It was the first Thursday night of my college career. My newfound posse and I were all dolled up to go dancing at a club. On our walk down Lincoln Street from Olson Hall, we were stopped by a gang of guys.

Through the dim, beer-hazed moonlight, at least one of these guys looked attractive. Luring us in with free cheap beer, the selling point for young me and my naïve group of friends, our hands were marked with black X’s and we were in.

While those friendships have already faded, the memories of those Thursday nights during my first semester will haunt me forever.

My roommate quickly started to date a member of a fraternity, and our social life revolved around porch crawlers, keg stands and drinking games.

But being friends with a frat guy’s girlfriend gave me an inside view. Each night we would laugh as a one girl would stay with one of these guys on Monday and then another on Tuesday and Wednesday and … well, you get the picture. While each of these girls would try to befriend us with talks of her “boyfriend,” my roommate and I would whisper about them.

Now, I’m not claiming that all frat guys are promiscuous or alcoholics, but there is one thing I know for sure: fraternity parties thrive on a cycle of new, young girls who are willing to encounter the college experience each year.

The following year, after much persuasion, I went with some friends to said fraternity with my best friend in tow. A year later, the same guys acted the same way to the next generation of freshman.

I’m not persuading freshman girls to stay away from the fraternity houses and their infamous parties, but I am advising them not to stay the night.

Kimberly Dick is a senior journalism major and the news editor for the Summer Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].