Funny man Will Ferrell got serious while talking about the racist fraternity SAE at Oklahoma. During a New York Times Q&A at SXSW, Ferrell was asked to comment on his own fraternity experience as a member of Delta Tau Delta at USC and "why (or why not) fraternity membership is still a worthy consideration for a college student." Basically, after those racist guys ruined the already tainted image of fraternities and sororities everywhere, is it still worth my parents money to become just another bro?
The "Get Hard" actor says "yes" and has an intriguing idea - get rid of the Greek system all together.
Question: Will, we are fraternity brothers of Delta Tau Delta, albeit different chapters and years. The recent awful situation with SAE has brought out the "frat haters" in droves. Could you comment on your own fraternity experience and why (or why not) fraternity membership is still a worthy consideration for a college student? —Stephen Browning,
Seattle
Answer: The incident in Oklahoma, that is a real argument for getting rid of the system altogether, in my opinion, even having been through a fraternity. Because when you break it down, it really is about creating cliques and clubs and being exclusionary. Fraternities were started as academic societies that were supposed to have a philanthropic arm to them. And when it's governed by those kind of rules, then they're still beneficial. But you gotta be careful. I was lucky in that the one I was in, we were really kind of the anti-fraternity fraternity. We were considered good enough to get the exchanges with the good sororities. We couldn't get anyone to vote on anything, but if you needed 40 guys to show up and build a 20-foot-tall papier-mâchéversion of the Matterhorn, we were there and ready. But we didn't take it too seriously. It was just about having fun. But I think it's an interesting dilemma for universities these days.
