Most of the world thinks of the Greek system as one where reckless voters elect wild parties, binge on debt and really annoy their neighbours. Americans use the term to describe something similar: a system where reckless students throw wild parties, binge on vodka and really annoy their neighbours. Like actual Greeks, members of college fraternities and sororities have had a miserable year. Fraternities, which are usually all-men, have made headlines for hazing, boozing, racism and allegations of rape. This has spurred some universities to consider curbing or even banning them. Take the University of Virginia, where a Rolling Stone article describing a horrific gang rape at a fraternity house set off a firestorm last year. The piece was later discredited, but other students came forward to say that they had been raped at frat parties. So the university banned fraternities until January, when it announced new restrictions on how they serve alcohol. National sorority organisations told their all-female members to avoid fraternity houses on a recent night of big parties-an order that was widely ignored.
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