U AL Faculty Senate considers "Greek Privatization"
 

Two new sororities seek to break race barriers in UA greek system

Integration may have been implemented at the University of Alabama 40 years ago, but the practice is largely unknown in UA's greek system. Now two new sororities are seeking to change that.

Julie Arrington, staff reporter

As the anniversary of the integration of the University of Alabama approaches, UA is still one of the few colleges in the nation that still has traditionally segregated Greek organizations. Even after efforts of both students and faculty members to integrate, the university has yet step into the 21st century of race relations. _
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Most recently, the Panhellenic Association has decided to return to early Rush, and groups belonging to the Interfraternity Council, both consisting of white sororities and fraternities, will begin Rush in the summer and end in September. This is in an effort to curb distraction from students' academic work by rush activities. _
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The delayed Rush schedule was implemented under former UA President Andrew Sorensen’s tenure at the university in an effort to encourage diversity and assist students in making the adjustment from high school to college life. _
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In a recent article by the Crimson White about the return to early Rush, Heather Schachter, president of the Panhellenic Association, intimated that the Panhellenic sororities do hope to achieve diversity in their groups and that early Rush may help with that. _
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However, multiculturalism has finally worked its way into the University of Alabama’s greek system without efforts from members of the Panhellenic or IFC. Earlier this spring, two new sororities, Delta Xi Phi and Alpha Delta Sigma, initiated their first members. _
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Unlike the stereotypical sisters of cheesy yet often popular B grade movies, the two new groups are devoted to adding diversity and a fresh approach to what has been criticized as a racist and shamefully homogeneous greek society._
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David T. Beito, President of the Alabama Scholars Association and associate professor at the university said that the sororities are “excellent illustrations of how privatization and free choice promotes integration.”_
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Beito also said that the Alabama Scholars Association has proposed a resolution to the Faculty Senate to privatize the greek system. By privatizing, the greek organizations will no longer receive subsidies from the university and each fraternity and sorority building will be sold to the current occupants. The money obtained from the sales will go towards the improvement of academic programs at the university. _
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“Greek organizations should to able govern their own affairs by exercising their constitutional right to free association,” Beito said. “If a Greek club wants to restrict membership on the basis of class, or looks, or family connections, that is its business.” _

Sigh...some things never change... :(

WOW, that reporter seemed a more than a little biased to me. :mad: That wasnt a very fair article.

Geeze Louise,

it sounds like a dozen soft eggs on a paper plate!

I thought pablem was for babies? This sounds like so much Acadamian S**T to me:o

hoosier, can you or anyone else sicpher this out!

It damn sure aint Earp Speak, I go no clue!:confused:

Re: U AL Faculty Senate considers "Greek Privatization"
 

What is this supposed to be; a news story or an Op-Ed piece?

The privatization thing sounds good, then maybe everyone will shut the hell up.

This whole delayed rush/early rush thing drives me crazy. NPHC groups cannot take women until they have college credits. The NPC recommends rush before fall semester. They keep acting like this is just an Alabama thing.

I think this whole thing is ridiculous. There are hardly any minorities in the Greek system at my last school - they don't want to be. There is no NPHC chapter that is visible (Iota Phi Theta has a mailbox, but I have never seen a brother) so their only options are "white" GLOs. They still don't join - there is an African-American TKE and a few Asian-Americans in Delta Sig, and a Middle Eastern brother in Sigma Pi (can't remember the country). For a school that's about 5% Greek, that's not too bad, since I think we're only 4% minority.

At Marquette, I know there is an African-American in Alpha Phi, and I'm sure there are more, but I haven't gotten very acquainted with their Greek system yet. I think people will join where they want to. No NPC group actually frowns on black members, and no NPHC group frowns on white members. They groups are very different - NPHC is much more service based and more rigorous to get into. I think it's great that both groups exist, and I truly don't think segregation is forced, I think it's chosen in this case. Maybe this is me being a northern idealist, but I would welcome a Technicolor member to Gamma Phi Beta as long as she met our membership criteria, and I think AKA, DST, SGRho, and ZPhiB would do the same.

I hope that the privatization proceeds. Whether the GLOs discriminate or not, I don't see why a public school should be subsidizing private associations. The freedom of the GLOs and the interests of independents will both be served by privatization.

Ivy

I agree. There's no reason why schools should be funding GLO's.

At my school GLO's are not recognized, and while there are many reasons, some which are not shared and some that are, my university is hesitant in giving us recognition for the fear we will be asking them for money. Our organizations are not asking for recognition to be subsidied, but rather at our school club status/recognition gives us the right to advertise in places other organizations cannot. We want club status/recognition so that we can get our name out, not so we can be funded by the university, which is mostly funded by tax payers dollars.
While the article may have been biased against GLOs, I do agree that there should be "greek privatization".
We obviously pay our dues for a reason, why should we be asking for subsidies?

I think by "Privatization", they are just saying "de-recognition" of Alabama's Greeks. This will probably also mean no University Greek advisors, no faculty advisors, no providing lists of incoming freshmen, etc. This may also mean no on-campus promotion of recruitment or holding any activities on campus. This could open a whole different can of worms at Alabama.

If the University of Alambam's intentions is to do this, then, yes there could be problems. If the University if just revoking funding from GLO's (as in giving money to each chapter to run their programs) then I don't see that it is a big problem.

In my experience, I have seen very, very, few instances of public institutions financially supporting individual chapters. Any financial support is most likely focused on providing advisors or a Greek Life office, and sometimes housing. My gut instinct is that this is a move by some faculty to remove any University involvement or support for Greek Life, and that goes way beyond providing funds to chapters for programs.

We don't really know what they're going to do under this new "privatization". This article is pretty vague. Maybe someone who actually goes to this school can comment about the University's intentions.

I'd be very, very surprised if they were trying to "de-recognize" the Greek system at Alabama.

There has been talk for at LEAST ten years from the "faculty senate" about privatizing the greek system at Alabama. It will never happen. Here's why...

1. Wealthy alums--those who donate lots of money to the University--are usually alums of greek organizations. The University doesn't want to risk angering the folks who subsidize scholarships and give money for new buildings. Also, they want the children of these alums to attend the University as well. If Daddy's fraternity is not on campus, Junior may decide to go to Auburn or Ole Miss. Then Daddy's money will go to Auburn or Ole Miss. Do you follow? ;)

2. By having GLOs as campus organizations, the University can regulate their behavior to a certain degree. (For example, fraternities who wish to hold parties at their houses must register the party with the University weeks in advance.) If the University stops recognizing GLOs as campus organizations, they will no longer have any control over their behavior, parties or even rush. The University doesn't want that.

3. Despite what has been posted here, the University does not subsidize GLOs in any way. The organizations already own their own houses. The only thing the University owns is the land that the houses sit on. The University isn't going to risk losing money and angering alums by tearing down their houses. In fact, after tearing down the Pi Phi, Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Kappa Alpha houses several years ago to make room for the staduim expansion, Pi Phi and AKA were built new houses and Gamma Phi Beta was allowed to move to a nice house (formerly Sigma Kappa's) all on sorority row. On the other hand, the University also isn't going to give up that land where the houses are sitting. There is no chance that UA is going to sell off that very valuable land!

4. The faculty senate is just a group of professors who make suggestions to the administration. They have very little real power and, over the years, they have made a wide variety suggestions on many topics... very, very few of which have come to fruition.

I won't even go into the whole "segregation" thing. That's a whole other thread, and most of you have probably read all that I've said about the situation in the past. I will say that it has been blown completely out of proportion by the media.

Bama_Alumna is right.

The whole key to this thing is that it is a Faculty Senate thing. At most schools, the Faculty Senate seems to be made up of the most disgruntled, radical, academic elitists on any campus, and ideally they just want to get rid of Greeks because they don't fit into their 60s era view of the world. However at public institutions, most faculty senates have really limited power and can only make recommendations to the Board of Trustees or Governors or whomever. At many private institutions though, this is not the case and the faculty senate may have real power to enforce such decisions. My main point is, to read deeper into terms like "Privatization" and see the potentially deeper intended meanings and motivations behind them. "Privatization" won't happen at Bama, and probably can't happen at 99% of public schools, but don't allow the use of fuzzy terminology to influence your thinking into supporting something that may sound more innocent than it really is.

In the long run this will just be another thing for the Bama Faculty Senate to bicker over for another 20 years.

They don't have to tear down the houses or sell the land in order to privatize. What they'd have to do is start charging market rent for the land. It's extremely valuable, and the GLO's only pay $100 per year apiece for it -- basically, they get prime property for free. Besides being a big subsidy, it's a lightning rod for criticism of the Greek system. The chapters could still have advisors, use campus space to meet, etc., but it seems like it would be best for everyone if the taxpayer-funded university and the GLOs were as separate as possible financially.

Ivy

I suppose you're right, Ivy, but it all goes back to my number 1 reason which is that the University can't afford to piss off its alums. And that if they start charging astronomical prices for renting the land, the chapters will have to up their dues and will have fewer members (most NPC sorority members pay upwards of 2000 per semester as it is...). The smaller chapters will close or will move off campus where they can't be regulated. Alums won't be happy and will stop giving money to the University.

Nope, never going to happen. And what BSUPhiSig said is right, the "faculty senate" is made up of a very small percentage of the faculty, most of which are quite dedicated to the notion that the greek system is evil. Fortunately for us, their opinion doesn't hold a lot of weight.

What happens if a school owns the land and the GLO owns the house but the school no longer wants to rent the land to the GLO? Its not like a chapter can just pick up their house and move? Why would a GLO or any group build a house on land they don't own?