Brock Press

Issue date: 3/9/10 Section: Features

What do you do when your boyfriend - who you think is going to propose to you - ends up dumping you instead, only to get engaged to a chick that he met at Harvard Law School, but you still desperately want to try and get him back and will do whatever it takes?
What about if you come home early from a business trip to find your girlfriend engaging in sexual activities with multiple people, give up on your relationship, run into your high school crush, have a Mitch-A-Palooza thrown for you which thrusts you to the top of the college social scene, but are still trying to find a reason in life, get the girl and combat your mid-life crisis?
Or maybe if you get a note from Hugh Hefner, kicking you out of the Playboy mansion because you are too old and you are desperately searching for a new life and purpose?
The answer to these questions - as the movies Legally Blonde, Old School and House Bunny would tell us - has something to do with joining a fraternity or a sorority.
Granted, these are ridiculous situations - ones that, hopefully, not many people will find themselves in - but for people who are unaware of the real philosophy behind what a fraternity or a sorority is, especially within Canada, it is precisely these depictions that help to formulate their ideas about what constitutes Greek life.
Commonly misunderstood as being drinking clubs full of obnoxious frat boys and ditzy sorority girls who are a part of an elite members only club where the only way to gain access is by going through heinous hazing rituals - being a part of a fraternity or sorority group involves much more than that.
For students in Canadian universities, you will be hard-pressed to find someone who actually properly understands exactly what is involved and what it is like to be part of one. Many people are unaware that they even exist in Canada - let alone at Brock University itself.
Breaking these stereotypes and getting people to understand exactly what is involved in being a part of a fraternity or sorority has proved to be difficult for members of Brock's first and only fraternity group, Zeta Psi and sorority group, Alpha Sigma Chi, than initially expected, but it has not hindered them.
Brock students, Marc Reynolds, creator and current president of Brock's Greek Life on Campus, John Matisz, current president of Zeta Psi, and Paige Walker, current president of Alpha Sigma Chi, all agree that it hasn't been easy getting the word out and moving people past their initial conceptions about fraternities and sororities, but what they have gained in the process has been well worth it.

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