"Bama Rush" had enough in it to show why Greek life is corrosive

A real life Dean Wormer explains why

Most college administrators hate Greek life (by Greek life from here on I mean the white fraternities and sororities). Most keep it to themselves because of the power the alumni have and the fact that they are often some of the best donors to the institutions. Because I’m such a bad actor, my feelings about Greek life were obvious; it was more in my list of bad career moves I’m proud of.

The University of North Carolina has an absolutely industrialized Greek system of gamblin’, shootin’, hazin’, and what is euphemistically and sickeningly called “chasin’ girls” (i.e., sexual assault). I was no match for it. No one is. But if you read the mission statement of UNC or any other similar school and compare it to what the Greek system does, the values are diametrically opposed. Inclusion. Education. Knowledge. Truth. Transparency. The Greek system exists so that the active members do not have to follow any of these ideals. They have ways to cheat in school, they are racist and exclusionary, they view people who like school with outright disdain, and secrecy is their North Star.

So, I am, proudly, Dean Wormer.

After leaving UNC, I went to Washington University in St. Louis, which is where Harold Ramis actually went to college. It wasn’t while I was there, but I was the successor to someone who could have easily been the inspiration for Dr. Double Secret Probation himself. (And even though he made fun of “me,” I still love Ghostbusters.)

The film “Bama Rush” — thought/feared by some as an exposé of all of this as it plays out at another industrialized Greek school — has now arrived on the service formerly known as HBO Max, mostly with a whimper. Supposedly an inside look at sorority rush at the University of Alabama, it’s not a great movie, and plenty has been written about that. It also failed to live up to the hopes/fears of the Greek haters/lovers, as outlined nicely in this piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

It’s true that they didn’t get inside the rush parties at the frat houses with the sickening sexual violence upstairs and the trays of cocaine (UNC is famously known as the “University of Nose Candy” to such an extent that the feds even occasionally show up to bust the frat rings). But to folks who know how all of this works, the movie does expose the essential problem behind all of this, and that is the absolute devotion to secrecy (and loyalty) among all connected with Greek life.

When word gets out that a documentary is being made about Bama Rush, panic sets in across Tuscaloosa. Anyone even suspected (as it turns out, falsely) of cooperating is ostracized, one woman participating in the film drops out for fear of losing her bid, and the actual President of the University of Alabama writes a threatening letter to the filmmaker after rumors that turned out to be wrong spread that secret audio recordings were being made. This shows not only that the secrecy is paramount but that the administration was fully behind it. The UA mission statement says that they are devoted to “creation, translation, and dissemination of knowledge.” Just apparently not about their Greek system.

(This letter is a good career move that the President is ultimately unlikely to be proud of.)

The film also covers something called “The Machine,” which is a secret society (cabal) of Uber-Greeks who control many things related to the university. The Machine is not happy about the film being made. All big Greek schools have a Machine. At UNC, the equivalent organization was called The Castle because they met in an actual castle. Here it is:

In addition to secret meetings about all kinds of matters they want to control to their mutual benefit, the parties that go on in there make what happens in the frat houses look like study breaks.

When a hazing death, drug bust, or other major incident happens in Greek life, a very familiar pattern sets in. The members are all taken off to a secret location to get their stories straight and - of course - reminded of the oath of secrecy they took to the fraternity, which rises above all other moral obligations. Then, the boys return and say that the whole thing was a result of the actions of a “few bad apples” who are thrown under the bus for the sake of the tradition, that they hope everyone remembers about their donations and the Habitat houses they have built, and that any punishment against them would unfairly single out Greek life since drugs/sexual assault/gambling/guns also occur in the dorms.

But there’s a very big difference between life in the dorms and life in the houses. The dorms have security cameras and no vows of secrecy. So the administration can solve the crime in no time. No need for double secret probation. In the houses, everyone is sworn to secrecy, family members are threatened if they leak anything (because the Dads all were in the same fraternity), and the university is reminded that they have recognized the fraternity, which includes recognizing the vow of secrecy. Occasionally, the crime still gets solved, but much less often.

There’s enough in Bama Rush to see how this works. The film is about how this secrecy harms many of the main characters. Of course, there’s a lot more juicy stuff elsewhere, most spectacularly in the book True Gentlemen, which the frats have tried to discredit even though any administrator knows it’s all true.

All of the bad behavior is enabled by the tradition of secrecy - and by the university’s complicity in the same. Why would an institution devoted to the dissemination of knowledge endorse an organization with a vow of secrecy?

The answer is in another movie from the seventies.

Follow the money.