June 2004

James Ehrmann • Frozen Together?

April 25, 2004

Last night we had our ‘Frozen Luau’ at RT’s, one of Iowa City’s finer watering holes. Despite the fact that this oasis is located a couple blocks from the main downtown area, it’s a great place for renewal of brotherly bonds.

It made me ponder something about my recent social life: is it necessarily a detrimental thing that most of my free time is spent with members of my house? That’s the reason numerous students provide in support of their ‘I’d never join an exclusive fraternity’ thesis. If I had a dollar for every time someone has commented on how I’m ‘buying my friends’ by being in a fraternity, I would have plenty of money to go buy 50 more.

I think this is really a fallacious claim, especially when it seeps from the mouths of other students—after all, aren’t they also paying an organization (the University of Iowa) in hopes of meeting new people? Of course the retort would be that they are, rather, paying the University of Iowa in hopes of obtaining a collegiate education. To that, I would say: I’m only paying dues to the Sigma Nu fraternity in hopes of becoming a more affluent citizen of the community, not to shamelessly buy friends. Furthermore, community-based groups promote social capital, which is never a detriment to our society.

Bonding, which is basically what a fraternity encompasses, is what truly increases solidarity among members. These groups are actually what promote equality and tolerance in society, as evidenced in Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam, in which he shows that states with typically higher levels of civic involvement (i.e. people attending school board meetings, voting, working on a community project) tend to have smaller pay gaps (thus, more equality) and are more tolerant in general.

Two conclusions can be drawn from what I’ve just presented. First of all, I have indeed been reading the required text for my Political Behavior class and have actually somewhat grasped the meaning of it. Second, and more importantly, it can safely be concluded that belonging to a fraternity is only promoting equality and tolerance in the area.

The more social groups like fraternities and sororities that become established, the more this area can look forward to becoming an overall better place to live.

Back to James's Index

Back to "My Life as a Student" Index