This opinion piece is in response to Paul Perry's letter to the editor, which appeared in the Oct. 4 edition of The Eagle.
Thomas Jefferson confronted a university system that disallowed gatherings of students out of fear that the population of students, far outnumbering the faculty and staff, would overthrow the institution. As a means of negotiation, Jefferson was wise to propose the creation of academic societies, based in literature, poetry and oratory. These small groups evolved rather quickly into what became known as Literary Societies, the most prominent of which was Phi Beta Kappa.
Generations later, the offspring of these Literary Societies still exist as the fraternities and sororities on campuses across the country, from the Ivy League (including Harvard, Yale and Princeton) to public universities such as Penn State, University of Wisconsin and Florida State. AU falls somewhere in the middle, being a private institution of respectable ranking. Can AU survive without greek life? Certainly, but let's look at a few things first:
The GPA for all AU undergraduates was a 3.17 for s spring 2004, with men at 3.05 and women at 3.24. The All Greek GPA was a 3.20, the All Fraternity was 3.12 and the All Sorority was a 3.24. It seems that the greeks on campus have met or exceeded the GPA of the overall student population, and by gender. I find that rather impressive, considering that we have been criticized as not being academically oriented.
Greeks fill offices as senators, representatives, corporate executives, justices, and presidents. In fact, of North America's 50 largest corporations, 43 are headed by fraternity men and sorority women, and 85 percent of Fortune 500 executives belong to a fraternity or sorority. Additionally, seven out of 10 people listed in Who's Who are greek. If you are interested in politics, then you may like to know that 40 of 47 Supreme Court justices since 1910 were fraternity men, 76 percent of all congressmen and senators belong to a fraternity or sorority, and every US president and vice president, except two in each office born since the first social fraternity was founded in 1825, have been members of a fraternity.
Now that the foundation for greek life in general has been laid, I think that it is quite appropriate to analyze how AU fits into this mix. Pertaining to community service, fraternities and sororities on our campus routinely donate more fund-raising money to philanthropy than any other student group, and average more community service hours per member than the average student and, occasionally, more hours per member than the community service fraternity.
As for the luxury vehicles, I'd like to ask if anyone is willing to donate one to me and to the rest of the members of the greek community who either do not have cars here or drive common vehicles. Stating that fraternity members drive "luxury vehicles ... oh-so-graciously financed by mommy and daddy for their less-than-grateful and not-so-self-aware offspring" is a gross presumption founded in very few, very select cases. I drive the same car I drove five years ago when I purchased it, and it is a far cry from luxury. I would invite you to talk to the treasurer of any fraternity and see how many of their members are on some sort of payment plan. Not everyone at this great institution is financially well-established, and even those who are do not necessarily flaunt their monetary standing. I distinctly remember a Lamborghini owned by a student who was not a member of any social organization, and at least two new Hummer H2s on campus owned by students of similar non-affiliation. I believe that it is simply easier to notice a group of five guys in letters climbing into a Mercedes SUV than it is to notice them climbing into a dusty Honda Civic, assuming that jealousy would never play a role in a gross overstatement concerning the socioeconomic standing of anyone here at AU.
Also, I wish to address the issue of the competitive nature of fraternities and sororities on our campus with a single, oversimplified statement: Welcome to the real world! Life is competitive, work is competitive, love is competitive and even education is competitive. If you do not believe in competition, to tell that to the student on the waiting list who wasn't enrolled because he or she didn't quite make the cut this year. I would love to see you tell your boss to promote the other guy over you because you were just doing your job and don't need to be recognized. Finally, I would encourage you to break up with your significant other because you aren't perfect for him or her, and there may be someone better, but you don't want to compete for his or her affection. If you can do all that and still be happy, I'd say you overslept and were still dreaming.
Fraternities and sororities must be competitive to some degree in order to maintain their existence. As seniors graduate and leave the chapters, new members must be recruited to keep the chapters alive. Prospective members are a scarce commodity on this campus, so things like football, parties and large events are a form of advertising, and similar to everything else in the world, sometimes advertising isn't positive.
And to be perfectly honest, to confront the issue of "who pulls the hottest women," I will simply say this is college, and if you are not interested in pulling the hottest women (or men, as some prefer), then your hormones are askew from the majority of the male population around the globe. We are not shallow; we are college-aged guys who have egos, desires and dreams (or fantasies). There is nothing to punish for being a group that collectively pursues a goal that the average man pursues.
As for the Graduate Assistant Program, it merely sets the standards for achieving the goals we all desire to achieve on our own, but outlines the expectations and rewards achievement, similar to grants, scholarships, or academic honors. The program outlines specific achievement standards for academics, community service, public relations, alumni relations, health awareness, campus involvement and organizational administration. I highly recommend against criticizing a program tjat promotes all of the things which have been previously stated as nonexistent in greek society, especially considering that many of the chapters received very high rankings according to these outlined standards, approved by the administration of the university that we all attend.
Timothy Walbrun is the Interfraternity Council (IFC) president.
