SIDEBAR: Breaking Greek myths

From the ditzy Delta Delta Delta sisters parodied on Saturday Night Live, to the beer-can-smashing fraternity brothers depicted in movies like Animal House, many members of the University's Greek system have said they find themselves constantly fighting negative stereotypes. Greeks said they sometimes encounter thinly-guised hostility from students who are not in the system. Members of fraternities and sororities have also said stereotypes are often what keeps prospective members from rushing. "I believe people think that all we do is drink?but we do community service all throughout the West Philadelphia area," said College senior Sondra Goldschein, president of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority. "A lot of people see fraternities and sororities as a place to drink, but they shouldn't be seen as only social. They are part of a larger picture." She added that those who are cynical about Greek life often miss out on some of its more enjoyable aspects. "Sororities and fraternities are a way of making a large university smaller, and I think that's why a lot of people enter fraternities and sororities," Goldschein said. "We present to people all different ways to get involved in Penn's campus." College junior Greg Adelman, president of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity -- which he said is sometimes categorized as a "Jewish fraternity" -- also said the negative repercussions of stereotypes "go both ways." "If you prejudge a system, then you don't want to associate with them, and that [prevents] a unified community," Adelman said. "The only way you can break [stereotypes] down is through better understanding and through knowledge." College senior RoseAnn Cho, a member of the Greek Social Action Committee and an Alpha Phi sister, said non-Greeks often judge fraternities and sororities on the basis of a few individuals who do not abide by conduct codes. "I think the Greek system is plagued by stereotypes that exist on campus," Cho said. "But our hands are tied behind our backs. A member in the Greek system might do something that breaks the rules and regulations, and the entire Greek system is condemned for an individual's actions." Wharton senior Mark Rosenbaum, a member of AEPi, agreed that it is often the behavior of Greeks themselves that allows the stereotypes to live on. "The stereotypes are there for a reason," he said. "It is the loudest people who are the ones who perpetuate the stereotypes. "If you talk to someone for an hour before you find out they're in a house, then they're not going to live up to the reputation of that house," Rosenbaum added. College freshman Whitney Namm said she does not like to "generalize" about Greeks -- even when their behavior falls into that of the common stereotypes. "If I talk to someone, and they sound like a snob, I don't automatically assume they're in a fraternity," she said. But Namm said it is other students' perceptions of fraternities and sororities that might keep her from joining the Greek system. "I have been considering rushing," she said. "But one thing that might deter me from pledging is the stereotypes people have." Namm added, though, that she thinks those who have a general dislike for the system "have probably just had a bad experience with members of fraternities or sororities."