TAMPA, Fla. -- Paying over $600 a semester to meet friends and getting abused by other students, is this what it takes to be a member of a fraternity?
Greek life has many stereotypes. The media and the movies have portrayed Greek life in which portrays it in a negative manner.
“I never wanted my son to join a fraternity because all they do is party, and I believe a lot of the students get bad grades,” said Jane Brantley, mother of a senior at the University of South Florida.
The media and the movies have also portrayed Greek life as a place to get hazed or a place that one has to buy friends.
David Alonzo, a recent graduate from the University of South Florida, and Kyle Newton, a junior at USF, are not members of Greek life, but believe in these stereotypes.
“I don’t really like to party, and when I saw that it was up near $600 a semester to join a frat I thought otherwise,” said Alonzo.
“I really didn’t want to get spanked or hazed just to join a fraternity,” said Newton. “I know it’s illegal but I bet it still happens in most fraternities.”
According to Mark Leasure, a junior at USF and a member of Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT), Greek life in general has been down in recent years. However, the ZBT fraternity has seen their numbers more than double in the last two years.
Leasure has been a member for over a year now and has seen his numbers go up because the fraternity raised enough money to fund a house on campus.
“Our numbers are more than doubled from when I first joined the fraternity,” Leasure said. “We just had a rush of 19 new members.”
In previous years, ZBT was lucky to have as many as 10 new members join each semester.
Leasure said he did not join for the partying, nor did he want to buy friends.
“I joined because I fit in with them right away,” Leasure said. “This is not a frat you see on TV; it’s not a stereotypical frat.”
At the beginning of the fall semester, ZBT was awarded a house on campus. Over half of the fraternities at USF do not have the money to fund a house on campus.
“It was a pain to get the house, but we got a loan from our national fraternity and we raised the rest,” Leasure said. The house is located in USF's Greek Village.
Quizno's donated almost half of the cost of ZBT's new house. They donated the money and ZBT advertised for Quizno’s, so it was a win-win for both of them.
Listen to Mark Leasure talk about why he joined a fraternity as well as talk about some of the fraternity's day to day activities.
Many people do not realize that fraternities raise money not only for their fraternity but also for children in need or businesses around the university, according to Leasure.
“Our fraternity’s big philanthropy event every semester is the ‘Get On the Ball’ event,” he said.
“This is when we get signatures from people around the university and every signature we get, we receive money.” The money raised goes toward the Children’s Miracle Network.
ZBT does a lot to recruit new members to the fraternity. Their No. 1 recruitment tool is letting people know they do not haze. They also pass out flyers throughout the semester and wear their jerseys every Wednesday on campus to advertise ZBT.
If you have seen these jerseys on campus, you have probably noticed the rather unusual nicknames on the back of them. When a new member joins, a big brother is to each to him and the big brother picks out a fitting nickname for him.
“Another way we try to recruit members is by Facebook,” Leasure said. “Everyone is on Facebook, we invite people into the group and send it around the site and you would be surprised how much response we get.”
Leasure, who had plenty of friends before joining the fraternity, never looked at the fraternity as a place to buy friends; however, many people believe in this stereotype.
“If I paid $600 a semester for a fraternity, I feel like I am pretty much paying to party all the time,” Bryan Hamer a junior at USF and not a member of Greek life said.
Leasure spends $660 a semester to be a member of ZBT.
“Our dues are our membership fees,” Leasure said. “None of our money goes towards a party, that is illegal.”
ZBT has a deal with the St. Pete Times Forum where a student can work at the arena and all the money they make goes toward their membership fee.
“I think people should know that we do not haze, you can work to get your membership fee paid for and we don’t party like the media portrays it,” Leasure said. “I hate how the media portrays us; this isn’t how all fraternities are.”
Package by Cody Wilson and Joshua Litton
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