This is not particularly related to Stanford, but it is related to university life in general.
Alexandra Robbins went undercover as a sorority girl to figure out what life is really like in the modern Greek scene. She discovered a world of dysfunction, and she writes about it in her new book Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities.
If you’d like to learn more, read an eye-opening interview with the author.
Excerpt: NEWSWEEK: Why did you go undercover?
Alexandra Robbins: Originally I was openly going to be a reporter in a house on a specific campus. I had been to some meetings, and I had started to bond with these girls. Then one day, the adviser of the sorority sat me down and she said something like “I can’t let you be here unless the national office allows you, and I really don’t think they’re going to.” And then she said, and I’ll never forget this: “And if they do let you in, I simply cannot allow you to write about the drugs.” I called the national office, and it turned out that the 26 national Panhellenic sororities had instituted a media blackout because they were upset with the MTV show “Sorority Life.” It turned out that the only way to get behind the scenes in a sorority house was to fly under the radar.
Glen…I’m reading the book right now…if you’ve read it, how fair do you think it is?