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what they're really like, for those who've always wonderec The Creek system — what is it really like for an insider? What is the attraction for this lifestyle of Greek letter recognition and exclusivity? Is it really all parties and spoiled "Delta Delta Delta" sorority girls, as on the Saturday Night Live skit? What motivates these people? How are they like, and unlike, the non-secret society world? Why were Greek letters chosen to exemplify these organizations? What, if any, ties do they have to ancient Greece? Determined to find the answers to these questions, I set out to the li­ brary. Greek-letter organizations have been around since the Victorian days, mid-l800's or so. They are secret societies, meaning that there are secrets for the members that outsiders don't know, and these groups bor­ rowed rituals from the Masons, which is an international secret society that employs the principles of brotherliness and charity. 1 was unable to find out why they use Greek letters, but 1 gather it is because few people can read Greek letters in our society, so that's the exclusivity element, and also it is probable that the ancient Greek attraction to brotherly fellowship honors the same commitment that the fraternities and sororities do. "Each house has their own individual purpose as to why they're in ex­ istence," says Sandi Urbanski of Phi Sigma Sigma sorority. "Most of them are for philanthropic services." Each house has its own traditional charity, and all of them place a high value on scholastic achievement. There is a common stereotype that fraternities and sororities are like the representation of Greeks in the movie "Fraternity Row," where various tortures are inflicted on the pledges, such as making them eat onions or sit outside the house for hours, until they are told they can come in. "I think that that's a very common stereotype, that we party all the time, and we don't study, and that we do crude things to our pledges," says Nicole Webb of Phi Sigma Sigma. "We have a strong anti-hazing clause, we don't refer to our pledges by a different name, we don't make them answer the phone in a certain way. We want to make them com­ fortable when they're joining, so paddles and things like that, that you see on TV — they're over-exaggerated. Portland has a small Greek system, and everyone tends to know each other. We're competitive with each other, but it's not necessarily negative." National sororities are in the Pan-Hellenic, which forbids its sororities from having alcohol in the houses or from having parties. The fraternities do have parties, and the sorority members can go to those. These rules were agreed on in the 1900's, and might seem to be sexist and anachro­ nistic to some. Sorority members, though, like the rules, saying that it helps to keep a more orderly environment, and a house freer of friction. Of course, there are local sororities, who don't have to conform to nation­ al rules, and they may choose to allow alcohol in their house. Brenda Green, Assistant to Vice President for Student Affairs, helped bring a chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha to Oregon. "AKA started in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C." says Green. "Howard is a prominent university that is African-American and graduates 2000 African-American students each year." Dr. Green says the AKA sorority emphasizes academic achievement and leadership skills. Many African-American women leaders are alumni of this sorority, including Maya Angelou and Coretta Scott King. Green says that any college women may join AKA, that it is not restricted to African-American students, but that it is "a support base where they learn Suzanne Levinson TKE brothers Ryan Hess and Dean Dawkins participate in a pizza-eating contest as fellow TKEs look on. about African-American culture." The AKA members who are selected have exceptional GPA's and work in community service organizations. I spent a day with several fraternities (don't call them "frats" says Todd Schomer of Phi Delta Theta) and sororities at the Greek Olympics, an an­ nual event of contests and games. It was fun, and seemed to be in line with some of the traditional concepts about Greeks — the pizza-eating contest, the tug-of-war, the competing against "rival" fraternities and sororities, the playful spirit that is traditionally indicative of students in general, to stave off the real world for four years or so. I asked about the songs that the sorority members were singing, and was told that each chapter has their own songs which reflect its values. Greeks have an 102