills than non greek members do. Greek Life promotes these three things at very high levels so it is not surprising that Greek members excel in these areas because that is what Greek Life taught them. This article is a perfect source of information i can use for my research paper. 

Leadership- the action of leading a group of people or organization 

Service- the action of helping or doing work for someone 

"Much of the research on the academic success of fraternities and sororities was conducted at single institutions"

"Black fraternal organizations might serve as a significant leadership development opportunity for African American students"

"Limited research has explored the social integration of students who join a fraternal organization" 

Overall, this article will help me write my research paper because of the information that is provided. It has great research on how leadership and friendship skills are improved by joining a frat or sorority. You benefit so much out of joining greek life and this article backs it up. Greek life gives u interpersonal skills that you will use and need later on in life. The author does a great job at showing the research he gathered and backing it up. 

Research Blog 9: Argument & Counter-Argument

My argument for this research assignment is Greek Organizations have positive sides to them and not just negative ones. Any time you hear of a fraternity or sorority on the news or the media you hear the words "hazing", "violence", "rape", etc. These are all negative words that make it seem like Greek Life is awful and a bad thing for college students. I want to stress that Greek Organizations contribute a lot to campuses and allows students to be more social and meet new people. Many news articles talk about how greek organizations are not worth joining because of the financial costs and it makes the young college students border line alcoholics. In the article, "The Dark Power Of Fraternities", it talks about how Fraternities are creating bad young men on campus. It states that it makes college students into violent alcoholics. This article brings up all the rape cases and drunk driving cases that happened involving fraternities. This only happens to a certain percentage of college fraternities, not every single one of them. My side of the argument is that there are many frats and sororities with positive things such as involvement on campus and great community service.

Research Blog 8: Interview

For my research assignment I am researching the positive affects of Greek Life on young college students. The media is always bringing up the negatives so I decided to focus on the positives because Greek Life is not a bad thing like most media sources portray it as. I decided to interview somebody from the Greek community at Rutgers. I decided to interview, Mike Irving, one of my Brothers who has been on the Executive Board the past two years. He was the former President last year and is currently the Vice President of my fraternity. I chose to interview this person for my research assignment because he is one of the most involved Brothers in our fraternity based on his positions. He has done so much for our fraternity and he loves the Greek Community. I learned from this interview how much Greek Life can change a person. Mike told me that before joining a greek organization that he was not as outgoing and didn't know that many people. Once he joined a fraternity both of those aspects changed. He became a lot more sociable and met so many different people from all over campus. "Greek Life makes big universities feel a lot smaller" (Irving). This statement is very true in a sense that greek life makes the giant student body into a smaller community. I can use this information from the interview in my research paper to back up how Greek Organizations have positive sides.

michael.irving2@gmail.com

Research Blog 7: Your Case

My chief example in my argument is that Greek Life is always being portrayed negatively but there are many positives to being in a fraternity or sorority. Greek members go on to make more money than non greeks, greeks are more involved on campus, and greeks raise the most money for philanthropies on campus. These are all positives that the media never decides to bring up because they only focus on the violence and drinking of fraternities. I have found some research pertaining to the positive effects of being in Greek Life. One stat shows that more greek life members graduate college than non-greek members. Some details that might be useful to know is that greek life helps young college students learn great social skills and how to interact with others. Being social is a huge advantage in the real world and it all stems from greek life. Greek life allows you to meet so many different kinds of people all over campus and even off campus. It opens many doors for you later on in life because of the networking skills you pick up.

Research Blog Post 6

This visual helps me with my research proposal assignment because of the many positive statistics on this image. All of the facts on this picture pertain to the beneficial sides of being in greek life. Executives of major companies are all part of greek life. Many people feel that the greek life members are degenerates and alcoholics. These stats prove the opposite because they are running major companies across the world. I can use these statistics to help write my research proposal and back up my argument of how greek life has positive sides to it. 

Literature Review 4

Lit Review 4

Jacobs, Peter. "I Joined A Fraternity And It Was One Of The Best Decisions I Ever Made." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.

This article is about how going greek in college is the right move to make because of all the benefits its brings you. The author gives reasons such as it helps your grades and it helps you be more social in college. He states that all the negative sides of fraternities are blown out of proportion. There are a lot of positive sides of joining greek life such as the networking opportunities and job possibilities. The author of this article was in a fraternity so he has personal experience of being in a frat. He seems to support all aspects of going greek because it helped him later on in his life.  

Diverse- showing great deal of variety 

Hazing- the imposition of strenuous, often humiliating, tasks as part of a program of rigorous physical training and initiation

"Greeks were more likely to have High than Low GPA's and Independents were more likely to have Low than High GPA's."

“Additionally, Greek students have a much higher graduation rates compared to their peers.”

"College graduation rates are 20% higher among Greeks than non-Greeks."

This article can help me write my research paper because it has some good information to use to back up my research topic. Greek life has many positive aspects to it and this author does a great job at portraying these benefits on going Greek. There are multiple stats in this article that help prove greek life is beneficial to young college students.