Virtually every high school in America requires some project of students that requires research into family history. Such familial stories can spark an interest in history for kids who are able to identify events and eras with their ancestors.

Such was the case for myself when I took a special interest in Ancient Greece. I was determined it was possible to trace my Greek heritage back millennia to the members of that sophisticated culture. This was unfortunate for the Polish half of my ancestry, who, through no fault of their own, happen to have a national history that is not a staple of the World History curriculum taught to high school sophomores.

But in any case, I became very proud to be half Greek.

Imagine my disappointment when I hit junior year and began touring college campuses. The literature from every school I looked at made some reference to greek life, but it didn’t take me long to realize that these so-called “Greeks” were not the jolly ethnic bunch that I would have been fascinated to meet.

The misnomers didn’t stop with “greek.” As a freshman scanning the list of the 500-some student organizations on campus, my eye caught the word “Panhellenic.” Naturally my first thought was of the alternate adjective for Greek in the Mediterranean sense — in my naivete it never occurred to me that sororities could be sophisticated enough to dig up so obscure a descriptor. I didn’t need to be on campus long to learn that anything related to “greek” means only one thing on college campuses, and that it has nothing to do with the cultural heritage of which I was so proud.

Growing up in my house, the noun “Greek” connoted something much closer to the characters in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” than to a bunch of exclusive cliques best known for their partying and social domination. In fact, the so-called “Greek life” of American college campuses has not only eclipsed the heritage of this country’s true ethnic Greeks, it has actually denigrated that heritage.

In the politically correct flurry to rename every institution in this country that was ever named after an ethnic group, somehow the Greek system got grievously overlooked. Sports teams that take their names from Native American cultures have come under fire for disrespecting those cultures. But at least these sports teams adhere to the principles of their namesakes, extolling such qualities as bravery and fortitude, even if in an arguably superficial context.

What noble Greek traditions have campus greeks upheld? What connection do they have at all to Greek culture outside the two or three letters they stole for their names and can’t even manage to pronounce correctly? Can any member of the ISU greek system not currently enrolled in a Greek language course even recite the Greek alphabet the Greek way?

The neglect with which campus greeks treat their so-called “Greek” heritage is appalling. What is even more shocking, however, is the gross oversight that this situation receives from a PC-happy press corps. Can anyone imagine what would happen if a group of white students started an exclusive club using Arabic words for their names and referring to each other as “Muslims?” Or using Swahili words and referring to each other as “blacks?” Where is the outrage on behalf of the ethnic Greeks?

Anyone who’s ever been to a Greek festival (a yearly occurrence in most Greek Orthodox churches) or even seen “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” knows that ethnic Greeks truly do have a rich and unique cultural identity. But if a campus with a strong ethnic Greek community ever wanted to start an organization like the ones that exist for other ethnic groups on campus, what could they even call themselves? Their rightful name, after all, is already taken.

Despite being “one of the strongest greek communities in the nation,” according to the Iowa State Panhellenic Council Web site, Ames doesn’t even have a Greek Orthodox church, traditional hotspots of Greek culture in America. The nearest church is in Des Moines, and there are only four within a hundred-mile radius of Ames, according to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Web site.

Granted, Greek culture is sparse in America, as are the cultures of many other relatively small ethnic groups. But those groups don’t have copious masses of ignorant college students parading around commandeering their ethnic title. If American society insists on continuing to overlook the cultural insensitivity of the campus greek system, then that system will never change — but maybe it’s not the one that needs to.

Maybe, in time, people will begin to question the double standard that exists for Greek culture and other ethnic cultures.