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‘Neighbors’: Do Hollywood-style college fraternities even exist?

‘Neighbors’: Do Hollywood-style college fraternities even exist?

Where would classic college comedies like “Animal House,” “Legally Blonde,” “Old School,” and now “Neighbors” be without fraternities and sororities?

The booze-and-boob-filled antics of these undergraduate societies have been entertaining moviegoers for decades. But is Hollywood perpetuating a myth? Are these Greek Letter Organizations really so debaucherous? And are they still as big a part of university life as flicks like “Neighbors” would have us believe? Let's take a look:

They Party harder

In "Neighbors," Teddy (Zac Efron), Pete (Dave Franco), and their party-loving Delta Psi brothers don’t do a whole lot of studying. Although fraternities and sororities are ostensibly academic organizations, the groups do have a bit of an image problem when it comes to things like binge drinking and hard partying.

It’s a rep that Hollywood movies have both played up and somewhat encouraged in a roundabout way by consistently depicting Greek Letter Organizations as places where the behaviour is the norm. It’s not all Hollywood though. Countless American studies have shown that on average fraternity and sorority members drink more alcoholic beverages in a typical day and engage in heavy “episodic drinking” more frequently than their non-Greek college/university mates. It’s such a problem that some fraternities and sororities have actually ended up banning alcohol altogether.

Hazing the neighbours

Teddy and his frat brothers make life a living hell for their new neighbours Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne). Movie frats have a reputation for making things difficult for newcomers, but is this what it’s like in real life?

Pledging is still a huge part of many Greek Letter Organizations. In most cases, the pledging process involves learning about the fraternity, it’s current and past members, its traditions, and proving to the existing membership that you are worthy of the group. Unfortunately sometimes the pledging process is taken too far.

Although physically and psychologically abusive hazing of pledges (or anyone for that matter) is illegal in most places and generally prohibited by the national umbrella organizations that represent fraternities and sororities, it still happens all the time. Subjecting pledges to embarrassment and ridicule is a routine, and in some cases subjecting them to emotional abuse and physical violence is a part of the process too. Hazing remains a very real issue for fraternities and sororities, one that continues to be a troubling problem for these groups.

Delta Psi put Mac and Kelly through the ringer (Airbags anyone?), but according to “Neighbors” director Nicholas Stoller, one scene that ended up on the cutting room floor made things a little unpleasant for DP’s pledges. The scene in question involved frat members shooting off fireworks that were being “held” in the backsides of their pledges. Ouch. Maybe they didn’t want to give college kids any ideas.

The positives

Delta Psi’s raucous depiction definitely does the frat and sorority world no favours, but the fictional frat is in not emblematic of many real life organizations. You should judge real frats by the film antics of Zac Efron and friends.

Here are some positive frat facts to keep in mind:

- Almost half (48 per cent) of U.S. presidents have belonged to fraternities.
- Greeks give back: Fraternity and sorority alumni give fours times as much to their alma maters as non-Greek students, accounting for about 75 per cent of total college and university donations in the United States. Annually, these groups also give approximately 850,000 volunteer hours per year towards charitable causes and nonprofits.

- Frat and sorority members are far more likely to finish college or university than other students in the US: 71% graduation rate for Greeks versus 50 per cent for other students.

What about Canada, eh?

So organizations not unlike the Delta Psi fraternity in "Neighbors"' do exist in the United States. But what about in Canada?

Many U.S. Greek Letter Organizations have had chapters at across Canada for more than a century, particularly at major schools like the University of Toronto, McGill, and the University of British Columbia, but fraternities and sororities aren't nearly as widespread and ubiquitous at Canadian schools as they are in the United States. In fact, the groups are even banned by some universities, most notably Queens, which has outlawed fraternities and sororities since the 1930s. The reason? At the time, inclusivity-minded Queens students disapproved of frats because of their external affiliations (see: ties to the United States) and the exclusivity the groups fostered. The popularity of frats in the United States is essentially the reason the groups are comparatively unpopular in Canada.

So don't worry, Canadians. Unless you plan to move into the heart of a university campus, you likely won't become neighbours with frat house any time soon.

"Neighbors" is now playing.