In Praise of Fraternities

To an alarming extent, American men are afflicted with loneliness. Social media, gaming, and artificial intelligence have increasingly supplanted meaningful human connections, while limitless access to gambling and pornography have deepened men’s isolation and eroded their mental health.

Worsening matters is the loss of male friendship. A 2021 American Perspectives survey reported that 15 percent of men had no close friends, a fivefold increase from 1990. According to Centers for Disease Control statistics, men are four times more likely than women to take their own lives, accounting for 80 percent of all suicides.

This confluence of factors paints a grim portrait of a generation of young men, many of whom are disengaged, disconnected, and struggling to find purpose.

Another worrisome trend is the dwindling number of men enrolled in college. Today, just 42 percent of undergraduates are male, and according to the National Center for Education Statistics, they’re significantly more likely than females to drop out. College administrators have only recently acknowledged this disparity.

For young men on campus, the social obstacles they face can be daunting. The notion of “toxic masculinity,” which extends from academia to pop culture, leads many men to feel inherently inferior, as though they must do penance for the sin of being born male. Men-only activities or clubs are often maligned as regressive or even harmful.

Educators and policymakers shouldn’t be surprised, then, that so many college men feel lonely, unmotivated, and misunderstood. And as Richard Reeves observed in his book Of Boys and Men, women fare worse when men decline.

Fraternities know a few things about this crisis facing young men. With a history going back to the nation’s earliest colleges, fraternities have offered young men the personal and social moorings they need to thrive. Many teenagers seeking a place to call home on campus have found it in the fraternity house. About three-quarters of a million students belong to fraternities and sororities in the United States today, with alumni of the Greek system totaling approximately 9 million.

A recent study conducted at Southeastern Conference schools confirmed that fraternities are particularly beneficial for first-generation college students or those from low-income backgrounds, helping them to achieve better “learning outcomes.” The benefits of brotherhood are practical — if you need help moving, you know the guys to call — and emotional — if you are experiencing hardship, you know the guys to call. Men desperately need this network of reliable friends and mentors.

Fraternities and other men’s organizations play an important role in encouraging their members to become good family men and teaching them the importance of civic-mindedness and charity. Two Gallup surveys, comparing alumni who did not go Greek with those who did, showed that fraternities and sororities helped their members thrive throughout their lives and become engaged community members.

Fraternities are good for universities too. The same surveys reported that affiliated alumni recommended their alma mater to other students more often and were significantly more likely to make charitable contributions to their alma mater than were their nonaffiliated peers. As administrations worry about falling retention rates, a 2024 study using the National Survey on Student Engagement, one of the largest datasets on students and their campus involvement, found that members of the Greek system are significantly more likely to graduate, and graduate on time, than their unaffiliated peers. They’re also more likely to be involved on campus, to volunteer, and to obtain internships. Networks of older students and alumni serve as mentors for younger fraternity brothers on life skills not taught in the classroom, such as how to apply for jobs and how to respond to someone in crisis.