It hasn’t been a stellar year for sororites across the country. We’ve had a black sorority president spend all the group’s funds on a wax statue of herself (no joke), Ivy League chapters playing “Mean Girls” with nasty pretty playbooks, and a study that proved rushing creates poor body image. Needless to say more bad press isn’t something any national chapter wants, but thanks to both the Pi Beta Phi and the Alpha Xi Delta sisters of Miami University in Ohio, Greek girls now have to work even harder to prove that friendship and philanthropy rank higher than drinking and destructive behavior.

So let’s back up a little bit. The story broke earlier this week that the Pi Beta Pi sorority had earned a one-year suspension following an spring event in which a local lodge was nearly destroyed after the coeds and their dates puked, peed, and (gross) pooped on the building.  Now comes word that fellow MU sorority Alpha Xi Delta took it one step further and wreaked havoc on The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. In a complaint letter sent to school officials, Freedom Center employees detailed how the sorority “and their dates who urinated all over the building, defaced restrooms, intentionally crashed drinks on the dance floor, vomited all over restrooms and at the dinner table, swore at the staff, and tried to steal bottles of booze from the bar.”

The school is outraged, the local community is furious, and the national chapters are embaressed beyond belief. But the joke here isn’t the girls’ bad behavior, but rather the fact that one of them has the audacity to actually appeal the suspension. While Pi Beta Phi is taking it on the nose, Alpha Xi Delta is trying to wiggle out from what is sure to be a harsh penalty. Really? This after it was stated that the majority of sisters smuggled in illegal alcohol, their dates tried to pee on priceless artifacts, AND the rumor that the group had been banned from another venue the previous year after several couples were found having sex on the premises?

While it’s unlikley that sororities and fraternies will be banned outright from MU campus in the near future (since it IS the birthplace for many national chapters), the bad press alone is sure to have a major ripple effect for many Greek chapters around the country. In a world where stereotypes rule, and bad behavior is often rewarded ahead of criticism, it seems now is the time to really examine the impact of sororities and fraternities on campus, remove the ones that don’t create positivity or demonstrate leadership, and actively work against the notion that every Greek girl or guy is all about getting wasted and making an ass of themselves.