The College Fraternity as an Opportunity Structure for Meeting Academic Demands

Studies have generally shown that college cheating is more common among fraternity members than among independents. On the basis of such findings, others have argued that the fraternity serves its members as an illicit opportunity structure for meeting academic demands. This paper examines the extent to which fraternities in different college contexts display the characteristics of an illegitimate opportunity structure—specifically, the extent to which they are “learning environments” and “performance structures” for academic dishonesty. Our data on 697 Greeks and 950 independents at 58 colleges do not support the general proposition that college fraternities serve as such illegitimate opportunity structures; we find that in some campus contexts they do, while in others they do not. There is consistent evidence in all campus contexts, however, that the fraternity is serving as a legitimate opportunity structure for meeting academic demands by providing acceptable “short cuts” to improved academic performance.