Literature Review 1

1) Photo of Author



2) Citation 
Long, Larry D. "Unchallenged, Professed Core Values: Do Undergraduate Fraternity/Sorority Members Actually Benefit in the 
Areas of Scholarship, Leadership, Service, and Friendship?." College Student Affairs Journal, vol. 30, no. 2, 01 Jan. 2012, pp.  15-30. EBSCOhost, login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1006547&site=eds-live.

3) Summary
This article looks over the four main areas of college and specifically the four areas most impacted from joining Greek life. It looks into the effect of scholarship, leadership, service and friendship and the effect on each from joining a fraternity or a sorority. This article looks at study's that take an in depth look into each area. As expected joining Greek life promotes and enacts the value of friendship. Social life is an important aspect of Greek life and leads its members to meet many new people on a daily basis. Joining the Greek community also allows its members to hold leadership positions. For some members it could be there first opportunity to hold a position of power. These leadership positions give its members a sense of responsibility and it can help them grow as individuals. Lastly and one of the most important aspects of the Greek community is the community service they provide. Members provide countless hours over a semester to better there community. Greek members are required to perform some sort of community service and this has a positive impact on the surrounding community.

4) The author is currently a management analyst at Michigan State University. He has graduate degrees in student affairs administration, educational psychology, and sociology. His interests pertain to fraternity and sorority life, residence life, academic integrity, and student development.

5) Key terms
     1) Espoused values: These are values that are important to an organization
     2) Greek life experience: This is an important topic in this article because overall this article is                measuring Greek members experiences in school.
6) Quotes
1) "Respondents rated their fraternity/sorority experience as excellent in producing gains in sense of belonging and peer interaction and good in developing study skills, critical thinking, commitment to service, management skills, and career skills" pg 26

2) " Less than 9% of fraternity and sorority respondents reported they did not engage in service" pg 24

3) "These measures represented gains in abilities related to personal and social issues, gains in communication skills and critical thinking, and gains in job-related abilities, respectively" pg 16

7) Value

This article is extremely important because it analyzes the biggest aspects of college. It takes an in depth look at how Greek life members are affected by each aspect. Most of the research provided shows the positive impact joining Greek life has on its members. It provides them opportunities to grow in leadership. With over 50% of members holding some sort of leadership position within their organization. This article also goes on to explain how most members rate their experience in Greek life as excellent. This is important because it shows how most members do not regret their decision. Members are also able to increase their impact on the community. Very few Greek life members do not participate in community service opportunities. Thus providing a positive impact for the surrounding community. Lastly Greek members develop important communication skills that they will continue to use for the rest of their lives. These sort of pros are a reason why joining Greek life is a great idea.

Blog 3

1) http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/434/art%253A10.1023%252FA%253A1007046513949.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Farticle%2F10.1023%2FA%3A1007046513949&token2=exp=1488247696~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F434%2Fart%25253A10.1023%25252FA%25253A1007046513949.pdf%3ForiginUrl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Flink.springer.com%252Farticle%252F10.1023%252FA%253A1007046513949*~hmac=41667261f2f3f846e6b2dd76e0eeb13205f4c330db163956d3000dd6750070a5

This article is helpful because it takes an in depth look into Greek and Non-Greek students. It compares the two different students side by side on many different measured variables. In most of these variables Greek students tend to rank higher than the Non-Greek ones in many different areas at school. This article shows how joining Greek life increases higher levels of social involvement and gains. It also goes on to prove that joining Greek life does not impact students academic performance. It was found that students in Greek life did not report lower levels of academic involvement, integration of college experiences, or gains in math and science reasoning. This is important information when proving that Greek life does not actually have a negative impact on a students academic life. Overall this source helps me show how Greek life students grow in some areas more than the average student.

2) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804314000147

This next article also helps support the benefits of joining Greek life. This article goes on to prove how members of Greek Life have higher percentages of graduating and want a graduate degree more than Non-Greek students. These two statistics are important because it shows how these students look too the future more than average students. That is further proved in this article when the study shows how Greek members plan on working full time upon graduation. Greek students have large alumni groups that help them have an idea of what to do when nearing graduation. Due to this these students are more prepared come their senior year.

3) http://resolver.ebscohost.com/openurl?sid=EBSCO%3aeric&genre=article&issn=0888210X&ISBN=&volume=30&issue=2&date=20120101&spage=15&pages=15-30&title=College+Student+Affairs+Journal&atitle=Unchallenged%2c+Professed+Core+Values%3a+Do+Undergraduate+Fraternity%2fSorority+Members+Actually+Benefit+in+the+Areas+of+Scholarship%2c+Leadership%2c+Service%2c+and+Friendship%3f&aulast=Long%2c+Larry+D.&id=DOI%3a&site=ftf-live

Lastly this article is useful because it looks into all aspects of Greek life. Not just academic achievements but also leadership, service, and friendship. One of the benefits found was the positive impact joining Greek life has on students. It helps the individual members grow and experience a leadership position as well as have a positive impact on the organization even without holding a leadership position.  Another positive impact of Greek life is the impact it has on the surrounding community. Greek members contribute to countless hours of community service. 43% of fraternity members and 51% of sorority respondents engage between 1-5 service hours per week. This combines to a lot of total hours bettering the surrounding community which only provides a positive impact for the members within it.

After doing some research I am still interested in the topic of the impact Greek life has on it's members. Before I even started looking into my topic I assumed most articles on google would criticize Greek life.Instead when I googled the impact that it has on students a lot of the articles discussed the pros to joining Greek life. The articles discuss how students in Greek life are provided opportunities that none Greek students may not have access to or feel obligated to do. It was discussed how Greek life gives its members an opportunity at leadership positions. These positions allow students to grow and face situations they may have never seen had the not joined Greek life. On top of that it discusses how students are more involved with their community. They perform more community service as well as hold philanthropy events raising awareness for a specific cause. The scholarly articles that will be most beneficial are the ones that show how joining Greek life has positively impacted Greek members lives. It will be important to get specific facts that show how Greek life increases student involvement as well as future success. The important ideas with regards to this topic is to clearly state how Greek students have a positive impact on their community as well as bettering their own lives. http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/434/art%253A10.1023%252FA%253A1007046513949.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Farticle%2F10.1023%2FA%3A1007046513949&token2=exp=1487018803~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F434%2Fart%25253A10.1023%25252FA%25253A1007046513949.pdf%3ForiginUrl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Flink.springer.com%252Farticle%252F10.1023%252FA%253A1007046513949*~hmac=cb1667537d452764e15903d4fcad974b03dd03d04f90d65b4927f6f239d3b351
The above link provides a table on page 10 that compares Greek students to non Greek students. This table is important because most of the measured variables have Greek students doing better than the non Greek. This provides important information that shows the impact that Greek life has on its initiates.
http://education.seattlepi.com/positive-negative-effects-greek-life-college-1095.html
This link is important because it compares the positive and negatives of joining Greek life. In this article the pros outweigh the cons which is important when I am trying to show the positive impact of Greek life. While researching my topic I definitely ran into a counterargument. There is also a huge concern with the negative impact that Greek life has on its members. Some articles discuss the substance and alcohol abuse that Greek students face. Another big issue is hazing. Hazing causes deaths almost every year and because of that Greek life faces a lot of backlash. Although these are valid arguments, the positives that Greek life provides for it's members and the community outweight the cons.

For my final paper I was thinking about Greek life or specifically fraternities. I would like to look into the culture that is created within a fraternity. As well as the effects that it has on the individuals that do join.