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. 

Blog 5: Bibliography

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.

Gormly, Kellie B. "Going Greek? College students consider pros and cons of membership." Pittsburgh Tribune Review (PA) 27 Aug. 2013: Points of View Reference Center. Web. 21 Oct. 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.

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

Blog Post 4: Research Proposal

Michael Manhart

Profesor Michael Goeller

Research in Disciplines: College!

10/21/14

Research Proposal 

Working Title: The Positive Sides of Greek Life

Topic:

I plan on focusing on the positive outcomes of being in a Greek Letter Organiz1ation. Greek life is always blown up in the media as being an awful influence on college students. This paper will bring together all the positive sides of being in a fraternity or sorority instead of the negative ones. Some of the positive outcomes of being in a greek organization are the networking opportunities, job possibilities, and the personality you build while being in a fraternity or sorority.

Research Question:

Can Greek Life Organizations, on college campuses, have a positive impact on the young students? If so, how?

Theoretical Frame:

The list of positive aspects of being in a greek organization can go on forever but i plan on only focusing on the main topics. In the media, greek life is always being represented in bad terms because of alcohol and violence. There are many reports of negative things coming out of greek organizations but there are so many more positive ones. The media never takes into account of all the positive things greek members do for the community and for the school. Greeks are more involved on campus than most other students because they are always doing community service and philanthropy events. They help raise money for children with diseases and help raise money for the school which is never talked about in the media. The media only likes to bring up the negative aspects of greek organizations. Greek life isn't always about partying, violence, and drugs. I am in a fraternity and i know for a fact this is not what we do as a chapter. We love to help out the community by doing volunteer work around New Brunswick and volunteering as various charity events. Many other greek organizations do the same at their schools because greek members are respected young adults who like to help out their community. Also, greek life helps you out after you graduate because of all the connections you have made in you fraternity or sorority. Alumni of greek life make more money on average than a non-greek member. This happens because of the networking opportunities you gain while participating in Greek activities. 

I am interested in this topic because I am in a fraternity on campus at Rutgers University. I always hear negative things stemming from being in a frat or sorority but this is not true. Much more good comes out of going greek than negative. I want to expand on these positive outcomes and explain why Greek organizations are constructive and beneficial to the young students.

Research Plan:

The information and case studies that I am going to look for when researching for this assignment are going to be the ones that show greek life is positive and not negative. Some of these studies include showing that Greek members go on to make more money than non greek members. “In the first, membership leads to higher wages because firms believe that fraternity members possess greater skills and abilities than nonmembers” (Labor Review 5). This quote shows that companies like to higher alumni of greek organizations because they think greeks have better skills and knowledge than non greek members. Other case studies i can bring up in my research paper is that greek members are more involved on campus because of all the community service and philanthropy events. Non-greek members do not participate in these events because they are not driven to do these philanthropic events. The fraternity and sorority members enjoy doing these various events so they do them more often. I have found some other articles that can help back up this idea and all my other ideas. 

Bibliography 

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

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

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