Poll: How safe are fraternity parties?

How comfortable do you feel?

MPR reporter Tim Post and I have covered the three recent sexual assault cases at the University of Minnesota fairly heavily, and now I’d like to hear from you:

Just how safe do you –or people you know — feel at fraternity parties?
Is the issue being overblown — or underreported?

Please click the link below and chime in. I’d love to hear from students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni — anyone who has been exposed to the fraternity scene or knows someone who has.

It’s a short questionnaire with no obligation, and I’ll post an overview of the results in a few days. It’ll also help guide our coverage here at MPR.

You can click here to fill in the survey.

Thanks, and I hope to hear from you.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.

wbgleason

Hmm…

I am somewhat sympathetic to Greeks at the U of M campus. Many of the problems associated with a very large complicated place are alleviated by fraternities and sororities. I was an undergrad at NU and a GDI. But I had many friends who were in frats and actually had a great job at one of the sororities.

These organizations varied from the Evans Scholar House – a quasi frat – and Triangle – an engineering frat, basically – to the usual suspects. I once had my bicycle pounded to death by some drunken frat boys who used a sledgehammer. The administration person responsible for cleaning up their messes made them pay dearly for that bicycle.

Bottom line: a good frat or sorority is like an extension of your own home. Your brothers and sisters are like your actual brothers and sisters and if you are fortunate enough to live in a good house you will have these folks as friends for life. But getting plastered, trying to get women plastered, and taking advantage of them is not what most of us do in our homes. Don't stand idly by when you see these things happen in your house. Save your brother or sister from doing something truly stupid, being humiliated, or being physically harmed.

And I'll also point out that much of this kind of behavior happens at places other than a frat or sorority. Let's take some responsibility for having a great university community no matter where we are.

End of sermon…

Bill Gleason, U of M alum and faculty member