EXPERIENCES OF MULTICULTURAL STUDENTS BELONGING TO GREEK LETTER ORGANIZATIONS: THE EFFECT OF UNIVERSITY POLICIES, GOVERNANCE, AND THE MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF GREEK ORGANIZATIONS AT ARIZONA STATE

Multicultural Greek letter organizations at Arizona State (ASU) are small and intimate organizations whose missions include academic success, professional advancement, and cultural awareness. From humble beginnings, Greek life has blossomed to a nationwide culture at universities, hosting nearly 1 million students across hundreds of campuses. In efforts to expose the root of Greek life and its negative media-related trajectory and explore possible causes of tension between organizations, the survey and focus group utilized in this project sampled select members of multicultural Greek letter organizations at ASU. Surveys yielded that aside from small individual squabbles between members of different organizations, members felt that the majority of negative tension in multicultural Greek life was transposed by the irresponsible actions of larger, traditional organizations in conjunction with unfair university policies which overlooked smaller community service and educationally oriented organizations. This thesis explores how with the highlighted media attention spotlighting the disaster of Greek life at Arizona State, MGLOs are feeling the backlash of university governance and the minority umbrella under which they are consistently cast.