While the junior freshmen meeting each other on college campuses around Ireland for the first time in a few weeks will instantly bond over the near impossibility of finding somewhere to live, across the pond – where campus housing is all but a guarantee – students face the decision of whether to join a fraternity or sorority in the efforts to make new friends.

The Greek System, so-called for the use of letters of the Greek alphabet in the names of the assorted groups, remains somewhat of a mystery to people educated outside of the North American university system. Beyond snippets of information and a casual understanding of the varsity vernacular (‘rush’, ‘pledge’, ‘hazing’) gleaned from college movies like Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, and Legally Blonde, the existence of the Greek System in our collective conscious mostly revolves around tales of wild drunken parties, elitism, and sexual assault reported in the media. 

The image of Greek Life as a ridiculously out of touch reflection of contemporary US culture wasn’t much helped earlier this week when the University of Alabama chapter of the Alpha Phi released its most recent recruitment video. In a mediascape where racial tensions across the US are continually fraught and #BlackLivesMatter habitually trends online, the YouTube video has become symbolic of the divisionary and exclusive aspects of Greek Life.

Like the subconscious daydream of a 13-year-old white supremacist, the video plays out to the jingling of an open-source music file. Less open seems to be the admissions policy of UA’s Alpha Phi, whose entirely white members on screen run around, flicking their locks of long hair, blowing kisses and beaming at each other and the screen. All that’s missing is a pillow fight. 

"Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

It doesn't help, of course, that this lack of racial diversity takes place on the very campus that became a focal point of the battle to desegregate the American education system. In 1963, the then Alabama Governor George Wallace, stood in the doorway of one of the university's auditoriums, blocking access to African-American students under the promise of "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

Diversification remains an issue in the UA's sororities; the 16 separate sorority groups on the campus received 2,261 bids from students hoping to join their sisterhood for the forthcoming academic year. 214 of those were from minorities. 25 were black.

Of course, it is incredibly easy to sit in judgement of Greek Life from all this way across the Atlantic. Our universities, unlike most of our secondary schools, choose not to club together men and women by gender, tending to bond them by ego instead. Trinity has its Phil and its Hist, UCD its L&H, Cork its Philosoph. Membership is open to each and every student, but navigating the passage to positions of power requires grit, nerve, and popularity. 

But the rewards are lesser than those associated with fraternities and sororities.

Fools rush in where angel fear to tread?

Students who rush, sampling all the groups in a campus’ Panhellenic panoply, and then pledge membership to one in particular reap numerous rewards: there is a lower dropout rate than non-Greek students, an instant community and support system, tutoring, a fleshed-out CV, a nice place to live, a guaranteed social life, and, the holy grail, nationwide networking opportunities after graduation.

The costs of membership can take their toll too, however. Literally. Membership fees, ‘dues’ to be paid, can add up over the space of a four-year degree programme, with scholarship students known to siphon off the money they’ve received for sporting or academic prowess to fund their way through Greek Life. There are no bail outs for Greek students failing to pay up, and it is not unheard of for some to go into debt to remain within the fold of Greek letters with their brothers or sisters.

And then there is hazing process, ceremonies of shame and embarrassment pledges must endure in order to gain acceptance. Officially banned at most universities, there tends to be a ‘look-the-other-way’ approach to the ritualistic paddling, forced alcohol consumption, and ‘elephant walks’ – where men, stripped, walk in single file, but not exactly hand-in-hand.

The process is long and tedious, exhausting considerable time and energy without any guarantees of success. A but like life, so, and isn't that easier with brothers and sisters?