Racism felt among Greeks
 

An interesting article came out of a New York university regarding racial tensions on campus.

Racism felt among Greeks
http://www.cardinalpointsonline.com/...eeks-1.2111996

The part that really caught my attention follows:

From the looks of it, the student sees the issue as campus-wide racial tensions that need a more direct approach toward resolution. Whereas, the Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life views the situation as an interpersonal conflict between the student and other members of the Greek community that has been resolved with an apology.

I found this article interesting in particular because I don't often see articles of this nature published in school newspapers. Of course, we talk about issues like these on Greek Chat and discussions are on-going all over the place, but how often do rational pieces like this get published?

In that respect, it's pretty cool.

I guess . . .

Maybe I'm just tired, but the article just seemed to be all over the place.

I really liked the article -- this is the first time I've seen a student newspaper not only tackle the issue thoughtfully, but REALLY getting more than a few sources to comment.

I agree--all over the place.

And side bar question, but when did OPB become a "multi-cultural" sorority, or does it vary from campus to campus? :confused::rolleyes:

^^I know I LOLed at Phi Mu Delta being "the black fraternity." Most of the schools they're at don't exactly have a ton of black people.

Sorry if I sound like a dolt, but this line makes no sense to me. It's like they're blaming her going Greek for the slurs. Unless she had letters on at the bar, which I doubt, I don't think the yukky alum knew if she was Greek, GDI or townie.

To my knowledge OPB isn't a multicultural organization. But ya know how sometimes chapters (and individuals) speak out of turn/inappropriately.

I'm not familiar with Platsburg, but my guess is there may be some sort of multicultural Greek council on campus, and all organizations housed under it are considered "multi-cultural" organizations. This bothers me to all end!

Based on the article comments made from both sides of the line on the website, it seems like many people on campus, Greeks no less, don't really have a solid understanding of GL beyond their personal experiences.

I didn't read it that way at all. It came across to me as since she's gone Greek she has had these incidents with other "Greeks". They probably stand more because they are Greek either because they were wearing letters during the incidences/she is familiar with them because of these ISA/org meetings.

yep, and then there's also the fact that their voices aren't being heard during meetings, AND they had standards that prevented them from being 5-star orgs.

I read up on the "accreditation" program there. While the standards aren't entirely preventative of OPB becoming a 5 star chapter, I can easily see how it is a struggle for small chapters to meet the standards. The member number that was mentioned in the article is slightly wrong/off base. A chapter has to initiate 15 new members in any academic year (with 80% NM/pledge retention rate). In addition there seem to be a TON of meetings and event participation requirements that would tax a small chapter who already has to worry about their own events and meetings.

In reviewing the accreditation program and it's incentives I personally have a some issues with it.

The first is that the information doesn't seem to have been updated since the 2006-2007 academic year. What is the point of having accreditation and making the information public if you're not going to keep the info current?

Cultural and multicultural organizations will almost always have a hard time achieving 5 star status due to average chapter sizes. I don't think it's impossible, but a chapter of 10 people or less, with about 50% (or less) of it's members actually being workhorses will be way over tasked trying to complete these requirements.

It also seems that the program is a thinly veiled attempt for GL/the University to have a heavy hand in chapter operations, in particular new member education. From the incentives page:
"•Five Star chapters whose new members maintain or improve their GPAs the semester they pledge for both the Fall and Spring semesters and who have made their new member education programs public documents, will be permitted to pledge first semester freshmen the following semester. "
It isn't an issue for all organizations, but I know there are still a number of organizations that do not provide the NME program (at least not in entirety) as a public document. Personally that requirement seems off to me. (By the way this is after having already submitted a NME calendar, meeting with GL, and then being approved). I'm also probably taking issue with it because I am strongly against pledging first semester freshman, as well as the potential
issues it can create with respect to fairness and dirty rushing.

An additional incentive to being a 5 star chapter is that your members can wear their GLOs honor stole at graduation. An issue that I personally don't think GL should be involved in.

Yeah I think that was one thing that was confusing to me. Some of the incident that have been written about in that article don't seem to really show racism among greeks. It just shows a few racist individuals who just happen to be members of greek orgs. When I think of racism among greeks I think about incidents involving membership or even some of the incidents that took place like the one at Auburn some years ago.

There was something like this at Pitt a couple years back - some of the NPHC groups were in danger of losing their student org status because they were too small. kddani or some of the other Pitt alums might remember.

Was that for fraternities and sororities only, or just fraternities? I can't imagine what the local Panhel/NPC advisor would say to letting some of the sororities rush in the fall, and others having to wait till the spring. If they have any sort of formal rush, it would be a total cluster@$%#.


Unless they're speaking about local groups which they can basically tell what to do, this is absolutely NONE of their business. What's next? 5 star chapters can wear letters every day, but 3 star chapters can only wear them every other Tuesday?

From my understanding it is both. No where does it say it is just for fraternities. Given what I do know about NPC Recruitment it definitely does not seem appropriate at all!


I agree. I have to question the effectiveness of this program given that in 2006-2007 only 4/16 chapters on campus made 5 Star status, and only 1 made 4 star status. But that is old information, so I don't know what it has been for the two subsequent years.