A few weeks ago, my travels across the country brought me to Centennial Hall on the beautiful AU campus. While taking in such wonderful things on the AU campus such as the homecoming festivities, the brilliant panda bear display and the beautiful architecture of campus buildings, I had the privilege of meeting and working with several of the undergraduate members of AU's chapter of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. During that time, I discovered that much of the local greek community was abuzz over an editorial written by sophomore Paul Perry. Many were bemoaning his accusations, and others were writing him off as ignorant. At the least, they were talking, and I found myself curious as to what had created the stir.
I was able to obtain a copy of his Oct. 4 letter to the editor, and his Oct. 27 follow-up letter, "Frats are no Better than Anyone Else." It was with intense interest that I read his letters and followed the greek community response. From what I could gather from the articles, Perry is not some rebel without a cause. Perry is not some ignorant member of the campus community who detests greeks for their secretive associations. He is one of the many informed members of the AU community who have a sincere desire to make the University and its students better. So in response to Perry's letter, I give the not-so-typical greek response of thank you.
Mr. Perry, you hit the nail on the head in your follow-up letter when you wrote, ". . . I exposed others to a real perception of their campus culture." In our world of fingertip information, sound-byte living and on-demand lifestyles, perception is 95 percent of reality. What we say and what we do is not near as important as how we look and how we are perceived. That, students of AU, is the problem with the greek community today - our perception.
Mr. Perry, you are correct. The fact that our national organizations mandate a chapter to participate in a national philanthropic activity does give the perception of contradiction. Mandating volunteerism does contradict the principle of volunteerism. We as greeks need to do a better job of publicizing the thousands of service hours we do that are non-mandated. We need to better publicize the hours we put in at Habitat for Humanity, Relay for Life and the Salvation Army, which are separate from our mandated requirements. Our representation at these activities does go unnoticed and we need to make sure people know we are there.
Mr. Perry, you are also correct that we need to change perceptions about greeks and our misguided focus on GPA. While it is true that typically the greek GPA is higher than the campus average, we need to also highlight the programs that don't always get the most publicity. We need to highlight the scholarship opportunities that are available to greek students. We need to highlight the programs within each chapter that ensure academic excellence. We need to work on maintaining our academic integrity across the fraternal world and make sure that the rest of the world knows we are doing it.
Mr. Perry, you are also correct that we, as a community, need to stop relying on our greek figureheads such as past presidents, senators, Supreme Court justices and other celebrities, and instead focus on the greeks just down the street. We need to emphasize that greek leaders don't just live on the Hill and in the limelight of Hollywood, they also own their own businesses, work on our local city councils and occupy thousands of leadership positions that never get the glitz or glamour of our most notable alumni.
So it is now that I turn away from Mr. Perry and turn to the greeks on the AU campus. As long as greeks are perceived as elitist, cliquish, rich and snobby, we might as well be elitist, cliquish, rich and snobby. Mr. Perry has done an excellent job of pointing out the biggest problem facing the greek world today: that what we are and how we are perceived are two very different things. We must work diligently every day to change these perceptions. We must accept the fact that we are constantly under a "perception microscope" and work to change those perceptions. Be proud of who are, tell people what it means to be greek and do it every day, not just during recruitment. Talk to your professors, let them know that you're greek. Maybe even invite them to a community service project, a brotherhood dinner or an alumni event. Let's work one person at a time to change these perceptions. We call all individually do our part. The best part about perceptions is that they are not necessarily real and can be changed. We can change these perceptions, even if it is just one Paul Perry at a time.
Jack C. Kreman is the Chapter Leadership Consultant for the Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.
