Sunday, May 2, 2010

abstract and bibliography

Abstract
Drinking in Greekl ife is a major part in college organizations. Even though drinkingi s illegal when a person is under 21 greek life opens up oppurtunities to drink at an underage with less of a cost. There has been many attempts to ban drinking and have sorority and fraternities go dry, however, they really are not dry. The answer is because of the importance of alcohol in social ritual, connection, and behavior for college students and has become integral to the meaning of fraternities and sororities. Drinkign is used for ritual, hazing, loyalty and connection. In college drinking is used to get people tot he party and help have fun and relax.

Bibliography
Abbey, Anotnia. "Alcohol-Related Sexual Assault: A Common Problem among College
Students." College Drinking - Changing the Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr.
2010. Journal/abbey.aspx>.
Alvaro, Christopher. "The Cons of Greek Life." The Muhlenberg Advocate. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2010. ?p=303>.
Barry, Adam E. "Using Theory-Based Constructs to Explore the Impact of Greek Membership on Alcohol-Related Beliefs and Behaviors: A Systematic Literature Review." Journal of American College Health 56.3 (2007): 307-15. Print.
Dowdall, George W. College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2009. Print.
"Driving While Intoxicated in New Jersey." The State of New Jersey Department of
Law and Public Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2010.
.

"Fraternity and Sorority Members and Alcohol and Other Drug Use." INFO FACTS
RESOURCES. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2010.
.
Gruenewald, Paul J., et al. "Drinking to Extremes: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses of Peak Drinking Levels among College Students." Journal of studies on alcohol 64.6 (2003): 817-24. Print.
Neighbors, Clayton, et al. "Are Social Norms the Best Predictor of Outcomes among Heavy-Drinking College Students?" Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs 68.4 (2007): 556-65. Print.
Park, Aesoon, et al. "Dual Mechanisms Underlying Accentuation of Risky Drinking Via Fraternity/Sorority Affiliation: The Role of Personality, Peer Norms, and Alcohol Availability." Journal of abnormal psychology 118.2 (2009): 241-55. Print.
Pedersen, Eric R., et al. College Students' Perceptions of Class Year-Specific Drinking Norms. 35 Vol. , 2010. Print.
Wechsler, Henry, and Bernice Wuethrich. Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses. Emmaus, Pa.; New York: Rodale; Distributed to the book trade by St. Martin's Press, 2003?, 2002. Print.

My story

Your Story. How has your project evolved over the course of the semester? How has your understanding of the project deepened or changed over time? What influenced you most? What have you learned about the topic, about the research process, or about yourself as a writer?

My project has evolved over the semester by my topic changed many of times and got more into depth . for example it started as drinking then it turned to what do people find in drinking, then drinking in greek life , then the attraction of drinking in greek life and now it ended at greek like dry, never. The article by barry influenced me the most and the law. I learned that i am not that bad of a writer and i should give myself credit for my writing ebcause it is not as bad as i thought.



this picture shows a party at a fraternity and a group of college students socializing and having fun drinking

Monday, April 5, 2010

Outline

I Opening- What attracts students to greek life
1. Why is it that alcohol has such a big effect on the population of greek organization
Thesis: If Greek Life went dry it would lead to a massive decrease in the population of students joining a sorority or fraternity

II. Counter argument:
If greek life went dry
1, no risk in hazing
2 less will join because all students want to do isdrink
3. people might find it harder to meet people and socialize w/o alcohol
4, harder to gain trust from initiated members
5 greek life will lose its uniqueness
6. Lose moeny for organization
If greek life went dry there would have to be a different solution to gaining trust in pledges and hazing and heavy drinking would not be a cause of death in the organization
III- Topic 1 - Initial Trust/ New member process
remain loyal
1. heavy drinking to gain trust
2. to fit in
3. feel obligated
IV- Topic 2- Easy access to alc
1. expected in college
2. accepted in greek life
3. enhance drinking experience
If going dry occurs it would lead to a decrease in people joinging because they cant drink.
V- Social Norm Preception
1, way to meet people
2. so set on drinking other way is over looked
3. Heideman case

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Case

My case is that fraternities and sororities will never go dry because they will lose many members and that alcohol is a part of joining a sorority. Even though many people are not aware that they do it, they cannot be stopped because it is freedom. They do not have to drink as a organization but can as an individual. Most of the brothers and sisters a person meets when joining in a sorority will be the people that a student will drink with. Greek Life attracts drinkers because drinking is expected in college and is easy access when in a greek organization. The quote “The Greek system is the single largest unregulated industry that provides the use of alcohol to underage drinkers” (34). shows that not only do students expect it but everyone does as well. There is no stopping Greek organizations because only bad will come out of going dry and chapters will start to lose people.

The Debate

The debate I have identified is if college students are joining greek life for the social and drinking aspect. On page 33 of the book “Dying to Drink”, theres a story of a male named Heideman who joined a fraternity because he thought they were “nicer than that”. Little did he know that the fraternity were heavy drinkers and “alcohol dictated life” . Heideman died from alcohol poisoning and the Case turned into the Heideman Case. An attorney Douglas Fierberg says “The Greek system is the single largest unregulated industry that provides the use of alcohol to underage drinkers” (34). Another debate is that people join Greek life as a sense of freedom and to start drinking. Today alcohol abuse continues to be a epidemic in Greek life and Greek life is committed to alcohol free houses. What should be done is that Greek life should go dry. A disadvantage of this would be that it is difficult to remain alcohol free when others are not. Also there is a lack of sponsors from alumni that feel differently. Liquor stores around campus lose business because of on parties on frat row. And most of all, less students will be interested in joining Greek life. If sorority and fraternity members are not allowed to drink, they will either not join or go as a independent student and not drink with people of there organization and that cant be stopped.

How can i help you

As of now I am not having trouble finding my sources . I am having a little difficulty defining a case but I think I am going to do it on Why greek life attracts drinkers. A possible argument is how the greek organization is said to be a social motivator and for drinkers, where greek life serves the community and helps with raising money. So now what exactly can greek organazations do to lower the statistics of how many people join the organization because of the high amount of drinking. To bring the project to final drafting stages, I have to develop a strong argument of which people agree that greek life is all about drinking and people who also disagree. I will interview drinkers who claim they joined for that reason and why they thought that sorority was only about drinking.