Robert Li's Chapter

Hey, sorry for getting this up so late. Anyway, I'm not sure I'm 100% satisfied with this yet, but its a definite start. Let's see how it goes.
-Rob

COMMENTS!!!
This is good Rob, i noticed that you used the "I" voice in part of your work, which is something we should bring up in the next meeting. I like the way you wrote yours and it seems similar to others' works in terms of style.
Aaron

Like its name implies, the Rausch Business Center smells like rotten, hardboiled business. It smells like cold hard cash money. It smells like lemons and cleaning supplies. It smells like poppy seed bagels that have been sitting at the bottom floor cafeteria since 7am. And as you walk through its graceful halls, you can notice the collection of random artworks designed by someone you’ve never heard of, stock tickers, projectors, machines that seemingly have no function, and even computers dating back to the turn of the century. Surround by glass windows, it is totally unprotected from the outside world. And for many who walk in and out of that building every day, it is possibly the most comfortable building they can walk into.

For the students I see with smiles in their faces as I walk into Rausch every Wednesday for class, all I can sense from within myself is uneasiness, maybe even disgust. And it isn’t the people I’m necessarily afraid of, or even angry at, nor the building either. In a college “community” such as the one I currently am subjugated to, there is no way to not feel at least anxious when walking into Rausch as a non-business major.

My home, my niche, is in the Zoellner Arts Center. This is where I live, where I strive. I could rant about how nice I think the building looks, or how good it makes me feel, and add any number of crappy adjectives to express my undying affection towards the building. I can easily describe ninety percent of the buildings rooms down to the bathroom (which is fantastic!). But for business students, a feat like this may be very easily done for them in correspondence to Rausch, with similar feelings (and crappy adjectives).

I believe the real thing I’ve begun to realize is the invisible borders I used to not be able to see. At a college like Lehigh, with three co-existing “colleges” within it (Business School, Engineering School, and College of Arts and Sciences), we don’t just condone the appearance of divisions, but rather we strive on it. There isn’t, per se, a penalty for crossing these borders. Some manage to successfully strive in more than one. But when we break down into even larger examples of college life including Greek life, normal student housing, off-campus housing, special college-related programs, ensembles, etc., we begin to see that in almost every moment of our college experience we’re stepping on somebody’s turf.

I can’t say this is necessarily a bad thing. It would be unjust for me to just mark down that this system is silly because it has “worked” for years before my existence. But I think we undermine it and fail to even begin to understand how much these things actually affect what we do. In just a matter of time, after applying to one particular school and choosing a major, you’ve already begun limiting yourself to certain segments of the school, limiting the people you will come in contact with, who you speak to and don’t, what times you eat, etc. Before you get to realize it, you’ve become incorporated into this grand scale system you probably didn’t even know existed.

I will do my best to not take sides in this insight. But if you are reading this, let me take you into something you may not have realized existed. Let me show you the local tribes that exist right in your schools.

OUTLINE!!!!!!!

I. Introduction
A. What is the focus of this chapter
a. Build up idea of local buildings
b. Explain idea of tribes
B. Identifying Tribes
a. What are these “tribes”
b. At what level do they function (just localized, larger scale, etc.)
c. Are they good/bad?
C. Extent of tribes
a. Does this example only stand here
b. How anyone can look/find symptoms of tribes

II. Tribes at the Univesity Level
A. Explain how University Level Tribes occur
a. How do tribes form
b. How does one “enter” a tribe
c. Limits or extents of joining/leaving a tribe (more than one?)
B. Explain why different “colleges” add up to this factor
a. Explanations of the multi-college and university system (per se)
b. Why this causes major divides/shifts
C. How buildings can affect mood, (link to Mario’s ideas)
a. How does this pair with ones tribe
b. How do college buildings truly differ
c. Links between building space and preference (I’m still working this idea through)
D. Interaction Between Tribes
a. How do these tribes view each other
b. How easy is it to get along
c. Interchangeability between tribes
d. Co-existence in multiple tribes

III. Tribes at the Student Level
A. What tribes exist at a University, not just via actual “college” terms.
a. What do we mean by “college” terms
b. How do these Tribes get founded/exist
c. To what extent is there power (more so or less than University Level)
B. Abundance of Tribes
a. How many are there/can there be?
b. How easily do they break up?
C. Interaction
a. How do they function with each other
b. How do they function with higher level tribes (University Level)

IV. Greek System
A. How does it work
B. Is it a tribe?
C. What levels do they function similarly on? Differently?
V. Off Campus Tribes
A. How do they correlate with already existing tribes
B. How do they extremely differ from existing tribes
C. Coexistence
a. How do they function with all different levels of tribes
b. How open are they (to gaining other members)
c. How open are they (to accepting other groups)
D. Cause and explanation
a. How do they form
b. Where they form and why

This is so far my general outline. I’d like to open up my chapter by first explaining the aim of my goal, the exploration of “tribes” on a campus (and off campus). I’d like to explore what I mean by tribes and introduce Lehigh as the example, but show that it is not the only place tribes occur.
I’d first like to dive into just the university aspect, exploring the differences of “colleges” with a college. I’d like to show how tribes arise at this level, there ability of co-function, etc.
Second, I’d like to explore tribes at the student level, exploring what clubs and activities people often associate themselves with and how this bonds and creates a similar (yet different) tribe experience.
Third, I’d like to explore the greek system and its function possibly as a tribe. I’d like to take its history and the similarities and differences it displays against the tribe.
Lasstly, I’d like to explain the over draft that falls into the off campus world, and how tribes at this level occur. I’d like to explore how they function and why the differ from the on-campus tribes they derive from.

I’ve not sure this is all there is to cover. I think there is like also a world of professor-driven tribes that would be cool to explore. I also think that there are various facets of colleges that aren’t included yet in my outline that I need to figure if they can work or not. But as of now this is my outline.


*Okay this is not complete yet, but I'd like to post what I have and am currently satisfied with for my draft. More to come within the next day.

Like its name implies, the Rausch Business Center smells like rotten, hardboiled business. It smells like cold hard cash money. It smells like lemons and cleaning supplies. It smells like poppy seed bagels that have been sitting at the bottom floor cafeteria since 7am. And as you walk through its graceful halls, you can notice the collection of random artworks designed by someone you’ve never heard of, stock tickers, projectors, machines that seemingly have no function, and even computers dating back to the turn of the century. Surround by glass windows, it is totally unprotected from the outside world. And for many who walk in and out of that building every day, it is possibly the most comfortable building they can walk into.
For the students I see with smiles in their faces as I walk into Rausch every Wednesday for class, all I can sense from within myself is uneasiness, maybe even disgust. And it isn’t the people I’m necessarily afraid of, or even angry at, nor the building either. In a college “community” such as the one I currently am subjugated to, there is no way to not feel at least anxious when walking into Rausch as a non-business major.
My home, my niche, is in the Zoellner Arts Center. This is where I live, where I strive. I roam these halls, passing the hall of crappy practice rooms that are always filled, the elevator the sounds like a Gatling gun, or the rooms where the jazz bands make “music”. And I could continue to rant about how nice I think the building looks, or how good it makes me feel, and add any number of crappy adjectives to express my undying affection towards the building. I can easily describe ninety percent of the buildings rooms down to the bathroom (which is fantastic!). But for business students, a feat like this may be very easily done for them in correspondence to Rausch, with similar feelings (and crappy adjectives).
I believe the real thing I’ve begun to realize is the invisible borders I used to not be able to see. At a college like Lehigh, with three co-existing “colleges” within it (Business School, Engineering School, and College of Arts and Sciences), we don’t just condone the appearance of divisions, but rather we strive on it. There isn’t, per se, a penalty for crossing these borders. Some manage to successfully strive in more than one. But when we break down into even larger examples of college life including Greek life, normal student housing, off-campus housing, special college-related programs, ensembles, etc., we begin to see that in almost every moment of our college experience we’re stepping on somebody’s turf.
I can’t say this is necessarily a bad thing in the sense of being pure evil. It would be unjust for me to just mark down that this system is silly because it has “worked” for years before my existence. But I think we undermine it and fail to even begin to understand how much these things actually affect what we do. In just a matter of time, after applying to one particular school and choosing a major, you’ve already begun limiting yourself to certain segments of the school, limiting the people you will come in contact with, who you speak to and don’t, what times you eat, etc. Before you get to realize it, you’ve become incorporated into this grand scale system you probably didn’t even know existed.
My major concern is the complete lack of attention devoted to this system. People strive in their own clique, niche, tribe. But what happens when this system cuts the cord the links all these different groups together. Sure, people see others everyday. But do we even see people anymore, or rather, undermined by the realization of the tribal colors they are wearing (whether they know it or not), do we just see all these name and group associations we’ve built up in our head.

What is the Tribe? (Should probably be expanded)
So I’ve begun to bring up this idea of the tribe. I’m sure the first thing that comes to mind is this barbaric Neanderthal of sorts, running in a big group after game, or possibly other people. Warring tribes fight to the death in this epic buildup of throw stones, spear, arrows, etc., whatever time period of tribe you prefer to live in. I can say we’ve passed that phase of history quite nicely. However, I think the concept of the “tribe” still has many similar factors that build as a foundation.
When I speak of tribe, I am speaking of a group of people that are bound by similar characteristics (or possibly even just a singular, big characteristic in some cases). This isn’t just a randomly assorted group of people who all like cake, however, but much more in depth. The group comes to rely upon one another, possibly even to the extent of blending personalities. Each person loses its force as an individual and gains it as a member of a group. While this seems very over-dramatized, it happens more frequently than we give credit.
I believe this tribal bonding occurs around the college structure naturally. I feel as though the system not only condones, but also almost pushes for a natural division of students. We’ll get to the specifics later. However, it is important to realize that these tribes not only exist, but have completely different levels of functionality as well. I’ve divided these up into four main categories: University Tribes, Student Tribes, The Greek System, and Off-Campus Tribes.

Tribes at the University Level
Now that we’ve built up a general understanding of what exactly these tribes are, we must now look at how to identify them. I think the best place to start is looking at the broadest category I’ve defined out. I call these University Level Tribes based on the fact that the layout of the University is what primarily drives this type of tribe. To further understand this, I’ll use my own school, Lehigh University, as the example. The University itself is broken up into three separate parts (although they feel more like districts): The College of Arts and Sciences, Rausch Business School, and College of Engineering.
At the face value of it, I had a lot of problems at first with this type of “tribe”. I wasn’t quite sure if it was truly a “tribe”. It seemed a little too large, too unwieldy. With a tribe of the magnitude, the differences that run from person to person becomes too immense, and it doesn’t really seem like there is a common thread that runs between them.
The interesting factor I found with this type of tribes is not the self-realization and the commonalities that resided among tribe members. In other words, I don’t believe that this “tribe” truly founded based on the principles of what they saw in themselves and what they wanted to be, as well as saw a place of people they related too and wanted to be like them or hang out with them. Instead, this group has the exact opposite feel, one that gathers in a common difference instead of similarity. This difference is the opposition to the other tribes of the total University. For example, the College of Engineering is composed of many diverse individuals. Other than a love of engineering (which I’m not quite sure is the case), it would be pretty hard to actually find a commonality between members of this tribe. However, they way they separate their behavior, lifestyle, education, etc. is based primarily on the fact that they are not College of Arts and Science students (or as they call it, College of Arts and Crafts).
University Level tribes don’t just exist, however, because of the existence of different Colleges in a University. Many Universities have a setup similar to this, and each college suffers at different levels. Many of the true problems arise at the building divisions and the “sectioning off” of the diverse Colleges. This forms the different colleges almost into “districts”. For example, as a College of Arts and Sciences student, I have all my classes between two different buildings out of the approximate 30 buildings across Lehigh’s campus (30 buildings that hold classes at least). This example is true of the other Colleges as well though. Depending on a student’s own particular major, he or she will spend most of their time between as little as one building, but normally not more than three. This causes them to interact largely only with people of their own College, even more particularly, their own major.
This districting of the Colleges is the root of the University Level tribe. A solution I have to offer is the mixing up of classes. Because students normally must fulfill distribution requirements (classes that all must take at some point in time, such as low level math classes, foreign languages, etc.), by setting some of these distribution classes in random buildings across campus, we can create a higher level of interaction between students. Students will be more encouraged to get mixed up with other groups of students, meeting people of different education backgrounds and experiences, etc. It is understandable that certain classes can only be correctly taught in certain places (such as science labs, music performance, etc.), but others such as foreign language and math often do not suffer as long as a chalkboard, computer screen, or another such board is available for the Professor to display notes on is available.
The districting of Colleges has another affect other than the student interaction. On an emotional and psychological level, students often align moreso with the buildings and customs they become used to. I introduced this idea of tribes with the Rausch Business School versus the Zoellner Arts Center example, but this concept is not as farfetched or exaggerated as it seems. For instance, Rausch now has two different places to obtain food from, plus computer labs, stock tickers, and tons of other equipment I could never dream of using. For those who walk through its doors everyday, it easily becomes a home without a bed. Almost everything is provided for the students, making their travels to other buildings, such as my home in Zoellner, uncomfortable at best. Some avoid contact with other buildings at all costs (if they even know the names or locations of any of the other buildings).
Why is this bad? In some ways, this type of identification with a “home” type building can be very good. However, I think we could do more to promote residential halls as this “home” type building by providing more commodities for students there, rather than help students become accustomed with just one building. Instead, we promote this lack of interaction between students, often limiting them to only coming in contact with the same faces every day, every week, every year. This type of lack of interaction helps lead to the second level, the Student Level tribe, other they are still independent of each other. Helping this situation is just the same; we must do more to integrate the different Colleges. We do nothing other than expect students to become aligned to only one place, one major, one college, and in essence, one future. How can we possibly expect this sort of tribe to not occur?
(Some part must be made about how building affects Mood, link with Mario’s paper. This will probably be easier after I can see Mario’s paper, etc.)
I don’t want to make it seem like this is the end of the world, however. As I stated before, this is the broadest type of tribe. This makes the tension between the coexisting tribes much less extreme and worrisome than others. Because the tribes are some vast, it is very hard for them to single out other people as a different group and label them. They may have some preconceptions about another person based on what University Tribe they are in, but it can’t be completely accurate, nor can it truly say too much about that particular person (other than identify their College). For this exact reason, it is actually quite easy for students of groups to get along with not just each other, but with members of completely different tribes. At times, with no great notion of difference between members of different groups, it is often impossible to even tell them apart. Also, this tribe has two special properties that make it quite unique.
First, there is a level of interchangeability between tribes. This means that there is a way to “change” what tribe you are in, per se. In college, you can often change majors. Sometimes this doesn’t even end you up within the same “College” you were previously in. This accounts for the interchangeability between tribes. This is very important because it creates this kind of blend between the tribes. It consists of people who are now in one tribe, but know what it was like to be in another. They have already interacted with people of another group. Some people change majors (and possibly even colleges) multiple times throughout their University career.
However, that is not the only unique aspect of the University Level tribe. There is also a high level of co-existence that is available with the University Level tribes. This is because people often major within two different Colleges. Engineers can often pick up a major within another College, such as the philosophy, music, etc. There are even examples of programs that specialize in allowing this co-existence between tribes. For example, there is the IBE program (Integrated Business and Engineering) that focuses on getting degrees in both the Business School and Engineering. Double majoring and programs such as this alleviate the stress of the barriers the multi-college system establishes. While it doesn’t completely neutralize it, having such flexibility within the system shows that this tribe is very casual; it isn’t something that directly must be feared and attacked.

Tribes at the Student Level
While the University Level Tribes have many problems that seem to be self-corrected in a way, the main problem is they serve as a gateway drug of sorts. The way the system is establish naturally assists in the creating of the second level of tribes, Student Level tribes. These tribes are much more individualized than University Level Tribes; hence they carry with it deeper meaning and identification which also stands for deeper separation from other tribes.
What exactly are Student Level tribes? They are smaller groups that form for several different reasons. A students’ major often can lead to the Student Level tribe. For bigger class majors that have many classes with large numbers of students, such as Math (class lectures having upwards of 50 students per class), their major never causes the shift from a University Level Tribe to a Student Level Tribe. However, others, more specific majors, tend to create this Student Level Tribe.
The Student Level Tribe functions in a similar way to University Level Tribes. These groups of individuals bind together based on similar interest. In the case of majors, it is normally education and educational interests that stand as the binding factor. Members of Student Level Tribes act together more closely, engaging in activities other than just educational. While they see each other often in several similar classes, they also “hang out” together outside of school. Their interests tend to blend, causing this “same person” kind of effect. When most people associate groups and tribes, it is done much more so on the Student Tribe level rather than the University Tribe level.
Although University Tribes can transform into Student Level Tribes, this is not the only manner in which Student Level Tribes arise. Several other things can lead to this Student Level Tribe. One of these cases is clubs or sports teams. Some clubs don’t really have tribal effect on those who join (these are often the larger groups that are more come and go). Others, especially those you must audition or try out for, can have a very resounding tribal effect. Take a club like choir or a sports team, for example. In the first steps, you must audition or try out for the club/sport. You put yourself on your line to “join” in some sense. You passing the tests and drafts only puts you in a character of similarity to those in the club, those who have undergone the trials before you. One you have joined, you engage in the ritualistic practice with your cohorts. While choir pushes for around 8 hours of practice a week, some clubs push for tireless amounts of time over the week. These trials that must be undergone by the group only serve as the backbone of the tribe. They bond over this “suffering” for some, or complete euphoria with the activity for the others. There is a sense of establishment and foundation shared between members. Whether they end up as your “core friends” or not, these end up being the people you see the most. This tends to cause them being the people you eat with, hang out with after practice, etc. They things you do, the way you act, they all have this intermingling effect. You become a part of the group, the tribe, and become suspect to all of its activities.
I talked about a student’s particular major guiding them towards entering a Student Level Tribe. However, they could also fall into a small group subset in-between University and Student Level tribes. Most majors, other than the classroom, don’t guide activities that cause the same tribal bonding as activities such as a club or sport. This isn’t to say it can’t have the same effects, but it is harder to induce the same effects with such openness for difference in students. Activities such as constant practice root a key similarity between individuals, causing this primitive tribesman characteristic.
However, above all there is one aspect of Student Level Tribes that is most dangerous of all (myself being included in this, unfortunately). I talked before about certain special programs that help alleviate the stress between University Level Tribes. While it is true programs such as IBE help co-existence between different University Level Tribes, the negatives are much, much worse. There are several facts about IBE I haven’t yet mentioned that change the perspective of its seemingly harmless design. Because of the requirements of both Engineers and Business majors, joining IBE entails that you must take certain required courses. Of course, by certain courses, this really means your schedule is almost entirely planned for you once you join the program. Anyone else in the program will be taking all the same exact classes with you, with minor differences based on major. Also, did I mention that not just anyone could do this? If you thought this was a big program you signed up for if you wanted to just be a double major, you are incredibly, incredibly wrong. Your status in IBE is decided before you even come to Lehigh University; individuals are selected only if you apply for the program. And even after waging a war with words to get accepted, only forty students per year are accepted.
This may not seem that bad. But within every small group there will be those you are closest too. Programs such as this cannot possibly have all 40 people in their group get along perfectly. People pair off into smaller groups and tribes as well, forming more even inclusive, intricate groups that share an incredible amount of similarity. They become inseparable (at the hip at times, but it was merely a figure of speech). IBE is also sort of unique in that it serves as a kind of “trial” similar to clubs and sports. Often called one of the most difficult programs, maintaining a life outside of just education while still doing well in one of the most rigorous academic programs serves as a great factor to join around. People who suffer would rather suffer together, right?
Very similar to the IBE program is special interest housing. The name almost implies recognition of tribesmanship. People choose a special house (or floor in an apartment building, etc.) based on common interest, a program, or whatever the factor. Examples of this are sub-free (Substance Abuse Free), Green House, Technology House, and various other organizations. My enrollment in the SMC Program (South Mountain College, a program based around new education outlooks) serves as a special interest house for any enrolled. How can a house of people who have joined based on a known interest not bond? It is harder to imagine in what ways they don’t get along. I mentioned a focus on trying to bring the “home” feeling to residential halls. This is not the system I was implying. By changing the way people view residential halls, we get different people with different mind sets to enjoy hanging out, talking to other people they may not always get in contact with. Special interest housing completely destroys this, making it seem more like we’ve totally bypassed the residential housing aspect and given people a choice to live with people who think and act the same as them. Even at the home front, we’ve in a way killed all aspects of diversity, something college’s state they strive for. Diversity does little good when people are completely divided, districted.
Although we have moved to a different level of tribe systems, I believe it is important to recognize the interaction levels that are still available. Although tribes are more closely compact and overall come into contact with those of other tribes less often, there is still other factors that make up for this. A single individual could, for example, be enrolled in special housing in addition to being in a club or two. While tribes overall may not interact too well amongst each other, they certainly permit flexibility in terms of being active in more than one tribe. Members who have truly embraced a Student Level Tribe lifestyle also have a harder time recognizing University Level tribes. These minute details seem trivial in comparison to the differences they see between Student Level Tribes.
Dealing with Student Level tribes seems like a very arduous task; there are many of them and they can be quite picky when it comes to dealing with outsiders (let alone other tribes). I think one major effort we can make is to limit special housing, or at least mix special housing to involve more than just one group (creating a sense of shared space). I think we can also do more to involve the co-mingling of groups, such as have events that must be hosted by more than one group (increasing interaction between them) or incorporating programs that stretch across multiple schools and activities (incorporating all three schools in one activity, different clubs, etc.). By doing so, we can increase their sense of openness and increase the amount people will have to come in contact with others. Also, but following some of the examples of the University Level Tribes and mixing up buildings, activities meeting places, clubs, etc., we can also increase the chances of people seeing other groups of people rather than always playing in their comfort zone.

Greek System
(This will need a lot of expansion; I intend to talk to several different Greek Houses)

It would be impossible to talk about districting and tribes without reviewing the Greek Life and the Greek System (Fraternities and Sororities) on and off College Campuses. In terms of housing alone, the conditions of living within a Fraternity or Sorority naturally isolates you much more so than regular dorming and even special housing, enabling much more tribal instincts to arise. If on campus, normally set areas are designated for the Greek Houses to be placed, already districting an area of the University Campus to be placed completely under tribal control. By districting these parts of a University, we condone this type of separation from regular life, surely showing a complete lower level of contact and interaction with the rest of college life, obviously with Student Level tribes.
The Greek system is interesting because it seems to more closely follow the “primitive” type Tribe without necessarily following the guidelines of a normal tribe. Greek Houses and individuals that take a part in Greek life often oversee both University Level and Student Level Tribe factors when they see people; they have come to accept everyone in their house as their brothers regardless of their majors, clubs, etc. However, this does not seem the selectiveness, isolation, and other tribal factors are still not present.
While they may be able to see past lower levels of Tribes without concern, Greek Houses can often be the biggest and baddest of the tribes. Primarily, they have years of traditions of “brotherhood” or “sisterhood” and are used to relying on just their “brothers and sisters” for every task. This incredible relationship they jump into causes complete separation, in a way, from the tribe system in total. They sort of ignore the rules of regular University Life and establish their own. In a constant swirl of parties and good times, they create their own lifestyle separate from the University Life.
There is one point in the year, however, that the Greek System opens up to the rest of University Life; rush. Rush is the time of year where Greek Houses open up in trying to find new members. At face value, this seems like the Tribes open up to transcend the Tribe system. That is not the truth however. In reality, this is the true aspect of the Greek Tribe system at its worst. Each house is, in a way, in a competition against all the others in search of members. Not only this, but they have complete say over who gets in and who doesn’t. Rather than dropping their own tribal nature, they now function with the Greek System, as well as weeding out people through Student Level and University Level tribe systems. They decide who they like and don’t, who to call for tomorrow’s party, etc.
We can’t ignore interaction when we talk about tribes, and the Greek system probably has it the worst. First, based on their districted housing and separation from the rest of the University, they leave themselves far off from interaction with other Tribes (on the University and Student Levels), leaving them really other in interaction with their own Tribe and other Greek Houses. While interaction comes in classes with other tribes, it is often ignored; people can even especially make sure to take classes with brothers, decreasing their chances of integration with other tribes severely. Also, it may sound like the Greek System is one big tribe. This is not the case AT ALL. Each house serves as its own tribe, but more importantly as a tribe in opposition to the other tribes within the Greek System. Interaction between tribes across the Greek system are NOT positive most of the time. Because in many ways they are in competition against each other (for members, feedback, whatever the cause may be), they are known to fight, vandalize each other’s property, steal, etc. The Greek system has been set up by Universities to be isolated, and they have done much to isolate themselves even from each other.
Normally here is where I comment about ability to interact with others and that little sparkle of hope that allows people to think, “hey, maybe that isn’t too bad”. However, because of its long-standing tradition and almost complete isolation, helping the Greek System seems almost impossible. Realistically, I believe that the Greek system needs to be moved and scattered, leaving the houses at different parts of the campus and spread out. This would not only keep the Houses away from each other for bad contact, but will change the level of interaction the Greek system has with the rest of the school. Instead of pretty much having their own territory, we can immerse them in a system where they are part of shared territory with the rest of a University’s population.
Also, as I mentioned before, brothers often take numerous classes together, weakening the chances of them interacting with others in class. I think we could spend more effort trying to diversify the classes alone, creating classes that truly draw people from different tribes (when possible).

Off Campus Tribes
This last tribe is possibly the least dangerous, but also poses as the biggest possibility for isolation. People who decide to live off campus can often become their own form of a little tribe. People who live together tend to share more than just one or two common interests, but have already grown together into various different likes and dislikes. Their choice to move off campus shows that they have picked those particular people that they wish to spend most of their time with. Not only that, but they are most often not even on campus to co-mingle with people, but rather spend most times back at their own apartment/house/etc.
(I need to get an interview with someone to speak more of off campus housing).
The biggest danger of off campus tribes is finding of way of enticing people to get back on to campus. I know that I’ve spoken, in a way, against clubs and sports. However, I think they can also have a huge benefit in this case. Persuading, but not forcing, people to get involved in a least one extra-curricular activity on campus will keep people involved in the University more fully, extending across various facilities. In this manner, even though off campus people may be joining another “tribe”, this is not definite, and also gets them involved with more people than just the four or five they have decided to live with.
Not all off campus housing is just people who find interest. Some Greek Houses have off campus houses to throw parties, certain clubs have a set group of people to get an off campus house, etc. This is equally as dangerous. Maybe the tribal sense isn’t as bad (because the tribe is larger than just the 4 or 5 people in the house). However, it basically serves as making some form of headquarters, much like a secret hideout, for a tribe. Essentially, they’ve created a home that isn’t even on campus. How can we possibly expect to continue interaction across a University when we can’t even keep our students interested with the life on college campuses? The answer is simple, we cannot.
I do not mean to imply that we must abolish all off-campus life however. I think that the ability to create a sort of relationship between a University and its surrounding community is exceedingly important. It sort of changes the barrier that divides a University and community around into from opaque to translucent; we see a higher interaction rate between both sides.

Dealing With Tribal Issues

Since we’ve established what I see as the four different (main) tribes that arise on college campuses, this question still remains; what exactly do we do? We can see the dangers; complete separation of small parts leading up to even huge segments of a University population. We’ve established a system in which from the first day, students are vying and fighting for their own particular place within this deviously designed society.
I think the most important thing to realize, as a review, that tribes are not itself the true problem. Realistically, tribes cause this type of social bonding that “removes them”, in a way, from the society that surrounds them. However, by itself this type of social companionship is not pure evil; it has the potential to rope in individuals that normally fall under the radar, making it easier for them to find their own niche. As they say, college is the best time of your life, and we as students expect that everyone can, in some way or form, find their own “thing” to do. However, we’ve put these tribes on the highest pedastal of the hierarchy, moving tribes from the meager social meeting place to this gigantic, primitive, terrority craving and raging party fanatic. In some cases this is a stretch of the imagination, but I wouldn’t call it too far off from the truth.

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