Andrew Lohse is entitled to hacking out an embarrassingly poorly-argued, simplistic screed. But it is curious that editors at Time magazine chose to publish it. Using the recent allegation of a gang rape at the University of Virginia as his news hook, the Dartmouth alumnus called for the abolition of the traditional college social fraternity -- ditto for sororities -- in a December 3 "Ideas" blog piece entitled "If There Were Ever a Time to Abolish Frats, It’s Now."
Of course, at no point in this piece did Lohse acknowledge that the gang-rape story as published in Rolling Stone, has some credibility problems, to say the least. But beyond that, Lohse, himself a former fraternity member, laid out what amounts to puerile, simplistic reasoning as to why the Greek system must be utterly abolished (emphasis mine):
What is shocking, though, is how our national conversation shifts to static and inaction after our initial outrage. Why do so few schools seem willing to abolish their Greek systems, even in the face of alarming crime statistics and disturbing scandals? Big donations and alumni loyalty may seem impressive, but the data is clear: fraternity brothers are 300% more likely to commit rape than unaffiliated students. Likewise, sorority membership offers no counterbalance. It’s a risk factor, too, as women who live in sororities are three times more likely to be the victim of such a crime than those who don’t.
Instead of asking what administrations will do after college students have already been raped, hazed, or discriminated against, when are we going to start asking—demanding—that they eliminate from their campuses the anachronistic 19th century organizations that enable these crimes, shelter their perpetrators, and attempt to discredit survivors?
Secretive, gender-segregated, and racially or socioeconomically exclusionary drinking clubs don’t offer a social or educational utility that couldn’t be better created by a less problematic system. In direct opposition to the values of higher ed, frats exist solely based on the “otherization” of non-members. Through hazing, members become part of a collective identity, and in so doing learn that physically and psychologically harming other students is somehow not only normal, but a practice associated with privilege and social capital. Other students are not brothers; they can be insulted. Pledges are not brothers; they can be dehumanized. Women are not brothers and never can be; they can be degraded. The problem is both collective and structural in nature, and it’s not reducible to the case of a “few bad apples,” as apologists claim.
[...]
It’s time to accept that these 19th century institutions simply do not play a role in the 21st century, and that they reflect and continue to subtly transmit the values of an era to which we should not want to return. My former fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was founded in the Antebellum South—during a time when lynchings, strangely like the one threatened against me, were not uncommon. That fraternity, like many others, was founded before women could go to college, before they could vote, and before they could enter the workplace. It was founded when only the wealthy could receive an education. It was founded when slavery was legal. It was founded before LGBTQ rights. And fraternities at large, of course, were first founded in direct opposition to the educational mission of their host schools.
Fraternity culture has clearly and repeatedly demonstrated itself to be antagonistic to the safety of women, its own members, the values of education, and communities at large—and its time for it to be replaced with something safe.
Higher education should produce scholarship—not survivors. The question is not “why” we should abolish fraternities from institutions of higher learning, but “how soon can we do it?” Today would be a good time to start.
Shorter Andrew Lohse: Fraternities are evil because they got started in the antebellum South, and hence are irredeemably backwards.
There are reasonable arguments, I suppose, to be made for colleges and universities adopting policies that heavily restrict or outright forbid fraternities and sororities from operating on-campus housing facilities. Such policies would still permit off-campus fraternity and sorority housing while protecting colleges and universities from the obvious disciplinary and liability issues of managing on-campus fraternity housing. But Lohse is not careful to make that distinction, calling instead for the abolition of Greek life altogether.
Perhaps the notion of freedom of association, with its roots in that infamous 18th century document the Bill of Rights, is simply too backwards and racist for enlightened souls like former "Ivy League frat boy" Andrew Lohse.
