Harvard Explained: 'Sup with Frats?!

When you think “Harvard,” a toga-wearing John Belushi-esque dude is probably the last image that pops into your head.

But while a beer-can speckled street of letter-adorned houses doesn’t exist round these parts, fraternities do lurk among Harvard’s masses. Three of them, in fact: Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), Sigma Chi, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE).

As invitations to rush meetings begin to flood freshmen doorboxes, FM decided to check out these brothers from different mothers and their bi-annual ritual to attract new members, dubbed “rush.”

According to AEPi’s president, Jason R. Borschow ’07, AEPi delivers invitations to a special “subset of freshmen...who might be interested.” While AEPi has carved out a niche by “promoting Jewish culture and Jewish values,” according to Borschow, Sigma Chi and SAE strive to throw rush events that will entice the percentage of Harvard males who do go Greek. Sigma Chi owns a Victorian manse on Massachussetts Avenue, but as same-sex organizations without official group status, frat boys struggle with their inability to poster or use Harvard-owned space. Rush events vary from appetizers at Uno’s to paintball trips.

Fraternities consider rush the start of their efforts to fill a social void at Harvard. According to SAE’s president (also known as “Eminent Archon”), Nicolas A. Yannuzzi ’07, “much of [SAE’s] goal is to improve campus life for everyone at Harvard, not just our brothers.”

Ah, noblesse oblige.

So whether you are a Harvard male who wants to sip Manishewitz with AEPi, build coffins with SAE, or if you just want free boneless buffalo wings, fear not: frat life (or at least Harvard’s version of it) just outside Harvard Yard.