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(U-WIRE) OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY—A recent study released earlier this week suggests that college students who join a fraternity or sorority are more likely to stay in school than other undergraduates.
The study, conducted by the Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., was reported by the Research Initiative of the National Panhellenic Conference and the National Interfraternity Conference on Monday.
Among the study's findings are that alumni of fraternities or sororities appear to be more likely to donate money to their alma maters than do other graduates, as well as feeling better about the social aspects of their undergraduate experience.
"The research findings show that young men and women who take an active part in a men's or women's fraternity or sorority are more likely to stay in college and to support their alma maters as alumni," said NPC Chairman Lissa Bradford and NIC President Idris R. Traylor in a news release.
"Approximately seven out of every 10 dollars comes from Greek alumni," said Ryan Imbrie, Interfraternity Council president at Oregon State University. "I've been offered jobs already by alumni from my house just from being in the house," Imbrie added.
The study also showed that Greek alumni were at least as active as other alumni when it came to nonprofit or religious organizations as well as other community involvement.
"I think we're very involved," Imbrie said. "We're doing it more now because we want to be recognized more for the good things that we do."
The findings also illustrated a trend that showed Greek men from 1965 on became increasingly more dissatisfied with their academic experience and their relations with professors and other college personnel than any other group of alumni.
"I think it's the image that we portray," Imbrie said. "After a rough Thursday night they come to class and sit in the back with their hats pulled down and wearing their letters. We need to show that we're not based on drinking and beer bonging."
Despite the fact that the study concludes that Greeks are more inclined to stay in school than other undergraduates, the findings are disputed by some.
"The survey was narrow- based," said Residence Hall Association advisor Dawn Patterson.
Patterson said that the Greek organizations at the university in which the study was conducted has a strong Greek system and a relatively small and more impersonal cooperative system as compared to other universities.
"At another school a cooperative system can be really strong, and at others it's not," Patterson said.
Patterson also said that many of the Greek houses at the University of Missouri-Columbia are large and beautiful while some of the residence halls are over 10 stories tall and less personal than at other cooperatives across the country.
"Some of them [residence halls] are nothing more than a hotel," said Jessina Luiz, vice-president of educational activities for the RHA.
The study also interviewed 653 former students on why they left the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Esther Thorson, director for the CASR, reported that since nearly 25 percent of the university's undergraduates are members of a fraternity or sorority, they expected that if Greeks were equally likely as non-Greek students to drop out then they would observe 25 percent of dropouts to have been in a fraternity or sorority.
But their findings showed that only 18 percent of the dropouts identified themselves as having been members of a fraternity or sorority.
"This would mean about a 28 percent higher retention rate than expected by chance," Dr. Thorson said in a news release.
Patterson questions the notion that non-Greeks are more likely to leave school than those who are in a fraternity or sorority as well as the statistics presented in the study.
"Financial backing is the number one reason students leave, not poor grades," Patterson said. "The highest percent of students who drop out are those who live off campus and are not involved in the campus."