Many colleges surrounding the University of Indianapolis have Greek life, but the question is: Should UIndy have it? All around the United States, there are colleges that offer Greek life for students to get an opportunity to make friends and build connections. Greek life consists of fraternities and sororities. A fraternity or sorority is a brotherhood or sisterhood formed around common goals and aspirations, according to Ball State University. According to Campus Explorer, “As any Greek life devotee will tell you, the friends you make at your house are strong, lifelong connections. The words ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ are not taken lightly, and fellow Greeks take care of each other whenever possible, whether socially or professionally.”
The University of Indianapolis has a current student population of 5,600, according to the university’s website. Having such a small student population and trying to have Greek life does not make sense because there are not that many people. According to The Albion Pleiad, smaller schools have less chapters and raise less money for their philanthropies, unlike big schools. Do not get me wrong, I think it would be fun to be able to have the opportunity to join a sorority or fraternity here at UIndy, but there is no space on campus for housing them and no way of knowing how many people would even be interested. According to an article written by The Reflector Business Manager Michael Harrington about the history of Greek life on campus, “… Greek life has not been a physical part of UIndy’s campus. He said that at UIndy’s campus, there has not been strong enthusiasm or opposition to having fraternities and sororities in the past.” I do not see UIndy entertaining the idea of Greek life because we are a small university.
With the university offering many Registered Student Organizations, Division II sports and intramurals for their student population to get involved, I think that if they added Greek life there would not be enough people for it to feel like an actual sorority or fraternity. Although we do not have traditional Greek life, there are two chapters you can join. According to UIndy’s website, Alpha Psi Omega, a chapter that works with the theater department.
If the university ever decided to establish Greek life, students would pay a fee to be in a sorority and fraternity. Those fees are for annual dues, social events and possibly housing. According to Edmit, experts estimate that the fees are between three to five figures at some chapters. UIndy has already increased tuition a few times in the past couple years and, on top of that, having to pay to be a part of Greek life seems like a lot to me.
Overall, I think that the university is not equipped to have Greek life. The campus is small and located within 10 minutes of the city with nowhere to put houses for the Greek life. With the campus size being under 6,000 students, and there being many RSOs to join as well as other extracurricular activities, I think that adding Greek life would do more harm than good.
