As a former fraternity member, Will Ferrell’s stance on whether colleges should continue to support the Greek system is surprising.
The funny man shared his serious thoughts on the question when asked whether he believes “fraternity membership is still a worthy consideration for a college student” in a New York Times Q&A.
“The incident in Oklahoma, that is a real argument for getting rid of the system altogether, in my opinion, even having been through a fraternity,” said Will, who was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity while at the University of Southern California. “Because when you break it down, it really is about creating cliques and clubs and being exclusionary.”
Will added he believes fraternities don’t serve the same purpose as they did in years past.
“Fraternities were started as academic societies that were supposed to have a philanthropic arm to them,” he said. “And when it’s governed by those kind of rules, then they’re still beneficial. But you gotta be careful.”
Although he now isn’t an unquestioning supporter of fraternities, Will emphasized that he did have a positive experience during his college days.
“I was lucky in that the one I was in, we were really kind of the anti-fraternity fraternity. We were considered good enough to get the exchanges with the good sororities,” he said. “We couldn’t get anyone to vote on anything, but if you needed 40 guys to show up and build a 20-foot-tall papier-mâchéversion of the Matterhorn, we were there and ready. But we didn’t take it too seriously. It was just about having fun.”
He concluded the question about fraternities’ worthiness is “an interesting dilemma for universities these days.” The topic is back in the headlines after University of Oklahoma fraternity members were seen chanting racial slurs in a video. Speaking to The Huffington Post in an interview published on Saturday, President Obama said, “This is the first time that somebody at a fraternity has done something stupid, racist, sexist. It won’t be the last.”
