The Daily Orange: Why did you decide to write Epsilon Zeta? What are you hoping to accomplish by publishing it?

Young: I just thought that as far as fraternity books that are out there go, nobody ever tried to write a book that accurately captured them. Most of the books I’ve read were some kind of exaggerated parody or something along those lines. I don’t think anyone tried to nail it. I really wasn’t trying to make any larger statement one way or another. I was just trying to tell the story of my particular chapter; and to be as accurate as possible to capture that subculture at least as I experienced it. What went on in my chapter isn’t necessarily representative of fraternities everywhere.

DO: Do you think the problems addressed in Epsilon Zeta plague fraternities across the country?

Young: I would think that we were not that unique. I think that a lot of the same stuff goes on all over. You see it in the newspapers all the time. Some pledge will die of alcohol poisoning, or there’ll be some hazing. The problems are nationwide, it’s in the newspapers. A lot of stuff from our chapter goes on in all cases, and in some cases to a worse degree.

DO: Do you think fraternities are given a bad rap, or do they deserve the negative publicity they’ve received recently?

Young: It’s hard to say. I guess it depends on individual fraternities and chapters and what goes on there. There’s some where there are a lot of problems with hazing and treatment of women; those are legitimate concerns. But I don’t know if you can stereotype every single fraternity or every single chapter in every college in the U.S.

DO: What would you say are the best parts, and the worst parts, of pledging and becoming part of a fraternity?

Young: As far as the best parts, it’s probably just the friendships that get made. People from all generations end up continuing friendships with people the rest of their lives. Fraternities in general try to promote values that are good and positive.

For the bad things, when you have a hundred guys around 18 to 22 or 23 years old living in the same house and that sort of thing, there’s going to be a lot of partying and things like that. The bad things are what we hear about, when chapters go wrong.

Published on September 11, 2006 at 12:00 pm