Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays! It's hard to update via dial-up, so please check up when the new semester starts up.

Until then, stay classy, Berkeley.

"Hooking Up"

Here's an interesting journal article on the phenomenon we know and love as "hooking up."

Another article, this one from the Journal of Sex Research, has some further insight.

A few excerpts:

• "Researchers have considered many correlates of casual sex attitudes and behaviors, including psychological (e.g., personality dispositions, self-esteem, attachment style) and social (e.g., alcohol use, Greek membership) variables, and partner gender."

• "Others argue that alcohol use by a woman is a powerful cue for men of the woman's sexual availability."

• "Gold, Karmiloff-Smith, Skinner, and Morton (1992) found intoxication to be a predictive factor at all points in casual sexual encounters (from the beginning of the encounter to the period of sexual contact); the highest level of intoxication occurred at the start of sexual intercourse. Moreover, males and females were found to be more likely to consume alcohol when they were less well acquainted with their partner (Temple & Leigh, 1992)."

The article goes on to discuss individual psychological predictors, in addition to social influences. Is hooking up necessarily good? Bad? Are people taking responsibility for their own sexuality?

Become a Member!

Please e-mail me if you would like to join the "Frat" Life team blog. Being a member will allow you to create posts on this blog, so that you can actually facilitate discussions and not merely respond.

It is absolutely crucial in the maintenance of a community to allow free and open expression, and to allow the exchange of different perspectives. As such, everyone--men, women, straight, LGBT-IQ, Greek, and non-Greek are invited.

My e-mail address is: cal.frat.boy@gmail.com.

IFC/Panhellenic Elections

IFC elections are a sham.

There were twelve actual people who took the time to complete an IFC election application, who took at least a nominal amount of time to answer the questions that were on that application.

These people also took at least some time thinking about speeches, and in the case of the public relations chair candidates they created supplemental materials to hand out.

When the actual elections were held on December 1, the chapter presidents were allowed to nominate candidates for unopposed positions. Never mind that there was already an anemic pool of legitimate candidates; guys dressed in jeans and t-shirts came in from off the street to run for the highest offices in the fraternity community.

It's hard enough to get qualified candidates; one can't help but wonder if these walk-in hopefuls even knew the responsibilities of the positions they were running for. Luckily, none of these "off-the-street" candidates won positions.

For Panhellenic, word on the street is that the new president has no previous Panhellenic experience. Though this in of itself does not disqualify her from service, one would hope that the leader of the sorority community knows a thing or two about the governing body.

Panhellenic slates its candidates, which means that the Panhellenic delegates from each chapter meet to select their new officers. Is this a better system than the IFC elections? Is it worse? We wait to see...